The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1880-08-26
The Old Morgan story.

A pamphlet has been issued entitled !:
" American Political Anti Masonry, with
Good Enough Morgan. " In order to
give the reader an idea of the narrative
it may be well to state that in the year
1926, q Freemason, by the name of
William Morgan, then residing in Batavia,
attempted to make an expose of Masonry.
He was kidnapped on the 10Th of Sep
tember, of that year, and was supposed
to have been drowned in the Niagara
river. When he disappeared he was
quite bald and wore no whiskers. More
than q year after this time the body of a
man was found forty miles east of the
Niagara river on the shore of Lake On
tario, and an inquest declared it to be the
body of an unknown man. The clothing
was taken care of by one Of what was
then known as the Morgan Committee.
Soon after this inquest Thurlow Weed,
who was chief of said committee, pro-
fessed to believe the body might be that
of Morgan. He, therefore, had it dug
up and a second inquest held. The body,
being thus disintered, was found to have
full head of hair upon it's head and full
-whiskers on it's face. All this Mr..
Weed well knew, for, in letter to the
New York Herald, written in 1875, he
says The head was covered with long
silken hair of a chestnut color" The
second inquest declared the body to be
that of Morgan, and it was buried as such.
But, doubt having arisen as to whether
there had not been foul play by Weed
and others, the lrly was again disin-
tered, and a third inquest held at Ba-
tavia. The heau Vi the body this time
appeared very bald, and with no whis.
kers on the face, although the proof
showed that the head when found on the
shore was well covered with hair, and the
face covered with whiskers. It was also
proven that the body was four inches
taller than that Of Morgan, and was tina
of one Timothy Monroe.
Citizens of Batavia, where Morgan
had resided, testified that the body wa
not Morgan's, and the third inquest 81
decided. After this Ebenezer Guffint
said to Weed, 'tWhat are you going t.
do with Morgan now?" to which it wa
said MI. Weed gave the celebrated re
ply: cit is a good-enough Morgan til
after election" Henry O'Reilley, tn
editor of the Daily advertiser, pub
ished some statistics intimating tina
Weed had disfgured the head and fac
of the corpse OF Timothy Monroe so a
to make it look like that of Morgan
For this Mr.. Weed caused O Kelley to b
indicted for libel. The sg;ts remaine'
untried thirteen years, thus harassin
O'Reilley, but was finally aaolle prose
quied, and lately Mr.. Weed has pubicl
stated that the case was sworn off b
! O'Reilley, SO that he cogd not get
trial. TO this statement of Mr.. Weed
Mr.. O'Reilley now replies !" A lawye
familiar with prominent legal proceed
ings at that time knows that Weeds il
ability for twelve years to cause trial I
be had against us on his Indictment is i
itself libel upon our judiciary system
and as to his declaration that he urge
the trial while he had been swearing
of, it may be repeated by us that
would require as much hard swearing {
it would to make the public believe thu
Morgan's corpse had grown four inche
in length and crept into Timothy MOI
roe's breaches twelve months after h
death - E!rcHnn0e