Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1919-11-10
BELIEVE COL.
hyatt IN OMAHA
Webster City man who Dis
appeared Some six Weeks
ago Said to be in
i. Omaha.
HIS WIFE IS BITTER
Mrs. Hyatt Charges That
her Husband has Taken
her Property.

All Iowa has taken an unusual inter
est in the disappearance from this cit!
Of Col. N. p. Hyatt, who for man!
years was prominent in National Guart
affairs and who commanded the ole
Second Iowa, later the Sandstone divi
sion, which was stationed at CAM
Cody, Deming, N. NJ, for over a veal
and finally went to France in Septem
Der of last year. The colonel, however
was transferred just before his regi
ment left for Europe and was station
ed at Camp Upton, near New York.
Took Property.
Mrs. Hyatt has reasons to believe
that the colonel is now in hiding in
Omaha. She is very bitter against him
and charges that when he left Webster
CITY he took with him bank stock and
other securities worth goodly sum of
money which, in reality, belonged to
her In fact she makes the statement
that outside her home, the colonel has
almost stripped her financially. The
securities he took were all in his name,
but Mrs. Hyatt charges that, in fact,
they were her property. She was
quite well to do when she married Col
onel Hyatt and for years after their
marriage she did all her business in
her own name. She charges, however,
that some ten years ago, the colonel be-
gan putting the property in his name,
ostensibly, as Mrs. Hyatt charges, so
that he could care for her business for
her with greater degree Of prompt
ness and to save her the trouble of
looking after it. She charges that he
has made away with almost all she had
outside the home.
The Divorce.
AS to the divorce proceedings, Mrs.
Hyatt states that she is undecided as
to whether she will fight them or not.
Edward p. Prince, attorney for Mr..
Hyatt, has announced that the colonel
will be present in Webster City at the
uiv6rce' hearing. While the colonel's
whereabouts at the present time are
unknown, Mrs. Hyatt is satisfied that
he is in Omaha. Her suspicious in this
direction were confirmed this morning
when Mayor r. G. Clark received a
postal card mailed in Omaha, notify
ing him that Colonel Hyatt was in that
city going about the streets. The
writer, who merely signed his name
Soldier" evidently has it in for the
colonel for he expressed the wish that
Mrs. Hyatt would make it hot for
him.
While Webster City gossips have
been agog with talk for weeks, people
here know very little of the Hyatt af-
fair. Sympathy, however, is with Mrs.
Hyatt.
Capital Features Story.
John w. Ball, staff correspondent
for the Des MOines Capital, was in
Webster City last week and in Sundays
Capital had feature story, together
with large photo Of the colonel. His
story in part follows:
The Hyatt melodrama has progressed
to the end of the second act. The cur
tain dropped with the doughty colonel's
attorney in the center Of the stage de-
livering to the clerk Of the courts "the
papers"-the divorce petition-that 4
seek to dissolve the Hyatt marriage /
tie, knot of twenty-eight years |
standing.
Northern Iowa, the audience. is
awaiting the opening Of the last act, the
divorce trial. 1t will bring the leading
character, the colonel himself, back I'M
der the calcium after mysterious alb
sence of weeks, during which he has
traced an uneasy course over the map
Of North America. 1t will perhaps
mark the end Of Mrs. Hyatt's unherald-
ed departures from and returns to
City, always in unrewarded
search of her spouse. And, Webster
City whispers, it may produce enough
juicy testimony to keep the sossips
stocked with conversation for months.
Hyatt, at the time of his marriage
Is years ago, was struggling with the
cost of living while trying to build up
a practice of law in the town where his
father served as district judge. His
family was one Of the prominent ones
Of northern Iowa, and the boy had
made great impression as a student
1T the university. But business was
none too brisk for him. His wife had
l fortune.
After the wedding Hyatt practically
gave up his law practice. He was in
Lined to the military, which proved to
De stepping stone to the theater- bust
ness. AS Captain of Company c of the
I'D Fiftieth Iowa, he was the moving
spirit behind the erection of the armory
or the use of his company. He be-