Mexico weekly ledger., 1884-10-02
IS HE BEAD OR ALIVE!
A Conundrum Regarding the Condi.
tion Of One r. &. Keed-An Alleg-
& ed Scheme to Secure 81, 900
s2i psa Of Insurance Money. "'i@

Z
ed Scheme to Secure 1000
% hs.a Of Insurance Money. "i@
IlaG 2s. 4 te4t1o. ,= !
f,...sisa s.. Louis Republican. Hz- 2
s. A special telegram appeared in the
yesterday morning dated
It Coiumbis, No., giving the details
If the .finiing Of a human skull and
some clothing on the bank of the
Missouri river just below Providence.
II "The finding Of that skull and cloth
ing, +" said ws1l-known citizen to a
Reps5lieas reporter yesterday. ''calls
tolmind the story Of the disappearance
Of Mr.. Reed, which hiss never been
AS the telegram says,
nearly a year ago Mr.. T" G. Reed,
who had formerly resided in Boone
but. who At that time was a
resident Of Bates, was. visiting his
son-ip-law, who. had farm in, the
Missouri river bottom, near Provi-
dence. One night he went with his
son-in-law and another man on a
'possum hunt. They cruised around
for some time along the banks of the
river, when finally the old man said
he had dropped something and went
back ia the darkness. The two men
strol;ed along slowly, and we're soon
startled,' SO they afterward said. by a
single cry as if made by a man in
distress. They stopped to listen. but
the cry Yves not repeated they
started to go ahead but it happened
to occur to them that perhaps the old
man had got into trouble. They re.
traced their steps until they came to
place in the river bank where the
currant had washed the earth away
and left steep bank. Here they
found a scrap of paper which they
thought the old man had dropped and
his spectacle case. They examined
the bank and found the edge broker
and scratched as if some one had
walked off and had grasped for q
hold to save himself. A short dis
tance from the bank, perhaps two
feet, was a cottonwood log with s
piece of the bark torn of, as if ,
mans boot-heal had struck it.
- t HAD WALKED OFF.
''They were satisfied, they said
that Reed had walked off the bank
had been caught by the current ant
carried down stream to his death
They reported the matter the mex
day, and the neighbors went to th
river and dragged for the body, bu
did not find it.
SIT was then assertained that Rec,
was insured in three classes OF tn,
Masonic Mutual Benefit society, th
insurance aggregating about Sc, ,OOO
An application was made by the rel
atives for the money, and Mr.. W. S
Relfe of this city, who was the secre
tary Of the society, went to the seen
Of the accident and instituted an in
vestigation. He took the depositio
of Reeds son-in-law and the othe
man, who testified substantially q
l have told you. He examined th
river bank and found that there wer
two sand-bars formed by the bend i
the river, one old one on which ther
was a growth of cottonwood and th
other a new one on which there wa
no vegetation. The latter extende
so close to the bank that he consider
ed it impossible that a body coul
I fall into the water at the point wher
Reed was supposed to have falle
in, and be carried down the rive
Again he learned that Reed was
strong, robust man and an exceIlel
| swimmer. He reached the conclusie
that if Reed had fallen off the bank |
could have saved himself by swim
ming to either sandbar, or by clinl
ing to the cottonwood log; or that
; he had been drowned his body woul
, have been found the next day, as
could not have f1oated down strean
HIS GRIPsACK FOUND.
''He then ascertained that Reed
gripsaek had been found in a COR
] field near by, with only a suspend
9 and pair of overalls in it. and th
8 the clothing he had brought wi
$ him to his son-in-law had disappea
ed. he therefore. returned TO ;
Louis and reported adversely to t
demand of the relatives, and gave
+ as his, opinion that Reed was still
d the land Of the living.
: "Here the matter rested, and We
i, little was heard Of it beyond t
a gossip Of the people of the neighbe
4 hood until last Sunday, when t'
d men, strangers, met a farmer nam
e Castle near Providence and told hi
d that they had seen the remains OF
1t human being on the opposite side
IT the river In a rock heap and su
'e posed they were those Of q woma
J. Mr.. Cattle visited the spot and fou
a. q human skull only, together with
I'd comparatively weli-preserved cloth
D. Of q man. In the hip pocket Of
y pants was q vial containing o recei
y, from the Masonic Mutual Benefit
r. | n;c&,v fc,~ snopoxy raid nv T. q Re