The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1914-11-21
FINDS LOST
FAMILY AFTER
LONG SEARCH
0 d NJ AN, 81, AFTER MANY
YEARS Has CHILDREN
RESTORED

IOunu HIS ldLllly yesterday "HeH uC
walked into the room of friend and
was introduced to woman whom
he remembered thirty-five years ago
as his little daughter. Today the oil
man is going back to Missouri to
enter the home for which he searched
so vainly all that length of time.
Like leaf from a fairy book, the
plot of the most improbable of novels
is the story of the disappearance,
thirty-five years search, and life of
Joe Dickey with its romantice end
ing here.
1t was in 1879 in Colchester, Ill.
that the story begins with the death
of Dickey's wife He was stunned
completely shattered by the blow. For
| several months he was unable to turn
hand at any work. Then sick and
sore at heart, he placed his six chill
dren in the care of a relative and set
out for the new west, there to seek
another home and to forget
Fortune or even a slight measure
OF success was denied the man. On
and on, through Missouri into Kansas
down into Oklahoma and later to
Texas he drifted A carpenter by
trade, the thought of his great sor-
row weighed so heavily upon him
that he could not find success even
in a country where his labor was in
demand. "A few years rolled by and
then he wrote a letter to his old
home. 1t came back undelivered His
children had been taken, by the rela-
| tive in whose care they had been left
| to Galesburg, Ill. There they grew
to man and womanhood's estates.
Hearing nothing from their father
they began a, search. They adyertis-
ed in newspapers, they did every
thing possible, but no father could
they find Many, many years ago
they gave him up for dead
Tn 1900 Dickey drifted INTO Musko-
gee. He was then 6S years old but
he got a position as carpenter for
the Missouri, Kansas and Texas rail-
road. He had not given up hope OF
finding his children but his means
we're small and growing smaller. he
did not know what to do AS late as
1906. in some manner, he learned that
one of his daughters had married a
man in Brookfield Mo. He wrote a
letter. But fate had decreed that he
was to have learned a slightly dis
similar name from the one his
daughter took and although his
daughter was in Brookfield the letter
came back undelivered Then Dickey
gave up hope and he settled down to
pass the last few years of his life as
best he might.
For several years he has lived in
little quarter between Broadway
and Okmulgee on F street. The little
place belongs to Thomas A. Marcum,
who has allowed Dickey to make his
home there free The old man still
worked at small carpentering jobs
Just one month ago ne was en-
ployed to build a flower stand for
Mrs. w. II. Mckay. 113 North FI
street. To Mrs. Mckay and her hus
band in large measure. is due the
ending OF this story She became in
terested in the man. who although
old, worked away so cheerfully.
Haven't you any relations?" she
asked, and then he told her the story,
so remarkable that she became in
terested. Further questioning drew
from Dickey the fact that he believed
his daughter had married a conductor
Here fate got in its hand again but
this time in Dickey's favor, for Mr.
Mckay had been a railroad conductor
He wrote TO the secretary Of the Or
der OF Railroad Conductors at Gales
blrg. Ill, where Dickey thought his
daughter might be. He gave him all
the facts in the case. Again fate
came to the old mans aid for the
scretary OF the order happened ,tol
0e a close friend Of ". IT. Bowles or
BrOokfield. No, whom he knew had
married a girl named Dickey in Gales
burg. He sent the letter to Bowles.
That was about three weeks ago.
Bowles at once wrote to the McKays.
Another letter followed and Tuesday
night on the KATY. came A husband
and wife. the latter firmly beiievins
that she was to see her father for the
first time in thirty-nve years. The
next day they went to Mrs. Mckay s
home and the latter sent for Mr.
Dickey with the message that there