Woman finds buried treasure while working open field
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
Ellen Teaford was chiseling a field last fall near her home northwest of Peabody when the deep tines of the implement spewed forth a sparkling gold ring from the rich, black soil.
When she returned on another pass across the field, she spotted it again. This time, she decided to stop and pick it up.
"I get disgusted when I find trash in the field," she said. "But this time it looked like something worth salvaging."
The hand-constructed ring was size 8 1/2 and approximately 3/8th inch wide. After giving the band a thorough cleaning, Ellen found this engraving inside: H to A 1892.
Intrigued, she went online to find out who had lived in the area at the time of the 1890 census and discovered the names of W.H. Fitsch, age 18 or 19, and Ann Fitch.
This was interesting, because when Ellen and her husband bought the land five or six years ago, they bought it from Douglas Fitch of Topeka. She realized the property had been in the Fitch family for more than a century and hadn't changed hands until she and her husband bought it. The original deed was signed by President Ulysses S. Grant.
Was it possible that a young bride had lost the golden wedding band while working out in her garden or tending the fields with her husband? She may have searched for it for days and wept inconsolably over its loss.
In an attempt to get some information about the ring's possible origin, Ellen called Doug Fitch and left a message about it but did not receive a reply, so she concluded he knows nothing about it.
Ellen has explored other possibilities. Maybe, just maybe, a tornado deposited the ring on their land from who-knows-where. Tornadoes have been known to pass through that area at 80th and Limestone.
A gun club once was located on adjacent property. Maybe one of its members lost the ring, and it eventually found its way onto their property.
Ellen said she thought about having the ring resized so she could wear it. But that might wear down the inside engravings, something she wasn't willing to see happen. "Those engravings had special meaning for someone, and I want to keep it that way," she said.
Regardless of its source, the ring symbolizes a long ago promise of unbroken love which, hopefully, was fulfilled in the young couple's life.
