Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-01-08
EVENTS OF THE DAY.
MurchisOn Turns Out to be
George OsgOOdby.
HOW THE SECRET LEAKED OUT.
Transfer of the County Funds Yes
terday-TwO Ladies on
. Spree.

The name of the man whose sobriquet
through life will be Murchison has come
to light, disclosed to the public at large
by one Of his friends at a dinner party at
San-Juan-by-the-Sea, when the wine
flowed freely on Sunday night. His name
is George Osgoodby, native of New
York, 35 years of age, and he resides at
Pomona. The tale told of the writing of
the letter which drew from Minister
Sackville West the opinions which sew
cred his connection with the United
States has very few romantic points about
it. Osgoodby was member of a Repub-
lican club at Pomona and one evening
during the campaign he and other mem
bers of the club, named V. Delbauner,
@. d. Ambrose, P. J. Dreher and w. A.
Bell met and decided to write letters to
different parties throughout the country.
Osgoodby wrote the letter to Minister
West, signing his name as Murchi-
son, which was the name of his
mothers family. When Vests reply
came and he had exhibited it to one
of the others in the secret, it was stated
that he had violated the law and he went
to P. G. Tonner, a lawyer, to ascertain
whether he had committed q crime.
Tonner said he had not and obtained the
letter. Tonner showed it to Bell, who
brought it to this city to show to Judge
Fitzgerald, who took it to Henry Gage,
and all three of them decided no crime
had been committed and advised that
the letter be made public. Osgoodby
then took the letter to Colonel Otis, OF
the Times, in which paper it was pub
lished. When it was found that the
letter made stir the five men who knew
all about it pledged themselves to keep
the secret. Some people who were &C.
cused of being Murchison did not deny
it, and desirous of having the credit rest
where it belonged, Osgoodby wrote per-
sonal letters to President-elect Harrison
explaining the situation. He secured
other letters to be written and convinced
General Harrison of the truth of his
claim and in this way others learned of
the affair. Up to Sunday twelve were in
the secret and one of these told the
name at the dinner party at San
One of the original
five men was asked about the matter
and, on being pressed, acknowledged
that Osgoodby was Murchison.
Another story in relation to the affair
is that Osgoodby wrote the letter to West
before he told any one, and that after he
received the reply he had conference
with a few friends and made up his mind
to give the letter to the public. On the
18th of October, in company with Fran
els G. Haley, Osgoodby came to this
city with the West letter. They visited
the Times, but not finding Colonel Otis
in, returned to Pomona. On the next
day w. A. Bell came to the city with the
letter and showed it to Henry Gage, who
told him to take it to Judge Fitzgerald,
who in turn called upon Colonel Otis, OF
the Times, and it was then decided
to publish it. Osgoodby then became
frightened and refused to allow his
name to be given to the public. He
came to Los Angeles, where he staid un-
til after election, and then went back to
Pomona. The secret of the authorship
OF the letter leaked out chiefly because
parties to whom the honor, if there was
any, belonged were claiming it. On the
1st of January letter was drawn up by
gentlemen who knew the facts, to be
forwarded to General Harrison. This was
for the purpose of defeating the claims
of any other than Osgoodby to the author
ship OF the letter, but it was not in
tended that the name should leak out
until inauguration day.