The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-09-23
MYSTERIOUS DISAPPE4RANCE

MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE
OF d. PlSa,eaTelI PE rom 1a Business
Me was hss seea on fRe Streets ef Eos
ton = His accounts Investigated and
Progress
Late last Saturday evening it became
generally known in Montpelier that e. d.
Blackwell, secretary and treasurer and act
| ing manager OF the Consolidated Lighting
Company, was missing and the fact of his
| mysterious disappearance was the universal
topic of conversation on Sunday and has
been up to the present time.
Mr.. Blackwell had been missing eleven
days before the fact was given to the news
papers or before it was known outside Of his
immediate family. He went to Brandon on
Monday, September Z, and the following
day went to Boston, where he registered at
the Adams House, intending 10 return to
Montpelier the following Saturday. On
! Wednesday evening" September 9, he at
tended the Hollis Street Theater in COM
pany with E. r. .Houghton, his nephew.
Houghton left Mr.. Blackwell near the en-
trance of the Adams House, and since that
time the most persistent efforts have failed
| to find any trace OF him.
Mr.. Blackwell had been working I'M
usually hard during the past summer, and
in the last few weeks had been under treat
ment from DR.. G. j. Helmer. The day he
left for Boston, however, he was feeling bet
ter than he had for several months, and
urged his wife to make the trip with him.
No suspicion exists regarding Mr.. Black
wells integrity as he has too long been a
prominent business man in this city allow
| such thought to enter the mind of any
one. He came to Montpelier from Barre,
where he was cashier of the Barre National
Bank, to accept the position of cashier of
the Montpelier National Bank, which he re-
signed to accept position with the Thomp-
son. Houston Company Several years ago
he severed his connection with this COM
pany to take the management of the Stand
ard Light and Power Company, which has
been merged into the Consolidated Lighting
Company.
Mr.. Blackwell is man who never uses
intoxicants, and his home life in Montpelier
has always been an ideal one, so that only
two theories al to his disappearance are en-
tertained. One is, that, after leaving his
nephew in Boston that W ednesday evening,
he met with foul play from some one who
knew that he was treasurer of large corpo-
ration in Montpelier, and who possibly sus-
pected that he might carry with him large
sums of money, although such was not the
case. The other, and more plausible, the
DRY is, that, under the strain of illness and
overwork, Mr.. Backwell's mind suddenly
gave way, and that he either boarded an
overland train for distant city, or that he
took passage on some steamer that left Bos-
ton about the time he was first missing.
Mr.. Blackwell is prominent member
of Christ Church and of Mount Zion Com
mandery of Knights Templar.
Postmaster A. j. Sibley, a former man
ager of the Consolidated Lighting Company,
last Monday made a quiet examination Of
Mr.. Blackwell's books and papers, not
with the suspicion that anything wrong
would be found, but with the hope that he
might have left there something that would
give trace of his present whereabouts.
His accounts were found perfectly correct,
but nothing was found jim his desk or else
where giving any clue to his disappearance.
Mr.. Blackwell has wife, three children,
and an aged mother in Montpelier, the for
mer being the daughter of Hon. Charles
Dewey. The terrible strain under which
this family has been for the past two weeks
can better be imagined than described. Mr.,
Blackwell is also a brother of Mrs j. G.
, Houghton of this city.
Henry E. Fifield, brother-in-law of Mr..
Blackwell, went to Boston last week and
made a thorough search of the hospitals and
other places where it was thought possible
Mr.. Blackwell might have wandered or
been taken, but returned last Sunday morn
ing without having found the slightest clue
The first intimation that anything was
, wrong was his non-appearance in Mont
peler at the time he was expected by his
wife, This was something unusual for him,
and telegram from her to the Adams
House, where he always stopped when in
Boston, elected the information that he had
not been there since Wednesday, Septem-
, Der 9, and that they had held his room for
him in which they found his grip and travel
ing effects. When the news of Mr.. Black
wells disappearance became known in Bos-
ton through the dispatches sent out from
Montpelier Sunday night, the police in that
city began an active search for him.. MT.
Houghton. his nephew, left at police head
quarters a photograph of Mr.. Blackwell,
which has been copied for the use of the
police and the newspapers Circulars have
been sent broadcast, and every effort is be-
ing put forth to find the missing man.
The description of Mr.. Blackwell as
given to the police is as follows: he
is forty-four years old, five feet, eight and
one. half inches tall, weighs 100 pounds; his
face is long, thin and pale; he has brown hair,
moustache and chin whiskeri his eyes are
dark blue; his figure is spare lie was
dressed in light suit of clothes, and wore
light overcoat which was somewhat
darker than the suit; he wore seal ring on
the third finger of the left hand; he wore
hook for glasses on the right side OF his
vest; he wore gold-bowed eyeglasses; he
had gold watch, hunting-case, with the
Montpelier fire alarm signals in the back
case he wore tanned shoes, standing col
lar, and had a front upper tooth built up
with gold. He had prominent cheek-bones."
Up TO late hour Tuesday evening
no tidings Of Mr.. Blackwell had been
received, His mysterious disappearance
has profoundly stirred the city in which he
lived, and the sympathy of the people goes
out in very large measure to his almost dls-
tracted family. The general belief Is that
Mr.. Blackwell is not dead, and hope is
strong that he will vet be found In the
church of which Mr.. Blackwell was COM
municant and active member, in business
circles, and socially, he has large circle of
friends to whom the clearing up of this mys-
terry and the finding of MI Blackwell alive
would bring universal joy.
IL Is known that a row'boat, with three
men aboard, was capsized in Boston harbor
on Thursday morning, September TO- and
that all the occupants of the boat were
drowned. There is possibility that Mr..
Blackwell was one of these men. and that
his body may yet be washed ashore.
The Boston Globe of Tuesday morning
states that Mr. Blackwell was at the Office
of the General Electric Company in Boston
on Thursday afternoon, September 10,
where he talked business. This does away
with the theory that he met with foul play
Wednesday night, and confirms the state.
ment that he slept in his room Wednesday
night.