Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-10-26
TOOK HIS SECRET WITH HIM.
A Knnsan Who ForsoOk Home and
Comfort Three Years Ago.

The strange disappearance of Milton
Bradley from his home at FL Dorado, Kan.
three years ago was local senation of the
hour. His confession of identity and his
death at Parsons few days ago revive the
interest in the old story. though they do
not solve the mystery of his disappearance.
Bradley was a prominent man in Butler
county. Kan. 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 He. with State
Senator Murdoch and NJ. NJ. Murdoch, and
four or five cronies in the little country
town. were on the Walnut all the time fish
ing for bass, which are found abundantly
In the clear, green. rock-bottomed river.
One day Bradley hitched up his covered
spring wagon, put small tent and some
cooking utensils in the wagon, with his
fishing pole. shotgun and rations, and
started for a three weeks outing trip.
After he left the bridge across the Walnut
at FL Dorado he was never seen there
again.
The very ravines of the Walnut might
have swallowed him up. so fa- any clew
as to his whereabouts was concerned He
was prominent Odd Fellow, anu lat or
ganization 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 a dead
mans gulch' and all sorts of cairns and
gulleysEwere searched. The Walnut river
was dragged for his body. But wagon. gun.
tent. man and dog were completely obliter-
ated, II 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
rot identified as Bradley by the searching
party from FL Dorado that freed the crazy
man near Bentonville. Another wild man
turned up in Arizona. The county COM
missioners of Butler county sent Mrs. Brad
ley down there with the sheriff, but the
trip was useless. Every little while photo
graphs of some strange man would appear
at FL 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 probated and, though he
held thousands Of dollars in trust for
others, every cent was accounted fo-, and
no one suffered the loss of a penny His
son and daughter and his wife mourned him
as dead And as such the community ac-
cepted him. AS such he was to his former
life after he left the bridge on the Walnut
From that moment he began another ex-
fstence. He went to Parsons. where he be-
gan life anew as farm hand; he was then
a man of nearly sixty years, but manual
labor, though he had not been used to it for
twelve years, did not discourage him.
He did not breathe of his identity, of his
. NlaA POSillOh anu MS PORTUGAL lnnuence In
Butler county. but persisted in his new
hfe- He read the story of his own disap-
pearance. Of the search for him, of the mis-
takes OF his friends. of the grief of his wife
ana children. and was silent. A few mo-
ments before he died he revealed himself
TO his new-found friends. But he did not
explain his departure; that was his secret
ana. being always a silent man, he died
with II unspoken. His wife Identified the
remains. and they were inferred in the
bleak little graveyard on the wind-swept
nil overlooking the little town where his
success In life was attained. and where the
people who knew him wonder and surnisa
ana gossip about the cause of the strange
deed which marked his latter days