Off the Editor’s Desk – 6-12-2018

Money does grow on trees!

“Money doesn’t grow on trees.” But for a couple of young girls living south of Wheeler, money did grow on trees.

Lois Bosshart related a venture that she and her cousin Marion Reinecke found themselves involved in back in about 1955.

The story starts as Lois and Marion were playing in the woods trying to hide from her younger brother, Bill Mittlestadt. Lois states, “We were on rented land that belonged to my dad’s cousin Leon Rosell.” She continued, “We had our cows on that land and went to get them every evening, so there was already a cow path on that land. Near that cow path was a large pine tree,” Lois remembered, that had low branches. So Marion and Lois climbed up in the tree, they saw a piece of tin with house siding around it and tied up to the tree.

Lois relates; “We took it down and opened it up. It was full on money, all tens and twenties.” Lois said that they got very excited and ran home as fast as they could. “My mom and my aunt (Marion’s mother) were in the kitchen and we ran in and said, we found money, lots and lots of money. My mom and aunt were stunned,” Lois related.

That bundle of money in tree contained $2,200. Her folks and aunt and uncle placed the wet money over furniture in the living room to dry and then her aunt took it home and put it in the attic to finish drying out.

Lois related that “$2,200 was a lot of money in 1955 and I was going to buy a bike, my brother was going to buy a wagon and Marion wanted a typewriter.”

But that changed as a couple of days later, their neighbor drove into their yard and told them that the old man who lived in a room at their house told him that Lois’ brother Charlie had stolen some of his green stuff.

“If he didn’t get it back he was going to shoot Charlie,” Lois remembered being told by the neighbor. “He threaten to shoot all of our cows also,” she remembered.

“My folks went to the Dunn County Sheriff and asked what they should do?” The sheriff told them to give the money back, but have a witness to the transaction, which they did. “He gave my cousin fifty-cents for returning it,” Lois said.

Lois continued, “People in Wheeler heard about this, and after the old Miser died, they went to that farm to look for it, but no one found the money.”

A couple of years later Lois and her brother Bill and sister Carolyn were home alone and Lois convinced those other two to go back and look for the money.

“We were all young kids at the time and we took a shovel and headed back to the field. “I prayed to my guardian Angel to help us find the money,” Lois said. “I am not kidding, a path through some bushes opened up, we followed it into the woods and spotted a notch on a tree.” She continued, “Below was a quart fruit jar sticking half way out of the ground. I pulled it up, it had some water and something else in it, I pulled it out and it was the money.”

“We ran home, our folks were still gone and we hid the money, Bill remembered it was in the corncrib,” Lois recalled. “Charlie, our older brother was haying at the neighbors and we had to tell someone so we walked to the neighbors and saw our folks drive into their yard,” Lois stated, “We went to their house and I told my mom that we have to go home, and she said, just wait. I whispered in her ear that we found that money again. She said, Oh my gosh, Cliff, we gotta go home.” Lois often wondered what the neighbors thought I told her.

According to Lois, her parents dried out the money, it was all in bad shape and smelled musty, and they even threw some away that was rotten. “We gave half to my aunt and uncle, as the old man was dead, so we couldn’t give it back. We had strict orders from my dad not to tell anyone,” Lois said.

Members of the family, as Lois put it, “Laundered the money, going to different towns, buying something and getting good money back, and I remember them all saying something about the poor condition of the money.” Lois indicated that the kids never got the things they wanted, but remembered her mother telling her that it paid for her dad’s eye surgery.

“Dad, I’m sorry I have told the secret. In later years my husband had a business and a writer from the St. Paul Pioneer Press stopped in his shop. He told him that there are a lot of good stories around here. One time some kids found some money in a tree over by Wheeler. My husband never said a word. The first time it was told in the Eau Claire Leader, that some kids found money in a tree. It gave no names, so people did know about the first time, but nobody knew about the second time.”

Thanks for the great story, Lois, and thanks to everyone for reading.     ~Carlton