Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-01-17
TOOK HIS SECRET WITH HIM.
a Xansan. Recently Dead, Who ForsooI
Home and Comfort.

The strange Disappearance of Mil
ton Bradley from his home in Ell Dor
ado. Kan, three years ago was a
local sensation of the hour, saws the
Kansas City Star. His confession of
identity and his death at Parsons a
few days ago revived the interest in
the old story, though they do not solve
the mystery of his disappearance
Bradley was prominent man in But
tier county, Kan. He was wealthy,
owning several farms, and when
elected county treasurer, moved to Ell
Dorado. the county seat, where he
lived two or three terms. When he
left the farm he developed great pas
81 On for fishing. He with State Seua-
tor Murdoch and M. Nj. MurdOcll. Of the
Wichata Eagle, and four or five cronies
in the little country town were on the
Walnut all the time fishing for bass,
which are found abundantly in the
clear. green, rock-bottomed river. One
Gay Bradley hitchcd up his covered
S ring wagon, put small tent AID
come cooking utensils in the wagon,
with his fishing pole, shotgun and
rations, and started for three weeks
outing tip. After he left the bridge
across the Walnut a. z Dorado he
was nev1: seen there agai1. The very
ravines Of the Walnut might have
swallowed him up, so far as any clue
as to his whereabouts was concerned
He was a prominent Odd Fellow, and
that organization spent several thou
sand dollars trying to find him. The
flint hills" twenty miles east Of Ell
Dorado-a wild stretch of country
" ha~o:p fhn,-o SC GGIoo1 nc Cr111Sh''
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 COM
pletely oblitera ted, it seemed.
The newspapers contained detailed
descriptions of the lost man. A
wandering man was found in Arkansas
the usual Arkansas wild man of the
woods-but he was not identified as
Bradley by the searching party from
Ell Dorado that freed 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
DOIduO 10 Do lOSuIlAS(l d. IDI SNN1ASS: 49,
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 ac-
counted for, 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 accepted
him. As such he was to his former lie
after he left the bridge on the Walnut.
From that moment he began another
existence He went.to Parsons, where
he began life anew as farm hand. He
was then 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 social position
and his political influence in Butler
co lntv. but persisted in his new life.
He read the story of his own disap-
peArance, OF the search for him, of the
mistakes of his friends, Of the grief OF
his wife and children and was silent.
4 few moments before he died ne re-
vealed himself to his new-found'friends.
But he did not explain his departures;
that was his secret, and, beng always
a silent man, he died with it unspoken,
His wife identified the remains, and
they were inferred in the bleak little
graveyard on the wind-swept hill over
looking the little town where his sue
cess in life was attained and where the
people who knew him wonder and sur
mise and gossip about the cause OF
the strange deed which marked lsh
10