History is filled with strange stories surrounding gems and pearls. The pearl covered in this newspaper article was found by a poor man who, after finding it, had a lot of misfortune due to another jealous man. Queen Mary couldn’t allow the pearl, bought for her coronation, to be tainted with the blood stain, or misfortune, so she set out to remedy the situation.
Queen Would Wipe Blood Stain From Pearl
By E.C. Rodgers
Mt. Carmel, Ill., July 3. — The favorite jewel of Mary, Queen of England, is a big white pearl of wonderful luster. When she was crowned in Westminster Hall it held the place of honor in the center of her royal necklace.
It is an American pearl, from the banks of the Wabash.
This loveliest pearl of the British crown jewel is stained with blood, and the queen is now trying to have the stain wiped out through the pardon of an American in prison for murder.
It is a far cry from the queen’s palace to the shacks of the pearl fishers on the muddy bank of the Wabash in southern Illinois. They are poor folks there, and live in wretched hovels. But they live always in the hope of riches; for the river is full of mussels, or fresh water clams, and some of them hold pearls.
William Adams, called “Jumbo,” was a steamboat hand who had always scorned such treasure hunting. He had a wife and five children to support. But one of his pals, Frank Pate, who had fished for pearls all his life, with the quenchless hope of the gold digger, persuaded him to try his luck. So Jumbo gave up his job and joined the pearl fishers of Mt. Carmel.
In two weeks Jumbo struck it rich. He “found a trick” — a white pearl of wonderful beauty, the size of a marble.
A local pearl speculator, Dr. Pepper, paid him $800 for his find. To a mussel digger that is a fortune. Jumbo bought an interest in a little old steamboat, and soon had enough money to purchase a shack of three rooms — a home for his wife and little girls.
But Frank Pate, the “pal” who had showed him the way to fortune, was jealous. “Frank wur sore at Jim,” a neighbor explained to me, “for finding wat he wur hunting for so long.”
One night at a dance the ill feeling reached its height. Pate went home for his shotgun. When he appeared with the weapon Jumbo shot him dead.
All the wealth the pearl had brought to the Adams family went to pay for Jumbo’s defense. But he was found guilty and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment.
Dr. Pepper had sold the pearl to a New York jewelry house for $1,200. A Paris firm paid $3,000 for it.
Just then the British royal family was preparing for the coronation. Queen Mary’s pearl necklace was to be doubled in length and value. London was searched for matched pearls — but one thing was missing — a jewel fit for the center of such a priceless necklace. A special envoy was sent to Paris, and he returned with Jumbo Adams’ pearl.
Pearls and superstition seem to go together. The queen became convinced that the pearl was “dying” — losing its luster — and trading back its history she was horrified to learn that it was stained with blood. So, as the story goes, she determined to do all she could to remove that stain.
Edward B. Green, former chief justice of Oklahoma, was employed to get Adams out of prison and clear his name. He will not tell who employed him, but Mt. Carmel people say that he has been getting his instructions, expenses and fees from Washington, and hint that they come, through the British embassy, from the queen herself.
“I hope it is the queen that’s doing it,” says Mrs. Adams. “The board will do more for the queen than for Jumbo and me. And anyway, the queen’s got the pearl — and if it hadn’t been for that old pearl, Jumbo wouldn’t be in the fix he is, and me and the kids wouldn’t be starving the last two years.
Source: The Day Book (Chicago, Illinois newspaper). July 03, 1912.
