Mickey Starling
reporter3@greenepublishing.com
Rev. L.B. Plumer, a former pastor of Madison First Baptist Church, certainly moved on to greener pastures after moving to Buffalo, N.Y. Plumer was seeing “green” when he was notified that his holdings in a reportedly worthless gold mine turned out to be worth a fortune.
The mine was located in Plumer's former town of Altoona, Pa. John B. Henslee, the custodian of the property, reports that the mine had been closed twice and had recently been reopened. When Plumer left Altoona, he ironically remarked to Henslee, “If it pans out, let me know.” At the time of this article, Henslee was trying to locate Plumer to make him aware that there was already “a fortune in royalties awaiting him.” Perhaps Plumer was able to enjoy streets of gold in both this life and the next.
Information for this article was taken from Elizabeth Evans Kilbourne's book, “Madison County, Florida Newspaper Clippings, Volume 1: 1901-1903.”