Buried treasure and the 1907 murder of James Laushway
by Susan PetersDundas County Archives
On January 14, 1846, James Edward Laushway was born to Peter Laushway (1794 – 1874) and Merella Bonesteel Laushway (1802 – 1895) on their farm near South Mountain. While the birth of James was not particularly noteworthy, his death would certainly be. He was one of 12 children, 6 boys and 6 girls. Little is known about his childhood. While there was the Mountain Herald newspaper in the region, very few issues exist today and none shed any light on this story.
In the 1871 census, we can see that he was a married man, a farmer and a member of the Church of Scotland. At that point he was 25 years old. Likely he was living on his parents’ farm as they were present, Peter was aged 76 and his wife was 68. A marriage record indicated that James was married to Catherine Cassidy Larue (1848 – 1922) in 1865. By the 1891 census, James was 46 years old and the head of the family. His occupation was still a farmer. In the 1901 census, there were four people in his household. He was aged 55, his wife Catherine was 52. His sister-in-Law, Elizabeth Rose was aged 55 and nephew Alexander Rose was 20. Nothing else surfaced on the life of James until his death. Early reports were that he had quarrelled with his wife in 1902 and she moved out. That must have been quite a quarrel. They stated that by 1907 he was living on his own. It is not known what happened to Elizabeth and Alexander Rose.
By the time the story appeared in the local newspapers, he became a household name. We do not have any Mountain Heralds from this time, so we must rely on the other papers for details. The story was well covered in the Montreal Star, the Ottawa Journal, and the Kemptville Advance. The first reporting that one can find on his death was in the Chesterville Record of June 6, 1907. It stated that the well to do farmer, who lived alone, was found on Sunday night. They expected that he died some time on Saturday, June 2nd. In this report, he was found by his housekeeper, laying on the floor with a revolver in his left hand. His death record does indicate that the cause of death was a bullet to the brain. This report was that it was suspicious and suggested that it was murder. The door appeared to be forced open, and the place was ransacked, as if someone was searching for something. An inquest would be called to investigate.
The Montreal Star of June 6, 1907, made a statement that Lashaway’s body was found on the bed. No one seemed to question the finding that he was on the bed, when he was previously reported to be on the floor. The Ottawa Journal of June 10 stated that the doctors felt that it had to have been murder as he could not have shot himself with the left hand when he was right handed. Despite a relative reporting that she felt that he had died by suicide, the verdict of the inquest was that this was murder, by a person or persons unknown. According to the Chesterville Record, one lone juror had slowed the verdict as he felt that it was suicide. The most salacious detail was that the widow swore that her estranged husband usually had thousands of dollars cash stashed in the house. It was noted that no cash was found when the police had first investigated after his death.
You can well imagine the local buzz with stories abounding about buried treasure around the farm. By June 11 both the Montreal Gazette and the Star were reporting that a stash of over three thousand dollars in cash was indeed found. A jar was found with a combination of cash and promissory notes for $440 from the deceased’s brother. The Kemptville advance on June 13 reported that his brothers had said that he was seen with $30,000 on his desk at one point, and he was known to have buried cash all over his farm. I’m sure that this piqued the local interest in the case. Curiously, there seemed to be no search for a homicide suspect. There was nothing more reported on the case until 1910.
On August 18, 1910, the Kemptville Advance ran a story: “Have they found the murderers of James Laushway? Gruesome tale of hired assassins going the rounds… secret may be unearthed at any hour”. They reported that there were rumors that a potential paid assassin had confessed to the murder. A few days later the Ottawa Citizen reported that a blood-stained coat had been found in the barn. Reportedly, the wife of an absconded shady character had reported that her husband had been known to be involved with Laushway in horse trading. He had recently disappeared. The Kingston Whig and the Ottawa Citizen reported on August 22 that someone had confessed to the murder. They were not named. The next day, the Ottawa Citizen reported that the case was re-opened, and the story had changed. The theory was that Laushway was shot in the barn, and the body was hauled to his bedroom. This would make sense given that there was not much blood around the body in the bedroom. The papers continued to report that the deceased was known to bury cash around his farm.
Sadly, after this the newspapers fell silent. There is no further report confirming or denying an arrest. There are no inquest files at the Ontario Archives. It has been dead silence from this point. But, if you live a mile out of South Mountain and you happen to find some hidden cash either in or around an old home, then you will have won the Laushway lottery. If you know any more about this story, I would love to hear from you.