The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-20
Prominent Seattle Man Disap-
pesrs From Dawson Trail.
oNr or FOUR uNFoRruNArEs.
~.,,sved That He Accompanied Clay
.en and Olcson, Who Arc Sup
,osed to Have Becn Murdered on
he Yukon-He Left Dawson De-
"a eember II, and Fell in with Them
/, n Minto-No News 81 Party since.

finn ". Relfe. a well known young man
n seattle, Is one of the four men who
Arc reported missing from the Dawson
fraiL The details are meager. but they
sppear to point conclusively to the fact
thst Relfe and an unknown companion
scIned Fred II. Clayson. skagway mer-
chant. and Oleson. Dominion line
nan. on Christmas morning at Mimic,
vbile on their journey up the river. The
disappearance and supposed murder OF
Cayson and Oleson and Of the two men
Who accompanied them, have already been
toM in the Post-Intelligencer.
LINN Relfe left Dawson December II.
according to the best information obtain
sble from returning Klondikers. A. L,
Gibson, who arrived from Dawson on the
sxpected to make the Journey with young
Reife. Gibson, however. found that he
would not be able to start on December
g planned; and asked ms MS INTENDED 1unSsr
Relfe, however. said to him that he had
made all his arrangements to start on
December II. and that he preferred not to
01 GIBSON ac0uiesced, and was later in
formed that Mr.. Relic did leave on the
specified date. He started himself the
s s. a1Iend, J. K. Bsrs. they inquired
sbout Mr.. Relfe at various places up the
liver. and found that he was making
soyr a. in the ead They arrived It
selkirk on Christmas eve. and decided to
remain over to spend the holiday there.
In consequence they did not arrive at
the reported departure of Relic and his
companions from that point.
on January o. F. Kastner and e. lie
70 skagway. There they met P. G. Rich
ardson, the mail contractor, who formerly
resided in Seattle, and was perfectly we'll
them that he had received telegraphic adj
vices at Selkirk of the supposed murder Of
Clayson and Oleson, on the trail between
that he himself had just returned, en-
route to Dawson, from Mimic, where he
had seen .Clayson. and Oleson on Christ
- traiI WITH Relic and another man. On 'ne
The four men had arrived at Mimic
Christmas eve. Whether they had jour-
neyed together Up to that point Is not now
cording to Richardson, that they left Min
to together and expected to reach Hootchi-
koo, sixteen miles distant. in time for
and as is customary since frequent road
houses have been established along the
trail, carried no blankets or food. The
good one, and, according to Mr.. Barg. who
tirely free from danger or opportunity
s ssGvs accident tbat fSev almost
reached within four or five hours.
Up to January 10. when the Topeka left
had been seen at Hootchikoo. or any other
point along the trNil. Both Gibson and
Barg, who left Mimic two days after the
and LIE France, who left Mimic six days
behind the latter, say that the keepers
ct Kootchikoo and all other stations as
ings Of the missing men. 1t seems prob
able, too, that II any news had been Sc
cured up to as late date as January 10
It would have been telegraphed to Skag-
The mounted police seem at first to have
known only the names Of Oleson and Clay
been murdered with two unknown men.
Other Information has since supplied the
name of Mr.. Relfe and 1t has come to be
accepted as fact along the trail that he
Of Relies disappearance had evidently
been wired to Dawson, as the Canadian
Bank OF Commerce is known to have nott-
ned by telegraph their correspondents at
: draft issued by 1T to the young man,
unless identification was positive.
II appears that the story of murder on
the trail ts altogether presumptive. 1t
and the mounted police, in the absence Of
any tangible reason to the contrary, at
tribute the cause to foul play. An air Of
deep mystery surrounds the whole affair
and 1t cannot. of course. be cleared up
until the results of the searching inquiry
now being made by the police are known.
II murder was committed 1t is strange
that no bodies have been found and no
evidence of the crime. But IL a murder
vas not committed. what has become of
the four men?
The accident theory does not seem ten
ABLE as the trail was entirely safe and
the weather good for this time of year.
BESIDES, II there We're any sudden catas-
trophy some trace of 1t would undouht-
ediy be left While the situation looks
gloomy for the friends and relatives of
the missing men, there is still felt to be
reasonable ground for hope that nothing
@ serious as loss of life has occurred.
There is possibility, too, that young
Hefe was not n companion of Clayson
ana Oeson, although the evidence indi-
Gates otherwise. Strong hopes are enter
tanned In Seattle that the next Alaska
steamer will bring more comforting news.
. Linn Relfes is the only son of Mrs. W.
= Relfe. of this city. He is about %
years of age, and one of the best known
young men in Seattle. He has a wide cir
&c eiiee, OF friends who will depiore the possi-
putty OF any untoward happening. He
nrst went to Dawson with the original
rush OF gold seekers in 1897, and has been
u the Klondike region ever since, with |
me exception of brief visit to Seattle |
ABOUT year ago