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David's Dispatch Volume 3 Number 9 Vol. 3, No. 9 Copyright 2017 September 2017 Winner of the 2016 Best Newsletter Award, National, Sons of Confederate Veterans Winner of the 2017 Best Newsletter Award, Tex. Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans Winner of the 2017 Best Newsletter Award, National, Sons of Confederate Veterans John Hall's Military Breechloaders COMMANDER’S Graveside Memorial Service CORNER Saturday, September 30th, 10 a.m. by Larry “Joe” Reynolds Piney Cemetery, Harlton, Texas Summer’s almost gone, we have See www.5thbrigade.org for full details our first Graveside Memorial this month and October weekends are already full. I want each of you to think about and plan on attending the activities that we have planned for October 28th. DAVIDRREYNOLDS.ORG I’m working on having us a booth set up at the This month the following changes have been made Omaha Fall Festival. We’re also working on having our Color Guard march in their Parade. to our web site: http://www.davidrreynolds.org • I’ve updated our Events page to include all That evening, we will celebrate our 2nd Annual, known events by the Camp and its members. 1st Lt. David Richard Reynolds Birthday Celebration. I would like to see everyone attend, Please let me know when you do anything for so mark your calendars now. the SCV, this includes attending other camp meeting, public speaking, or even putting If not before, then at our next meeting we will go flags on graves. th over the 5 Brigade’s Heritage Defense Manual • I’ve updated our Calendar of Events page on and assign Monuments and Markers to individual the 5th Brigade’s Web Site. so that they can keep an eye on them and report any signs of Vandalism or Damage. Also, please • I’ve update our main page, adding Command keep an eye on any cemetery that you see, they in Chief Strain’s new Statement of Purpose. have already started destroying Confederate • I’ve added a 2016 and 2017 Award Page to Headstones in our area. our site I’m still looking for biographies of your Confederate UPCOMING EVENTS Ancestor. Please try to come up with a short bio that we can put on-line. Monday, September 18th, 7:00 p.m. If you have any suggestions, recommendations or Refreshments at 6:30 p.m. comments you can send me an email to: Old Union Community Center [email protected] and I promise to Hwy 67E, Mount Pleasant, Texas give it my full consideration. Program: Compatriot Garrett Glover V Vol. 3 No. 9 Copyright 2107 Page 2 BIRTHDAYS, ANNIVERSARIES Sons of Confederate Veterans & OTHER IMPORTANT DATES Statement of Purpose September 02nd – Danny Kid Tillery We, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, having been commissioned by the Confederate Veterans September 08th – William Harold Guy themselves, retain our responsibility and right to September 21st – Seth Clayton Thomas Clark adhere to the founding principles of the United States rd of America remembering the bravery, defending the September 23 – Dennis Lloyd Gunn honor and protecting the memory of our beloved September 26th – Robert Eugene Jones Confederate Veterans, which includes their memorials, images, symbols, monuments and th September 28 – Marriann (Mrs. Buffalo) gravesites for ourselves and future generations. NEW THEORY - WHERE IS THE Our Charge… CONFEDERATE GOLD? by Dixie Heritage "To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we (Continued from Last Month) will commit the vindication of the cause for which we fought. To your strength will be Laundering the gold given the defense of the Confederate soldier's What would they have done with the gold once it good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of arrived? those principles which he loved and which you "The Confederate Gold ... would have went to the love also, and those ideals which made him national banking system, and laundered into glorious and which you also cherish." currency," Dykstra said. Lt. General Stephen Dill Lee, Commander General, Pritchard, Hackley and William M. Ferry's brother United Confederate Veterans, New Orleans, Louisiana April 25, 1906 Edward P. Ferry were involved in or founded banks during 1870 and 1871 and those banks and others Remember, it is your duty to see that the true would have been used to launder the gold, he said. history of the South is presented to future Around 1874-75, a new building was completed for generations! Muskegon National Bank, of which Hackley was a director. It was re-chartered as Hackley National Bank in 1890. Multiple publications and advertisements say the bank had five vaults. “Breathe there the man with soul so dead Who never to himself has said, Dykstra said he believes the vaults were needed to This is my own, my native land!” store the Confederate Gold treasure. Sir Walter Scott V Vol. 3 No. 9 Copyright 2107 Page 3 First National Bank of Allegan was founded by speech Hackley wrote for the park statues' dedication Pritchard in 1871. in 1900. At that time, banks would ship gold bullion to the Looking back at Hackley Park, a gift to the city in the U.S. Treasury Department, and receive paper late 1800s currency with the bank name in return, Dykstra said. Hackley Park was gifted to Muskegon by Charles H. "Most national banks, during their lifetime, would Hackley in 1890. print less than $250,000 worth of currency. If a The park features five large monuments and a layout national bank got to $500,000 worth of currency, that of curved and diagonal sidewalks. was considered excessive," he said. "How did Charles Hackley pay tribute the Muskegon National Bank printed $295,000 from Confederacy? Because he would have -- he would 1870-1890, according to Antique Money. Hackley have almost felt duty-bound to do it," Dykstra said. National Bank printed $4,666,000 from 1890-1935. "But he would do it in such a way that people First National Bank of Allegan printed $797,000 wouldn't pick up on it, unless they knew to look for from 1871-1927. it." By comparison, First National Bank of Grand Rapids An aerial view of the park gave it away, he said. Its printed $516,000 from 1864-1883 while First diagonal crossed sidewalks could be seen as an National Bank of Ann Arbor printed $367,000 from outline of the Confederate Flag. 1863-1882. The curved sidewalks are a bit trickier, but Dykstra According to advertisements found by Dykstra, has an explanation: "It's a Bible. That's why the Hackley was a stockholder in 14 banks, which he sidewalks were rounded." says could have also been used to launder the treasure. In their presentation, Dykstra and Richards show a video that transforms an aerial view of the park into "They were in the banks because that's how they a Confederate Flag and an open Bible. laundered the gold, but they felt that their duty as citizens of the United States was to promote in a Hackley Park's design is nod to Confederacy, positive way," Dykstra said. researchers say Tribute to the Confederacy? The theory is that Charles Hackley paid tribute to the Confederacy with park's layout. The intersection of West Webster Avenue and Third Street downtown Muskegon is a gathering of "Within your sight stands a library built and endowed Hackley gifts: Hackley Park, Hackley by part of that same fortune, which the donor regards Administration Building and Hackley Public as a trust for the people with whom he has been Library. Other large donations include Hackley associated for more than 40 years," reads a speech Hospital and the former Hackley Art Gallery, now written by Hackley for the dedication of the statues. Muskegon Museum of Art. Hackley and his wife Julia Hackley also donated multiple endowment "If mistakes have been made in appropriating the funds. money generously tendered to the public, those mistakes have been mistakes of the head, not of the Dykstra and Richards believe there's proof hiding in heart," reads another portion of the speech. plain sight that Hackley Park was made possible by Confederate money. They also point to clues in a V Vol. 3 No. 9 Copyright 2107 Page 4 Dykstra says the way Hackley refers to the money "Not only do I think it's possible, I think it's and donations suggests he doesn't view them as his probable," Christenson said. "I don't believe in own. coincidences." There are also clues in the Haight biography, which Dykstra believes the theory is "bullet proof" and was published in 1949, they said. Haight received reveals the true story of Charles Hackley and the notes from Hackley in 1899, and was told the book missing Confederate Gold. could be published 10 years after his death. "I don't want to seem overconfident," he said, "but I The book states that Hackley made $375,000 -- or know what I know." $7.2 million in today's dollars -- in one day during Local historians remain skeptical. 1872, the time that Dykstra and Richards believe the gold was moving. "Make no mistake, this is a "We don't feel there are a lot of facts in there cited confession from Hackley," Dykstra said. from primary literature," Soler said. "They're going to have fun with it ... I'm sure it will bring up a lot of "When you have a secret, and you think you can be interest. It's very speculative, a lot of conjecture tying caught at any time, you think one little clue will just a lot of loose pieces together. tell everybody everything," Richards said.
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