The Compendium has sought to discover the possible identity of the “Old Irish School Master”, who was referred to as the one who worked out the 90FT Stone cipher. That exact description was used in both stories provided by Reverend A.T. Kempton and Edward Rowe Snow. Although, when Reverend Kempton wrote to Frederick Blair he called the person, “A very bright Irish teacher.” The Compendium has identified a prime suspect. Professors Lietchi and DeMille had a colleague at Dalhousie College who fit this description.
The Lives of Dalhousie University
Professor John Johnson came to Dalhousie College in 1863, at the age of 28 years old, having an MA from Trinity College in Dublin. He was the Professor of Classics from 1863 to 1894. Professor Johnson was described as, “He had wit and charm, but he was less forthright; his shafts were more delicate, the way he was, crafted more gently…His manner was at once cool and precise…Johnson’s classes could never be taken for granted, nor his examinations, for he was a close marker. You could not work off some glittering generality on him. If your answers were not to the point you might just as well forget it.” We noticed the characters in the 90ft stone cipher appear to be a mixture of Ancient Greek and mathematical symbols. Professors Johnson, DeMille, and Lietchi had the perfect background, education and opportunity to be involved with the 90 Ft. Stone. It should be noted that notebooks of Professor Lietchi and his daughters were found in the Nova Scotia Archives by Doug Crowell that had the exact same symbols that were used in the 90ft. Stone cipher. But how did the cipher go from being lost to being found again?
Austen Tremaize Kempton - Ancestry
Reverend AT Kempton presented this cipher to the world but did he reveal all that he knew about it? Reverend Austen Tremaize (A.T.) Kempton was a Baptist minister who was a native of Nova Scotia. He attended Acadia College and received a degree in Theological Studies and later a master’s degree. After graduating, he was ordained and preached at a Baptist church in Milton, Nova Scotia, close to Liverpool. He then accepted a Baptist ministry in Fitchburg, Massachusetts and immigrated there in 1891. He went back to Milton in 1893 and married Lottie Freeman and they returned to Massachusetts and lived there the rest of their lives. The Kempton, Freeman, and Snow families were all among the first New England Planters to settle the town of Liverpool, Nova Scotia. Reverend A.T. Kempton lectured extensively, and his most popular subjects involved his birthplace of Nova Scotia and Acadia. These lectures included, “Nova Scotia, The Romantic Land of Evangeline” And “New Brunswick, The Land of the Loyalists”. Reverend A.T. Kempton published two picture books, “Evangeline” and “Miles Standish” that were used by educational institutions at the time. He also conducted “Drama Sermons” which attracted widespread attention.
AT Kempton and Lottie Freeman - Ancestry
His biography definitely corroborates Kempton’s claim that he was planning to write a book about the history of Acadia and Nova Scotia. This brings us to Reverend A.T. Kempton’s father, Samuel Bradford Kempton, who was also a Baptist minister. He was born in Milton, Nova Scotia and he also attended Acadia College and received a master’s degree in theological studies, and an honorary doctorate. While at Acadia, his classmate was Joseph F. Kempton, who was his cousin. Both gentlemen can trace their ancestry back to the Mayflower. They were both enrolled in theological studies and J.F. Kempton also became a Baptist minister. J.F. was living at Mahone Bay and had a pastorate at Aenon United Baptist Church from 1883-1887, and we know that the Kemptons visited their cousins there and would have been very familiar with Mahone Bay. Reverend S.B. Kempton and Reverend J.F. Kempton were both at Acadia College at the same exact time that Professor James DeMille was teaching there. In fact, they would have been students of Professor James DeMille for Classics during their time at Acadia College.
The Kempton Family - Ancestry
Ancestry
Reverend Samuel Bradford Kempton was a pastor at the First Cornwallis Baptist Church, Canard, Nova Scotia in Kings County from 1868-1893. He was active in the Wolfville educational institutions and was Secretary of the Board of Governors for Acadia College for thirty years. Reverend S.B. Kempton then lived in Halifax/Dartmouth and was the minister at the Dartmouth Baptist Church from 1893-1917. He passed away in 1918. According to his obituary, he was a guest preacher at his son’s church in Fitchburg, MA, and in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, where “…he made many friends by his gentle courtesy and kindly interest in all whom he met.”. This indicates that Reverend S.B. Kempton visited Lunenburg and Mahone Bay at the time when his son says he was referred by a minister to a school teacher to write his story about Oak Island. Reverend S.B. Kempton had plenty of contacts, presumably from his family and friends living at Mahone Bay at the time. He also lived in close proximity to Dalhousie College in Halifax for many years. This suggests that Reverend S.B. Kempton was the minister that set up his own son with the schoolteacher, James Lietchi. We believe that Reverend AT Kempton didn’t lie about his story, but didn’t give all the details about its acquisition.
This brings us to a reported picture of the 90ft stone that circulated on various groups on the internet a number of years ago. After careful analysis the cipher appears to be photoshopped and coming over the edge of the stone. By appearances, this seems like an obvious fake and easily dismissed. The person who posted it on Reddit was asked about the source of the photo and said, “Private collectors personal photo album. Probably shouldn’t name the individual. Looks like it was on a cork board at some point (note the tack holes in the corners). It also says on the photo tag, “Helen Creighton and the 90 foot stone.” Why is this important? Mary Helen Creighton was a very famous Canadian folklorist who was from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. She lived there for most of her life and died there in 1989 at 90 years old. The Helen Creighton Collection is very extensive at the Nova Scotia Archives and this picture was not located in the collection.
Helen Creighton - Wikimedia Commons
Ancestry
Helen Creighton collected thousands of pieces of folklore about Nova Scotia, but nothing about Oak Island specifically, except for a brief mention in "Bluenose Ghosts". This seems extremely peculiar due to Oak Island being one of the great mysteries of Nova Scotia, let alone the entire world. It seems Creighton went out of her way not to discuss Oak Island in any way. When researching Helen Creighton’s background, we confirmed that she was a cousin to the famous bookbinders who had the 90FT Stone on display in their front window. We found that she had an older brother named Thomas McCully Creighton. Interestingly, we find that Helen Creighton and A. T. Kempton were maternal cousins, and there were several other relatives with the middle name of McCully. This appears to indicate that the Reverends’ Kempton knew much more about Oak Island and the 90Ft. Stone than what was originally thought.
The Curse of Oak Island - The History Channel
It’s also interesting to note that a couple years ago on an episode of “The Curse of Oak Island: Drilling Down”, it detailed the production side of making the show and they went inside the production trailer. On the wall, they showed pieces of paper that had storyline ideas they were considering for episodes. One of them stated, “Rick and Marty to Dartmouth, Picture of 90ft stone somebody found”. Is this photo the same picture as the above-mentioned fake or a different one? This led to the Curse of Oak Island team traveling to Dartmouth and visiting Evergreen House/Dartmouth Heritage Museum and looking for the 90FT Stone there based on a report that Rick Lagina received from a man at Dan Blankenship’s funeral. The man said that when he was a boy he was at the museum, which was formerly Helen Creighton’s home, and a guide said the 90 FT Stone was in the garden. After digging at the estate, the 90ft stone was not found.
The Curse of Oak Island - The History Channel
Based on our research, The Compendium believes there was a 90FT Stone with strange markings that was placed in John Smith’s fireplace. Multiple witnesses stated there was such a stone with strange markings located there. We suspect that this original stone never permanently left Oak Island. The early descriptions of the stone match the Tory Stone better than the two other stones that were on display at Creighton’s Bookbindery. The Compendium suspects that an opinion was sought by J.B. McCully and A.O. Creighton to translate the markings on the Tory Stone. The best place to find someone at that time was at the local college. We believe that Creighton’s cousin, James Creighton, referred his Professors’ at Dalhousie College to render a translation. The Compendium believes the stone was viewed by Professors DeMille, Johnson, and James Lietchi and they gave their opinion on the markings. They could not decipher or identify it, perhaps suggesting it may be natural markings on the stone. The stone had become broken when removed from Smith’s fireplace. It was then discarded on the island by Jefferson MacDonald et al. At this point, we believe A.O. Creighton and J.B. McCully came up with the idea of using another stone and creating a cipher message to put on it. James Lietchi agreed to come up with the cipher, assisted by DeMille and Johnson that said, “Ten Feet Below, Two Million pounds are buried”, which was a clear reference to Captain Kidd, who most people at the time believed buried treasure on Oak Island.
In Search Of - The Money Pit Mystery
Why would Lietchi agree to do this? Money! Salaries for Professors were low in those days, and it was common for them to supplement their income. This was especially the case for Lietchi, who was a tutor and was earning half as much as a professor at the time. Upon completion of the cipher, we believe that McCully and Creighton had someone carve the cipher symbols into another stone and it sat on display in the window at Creighton’s Book Bindery, until Creighton no longer needed it to attract investors or interest. This would constitute investor fraud, which would be a very good reason why there were no known photographs, rubbings, or any evidence of the stone’s existence except for eyewitness reports. We understand that these are serious allegations and they question the character of McCully and Creighton. There are indications that McCully was involved in other dubious activities that suggest that he would be involved with such a scam. As for Creighton, the continued use of this stone and an additional stone that was obviously fake, which indicates the same character issues. It appears that the McCully and Creighton families were hiding information regarding the stone and its authenticity for a very long period of time.
The Curse of Oak Island - The History Channel
Which brings us to the question, how can the Compendium be sure the Tory Stone is the 90FT Stone? Well we aren’t the only ones that entertain this possibility. The Curse of Oak Island is looking into it as well. In their recent “Digging Up The Past” series called, “John Smith’s House of Secrets”, the Tory Stone is pictured and it’s stated that it’s being studied to see if it is the 90FT Stone. This was based on the Compendium’s original research from one year ago. Since then, we have conducted more parallel research. In our “The Mystery of the Money Pit Postcard” we discovered that in the hollow near where the Tory stone was discovered, there appears to have been another house owned by John Smith that may have been the original location of the 90ft Stone. In our “Bill Jackson Documents Investigation”, we discovered that the La Formule Cipher is fraudulent. Problems arise because it appears to be directly linked to the 90FT Stone cipher. This seems to solidify the verdict that both ciphers are frauds, including Philip Stephenson’s version that was detailed on the show.
The Altoona Mirror 7-11-93 (Both Pics)
In a very interesting twist, Compendium Investigations has become aware of a newspaper article that was written by Stephen Silk of the Hartford Courant in 1993. This article was picked up nationally and was published internationally in the summer of 1993. In the article, Mr. Silk visits Oak Island and is given a tour. Mr. Silk goes on to convey the story of Oak Island and he writes, “By the time they hit 90 feet, in 1802, they uncovered a stone etched with runic-looking inscriptions. The rock may have served as a warning or a seal…” What caught the Compendium’s attention is the description of “runic-looking inscriptions”. In looking at the 90 FT Stone cipher, there is nothing runic about it. Although, if you look at the Tory Stone, it has been confused as having runic inscriptions, although natural in origin according to geologists. Did Mr. Silk make a mistake in his description, or did he hear information from someone who may have known more about it than what was publicly known? Attempts to contact Mr. Silk and his tour guide that day, Lynn Hirtle, were unsuccessful so far. If the Compendium does hear from them, we will pass along what we learn. Thank you for reading our series, we hope you enjoyed it.
Good day from the Compendium!
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