Chicago eagle., 1893-11-25
STRANGE CASE.

The strange disappearance Of Milton
Bradley from his home at FL Dorado,
Kansas, three years ago, was a local sen
sation OF the hour. His confession of
identity an 1 his death at Parsons revive
the interest in the old story, though
they do not solve the mystery OF his dis
appearance.
Bradley was a prominent man in
Butler County, Kansas. He WAS wealthy,
owning several farms, and when elected
county treasurer moved to FL Dorado,
the county seat, where he lived and
served two or three terms.
When he left the farm he developed a
great passion for fishing. One day
Bradley hitched up his covered spring
wagon, put small tent and some cook
ing utensils in the wagon, with his fish
ing pole, shot-g gun and ratiOns, and start
ed for three weeks outing trip. After
he left the bridge across the Walnut at
Ell Dorado he was never seen there
again. The very ravines of the Walnut
might have swallowed him up, so far as
any clue as to his whereabouts was con
cerned. He was n prominent Odd Eel
low and that organization spent several
thousand dollars trying to find him. The
flint hills" twenty miles east OF FL
Dorado-a wild stretch of country
wherein there is 'dead mans gulch'
and all sorts of cairns and gulleys-were
searched. The Walnut River was
dragged for his body. But wagon, gun.
tent, man and dog were completely OBJ
liberated, it seemed.
The newspapers contained detailed de-
scriptions of the lost man. A wandering
man was found in Arkansas --the usual Ar
kansas wild man of the woods--but he was
not identified as Bradley by the search
ing party from Ell Dorado that treed the
crazy man near Bentonville. Another
wild man turned up in Arizona. The
county commissioners of Butler County
sent Mrs Bradley down there with the
sheriff, but the trip was useless. Every
little while photographs of some strange
man would appear at Ell Dorado to be
identified as Bradley, but none of them
tailed.
As the months wore by into years the
matter was dropped and Bradley was
given up for dead. His estate was pro-
bated and. though he held thousands OF
dollars in trust for others, every cent
was accounted for and no one suffered
the loss of a penny His son and daugh-
ter and his wife mourned him as dead.
And as such the community accepted
him.
As such he was to his former life,
after he left the bridge on the Walnut.
From that moment he began another ex-
istence. He went to Parsons, where he
began life anew as farm hand he was
then q man of nearly sixty years, but
manual labor, though he had not been
used to it for twelve years, did not dis
| courage him. He did not breathe OF his
identity, of his social position and his
| political influence in Butler County, but
persisted in his new life. He read the
story of his own disappearance, OF the
search for him, of the mistakes Of his
friends, of the grief of his wife ana
children, and was silent.
A few moments before he died he re-
vealed himself to his>new found friends.
But he did not explain his departure
that was his secret and, being always q
silent man, he died with it unspoken.
His wife has identified the remains, and
they will be inferred in the bleak little
graveyard on the wind-swept hill over.
looking the little town where his success
in life was attained and where the people
who knew him wonder and sIrmise and
gossip about the cause of the strange
deed which marked his latter days.
Kansas City Star.