The Powder River County examiner and the Broadus independent., 1922-10-27
LIKELY 10 REMAIN UMS0lvED Riddle;
N. D. BOSS CONCEALED FAMILY 80 YEARS

at the contents of the telegram
which read:
Mother died today: can you
come?
Sandy. Tom and Jeanette"
According to Judge Flannery
when this telegram was received al
McKenzie's office the 'boss" was iu
California for the benefit Of his
health. The telegram was kept by
his secretary for him and was hand.
ed to him when he returned, nearly
q month after the telegram had
come. Two letters had come after
the telegram.
Mckenzie, it is told, read the mis-
sives without comment. Then he
placed them carefully in the inside
pocket Of his coat and left the office.
When Judge Flannery approached
him the next morning, he found him
sitting dejectedly in chair in the
lobby Of his club, looking out of the
window. The next day he died in
hospital.
Reading his letters the next day,
Judge Flannery found the addresses
of McKenzie's children of whose ex-
istence even McKenzie's daughters by
his first marriage had never been
aware. The letters explained the
situation. saying in part:
Dear Father:
You have always told us that if
anything happened to mother we
should place her body in a vault and
await instructions from you. We
have done so and are waiting to hear
from you. We can not understand
why you have failed to get in touch
with us. jeanette"
Then the Judge Immediately wired
the Mckenzie family Of the death of
their father. Miss jeanette and
Thomas fastened to the funeral, ar
irving, however, one day too late. He
had been buried by his two daugh-
ters from Montreal in the family lot
in the Catholic cemetery at Bismarck,
beside the remains of their baby
brother, who died many years ago.
Told Amazing Story
When the Yonkers children arriv-
ed in North Dakota they told a story
that amazed and perplexed McKen-
zie's old cronies. Mckenzie seemed
to have been proud of the Yonkers
family-but not in Dakota. This
was further emphasized by the fact
that he would not permit his sons
to enter politics. He said it was too
strenuous. He insisted, however,
that they each have a college educa-
ton.
Nowhere in the history of the un-
discovered side of McKenzie's life
was there the slightest hint of scan
dal. wrongdoing or any of the usual
grounds which many an American
business man has kept secret in the
background. Mckenzie had divorced
his first wife. Mary Ellen Hayes, le-
gally, in 1887. She died in st. Paul,
where he had purchased her a home,
in 1897, so there was, therefore, ap-
parently no obstacle in the way of
legalizing his second marriage to
Elva A. Stewart, Bismarck school
teacher, in 1890.
Why, then, the concealment?
No satisfactory explanation has
been forthcoming from the daugh-
ters in Montreal.
At the Yonkers household similar
secrecy prevails, and only with mani
fest reluctance did his children dis
cuss their fathers life. They were
unwilling to advance any explana-
tion of the secret of his life, and it
Is quite apparent that both sides of
the will contest would rather settle
the matter quietly out of court than
to bring the complete disclosure of
their fathers motives, with its at
tendant publicity.
There was no mystery in fathers
life" declared Miss Jeanette McKen-
zie, although even as children we
were conscious of an air of mystery
about him. He was kind and ap-
peared to love us. Although he did
not visit us but once in every two
or three years he never forgot our
birthdays and wrote often. He spent
so little time with us that he did
not permit US to have company when
ne called. He never met any of mo-
theirs friends, either. He said it was
because he wanted to spend every
moment with US. I suppose the rea-
son he never took US west to live
with him was because he thought his
other daughters would be Jealous of
us and there would be no peace for
any of u.s."
One Explanation
In North Dakota among McKen-
zie's associates many explanations
are advanced to account for his sim
gular concealment One is that his
second wife. now dead, was a Pro-
testant. Mckenzie was believed to
be Roman Catholic. especially as
his first wife was a Catholic and he
contributed literally to the church.
1t is theorized that he feared a loss
of his political prestige II it were
known that his wife was not of SINH
lar faith. This is a supposition only,
because it is obvious that if Roman
Catholicism was the basis of his poll
tical strength it was also the cause
Of opposition to him. II it we're
known he was not a Catholic. for
every friend he might have lost he
would have gained another.
Adding to the depth of the mystery
is the fact that his second wife, who
t.