The Way-Bill
One of the strangest and bizarre legends of Effingham County must be that of the way-bill. Writing in the History of Effingham County , 1883 William Henry Perrin devotes two pages to this unusual topic. A brief synopsis goes something like this: Two unnamed Frenchmen came into the southern part of Effingham County looking for silver or gold mines, after a long a perilous trek from New Orleans. They ended up on the bluffs of either Salt Creek or the Little Wabash River and in the course of digging discovered a vein of silver. The Indians in the vicinity warned the two intruding Frenchmen to leave or forfeit their lives. The two Frenchmen covered their tracks and silver strike and left under the cover of darkness to return to New Orleans. On their way to the Mississippi River they blazed their route and kept a record of their way back. The description of their route was named the "way-bill". As later settlers came into the Effingham area they heard of this way-bill. An unnamed citizen of Effingham went to New Orleans on the hunt of these Frenchmen or to procure the way-bill itself. Accordingly, after a three year search he had not succeeded. As fate would have it he was staying in a cheap boarding house and was unable to sleep well. On a cot ten feet away a Frenchman lay dying mumbling something in broken English about a way-bill! The Frenchman handed the Effinghammer a brown crumpled piece of paper that had a map of the Salt Creek, Little Wabash River look about it. With that the Frenchman died and the way-bill belonged to our intrepid Effinghammer. He worked for his passage back to St. Louis and then walked back to the Effingham area.
Soliciting the help of three or four trusted friends they followed the signs left by the way-bill to an area south of Ewington. Here at the end of trail was a cabin. Approaching this area they were met by an armed man who ordered them to leave or he would shoot. The small band of explorers left post haste and excitement in the county grew. At last a small band of men were gotten up along with a lone horsemen to return to the site of the silver. Each man brought with him the family meal-sack to carry home his share of the silver, along with a grubbing hoe and their flint lock rifles. At last they reached the cabin area but had not seen the lone rifleman as of yet. Just outside of the cabin spot three of the bravest men were chosen to investigate. Here Perrin tells us that the three leaders were Samuel Fortney, Sam Fleming and a Brockett. Just outside of the cabin clearing itself the man appeared with his gun trained on them and warning them not to come any closer by ordering, "Halt! The man that crosses that line," pointing to a log, "is a dead man." The horse of one the three leaders had his forefeet across the log and wanted to keep crossing just as his now frightened rider wished to be back across it. Perrin quotes the rider as saying, "(his gun) looked big enough to crawl into." Once again the small band retreated back to their homes with their quest for the silver unsatisfied.
After a few years, a couple of young boys wondered across the deserted cabin and reported that they had found many curious things some of them being a furnace, melting posts, etc. They reported their discovery back to the community and most folks allowed that he was a counterfeiter who quietly left the area after being discovered by the earlier band of fortune seekers. They thought the counterfeiter's name was Wallace. How long he had been gone before it was known that the mines were open again to the public was unknown. Perrin closes with the statement no member of the group had returned to the spot that years earlier had left in such precipitate disgust.
The above story leaves us with a few tantalizing clues and very few answers. Perrin relates the above to his readers in 1883 as a tale that was known to most settlers living in the southern part of the county. Clearly in the reading Perrin had a first person source, who was relying on rumors he had heard years before, but Perrin does not name him. The time line is a little hard to follow as well. When were the Frenchmen here? Following the inference of the above it must have been prior to the 1820 time period. He also leads us to believe that the three men Fortney, Flemming and Brokett made their foray in the 1830's. It also seems strange that no one returned to the site to investigate. Surely it was all a legend or tall tale but a few factors are interesting to note.
We know that an isolated band of French descendents was living in the Watson area prior to Effingham becoming a county. Also, keep in mind that during this time period there was no paper money. Counterfeiting was done by literally making your own money from native metals. Where had Wallace secured his supply of metal in the depths of the wilderness? We know of no silver deposits in the county and yet we have this strange tale recorded for us. Perhaps the answer still awaits us on the banks of Salt Creek or the Little Wabash River.