The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-02
WHO SENT MONEY
Some One i'm Kansas Interested
in Hermit.
Safe Found Filled With Bonds
and Securities.
LIVED ALONE FOR Il YEARS
Fought to Shield Himself and
Home From Curious.
Body Covered With Sears Made
by Knife.

MURPHY SbOro, III, April 2--Wh no was
1T at Isongton, Kan, that kept w.
Carteret Williams, the mysterious her
init whose death has just occurred
here, supplied with money. 1t was
some one who was interested in him
and remfttances came every month.
But beyond this fact nothing is known
OF the sender and scarcely more OF
the men who received it.
For 81 years Williams held out
against the encroachmentS of society.
In that time no one but woman
crossed his Threshold and she crossed
it only twice, once when she arrived
and once when she left. Death finally
vanquished the barricades and people
entered his fortified home to seek evil
dence which will show who the old man
was and the reason for his mode OF
living.
His dead body was found beside a
large iron tank In which were ammu-
milton and food enough to last through
a long siege. Surrounding the caDln
was a high fence covered with tin cans
arranged to serve as an alarm when
anyone touched the wall.
Tells Woman Not to Return.
His eccentric actions from the day
he arrived in Pomona puzzled his
ueighbors, who, unable to extract any
information from him had to satisfy
themselves with gueSseS. some or them
of a somber character. They nope tnat
papers found in the shack after his
death will throw light on the mystery
which the old man took with him TO
the grave.
once a week he vent to the postof-
fee, where he had two lock boxes, Win
a. large tin bucket, and carried nome
O bucketful OF letters and papers Cor
oner Forshee found several hundreu
letters I the cabin, from each of which
the names of the writers and some
times words of the context had been
cut.
His only visitor in his 81 years of
secluston and his only messenger save
his letters, from the unknown Worlo
in which he once had lived, was a
handsomely dressed woman who visited
his farm a. few years ago. When She
was leaving Pomona, a woman SAID
she heard Williams say to her: Don't
come to see me again, or you Will be
the cause of my getting my neck
broken
Rumors that the strange old man
was a miser as well a hermit were
prevalent in Pomona but no one knew
until his death that in one room of
permitted entrance was a large steel
safe. When it was opened United
States bonds and other papers thought
TO be securities, were found.
The cabin contained several wagon
loads of books, scientific and fiction,
and a recent edition of the Encyclopedia
Britannica.
A fragment of one of the letters re-
ceived by Williams, the first half of
which had been torn off and the names
OF which either were cut away or dis
guished by initials, was made public
by the coroner and contains hints of
mysterious suspicious. It reads:
Thinking Of you would put me in a
bad light and the boys all knew of it,
and I don't want any such perform
ance here. I always behaved myself
and don't want any such suspicion
resting on me.
Parts of Letter Cut Out.
you must tell grandma yourself to
address your letters in my name. Tell |
her am your corresponding secretary, |
as your health is poor. Aunt r. and |
az. and Uncle J. know about it. Aunt |
r. caught on. A man from here Chere |
a word is cut out) was in Alliance |
in search of you I told him you were |
in trouble. All of them think it is a |
matchmaking scheme and that you |
(Tnore cut out). They will never tell |
grandma or grandpa"
Then follows an account of money |
spent attending a normal school, the |
name of which is eliminated careful |