Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1873-12-18
A Man Who Grew Out OF His Own
Acquaintance.

III INC court at Malone, washington
County, N. Y. If the case were not
IN court, and engaging the attention of
judges, lawyers and many witnesses,
some OF the developments would be in
credible, and set down as groundless
fabrication. We give an outline of the
reported facts.
Two years ago Willis Peyton, farmer
of Washington County, N. Y, left home
with the usual luggage of a traveller, and
patent-right model of spring bed, and
several letters of introduction, to parties
South. His business was to sell rights.
He was forty years of age, and had wife
and several children, some of whom were
well grown. He wrote to his family
from Terre Haute that he was feeling i'll,
but would push on to Evansville, where
he had friend, David Weaver, with
whom he intended to spend a few DAYS
before going further South. Here the old
Willis Peyton was lost.to' the world and
to himself, and q new man seemed to
grow in his place, still cfinging to Willis
Peyton's memory, and some marks which
were on Willis Peyton's body. He has
given his story under oath, and 1t is
briefly this:
After leaving Terre Haute he lost all
consciousness, but somehow got into a
hospital at Evansville. where he first
found himself recovering from small -pox.
He was then bald, and when he resumed
his clothing every article appeared to
have been made for much smaller man.
The pantaloons, which he recognized as
his, were at least six inches too short.
He could get no trace of his money, watch,
model springfield, or other effects. When
he was released from the hospital he went
to his friend David Weaver, who spurned
him as an impostor He was, in
fact, horrible sight, ana looked like the
Wandering Jew, or some other walking
pestilence Viewers remarks about his
friend Willis Peyton's personality caused
him to examine himself, and he found he
had grown eight inches taller in as mary
weeks. He would have denied his
own identity, if it had not been for his
mind and other evidences that had been
familiar to him from childhood. OF
course he could not continue his contem-
plated journey for he had lost its object
and bearings. He went to an engine
house and looked into mirror and did
not even recognize his face He first
thought Of suicide, and his next thought
was of home. The latter prevailed, lie
was utterly lost and started home to find
himself. On the way he was taken i'll
again and once more all the world was
blank. He finally arrived at his own
door after an absence of two years. Willis
Peyton's family believed him dead The
Willis Peyton who had left that threshold
two years before had light hair, nearly
red, and very scanty beard and was thin
in flesh. The Willis Peyton who now
knocked at the door was much taller,
rounder, and had brown curly hair and
heavy beard. He looked like gross lie
on the former, with no truth in him, but
the sequel Is startling. He knocked and
was invited into the house of the Wild
ow Peyton," and took seat Looking
at Mrs. Peyton he said III suppose YOU
don't know me, Addie ?" She answered:
"No, sir, do not ; who are you ~ The
man burst into tears and said: you'll
not believe me, know when tell you;
but it's got to come some time, and might
as well now as not I'm Willis Peyton.o
Mrs. Peyton shrank from him, ordered
him out Of doors, and two of her sons
and hired man took him to the nearest
justice, who sent him TO jail rs lunatic.
He was first tried by commission of
lunacy and was adjudged perfectly sane.
He is now being tried before the surrogate
on the question Of his pretensions as the
husband of Mrs. Peyton and the owner Of
the Peyton property. He has told his
story, the main points of which we have
given; has related in court circumstances
that occurred before that same Judge
years before; told the lawyers many things
that stranger, such as he seems to be,
could not know; related Willis Peyton's
family history, giving some minute de-
tails which are strictly correct and gener-
ally known in the neighborhood, and even
reminded Mrs. Peyton of words spoken
during her courtship, which she supposed
no one knew but her husband and herself.
IL seems highly probable he will be able
to establish his identity, incredible as it
may appear. The principal evidence In
his favor is that furnished by several scars
and marks on his person, and this is
unimpeachable Willis Peyton, when a
lad, received severe cut on the instep,
which left bad scar. The metamorphosed
Willis Peyton has the scar. He had a
tattoo mark of an American shield on his
right arm. The shield is there. On his
left arm an anchor. Anchor there, but
elongated. Peyton had also a very curious
figured by crushing in cog
wheel A critical examination of this
finger by the physician who dressed
the fresh wound compels the doctor to
say that 1t is the finger Of Willis Psyton.
While this examination was making, the
claimant said: doctor, do you recollect
how sick was made by the sight of that
finger, while you and mother were Dress
ing it one day? And do you recollect
how came to you one day to know what
would take the inflammation out of nv
arm where was tattooed by Jim Bayne,
the sailor?" The old doctor remembered
well how sore Willis Peyton's arm was
and the circumstance of his fainting once
from the dressing Of the sore finger. An
other evidence that the claimant is the
simon.pure Willis Peyton is that he sim
giles out men, who do not know him, call
ing them by name and reminding them of
incidents of former acquaintance that
leaves no doubt in their minds as to his
identity.
And the widow Peyton" sits in the
courtroom, by turns looking at the
claimant to her bed and board and cry
ing, as witness after witness ayows his
belief that the strange man is Willis
Peyton. She has told her friends that if
In se