The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1923-03-23
DIR. BRAND ON
PACIFIC COAST
Man Who Made Lambertville
Famous Three Years Ago
With Son in West.
HE WAS AMNESIA VICTIM

word that John l.. Brand, the famous
Doctor X,' the man without a name
who suffered from amnesia, and made
this city famous three years ago, is
now located at Puget Sound, Wash
ington.
His son, Lieutenant Commander
Charles l.. Brand, of the United
States Naval Construction forces, was
transferred from Philadelphia to the
Pacific Coast point, and he and Mrs.
Brand were accompanied there by his
father and mother. They anticipate
returning East again some of these
days when the son is transferred by
the Naval Department.
DIR. Brand, who was one of thee
mental genuises of the age, came to
this city ON Christmas Eve, 1919, and
seeking Mayor Theodore Balderston,
asked to be placed in the jail for safe
keeping as he did not know his own
name, nor where he had come from.
From the first he proved a popular
magnet for all who came in. contact
with him, propounding some start
ling and interesting theories along
many lines, and there was a constant
stream of visitors.
During the day he walked out upon
the street, being provided with identi-
ficaion papers, in case his mind
should again fail to function, and at
night he was given a bed in the jail
corridor, at his own request.
Later the Rev. Thomas J. Bensley,
d. D., who had made the acquain-
tance of this mysterious visitor, in
yited him TO the rectory of st. An
drew's church, and he proved a rev.
elation to both the rector and his
friends. Aside from possessing an as
tonishingly complete knowledge of
medicine and surgery, he proved a
musician of extraordinary ability.
All efforts to retrace his identity
having proven futile, an original ar
ticle concerning him in the Trenton
Times was taken up by other news
paper agencies, and a flood of metro
politan journalists invaded this city
one Friday afternoon in January,
1920. The following day the majority
of the people of the United States
knew of his mysterious stranger, who
was such marvel, and the son. Char
les l.. Brand, reading il in newspa-
per, Immediately connected it with
his father, who had disappeared from
his home in Boston nearly three years
before, and had never been heard Of
since.
An hour or two later there was a
meeting between father and son, at
st, Andrews rectory, and the follow
ing day the long missing man was
taken to his sons home in PhiIadel-
phia.
He has since twice visited DR.. Ben
sley, but has never remembered the
details of his thee years wanderings,
although the newspaWelmen pieced
them together, tracing him from Bos-
ton to New York. later to Trenton,
and finally to Lambertville, where he
was found. In each place he had per
formed some mental work, appar
emily in sound mind, so far as the
people he met could tell.
His grandfather, DR.. John Brand,
was famous man in England, in the
nineteenth century, and compiled the
Materia Medica, the standard text
book on medicines, besides being in
terested in the arts, literature, and
music.
The present DIR. John Brand was
graduate of Oxford College, Eng
land, and highly rated in medcine
and surgery. He was also famous
musician, prior to his attack of am
nesia. He retains all his memories
along these lines, even today.