A stone discovered in a Bucks County cave brings the Doan Gang legend closer to the truth

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A stone has been discovered in a cave in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, carved with initials believed to be those of the notorious outlaw Moses Doan of the 18th century Doan Gang.

The Doan Gang, a group of Pennsylvanians loyal to the British during the Revolutionary War, are believed to have hidden in caves as they conducted raids on local tax collector offices.

Carved into the stone is “1775 M,” and it was found in a recently discovered cave in Buckingham Township. It was near a glass bottle that can be positively dated to the era of the Doans. Together they are strong evidence that the Gang hid out in the Buckingham cave.

On Sunday, the stone will be presented in a special event at the Mercer Museum as part of its current exhibition “The Doan Gang: Outlaws of the Revolution,” and will soon be added to the exhibition.

“1775 M” was discovered two weeks ago by Clint Flack, an exhibit preparator at the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, along with property owner Frank Lamitina and Mercer Museum librarian Rayna Polsky.

The stone has provenance: it is mentioned in historic records, and its discovery confirms parts of the Doan story that until now had only been legend.

“There is actual evidence that maybe the Doans did hide out in caves,” he said. “And maybe they hid down in this one.”

Flack has been searching for this stone for 35 years. He got hooked on the sensationalized stories of the Doan Gang at 8 years old with the help of an astute school librarian.

Like a young Indiana Jones, he read about the “1775 M” stone mentioned in an 1859 newspaper correspondence in which the writer Joseph Fell claims his son with friends spelunked a cave in Buckingham that was covered with carved initials. In the letter, Fell confirmed that he, himself, saw “1775 M” written on a wall of the cave.

Since then, the carvings and the cave disappeared, becoming part of the shadowy myths of the Doan Gang. Flack was determined to bring it to light.

He first knocked on the door of the Buckingham property as a child in 1988 and bravely asked its curmudgeonly owner if he could look for the cave. He was roundly denied.

Two years later, Flack learned the owner was about to sell the property, so he went back and tried his luck again. The owner told the young Flack that he had filled in the cave with concrete (he hadn’t).

“He blatantly lied to a 10-year-old boy and crushed his dream,” Flack said.

Skip ahead to 2019 when, by chance, Flack was working in a local antique store and Lamitina came in to buy a wagon wheel. He asked Flack to deliver it to his new house in Buckingham. Flack immediately recognized the address from when he was 8 years old.

“I almost fell over,” Flack recalled.

Since then, Flack and Lamitina have become friends and amateur archeological partners, digging into the cave on weekends. Earlier this year, it was the subject of a segment in “Expedition Unknown” on the Discovery Channel, as host Josh Gates donned an illuminated caving helmet to explore the cave with Flack.

The pair found lots of carved initials for the cameras, but not the elusive “1775 M.” After the TV crew wrapped up and left, Flack and Lamitina continued digging and ultimately found the stone.

Flack has also been digging through the archives of Bucks County Historical Society and other institutions, and discovered Loyalist outlaw gangs similar to the Doans in neighboring counties and states who were caught in caves, which further supports the likelihood that the Buckingham cave was used as a hideout.

“We have determined that the property during the Colonial era was owned by an enemy of the Doans, and that they stole a horse off the property in 1783,” Flack said. “So the Doans are certainly familiar with the property and had set foot on it.”

Hiding in caves helped make the Doans the stuff of boyhood adventure stories. The caves supposedly contain buried treasure.

In 1781, the Doan Gang raided the Bucks County Treasury in Newtown, robbing it of 1,300 pounds sterling, roughly equivalent to about $350,000 today. The money was never recovered. Legend has it the gang buried the loot in a cave.

“There are caves that supposedly are guarded by a devil demon black dog from Hell that guards the Doan treasure,” Flack said.

This discovery brings those stories closer to the truth. Flack said it’s possible the Doans were using caves to spy on patriot militias as early as 1775.

“I actually dismissed it for a long period of my life, saying that caves were probably only part of the folklore and the mystique of the Doans,” he said. “But now that we are digging deeper and excavating physically into the cave and through our archives, we’re starting to change our mind and say that it is possible.”