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In Memory of Eliza Traditional Cache

Hidden : 1/8/2008
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:

Located above the town of Bellaire! Named in the old days as Bel Air.

There is some history to this cache and a reason I placed it here. Eliza was a young girl that lived up in the hills above Pinch Run with her mother. Her mother was a barmaid at a place called Kelsey's bar. Back in those days it was shameful for a woman to be a barmaid. When Eliza's mother died, Eliza was old enough to take over being the barmaid. It was the only way she knew to earn money. Then she married Jacob Heatherington who was a coal miner. He had his own mine on Pinch Run close to where the old bowling alley stood for years. They built a house and had 9 children. Over the years the neighbors still looked down on Eliza because she was a barmaid when she was younger. There was always gossip and rumors. As the family grew, Jacob decided to build a bigger house. So he and his best worker (Jack the mule) worked harder in the mine to make more money. Jack would only work for Jacob. No one else could get Jack to do anything. Years went by and still the neighbors disliked Eliza. They were pretty wealthy by now as the coal mining business was booming! Jacob thought if he built Eliza a mansion that the neighbors would then like her. He hired someone from England and had a huge mansion built for Eliza. They had a view of the Ohio River and the rolling hills behind them. No one else in the area had such a beautiful home. To this day, the house no longer stands. Eliza was born on 2/7/1817 and died on 5/5/1896 at the age of 79. Jacob was born on 3/7/1814 and died on 6/15/1904 at the age of 90. Jacob had a monument placed in memory of Eliza. It is a statue of her sitting high on top of the cemetary looking down on all the people who looked down on her for years. The coordinates to her monument are 40.00.949 N and 080.45.114 W. After you find the cache, take a stroll up to her monument and take a look. When all the leaves are off the trees you can see that she looks down on the part of Bellaire where she lived her whole life.
Jacob is buried next to her. This story came from the book called Eliza and the House that Jack Built. It is a very interesting story especially if you know of Bellaire. I saw many graves in this cemetary with the names of other people in the book. Hope you enjoy finding the cache and visiting the monument. Please re-hide the cache very well, as you found it or better.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Orybj Frpuerfg, pbirerq va sybjref.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)