Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-05-02
Fresh MORGAN story. I

From the Springfield (Mass) Republican.
In the Republican of the 10th inst.
you have a paragraph pretending to give
the particulars OF the disappearance Of
the Freemason, William Morgan, who
was murdered by Freemasons in 1926.
and suppose you inserted it for the
information of your readers. II you
please, 1 will give another set OF facts
relating to the same subject. In the
early morning of September IL, it was
found that Morgan had been seized and
roughly forced into a stage, and carried
off in tie direction of Canandaigua,
fifty miles distant east of Batavia, Nor
gan home, which place they reached
late that night and Morgan was commit
ted to Jail. This was done by persons
holding important Offices in church and
State, and the thing had been arranged by
the highest authorities'in Masonic coun-
ellis. Whatever crimes were committed
against Morgan, they were not the crimes
Of individuals, but ofathe whole Masonic
order Itwas proved that on the night
of the 18th Of September, Morgan was
by fraud taken from the Jail by pretended
friends, bound and gagged, and forced
into carriage by several men, and the
next that was known of the carriage was
at Hanfords landing, thence to Fort
Niagara, in the morning of the l4th of
September, by changing horses, driv-
ers, etc. Soon after reaching the fort
he was carried across the river TO be
given up to the Canadian Masons, but
they would not receive him, being shy Of
staining their hands with that bloody
business, and he was brought back and
lodged in the magazine of the fort, and
sometime between September IL and Il
he was taken, bound and blinded. in q
boat on Niagara river, a stone tied to
him, and he was pushed from the boat
into the water On the 9TH Of October,
1927, the body of man. not far gone to
decay, was found on the shore of Lake
Ontario, at place called Oak Orchard
Greek, and, on examination, reasons
soon began to appear to prove that IT
was no other than the body of William
Morgan. MRS. Morgan had told before
hand what proofs of identity might be
looked for. Morgan had a habit of
whiting the nails on his fingers; it was
his fancy to wear them long and to trim
them to u point, and the body thus found
showed this shaping of the nails; he
also had peculiar set of teeth, even the
front ones approaching double forma-
ton; so 1t was in this case. 1t had so
happened that dentist had not long
before drawn his Morgan 81 teeth, and
on account of its popularity had pre-
served it, and it had every appearance
of filling the cavity exactly. He also
had received q deep wound over one
eye, and with an ak had cut asunder
one of his great toes, andl all the
marks of these were found upon the
corpse. J Ertf ps
About twenty-five yearsafter Morgan 5
disappearance, Henry L.. Valance, on
his death bed, acknowledged himself to
be one of the three men drawn by lot
who drowned Morgan at night in Nj
agara river, and that himself (Valance)
fastened the stone to Morgan's body aud
pushed him overheard. After commit
ting that horrid deed, he says, " | was
unhappy day and night; was much like
Cain, fugitive and vagaboud go
where l would, do what j would l could
not throw of the consciousness of crime;
the mark of Cain was not upon me, the
curse of the first murderer was; the
blood stain was upon my hands and
could not be washed out. w. p.
CoRNToN, WINDHAM Co., W., April II.