Evening star., 1944-07-16
Missing II Years and Legally Dead for Six,
Ex-Husbond Of D. c. Woman Turns Up Alive
$4,000 Policy Paid
On John A. Commons,
Son of Economist

A Federal Government librarian
Ehere was revealed yesterday to have
9received part of the proceeds of a
kel0O00 insurance policy on the life
tof her former husband who has
turned up alive after being miss
ing IA years and legally dead six
years.
In 1898 a District Court in Madi-
son, Wis, declared John Alvin Com
mons, a former University of Wis
-consin instructor and son of one
of the Nations most famous eco
= nomists, was legally dead. He had
been missing since 1880. Yesterday
; the Associated Press reported he
had been declared to be "alive and
well" by police in Hartford. Conn.
who found him driving a laundry
, truck.
Mrs. Ellen Holland Commons,
2809 o street NV, a small, smartly
tailored librarian for the Social
Security Board told Star reporter
her husband disappeared from their
Madison, home in 1890. She credited
the disappearance to mental i'll
ness" and said she had searched
for him until 1887 when she OBJ
tanned a divorce to gain custody
of her daughter, Ann, now is.
Worked at Front Royal
The next year she petitioned the
court to declare him legally dead.
After that was done she was paid
the proceeds of an insurance policy
taken out here in 1920 when he
worked as a scientific farmer for the
Government at Front Royal, Va.
Mrs. Commons assertion that her
farmer husband was mentally ill.,
when he disappeared from their
Wisconsin home was corroborated
by him yesterday in Hartford when
he told police:
Il can remember being at the
university and then my mind leaves
me perfectly blank. My next recol-
lections were during a stay in a
mental institution in the West I
don't know how / got there or what
1t was all about, but I got out fast,
you might say, under my own loco
notion
He said he had worked on farms
In the Southwest and then went to
New York, where he was employed
by tugboat company. He had
worked in Hartford a year when
found there.
Tips to police and newspapers in
Hartford from newspapers in Madi-
son, Milwaukee and Chicago that
the missing man might be found
there led to Identification of the
laundry truck driver.
Son of DIR. John r. Commons.
Mr.. Commons is the son of DR..
John Rogers Commons, on whose
economic treatises many of the
policies of the New Deal are said to
be based A former economics pro-
fessor in half dozen American uni
versities. he is best known for his
co-authorship of the History of
Labor in the United States.
DR.. Commons, who lives in Fort
Lauderdale, Fla, told the Associated
Press yesterday that it was difficult
to believe his son had been found
alive. He first proposed to make
the trip to Hartford but reversed
his decision later when he was in
formed his son would visit him in
Florida.
According to the Associated Press
the long missing man is decorated
World War hero. He served as an
Army lieutenant and was gassed
during the Russian campaign He
received the British Military Gross
for bravery, the dispatch said.
Mrs. Commons said yesterday she
has received approximately $4,000
on the insurance policy from the
Mutual Life Insurance Co. of New
York. She said Mr.. Commons had
borrowed about $4,000 on the policy
before he disappeared.
Precedents Unknown.
Thomas P. Morgan. jr., manager
of the Washington Office of the in
surance company, said he remem-
bered the policy but was at a loss to
know what the next steps, if any,
would be. He said it was the first
time in his knowledge that such a
set of circumstances had presented
themselves.
Other insurance experts con-
CURED in his opinion, saying they
could not recall any similar case.
An insurance lawyer said that pre-
cedents probably could be found but
he had never run across any.
In Hartford, Deputy Police Chief
Thomas j. Hickey said detective
had located Mr. Commons in a room
ing house. The officer said, accord
ing to Mr.. Hickey.
He told me enough about himself
and his father so there is no doubt
that he is the missing man."
Wide Search Made.
Mr.. Commons told police he had
known wide search had been made
for him when he first disappeared
but he had not considered himself
missing in recent years because
people In Madison knew where /
was He said he had registered
with the draft board in Poughkeep-
sic, N. Y, and had kept them ap-
prised of his whereabouts.
Mrs. Commons was told her hus-
band had remarked that he had
merely gone out of my wife's life"
she replied, II cannot believe John
said that; there had never been
any discord between U.S."
Mr.. Commons was born at Ober-
lin, Ohio, September 13. 1891, and
in 1925 received bachelor of arts
degree at the University of Wis
consin.