Ruins of counterfeiters den, mill operator and wife

Description:	This photograph taken between 1900 and 1910 shows the ruins of the supposed counterfeiters den at Bonneyville Mill in Bristol. Cornelius Con Daily and his wife Matilda are shown in what remains of the Bonney farmhouse. Daily was the mill operator from 1897 until 1918. According to reports, Captain Edward Bonney was accused of counterfeiting by a federal marshal and taken into custody in 1842. He was taken to Indianapolis for trial during which trip he escaped to Nauvoo, Illinois, reportedly joining a band of horse thieves. Later in Chicago he became a Pinkerton agent and was credited with capturing Colonel George Davenports murderers, the Long gang. Whether in return for his service or for lack of evidence, he was acquitted of the charges against him. In 1850, he wrote about his work on the Davenport case in The Murderers Doom! A Tale of the Mississippi Valley, which became a best seller in Chicago. He died in 1864 and although there is a marker in the Bonneyville cemetary which bears his name, some doubt he was actually laid to rest there. In 1900, mill owner Cornelius Daily discovered what appeared to be counterfeit coins in the plaster when the Bonney farmhouse was razed. This perpetuated the rumors of counterfeiting. There was also a story circulating that a tunnel ran from the Bonneys house to the Little Elkhart River bank where there is a cave that was used for concealing the alleged counterfeiting equipment. None of this was ever proven.
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isl4/id/564
Collection:	Elkhart Public Library
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/;
Copyright:	No Copyright - United States;
Subjects:	Elkhart County (Ind.) Mills Counterfeiting Criminals

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