The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1920-01-29
Seven Year Old Mystery Of
Unidentified Body Found
in Lake Here is Recalled
by Letter Today.
MAY Be ALGOMA MAN
Ainiel Umberham Thinks It May Have
Been Body Of His Father, a Light
House Keeper Who Drowned Years
Ago-once Buried as Joseph Peppan.

"A seven-year-old mystery was re
opened in Kenosha today when Lett
ter was received by Secretary Fred
Priddis Of the Kenosha lodge Of Odd
Fellows, asking him to look up the
records regarding an unidentified body
found along the Kenosha lake shore in
April, 1915 and which it IS believed
may yet be identified as the remains
of G. A. Umberhaum, the keeper of the
Algoma lighthouse station in 1913 who
was drowned and whose body was new
er recovered. The inquiry recalls one
OF the most battling mysteries of the
lake ever known in Kenosha and holds
out bare possibility Of finding solu-
ton to it even after these years.
Found Old, Old Clippings.
The letter which was received this
morning came from G. Amiel TIMBER.
haum, of Green Bay, son Of the old
lighthouse keeper, whose strange death
has baffled all attempts at solution. It
explains that the writer happened
across an old newspaper item from Ke-
nosha, telling how a body taken from
the lake here and which had been
identified as that Of Joseph Peppan,
became again unidentified when PeDpan
who had disappeared strangely was
found alive and well in California. The
writer Of the letter believes that there
is slight possibility that this might
have been the body Of his father and,
because the lighthouse keeper was an
Odd Fellow he asks the lodge to look
up the records and see whether the de-
scriptlons held Of the body tally with
those of the missing Algoma lakeman.
Tells More About Father
The Green Bay man explained that
his father was drowned between Algol
ma and KeWaunee ON February 8, 1918
and that in spite of careful watch of
the papers no body was ever found
(which tailed at all with him. He said
that his father was about six feet tall,
weighed in the neighborhood of 1870
pounds, had black hair, a sandy mus
tache and good teeth He added that
ne wore large three link Odd Fellow
ring.
The item which the Green Bay man
found was printed in a paper of March
rs 1918. BY tracing it back it was
learned that the body was found in
Kenosha in April, 1915, but at that
time it was thought very probable be-
cause of the advanced stage Of deteri-
Grafton which had set in that the BODY
might have been in the water for 3
period of one or two years. This leaves
a possibility that the Green Bay man
may have found a solution for the old
mystery.
Old Paper Increases Belief.
A reference to the files Of the IKE
nosha Evening News for April 18th,
where the story of the finding Of the
body was told, increased the belief that
solution had at last been found of
the mystery. A water soaked needle
case, couple Of patent pants buttons,
an old knitted muffler and a couple Of
pieces of burlap are all the means in
the hands of officials for identifying
the body of an unknown man found
floating IN Lake Michigan this morn
ing, said this article. 1t continued
to explain that the body had been in
the water so long that the water had
eaten away parts of the flesh, the hair
was all gone and whole parts of the
body were missing. It explained that
/ the body had been discovered by Surf
man LaPlant floating down from the
north
The report continued The officials
believe that the body may have been
drifting about in the lake for possibly
two years. 1t is thought that the find
ing of the muller in the pockets Of the
loveralls would indicate that the man
went into the lake sometime during the
cold weather but the condition Of the
remains would indicate that the body
had been in the water longer than since
the opening of the winter which Just
closed
/
Buried as Another Man
The inquiry today. recalls the strange
story of this unidentified body. The
afternoon Of the day it was found, it
was ordered buried in the potter s field
because of the extreme stage of deter
ioration it had reached. Several weeks
later it was decided that this was the
1
body Of Joseph Peppan, a Kenoshan,
who had strangely disappeared, and
members of a fraternal order to which
Peppan belonged exhumed the body
and reburied it with all fraternal cere-
monies. Two years later, Peppan, him
| self, was found in San Francisco and
the mystery became again unsolved.
Officials of the Kenosha lodge Of
Odd Fellows have made careful in
vestigation into the whole mystery and
have made long report Of all of it to
be sent to the son of the drowned light
house keeper Al reply from him il