Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-02-27
a. r. STEWART.

nsnt]emen gathered in a favorite resort
s.aw evenings ago, ''that the death of
, nan who has gained prominence in
.,a more quiet pursuits of life, such as
.ao mercantile-especially if he has
s snon to any extent public spirited
,roduces feelings much deeper and
},orr lasting than are generally &C
aroa;tedp For instance, Mr.. Springer
=, A, L. Stewart. A person conld
,ar,]y realize that almost eight years
,S,.e nassed since the death of Mr..
Mr. Keller oryears hadbeen .buyer"
.1l,terh had charge of the foreign trade
an" r. Stewart & Co., and was with
o. ena irm at the time of Mr.. Stewards
l ua,th. and was, of course, greatly in
,,rosted in the efforts to recover the
Sa1v after it had been stolen from the
M Mr Stewards death and the stealing
. his body are well known to ali.
u u !! NOT known, however-that is, it
has never been authoritatively stated
tn.+ his remains were recovered. This
i ia', was known only to four or five
LAW nar.ons, and they have Professionally
gon;ed all knowledge OF the matter,
..afcrrine, for reasons best known to
lhomselyes, to remain quiet. 1t was
ss,,nnoscd that Mr.. Keller could throw
snn1 light on the subject, and the fol-
lowing question was put to him:
Have MIR. Stewards friends gained
no,session of his body?n
THAT question has been asked me
many times. Heretofore I have either
answered in the negative or else pleaded
;nrorance. [ see no reason for not
answering it now, however. Yes; the
hodv was recovered. l will for
cet The affair. 1t was a regular bust
Moss transaction, the body having to be
purchased. You remember that after
tho body was stolen the best detectives
IN New York were put upon the case.
They went on from day to day, pre-
sumably doing the best they could,
running down this and that clew, but
making no Roadway whatever. OF
course we were all greatly exercised
aver the matter, and the futile efforts
If fine detectives had rather a depress-
inc effect. The prevailing opinion was
that the body had been stolen with the
ilea that a reward would be offered for
liz return. Mrs. Stewart was advised
RIGHT along by the police authorities
not to offer any reward. After more
than a vear had elapsed since the steal
inc OF the Body, it becoming more and
more apparent that the authorities
100, u, ,n1, Tn ,,py,y-,1 fHo
mystery, Mrs. Stewart accepted a sug-
ccstion offered by Il well-known New
Yorker. who had had some business
connections with her husband. His
suggestion wa that the offer of a re-
ward and no questions asked might
have a good effect. She acted upon
the suggestion. and was about to offer
a reward of $50, He thought the
reward rather small. and limited that
an additional $4,000 might have a
better effect. She accordingly made
the reward 800, 900. Not long
af,erward she was informed by
the gentleman that a man named
Patrick Dryer had called upon him and
stated that he Dwyer) had been APP
proachedby certain parties who claimed
to know where the body could be
found. and who, for the reward, would
turn it over, provided that Dwyer act
as mediator-reccive the body from
them and in turn pay owe the money.
Of course. no questions ere to be
asked. Dryer further exacted the
promise that if he acted his partin con-
nection with the transaction should
never be known. In fact, sacred prom
ises had to be made that nothing should
ever be said about the recovery of the
body. The idea was rather revolving,
but what could be done? If the offer
was not accepted, the remains wonld
never have been recovered"
"Well, was it accepted"
1T was, finally. Dwycr managed the
entire affair. We never knew whence
the body came; that always remained
a mystery; but this much we do know
Il was brought into the city on che of
the night trains coming from above
the city, and must have been kept
some distance out of New York. We
understood the body was to come at
,!Sht, but We're not positive as to what
l'sht' 1t was to be brought to the
estofe. Some time before this Mrs.
stewart had ordered the removal of
'Ae Wholesale store to the retail, and
We We've at that time of which l speak
tnsagsd IN doing this. One night I had
pcel detained at the store rather late,
anu was about leaving whenI was
eal9ca down stairs. l got there in
E n'iie 10 see two men depositing a large
t0poef sack in one of the huge money
1aG!,s' The sack contained the remains
pf MIR. Stewart.
what was thendone with the body?'
it remained in the sack locked up
n the vault, for about a year, when the
"nTaft chapel, Of which you have
1Iooa'l.y read, was completed. It was
nea removed to the chapel, from which
N" 's IT can not be stolen"
Inns ended the stealing business, ]
Yes; There was another attempt
hh"1 '' however, but that was nipped in
r W. 'Na' One Of the parties connected
i, r"I ht lne scheme getting the idea into
mead that the Others would dump
Nh; gave the whole thing away"
Nv Vas the money paid over?"
les indeed. 1t was very generally
nlurfstood that Dryer was only used