List of Items

Below is a list of items that were found in the safe, not pictured are various documents.  Most of the documents were Federal Land Bank loan papers, and other old financial papers.

Two small stones (we think they're turquoise)

Black Sheep brand pistol case

Black Sheep pistol case

Hunter's Favorite pistol case

Browning Pistol case

Leather rifle case

Can of pennies (could be copper)

Model 250 Polaroid with accessories

Various ammo types, most likely reloads

Indian looking leather satchel

$505 cash

Konica FT-1 motor, 55mm  to 220mm zoom lens and accessories

Minolta 7000 and accessories

41 Silver Dollars from the 1920s

7 Gold South African Krugerrands from the 1970s

29 Universario One Troy Ounce Silver rounds

4 50 cent pieces

1 Bahamian quarter

1 1954 quarter

25-06 (not found in safe, but being included in auction)

30-06  Remington (Sid is 95% sure he bought this form ORT.  Not found in the safe, but included in the auction)

Jukar (made in Spain)

Colt Trooper .357 Magnum (made in Hartford, Connecticut)

Colt shown with holster

Browning Arms Company .22 Long Rifle

(made in Belgium)

Black Powder .36 cal Navy Arms (made in Ridgefield, New Jersey)

Thompson Center Arms .36 Cal (made in Rochester,  New Hampshire)

US Springfield Armory Model 1903

Browning Arms Company .22 rifle (made in Belgium)

Found no engravings

.41 cal cap muzzle loader Mendi Spain

.36 cal Navy Model (made in Italy)

L. E. Turley .22-250 

No names or engravings, cap muzzle loader

Memories Found!!

Last Sunday we were able to open Orson R. Thatcher's safe for the first time in many many years. All these years we were under the assumption that there was nothing of value in the safe. We tried the combination several times through the years and even called the safe company and had them walk us through the combination without success. Before we threw it away we thought it might be wise to find out exactly what was inside. Finally the other day we hired a safe locksmith. He put a piece of digital equipment on the lock which auto scanned for all possible combinations. Twenty four hours later and voila! THERE WAS MORE THAN AIR IN THE SAFE!!!

As a result, it became necessary to decide the best way to get the Thatcher Family what is rightfully theirs. Over the years, we can all agree that there has been little to no order as to how items were dispersed to family members. For example, Mark needed a hunting rifle 15+ years ago, so he asked Uncle Howard if he could borrow one from the safe. Uncle Howard was kind enough to get one for him, and Mark procrastinated getting it back after the hunting season. Once it was known that no one could open the safe, the 25-06 never made it back to where it belonged. Mark has felt guilty all these years and now feels relieved that there is a way to get this off his conscience. We also have a 30-06. The stock looks like Grandpa Thatcher carved it. Sid is 90% sure that he purchased it from Grandpa Thatcher more then 30 years ago, but he can not remember for sure; therefore we are going to put it back into the pool of assets that the ORT family is entitled to.

There may be other items in a similar situation that people have, and our goal is to put everything out in the daylight and get the 5 children the portion of assets they deserve.

so....... What do we do??? We are going to have a Family Only Auction!!

If the 5 children want to buy any of the items they have a huge advantage because they will get a check for their portion of the items sold, and a 20% discount on anything they buy refunded back to them when they pay for their items.

An auction is probably the most equitable way to take care of the 5 children. The differing and nebulous values on all the items (except for silver and gold), make it almost impossible to divide the different items up in a fair way. There are a lot of different ways to dispose of the items, but the goal is fairness and sunshine on the process. A FAMILY ONLY auction where the benefits go directly to the 5 children would achieve the goal and be fair to everyone.

We would like to have the FAMILY ONLY Auction over the 4th of July weekend. We will auction off 100% of the items in the safe PLUS any other items that anyone may have been watching over for all these years. All the proceeds from the FAMILY ONLY Auction will be divided evenly 5 ways between Howard, Bob, Steve, Sid and Aurelia. The items must be paid for immediately following the auction, and a check written to each of the Orson Thatcher children.

Does anyone know of an auctioneer for the actual event? We are going to try and get Dean Parker...

We are working on getting pictures and descriptions of all the items. We will put them up on the blog shortly.

Please e-mail pictures and/or descriptions of items that would be appropriate to get into the family auction to orsonrthatcher@gmail.com. The website will be updated with the information.