The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-10-10
is A MYSTERY.
Miss Dimm Of HoItOn Leaves
Her Foster Parents.
Went to Kansas City Visiting
and Disappeared.
PARENTS ARE RICH.
Girl Adopted by Judge Dimm
From an Asylum.
A BrOther-in-LaW Says He
Knows Where She Is.
Joseph BrOmich, a Topeka ReIa-
tive, Knows Nothing.


Kansas City, Oct. 10.-Grace Dimm.
the adopted daughter Of Judge J. c.
Dimm of Holton, Kan. is missing.
Henry A. Baer, chef at the washington
hotel, the girls brother-in-law says he
knows where she IS. but refuses to tell.
He declares she is well and not held in
restraint against her will, but he de-
clines to give Judge Dimm or anyone
else any information as to her where
abouts. The girl has been missing for
more than a month.
Story of Her Life.
The story of Grace Dimm's life would
furnish material for melodrama. In
many respects it is sufficiently unusual
to hold the attention of any reader. In
Holton, where she and her foster par
ents have been known for many years,
the interest is so widespread that de-
tectives are to be employed to find the
girl or to discover, if possible, where
she is and why she does not return to
her home.
About % years ago Judge Dimm and
his wife, being childless. went to an
asylum at LeaVenWorth and there chose
l0r adoption a girl baby Is months old,
whom they named Grace. There were
two older girls, sisters, and a boz all
belonging to the same family in the
asylum. The mother had died, Judge
Dimm was told, and the 4,the-s unable
to care for his children, had placed
them in the Orphanage ana had then
disappeared. The judge, g rising law
yer took the little Waif to his home
at Holton. Being even then in posses
sion of competence, Judge Dimm and
his wife were able to give their adopt
ed child everything she needed, an ed
ucatfOn a good home and a position in
their social circle.
When Grace was old enough to under
stand such things she was told, Mrs.
Dimm says, that her parents were dead.
or that her mother, at all events, had
died long before and that her fathers
whereabouts. if he was alive, were I'M
known. The fact that she had two
sisters and a brother somewhere was
also disclosed, with the promise that
when she was old enough she should
nave the chance to search for them. All
these things were well known in HoltOn
and all the judges friends loved the girl
with the romantic history, who, it was
generally realized would some day in
herit the property of the family with
whom she had lived from infancy
This was the young woman's position
in society when, about three years ago.
she advertised in papers in the middle
west for tidings of her brother and sis
ters, from whom she had been parted
nearly 20 years before in the orphan
asylum at Leavenworth. The search
proved successful. One sister, Mrs.
Florence Bailey was found living in a
Slllal town IN the IIQla0 territory ana
another. MIS-. Henry Baer. proved to be
the wife of the chef at the Washington
hotel in this city. The brother it de-
veloped, was in the Northwest territory.
There was a happy reunion shortly at
terward Of the three girls. Grace, then
just past q years of age. visited both
her sisters frequently and they were
received as guests at judge Dimm' s
home at HoltOn.
Miss Dimm Disappears.
About three months ago Judge
Dimm allowed his adopted daughter
to come to Kansas City for an ex-
tended stay at Mrs. Baer's home For
awhile she wrote to her foster. parents
twice a week, describing her life in
the city and expressing pleasure BILE
date. Then came a long silence and
finally a scrap of letter rambling.
hardly ineligible and unsigned 1t
contained no intimatiOn that the girl
was in trouble, but it said nothing
about coming home or indeed, of any
plans for the future. Judge Dimm
and his wife waited several days and
then wrote to their adopted daughter
FOR an explanation. The letter was re-
turned unopened. They wrote the
girls uncle, Joseph Bromich, who
owns foundry at Topeka. whom
they had discovered years before and
ne, too, wrote to the young girl His
letters were returned to him as Judge
Dimm's had been Knowing that
should he die without having made a
viii all his property would, under the