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My Story
The youngest of four children, I was born into a musical family in Iredell County, NC. My maternal grandfather was a singer. He taught shape-note music classes in churches in the area . My paternal grandmother was a violinist. My dad, a natural born musician, was a member of a string-music band entitled “The Rambling Crackerjacks”. During their performances they often did comical skits. My brothers were also musicians. Our home was on top a high hill on my parent’s farm. During any leisure moment there was usually music vibrating from the top of that hill. I inherited none of this talent. As a matter of fact, I have no unique qualifications I am aware of.
My mother was a talented seamstress. Unlike my dad, she was a serious, no-nonsense, keen business-minded person. The most treasured gift I received in life is the Bibe story book she gave me when I was learning to read. My dad liked all people in general and he especially loved children. I was dubbed with the nick-name “Sally” when my dad sang “Sally Gooden” to me as a baby. Everyone in my mom’s family called me Emma Jean. Everyone in my dad’s family called me Sally including my siblings and friends. Dad knew how to play with us in unusual ways that was fun and entertaining, but at the same time teaching us to think for ourselves and be independent. He purchased bikes for my brother and me. To teach me to ride, he sat me on my bike, said “now, hold it up” and shoved me down the hill. I held it up!
The most unusual experience in my life happened when I was still a a child. I was playing and talking with friends on our front lawn. The topic was “When I Grow Up”. I said, “when I grow up I’m going to work with codes”. I have no idea why I said this. How could I explain what I was talking about when I didn’t know myself? When I deciphered the Beale code, I remembered this incident very clearly. Now I understand. God had tapped me into this extraordinary project long before I knew about it. He uses ordinary people to accomplish unordinary things to fulfill his plan for humanity and give glory to His name. He has a purpose and a plan for every person’s life. No one is excluded.
A Revolutionary-Era Story Hidden in the Beale Ciphers
Mystery Beneath the Baneberry Bush
A story of the famed Thomas Jefferson Beale ciphers that has been aired on national TV by the news media, various programs, and can be reviewed on the Internet is given renewed attention. Three sets of numbers are in the code, and until recent years, only paper number 2 had been deciphered. However, a new story emerges in the deciphered papers 1 and 3. It is the journal of Gilbert Bean, a young Scottish minister living in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Mystery Beneath the Baneberry Bush is the story of this frontier and enterprising Bean family based on the journal. During the American Revolution, Gilbert Bean served in the Rawlings Regiment under Capt. Thomas Beal, founder of Cumberland, Maryland. Gilbert, Beau he was often called, made an effort to destroy all his personal public records, but his records from the National Archives state that he deserted. Did he desert the very cause that he was fighting for? Why was it necessary to code his journal? What is the strange “ark” Bet Bean stole from a British boat? Is there a treasure trove in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, more precious than silver and gold that will shock America?
Based on the Thomas Jefferson Beale Cyphers
What readers are saying
"Mystery Beneath the Baneberry Bush" is an interesting, intriguing and thought-provoking mystery novel that will make readers re-think of the Beale ciphers mystery. It is based on a story from the Beale cryptograms built around the life of an actual person in an actual place. He was the cryptographer who coded his life story in the late 1700's and early 1800's.
