Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-06-05
GHOST OF A MISSING GIRL.
Pretty Mary Rogers. Murdered Foul
ly. HauntS John Anderson to
His Death.
People Who Have Been Lost to Earth
Nor Seen Again.

Mysterious disappearance always excite
the deepest interest, and the Terre Haute
mystery revives and justifes recall of the
most noteworthy ones of history. SAYS the
| Cincinnati Enquirer. One of the most re-
! markable cases that ever happened was that
of Mary Rogers, the pretty cigar girl of
| New York. When few years since in New
ork there was a contest over the will of
millionaire tobacco manufacturer John An
derson, then interest In the unsolved nlys-
terry was revived. 1t has never been solved
| Upon the story Edgar Allen Poe wrote his
celebrated, The Mystery of Marie Roget.
The unfortunate girl was employed by John
Anderson In the days when he kept little
tobacco shop IN Broadway, and in the last
days OF Millionaire Anderson he was
haunted by the delusion that he was
constantly In communication with the
spirit Of the girl. At the time of her dis
appearance and murder suspicion attached
to many prominent people, among them
Mr.. Anderson. In the days when Edgar
Allen Foe was young man, the mother
OF Mary Rogers kept boarding house in
Nassau street. Mary's father had long
been dead and Mrs. Rogers only fortune
was her tact and ability to make both ends
meet. Mary had beauty of form and
| feature that made her well known in the
| city, and when John Anderson engaged
her services in his store his sales naturally
| increased. 1t was considered the proper
thing for all young men of fashion to buy
| their cigars and tobacco from and be on
friendly terms with the pretty Mary
There was no breath of suspicion against
her character. There was wild grief and
surprise when one day she disappeared
from behind the counter. Conjectures
were INDUCED in, but when in a short
time she reappeared, and in answer to
questions as to her absence replied that
she had been on visit to an aunt in the
country, nothing was thought of it. The
young bloods, with ruffied shirt fronts and
| broad collars continued to chat with pref
ty Mary. But a look of sadness and pre-
| occupation had taken possession of her
since her visit to the country aunt.
One Sunday she left her mothers house,
saying she was going to visit a friend in
another part of the city. There was
young man named Payne, who boarded
with her mother and who was Mary's &C
copied sutton, and when she went out she
told him to call for her at her friends
house in the evening, TRAINED that night
and he did not go, supposing Mary would
remain all night with the friend. The
aged mother had presentiment of APP
preaching evil, and said
Il fear | shall never see Mary again"
She never did. The next day Mary did
not return, and On inquiry it was learned
that she had not been at her friends house.
All trace of her was lost until four DAYS
later her body was found floating in the
Hudson river near Weehawkeen. The
marks on the body showed that she had
been murdered. A great sensation was
caused and the detectives followed UP every
clue. In a thicket on the Jeresy shore the
purse, parasol and gloves OF the murdered
girl were found. On close inspection it
was evident that they had been placed
there.
Before this time there had been mysteri-
Gus boats seen on the Hudson. One of
them was manned by roughs, who COM
mitted all sorts Of depredations. An
papers pointing to these gangs as the
ca Sc of the tragedy. 1t was discovered
that Mary had been in the habit of meet
ing secretly man with dark beard, and
that she had been seen with young naval
officer after she had left her mothers
house. A rudderless boat was picked up
near where the body was found. The
young naval officer accounted for his
whereabouts from the time Mary disap-
peared until her body was found, and the
mystery of her death became deeper than
ever. For long time detectives worked
on the case, and the mystery would have
shared the fate of thousands of others of
great city had not Poe written his story of
marie Roget The mystery was never
solved, yet her spirit haunted the declining
pears of the millionaire Anderson's life.
On the afternoon of February II, 1885,
Lieutenant E. w. Remey, of the United
States navy, executive officer of the train
ing ship Portsmouth, arrived in New
York on the Old Dominion steamship,
Roanoke. A number of friends saw him
walk down the gang plank at pier IS,
North river, carrying small hand bag In
his hand. He was never seen by them or
anyone again.
Advertisements were placed in the news
papers asking information of him dead or
alive. Circulars were thrown broadcast
over the country, clews followed out with
the utmost persistency, effort and money
spent for six long months; yet to-day Lieu
tenant Remey remains utterly beyond the
pale of human apprehension as though he
had been swallowed up in the earth. Char
lie Ross has been an insoluble problem
that has never lost its entire hold on pub
lie curiosity.
One evening in 1887, Richard C. Brand
ers, notable physician of New York,
with a family to whom he was devoted,
fine physique and In prosperous clrcum
stances. left his home at 80 West Thirty
third street to deliver his customary lee
lures in the hospital. He left the lecture
hall and that was the last ever seen of him.
All the searching of detectives, the flood
ing the country with photographs of the
missing man failed to reveal any token of
his whereabouts. At his home they are
still waiting in vain expectation of his re-
turn.
The country was secured high and low
in search OF Stillman S. Conant, the editor
of Harper's Weekly, who went out one
night and never has been seen or heard of
since. Many false trails were explored,
fruitless searches of dead bodies instituted,
but he has vanished completely as though
spirited away by supernatural powers.
Boss Florington was a sporting butcher,
who lived in New York. was well-known
man about town, and had a great many
friends. He drank with a party of them
one evening, saying it was time to go home.
He has never since come to the surface Of
humanity.
4 still more mysterious case was that of
Chancellor John Lansing. who got into
cab to go on an Albany boat one after
noon. He was never seen or heard OF after
ward.
The case of poor Mary Evans, who went
out shopping with her mother, and at