Denison Herald
July 16, 1984
The Lure of
Gold Led to Man’s Discovery of an old Bible
By Donna
Hunt
Herald
City Editor
The lure of gold led to a Denison man’s
discovery of an antique Bible in a box in
bed of a dried-up lake east of the city.
Leslie Franklin Clark, who walks each day
for lung expansion, was walking through a
field near his home last month when
something caught his eye.
Curious, he made a closer inspection
and found a silver spoon inlaid with gold
lying in the dry pond.
As he kneeled to retrieve the spoon, his
knee went down on a box that didn’t give
from his weight. Inside
the box he found two books, the family Bible
– date 1843 – of the Alexander Crane family
and a combination yearbook from women’s
colleges of the 1920s.
Clark, who spends much of his time
researching the Bible anyway, spent the next
eight days using ultraviolet lights to dry
out the book.
He carefully
guards the fragile pages of the Bible, which
is much more than an ordinary Bible because
it is written in both English and Hebrew and
contains an introductory history of the
Bible and with sketches of the participants
in “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci.
Clark has been doing research on the 15
saints included and said expressions on
their faces have intrigued him.
Clark retired as a professional welder
because of his health and now calls research
his favorite pastime. Aside
from biblical research, he had been very
involved in genealogy, tracing his family
tree back several generations.
According to
information found in the box, the Bible was
to be sent to Washington, D. C. in 1875. How
it got sidetracked and into a dried up pond
east of Denison is unknown.
The personal
section of the Bible shows Alexander Crane,
born June 2, 1841, married Minerva Bragton,
born October 7, 1843, on Christmas Eve 1868.
Recorded are the births of their five
children from 1871 to 1885.
The book
presently is being kept in an air-tight case
and Clark plans to preserve it further in
plastic.
Clark has a
knack for finding old, interesting books and
memorabilia, but says this find is the most
interesting ever.
