The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1911-10-14
SEARCHES YEARS.;
LOCATES MOTHER
Joy Is Mixed With Grief
When He Discovers
She is Blind
FAMILY FORMERLY
LIVED IN NORFOLK
Mother Was Miss Whitehead
and Removed to Illinois.
Reunion Takes Place
in Brooklyn

NEW YORK, Oct. IA most re-
maTkable search by n son for his
mother, 4 search that he pursued Tor
nineteen years, and that led him more
than l.oVe miles to y score Of cities
In dozen States, has ended in Brook
lyn, at the home of 0ust2ve Zei!er, u
painter, whose wife In shedding tears
Of JOY with her long-lost son, William
Clarke. OF Zumbrota, MINI.
Their JOY Is mixed with grief. how
ever, for AIRS Ztegier In nearly blind
and can hardly see her son She
and her husband have spent all the
money they could earn TO preserve her
eyesight. but the optic nerve il at
fected and there II no hope.
Mrs. Ziegler, as she related to-day,
before her marriage In 1855 to Charles
Clarke, Of Canton, H.. was Miss Mar
garet Whitehead, Of Norfolk, Va.
where the Whiteheads have been
known for generations as a family
I OF quality" The child, William. was
born In 1887. and soon afterward the
| family moved to Peoria. Ill. When
the son was four years old Mrs
| Clarke secured divorce and began
work as a seamstress.
Boy Placed In Home.
Her Efforts TO earn \ living We're a
put her son In the Home for tbs
rriendiess In Peoria. That was the
last she saw OF him. He disappear
ed from the home, and after u fruit
! less search the mother returned to
Norfolk. Tears ago she came to Brook
| lyn TO work and married. She tried
for years to find her son through cor
respondence. but gave up the task
when her former husband told ner
| William had died.
| The boy related an even more re-
| markabls story o-day. He said he re-
msmbered tho home In Peoria and
OF being taken away from there ana
placed with private family In q Chi
c4gU suburb. This family q month
later shipped him ~ express to the
| Chndren's Aid Society in st. Paul
That society finally gave him to a
| family III St Paul
| Starts on search.
| He ran away to find his mother,
was returned to the St. Paul society
and later turned over to another fam
lily in Worthington. MINI. After two
years he ran away and went back to
st Paul. where he was again cap
tuded by the Children's Aid Society.
He was placed with a family at Mon
ticelio. but ran away again to u \
for his mother. For tina rita time
the society found home Ger him at
Minnesota Lake.
| On HIS tenth birthday he ran away
again and for the next ten years he
worked his way through several
States, always searching for his moth
er. He had learned the barber trade,
and In 1907 started shop OF his own
in Frost, MINI. Last year he re-
moved to Zumbrota, where he now
has a wife and child.
| Locates His Mother.
Clarke said he made several trips
/ to Peoria before he found his father,
who had left there some years ago to
become a circus acrobat. The father
could give no news OF his mother. but
the Peoria papers gave publicity of
the remarkable search and a. a result
he was told HIS mother was In Nor
folk with Ter brother. Ernest White
head.
He wrote his uncle. enclosing a let
ter to his mother. He forwarded 1t
to her In Brooklyn. She got It last
| Friday and yesterday Clarke reached
the city himself