wrote:
I personally do not understand why so many people cannot wrap theirs minds around this hoard being a savings hoard of some successful farmer, rancher or miner who did not trusts banks in an era well before the advent of both the FRB and the FDIC.

In an era when a $500 a year job was enough to support a family,
$27,000 was a huge amount of money to just bury in the ground.
Investing the money in government bonds at say 3.5% would yield
around $945 a year. Reinvesting the money in whatever made him that
money in the first place would likely do much better. If he were
a rancher, why wouldn't he buy a bigger ranch and hire more people?

Peter.
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