By ERIC C. RODENBERG
Antique Week Correspondent

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Practical joker John “Jay” Slaven may have had the last laugh.

And, regrettably at the expense of Patty Henken,  who tore up a vacant lot near downtown Springfield, after discovering his typewritten note – more than 30 years after his death – with promises of a treasure chest and gold coins.

It all began after Henken bought an old chair, for $200, at an auction last November. It took her some time to get around to tearing out the seat of the old chair in her garage at Mount Sterling, Ill. However, when she pulled the seat off the chair, and threw it aside, a small envelope fluttered to the ground.

On the face of the envelope was typewritten, “Finders Keepers.” Inside was a key with a note: “This DEXTER key (number sign) 50644T will unlock a lead chest (cannot be located by metal detector) buried approximately 12-ft. deep in the rear of the lot located at 1028 North Fifth Street …”

In the chest was said to be more than $250 in face value of U.S. coins, including eight $20 gold pieces, six $10 pieces and more.
That was enough to set the dirt flying on North Fifth Street. Henken immediately got permission from the land owners to dig, with the agreement to split the treasure 50-50. Early reports, during the last week of September were encouraging.

It was rumored that Chauncey Wolcott, the individual who signed the note, was an alias for a wealthy newspaper publisher who – not having any descendants – and, being “a Lincoln buff and coin collector” buried the chest in his back yard. And, Henken wasn’t the only one who “bought into” the treasure hunt. The townspeople of Mount Sterling (population 1,900) were all behind Henken, who works part-time at the local post office. With the help of a donated backhoe and volunteer labor, she tore up the vacant lot and began digging down 12-feet, 15-feet, 17-feet and deeper into a well on the property.

But, nothing but bricks and old bottles were discovered. Then, about a week-and-a-half into the dig, the owners of the lot pulled the plug on Henken’s digging.

“It’s done, other than me fixing up the yard,” Henken said. “I had everything set up to continue, and it wasn’t going to cost anyone anything. But, they put a stop to it … yeah, I’m disappointed. I was out looking for answers – trying to find out if anything was there. But, they (the lot owners) were only interested in a treasure.”
The owners pulled out of the “Big Dig,” according to Henken, after the local newspaper discovered that “Chauncey Wolcott” was the name of a notorious practical joker and coin collector who often used his typewriter in his pranks. After running the original story about Henken finding the note, an Iowa woman e-mailed a columnist for the State Journal-Register of Springfield to purportedly “set the record straight.”

The woman told the newspaper that she worked for “Wolcott,” better known as John “Jay” Slaven at the newspaper’s classified advertising department decades ago. She said Slaven often used a typewriter to compose some of his jokes and signed them “Chauncey Wolcott.” Slaven lived at the dig site for decades, until his death in 1976, she said. The State Journal-Register reported that archived news articles described Slaven as an actor with a “booming voice” that he used in television appearances, radio shows and to narrate the annual Illinois State Fair film.

Although her digging has been shut down, Henken is not thoroughly convinced  there is not a buried treasure on the property.

“I still think there’s probably something there,” she says. “I’d still like to find out … but, it’s been a fun adventure. I’d do it all again tomorrow.”

But, certainly not all was lost for Henken. The chair she bought at auction for $200 has been identified by AntiqueWeek columnist and “Furniture Detective” Fred Taylor as a George Hunzinger chair, with a patented leaf-style spring mechanism that no other manufacturer was legally permitted to use. The chair has sold at auctions for $250.