Mr. Mad Smith’s Emerald
There was only one gem like it in the world,
and that was one gem too many for this
Gibsonville man.
North Carolina, well-known to be a
mincralogical sample-case and to pro¬
duce an unparalleled assortment of
minerals, ranging from commercial
clays to precious gems, has also pro¬
duced one gem-stone so rare that in
the annals of mineralogy it has a name
all to itself. Rarer than North Caro¬
lina's unique Hiddenite. this species is
represented by only a single specimen,
and for one hapless Guilford County
farmer one was enough. This was the
famous, but now almost forgotten.
“Gibsonville emerald" which for a
while in the I880's was called by the
eminent mineralogist Kunz a “nine-
days wonder." The story of this odd
stone is briefly recounted in Dr. George
F. Kunz's book History of the Gems
Found in North Carolitui, published
in 1907.
The discovery of the wonder came
about in prosaic fashion when a keen-
eyed farmer, plowing on his farm in
what is now a part of the town of Gib-
sonvillc. stopped in the middle of the
field to investigate a sparkling object
which the turning soil had bared in the
furrow. When he roughly brushed the
dirt off the stone the plowman saw re¬
vealed in the sunlight an object smooth
and shiny and strange enough to set
the imagination reeling. It was a lus¬
trous transparent green crystal which
later was found to weigh about nine
ounces.
Placing the stone in his pocket, he
continued plowing and at the close of
the day carried the stone with him to
his home. He found time to take his
interesting find to some local expert,
perhaps an amateur mineralogist or
possibly a jeweler in near-by Greens¬
boro; and the news the expert gave him
was nothing short of tremendous This,
he announced, is a genuine emerald!
If that were not enough to unhinge
the finder's reason, the rest of the in¬
formation should have been. Not only
was it an emerald, according to the
expert, but it was the largest known
emerald in the world, and it had the
further distinction of being an emerald
By PHIL SHORE
with many tiny included diamonds
which the expert had discovered with
the aid of a microscope. There was no
accurate means of measuring the worth
of so signal a rarity, but when the
owner was offered a thousand dollars
he quickly refused it.
The farmer realized that there was
none qualified in the vicinity of Gib¬
sonville to set a proper value upon
his precious stone and that in order to
learn its true value he must secure an
appraisal by New York experts who
were familiar with the exalted value of
exceptional gem-stones. Not willing to
entrust his prize to an express com¬
pany, the man took a trip to New
York himself to insure its safe arrival.
In New York he took the "emerald"
to one expert after another, and every¬
where he found the same general
response: yes, it was an unusual min¬
cralogical specimen, and it was un¬
doubtedly emerald green. No, it was
not valuable and it was not an em¬
erald.
On examining the Gibsonville gem
the appraisers found it to be a nice
quartz crystal to which myriads of in¬
cluded hair-like crystals of byssolite
had given an emerald hue. As for
the diamonds supposed to be formed
within the crystal, they were simply
To A New Baby
You're a lucky little angel
With these parents God has sent.
You'll find it's nice as heaven.
And that's just the way it’s meant!
Betty W. Stoffel.
minute liquid inclusions along the
byssolite crystals which, sparkling in
the sun, gave the appearance of dia¬
monds.
Instead of the doors of fortune open¬
ing to the hand which held the "Gib¬
sonville emerald," they closed with a
resounding crash as the disappointed
farmer heard the words. "The best we
can offer you for the stone is five
dollars."
At that point recorded history be¬
comes silent concerning the Gibson¬
ville emerald, but some of the rest
of the story is known. Somewhere in
North Carolina is still to be found, in
all probability, the ill-destined stone
which led its owner so unhappy a
course. Old-timers in Gibsonville say
that the much-travelled prize ended its
journeys in the state and may remain
to this day in a place not far from
where it was found on that long-gone
plowing day of the early 1880's.
The unfortunate discoverer of the
Gibsonville emerald was a Mr. Mad
Smith. The name “Mad" was no re¬
flection on Mr. Smith's sanity nor was
it a description of his rightful post-
New York mood. It was a simple and
affectionate contraction of the given
name, Madison.
Mad was at one time a school teach¬
er. but at the time of his gem dis¬
covery he was farming. Visions of great
fortunes drew him from one place to
another in an effort to find someone
who could authenticate his belief that
the green mineral specimen was worth
a king's ransom. One old-timer says
that Mad spent what money he had in
this fruitless pursuit and finally gave
up his farm and moved his family to
neighboring Ossipee where they op¬
erated a boarding house and he and
his girls worked in the mill. Later
he moved to a farm above Altama-
haw and there he lived until the time
of his death.
Perhaps someone knows today the
further adventures of the Gibsonville
emerald. Perhaps the story ends with
the death of Mad Smith.
20
THE STATE. January 19. 1952
