This story takes place in Rockingham near the old depot
and in the center of town in the early to mid 1950’s.  Falling
Creek was dammed at the time to form what was called the
Great Falls Millpond.  The main characters are Frank,
Chuck and Steve.  These three boys represented the
southern half of the “Sand Hill Club.”  Steve’s dog, Old Red,
a large Chow-mix, was inseparable from his master and
was well-liked by the other boys.  They all lived on up the
hill from the depot on Sand Hill Road, which is now called
South Caroline Street.  It was a hot summer day, and the
boys were…to tell the truth, they were not up to anything.  
They were in front of the old depot skipping stones across
the millpond.  This fall, they would all be in the sixth grade
at LJ Bell Elementary School that had recently opened.  
The old Grammar School building had just been torn
down.  They took some of the old bricks from the old school
to several places, but one of the places was here on the
banks on the millpond which were five or six feet above the
water.  Many of the bricks were still in pillars just as they
were knocked down in the demolition.  Frank noticed that
one of the bricks was of different color and texture from
the others.  They didn’t think much about that at the time,
but that night as Frank was lying in bed awaiting sleep, he
started thinking more about that strange looking brick.  
Why was it different?  He’s never remembered seeing
anything like that at the old Grammar School although he
attended the third and forth grades at church Sunday
school annexes.  He’d really only been at the old school
building the first two years.


The next day, Frank took his father’s hammer and chisel
down to the millpond.  He was able to reach the odd-
colored brick, but it was close to the water’s edge so he had
to be careful.  He couldn’t swim, and the water looked
deep.  It would be difficult to explain to his father if he lost
the chisel in the water.  After about an hour of slow, careful
chiseling, Chuck showed up, and naturally asked Frank
what was he doing.  Then Frank responded: “What does it
look like?”  Chuck replied: “It looks like you are trying to
separate that old odd-colored brick from the rest.”  Frank
responded: “Wow, you sure are smart, that’s exactly what I’
m doing.”  He spent another half hour or so finally
separating that brick.  He wanted to be sure not to damage
it.  Finally it was free, and Frank had himself a brick.  They
took it on up the hill to Frank’s house.  They were sitting in
an old storage building out back that was one of three at
Frank’s house.  Chuck lived next door, but Steve lived a
couple blocks on out beyond US 1 near Coble Dairy.  When
Steve showed up, he noticed the brick and asked Frank &
Chuck what they were doing.  Chuck replied: “What do you
think we are doing?”  Steve replied:  “Looks like you two
are just sitting there contemplating that stupid brick.”  
Frank then said: “Wow, you sure are smart, that’s exactly
what we are doing.”


When Frank picked up the brick, he noticed it wasn’t as
heavy as most bricks.  He started to shake it, and they could
hear a slight rattle inside.  Chuck asked: “Why don’t we just
pop it open so we can see what’s making that noise?”  
Frank replied: “I just spent two hours getting this brick out
of that pillar intact, and now you want me to break it
open?  … Good idea, hand me the hammer and chisel.”  So
they carefully used the chisel to break open the brick.  
When they did, they found a small slab of clay inside the
hollow middle of the brick.  Wow!  They examined the slab,
and quickly noticed it had writing on it.  On one side it had
“Arlington” which had a rectangle dawn around it.  Also
there was some scribbling at the top left corner that they
couldn’t make out what it said.  On the other side it said:
“GFM SE 92.”


Chief McAllister was Chief of Police in Rockingham back
then.  He was a lot like Andy Griffith in the television town
of Mayberry.  He was really nice to everyone, especially to
children.  He liked to stop on the streets and talk to
people.  Boys still liked to talk with him about his
adventures in World War II even though the War had been
over eight or nine years by then.  Anyhow, Frank, Chuck,
and Steve decided they would go talk to Chief McAllister.  
Maybe he could help them decipher the clay slab.  So they
did.  The Chief always had time for visitors.  Back then
Washington Street went straight through Harrington
Square in addition to the circle that is still there today.  The
police station was located on the south side of Washington
Street, but still within the middle section of Harrington
Circle.  There wasn’t any room for public parking on the
south side of the circle, as they needed that space for the
police cars.  There really wasn’t much crime in Rockingham
back then, and the Chief got tired of giving people parking
tickets and traffic tickets.  For police cars they had full size
“Nash” automobiles (the big Ambassador sedans, not the
little Ramblers).  Chief McAllister examined the slab.  
Using his magnifying glass, he could tell the scribbling at
the top left corner said “CSA 1865” which had to mean the
“Confederate States of America.”  The Chief was mostly like
Andy Taylor (Griffith’s Sheriff’s name), not much like
Sherlock Holmes, so he told the boys to take the brick (but
not the slab) and show it to John White who was the “brick
man” down at Carolina Building Supply on North Lee
Street.  He also suggested taking the slab to Mr. French,
Senior, at the “Richmond County Journal” office just
across Washington Street here on the Square.  Also, there
was Mr. French, Junior, who might also be able to help
them, but the older gentleman would probably have more
free time to see them.


So the boys took the brick to see Mr. White.  He was an
elderly gentleman, but he really knew his bricks.  (Note:
anyone over thirty is elderly to young kids.)  He
immediately noticed the different color of the brick.  He
said most of the bricks around here came from the Sanford
Brick Company in Sanford or the Boren Brick Company
near Greensboro.  It’s only in the last year or so that they
have been able to put coloring into bricks.  In the past, the
clay used to produce a brick determined its color.  Most of
the Boren Bricks were bright reddish, and the Sanford
Bricks were dark reddish.  The Broad River Brick Company
in Gaffney, South Carolina, had rather brownish bricks.  
But this old brick is orange-red; it doesn’t come from
around here.  Mr. White said it was probably from Virginia
or Maryland.  “Now we sell new bricks at about four cents
apiece.  We also sell used bricks at two cent each.  People
will take discarded bricks and carefully clean the mortar
from them.  They bring them to us where we pay one cent
apiece for them.  People don’t do this much any more, but
they really used to do it a lot in the past especially back
during the Great Depression.  The masons would use these
odd bricks where it didn’t show.  That would explain why
this orange-red fellow was found in the old Grammar
School.  It must have come from some other building that
had been torn down.  Also some buildings, such as large
mills, might use the old bricks everywhere, which could
have saved them a lot of money.  It cut their brick cost in
half.”


Next the boys went to see Mr. French, Senior, at the
Journal office.  He was very nice, and really enjoyed their
visit.  Now he was a little more like Sherlock Holmes.  The
boys showed him the clay slab.  He said: “Arlington was the
northern Virginia family home place of Robert E. Lee.  It
had been confiscated by the Federal Government during
the Civil War and was now being used as a national
cemetery.  That’s where the tomb of the Unknown Soldier
is located, just across the Potomac River from Washington,
D.C.  He then said that he had never heard of an
“Arlington” in and around Rockingham.  Now the GFM
may be the “Great Falls Mill.”  It certainly was around back
during 1865 because Sherman’s Army burned the mill that
year.  The writing on this slab reminds me of one of the first
civilizations in recorded history over five thousand years
ago that had a written language.  It was a place called
Sumer (pronounced: sue-mer) in Mesopotamia or the
Fertile Crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
in what is now the country of Iraq.  This was before the
Babylonians mentioned in the Bible came into existence in
about the same location.  They used cuneiform symbols to
record their language and used clay slabs to write on, just
like we have here, except our slab is in English.  The
Sumerians were about a hundred years ahead of the
Egyptians and their hieroglyphics.  The Egyptians wrote on
papyrus paper, which had a definite advantage over clay
tablets.  I’ll have to think about the rest of the information
on your slab.  I’ll let you know if I think of anything.”


Three or four days passed, and the boys were again sitting
in the old storage building at Frank’s house.  Then Frank
thought out loud and said: “What if the “SE 92” stands for
the 92nd row of bricks on the southeast corner of the old
Great Falls Mill.  They were elated with that thought.  So
they headed down to the old Great Falls Mill.  As they got
there they realized several things.  One, the Mill belonged
to someone and we needed to get their permission before
we go messing with their bricks.  That wasn’t likely to
happen.  Second, on their way over, they calculated that
the 92nd row would be at the middle of the third floor of a
house.  How were they going to get up that high?  They
found the southeast corner and started counting the layers
of bricks.  (If any of you think that is easy, you should try it
sometime).  They finally were able to count that high
without losing sight of where they were.  They found that
this section of the brick wall was missing; someone had
patched that area with nothing but concrete.  It looked like
lightening might have struck it many years ago.  They were
about to give up when they noticed there was a lot of brick
debris scattered all over near the water’s edge not more
than fifty feet from bottom of the dam.  There was a lot
more water coming over that dam than what you would
think especially if you are wading in some of the
backwaters below the dam looking for bricks.  The main
current was swift and well over their heads, but that didn’t
stop them from searching through those bricks.  Some of
the bricks were separated and others were still intact with
mortar.  There were a least a thousand bricks for them to
look through, but they finally found another orange
looking brick.  They had spent most of the morning looking
for and then chiseling out their second brick.  There was a
nice man fishing at the bottom of the dam who helped them
turn over several of the brick pillars in the debris.  They
decided to take the brick back to Frank’s outbuilding and
examine it there.


Sure enough, that brick was hollow just like the other one
and it had a similar clay slab.  On this slab it said “Long Jim
10” which was surrounded with a rectangle just like the
other one.  Also it had the same “CSA 1865” up in the top
left corner just like the first slab.  On the other side, it had
“YM NE 23.”  They quickly took this uptown for Mr. French
to see.  Mr. French said he thought the “Long Jim 10” was
part of the cipher since it had a rectangle around it, but the
“YM NE 23” probably was the original location of the other
brick they had found in the debris of the old Grammar
School.  That building must have been torn down, and the
brick reused at the old Grammar School that was built
sometime around the turn of the century.  Mr. French said
that back near the end of the Civil War when General Grant
finally broke through at Petersburg, Virginia, forcing
General Lee to flee westward toward Appomattox Court
House, Jefferson Davis and his Confederate cabinet left
Richmond on a train headed south into North Carolina.  
There’s a historical marker in Greensboro that says
Jefferson Davis’ train was briefly parked near there as they
fled south in April of 1865. They never did know what
happened to the Confederate Treasury.


So the boys were left with “Arlington” and “Long Jim10”.  
They certainly couldn’t go up to Arlington, Virginia, as that
was a national park that also had a military unit there to
guard the “Unknown Soldier.”  They sat around just
moping for several days.  They were about ready to give up
when they decided to go back down to the old millpond and
skip some more rocks off the water.  But when the boys got
there, they found three elderly men fishing.  One of the
men was Mr. Jones whom they had met on a previous
occasion.  Each one of the men had three or four fishing
poles; it was obvious they were fishing for their dinner.  
The boys couldn’t skip rocks as it scared off the fish; so they
asked the men if they could help them fish as the men
really had more poles than they could handle.  So they did.  
The boys spread out a little, but Frank stayed fairly close to
the original spot.  They caught several fish, which made the
old men happy.  When the fishing was starting to get
boring to the kids, and they were just about ready to leave,
Frank starting thinking out loud: “Arlington, Arlington.  
Where is there an Arlington in Rockingham?”  Then Mr.
Jones said: “Did you say Arlington?”  Frank responded in
the affirmative.  Then Mr. Jones continued: “Arlington is
the name of that old abandoned cemetery just right up the
hill there on Hancock Street.  It’s just across the street
from Privette’s Grocery Store.  See that house up there
right beside the railroad tracks facing Hancock?  It belongs
to the railroad; notice it is painted the railroad colors just
like the depot.  Anyhow the old graveyard is just beside it.  
It is all grown up around it now, so it’s difficult to see it
from the road.  It’s just this side of the new highway 74
bypass they’re building.  I heard someone say they were
going to relocate the graveyard so they could put a service
station at the corner of Hancock (US 1) and the new
highway.”  The boys thanked Mr. Jones and headed up to
the US 1 overpass and quickly climbed the bank up to
Hancock Street.


Sure enough, there was an old abandoned graveyard
there.  Wow, was it old.  The small trees, brush, and bushes
had just about taken over.  There were a few small
tombstones, but it was impossible to read any of them
since they were so old and worn down.  Frank suggested
they get some paper and a pencil.  They could put the paper
up to the writing, and then color the whole back side of the
paper with the pencil; then you might be able to read it.  So
they went home to get paper and pencil and soon
returned.  This worked fairly well, but they were not
finding anything useful.  They were about to give up when
Old Red started digging into what appeared to be a sunken
grave.  Then they saw a tombstone that was turned over.  
When they did their sketching on this, it said “James
Long…Died 1865.”


Well, they took all this information back to Chief McAllister
and brought him up to date on everything they knew.  The
Chief said the city was fixing to relocate that abandoned
graveyard.  He looked through his records to see who was
to do this.  It was being contracted to someone.  The Chief
said he would contact the contractor to tell them they
would have some interested spectators next week when
they started work.  Well next week came, and they started
working.  They worked with nothing except a shovel and a
pick, and they were very careful how they did this.  The
workers were very respectful for the deceased, and put
each set of remains of just a couple of bones, usually
including a partial skull, into a fresh wooden coffin.  When
the workers finished with all the graves, they had found
nothing special.  Everyone looked at each other in
disappointment.  Then Frank said: “Wonder if the 10
meant we are supposed to dig down 10 feet?”  The
contractor said it wouldn’t hurt anything, so they started
digging a little deeper into Mr. Long’s gravesite.  Then they
struck pay dirt.  There was a large glass container, which
had been sealed with glass to make it waterproof for a long
period of time.  It was flat and not too big.  The glass had a
green shade to it just like a Coca-Cola bottle.  It was about
the size and shape of a brief case.  The workers cleaned it
the best they could, then handed it to the Chief, and
everyone headed back to his office.  Both Mr. French,
Senior, and Junior came over.  They discussed their
options.  Mr. French suggested they call Mr. Hardy over at
Rockingham Hardware Store.  He had a glasscutter and
might be able to help them open the container.  Mr. Hardy
did come over with his glasscutter, and soon they had the
big “bottle” opened.


The Chief put his hand down into the container and
brought out a handful of Confederate money.  Everyone
laughed and said: “Worthless!”  Then he retrieved the
remainder of the container.  There were a lot of old
documents that had the signatures of Jefferson Davis and
Robert E. Lee among others.  Everyone realized at once
that this had a lot of value as historical documents.  Then
Frank asked: “Chief, who does all this belong to?”   The
Chief responded that he would call his friend Judge
Coventry over at the courthouse and ask him just that.  He
did, and Judge Coventry immediately came over to see the
treasure and was told the entire story.


Judge Coventry said: “This belongs to the State of North
Carolina.  This was found on property that had been
abandoned.  Abandoned property always escheats to the
State after so many years.  We need to contact the Museum
of History down in Raleigh.  I think they are the rightful
owner.”


Poor Frank, Chuck, and Steve were all mighty dejected.  
They went outside of the police station and sat on the curb
with Old Red.  They were feeling somewhat low.  Then the
Chief came out.  He said he had just talked with his friend
who ran a coin shop in Charlotte and who used to be a
police captain in Concord.  His friend had said that these
documents could be worth up to a hundred thousand
dollars.  Even the Confederate money had a lot of value as
collector’s items.  The Chief told them to cheer up, and that
often in cases like this there is a 10% reward or finder’s fee.  
Well, all the contents were sent to the Museum in Raleigh.  
Judge Coventry talked to the curator of the museum who
said there wasn’t a budget for rewards, but that these kids
deserved one.  He suggested talking to the state legislators
from Richmond County.  A reward would require a bill in
the legislature to authorize it.


About two weeks later near the end of summer vacation,
Judge Coventry called the Chief and the boys to his office.  
He told them the state legislature had awarded the boys a
finder’s fee.  However, this was a tough year for the state
budget.  In times like this, it is difficult to get
appropriations to spend money for the current year or
even the next budget year.  It’s a lot easier to get the
legislature to spend money way out in the future where
somebody else has to worry about how to pay for it.  So, the
reward was full scholarships for all three of the boys, which
could only be used at any state supported school including
colleges or universities.  They had to meet normal entry
requirements and to maintain their status as North
Carolina residents.  The boys thanked Judge Coventry &
Chief McAllister and headed on home without a cent in
their pockets.


They went back to the old millpond and started skipping
rocks across the water.  Chuck said: “This is a conspiracy.  
For all this to ever pay off for us, we have to start studying
really hard from now until we graduate.”  Frank
responded: “We not only have to graduate from high
school with great grades, we have to find a way to pass the
college entrance exam.”  Steve added: “Wonder if they
would have put us in jail if we hadn’t went back to see Chief
McAllister the last time.  We could have dug up that grave
all by ourselves.  That stuff was worth one hundred
thousand dollars.”  Frank replied: “Looks like we are
destined to be in a state institution in our future.  I’m sure
glad it is the educational institutions rather than the penal
institutions.  Besides they have names for people who go
around digging up graves.”


The following Monday, they started back to school where
the teacher asked them what they had done during the
summer vacation just ended.  Each one of them responded:
“Oh, not much.”