Braddock’s Lost Payroll

History & local legend

General Edward Braddock’s army camped at Three Springs, near present-day Circleville in North Huntingdon, on July 7, 1755. Two days later, French and Native forces defeated it near the Monongahela River, leaving Braddock mortally wounded. A treasure legend handed down through the Robbins family places the army’s missing payroll near the earlier camp.

In that telling, Braddock sent two scouts to locate the river. They followed Crawford Run to the Youghiogheny but mistook it for the Monongahela. That night, Braddock accompanied them back to the bank, where they buried a chest of gold beneath a walnut tree to keep it from falling into enemy hands.

After the defeat, surviving officers supposedly tried to recover the chest. Their confusion over the rivers sent them searching in the wrong place. The Norwin Historical Society’s 2019 account records later treasure hunts on Robbins family land, including searches as late as 1910. The walnut tree’s location was never established.