Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 2: Wilson.
Speaker 1: So every once in a while, I'm sure this has
Speaker 1: happened to you as well. I'm looking through old newspapers
Speaker 1: as I'm doing research for something, and then I see
Speaker 1: an article like adjacent to the one I'm looking at
Speaker 1: that really grabs my attention. And this is born of
Speaker 1: one of those. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sometimes it's a surreal headline and I can't find
Speaker 2: anything else about it. Oh those won make me very frustrated.
Speaker 2: Not what has happened here at all.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what do you mean? There was this person
Speaker 1: who found out they were married to their sibling and
Speaker 1: they because their parents lied about some stuff like those.
Speaker 1: I've had one of those that I tried to track
Speaker 1: down and I was like, this just buttered out. But
Speaker 1: little did I know that this one unfurled into a
Speaker 1: story with so much intrigue and cover up and weirdness,
Speaker 1: and all of it comes together in a way that
Speaker 1: kind of offers insights into the ways that people can
Speaker 1: become really frenzied in their desire to achieve something, and
Speaker 1: so much so that a line gets crossed, and then
Speaker 1: another line gets crossed beyond that, and then the next line,
Speaker 1: and it keeps kind of escalating to horrific and tragic ends.
Speaker 1: And it shows just how far people will go to
Speaker 1: protect their secrets, because some of this deals with freemasonry,
Speaker 1: which today is kind of described as like a self
Speaker 1: improvement association that's about like becoming a better person, doing
Speaker 1: good for the community, et cetera. Freemasonry at this point
Speaker 1: we're talking about, which is the early nineteenth century in
Speaker 1: the United States, was much more about like being a
Speaker 1: secret society and what that meant, and it felt a
Speaker 1: little less demystified than it does today. They were all
Speaker 1: in on the mistic even though it really when, as
Speaker 1: we'll discuss throughout this story, i'm all that mystical, just secret.
Speaker 1: And it also shows the ways that people will sometimes
Speaker 1: justify really horrific behavior and kind of the strange power
Speaker 1: of groupthink. Even today, this particular story stays a mystery.
Speaker 1: Spoiler alert, It still divides people. If you read tellings
Speaker 1: of it today, there are still people who are like
Speaker 1: not having it and not buying into the villain story.
Speaker 1: Of it. There are people that also believe that the
Speaker 1: crimes involved never happened, even though there were trials and
Speaker 1: some findings of guilt and sentences handed down, and there
Speaker 1: is a lot to it. It is a two parter
Speaker 1: because today what we're talking about is the life of
Speaker 1: William Morgan and how he found himself in a very
Speaker 1: dangerous position of having angered an entire group of people
Speaker 1: right before he essentially vanished off the face of the earth.
Speaker 1: And then the next part of this two parter, we're
Speaker 1: going to talk about the book that he was writing
Speaker 1: that catalyzed this entire chain of events and how those
Speaker 1: events were perceived and framed and then retold in the
Speaker 1: decades that followed. So in the summer of eighteen eighty one,
Speaker 1: the New York Times ran the headline William Morgan's Bones,
Speaker 1: and this story opened with quote, Batavia, New York, June
Speaker 1: twenty first, this little town is filled with excitement today
Speaker 1: over the discovery of what are believed to be the
Speaker 1: remains of William Morgan, the man who betrayed the secrets
Speaker 1: of the Freemasons, and his book entitled Morgan's Illustrations of
Speaker 1: Masonry fifty five years ago and was abducted and made
Speaker 1: away with before his work was given to the public.
Speaker 1: The mystery surrounding the fate of William Morgan has defied
Speaker 1: human ingenuity for over half a century, and now it
Speaker 1: seems to be unraveled at last, when most, if not all,
Speaker 1: the actors in the tragedy, like its victim, are laid
Speaker 1: away in the grave. That is the story I stumbled
Speaker 1: upon that maybe goes Jim excuse. William Morgan is one
Speaker 1: of those historical figures about whose life we really only
Speaker 1: have pretty basic and sparse facts, particularly his early life.
Speaker 1: He was born in Culpeper County, Virginia in seventeen seventy
Speaker 1: four or seventeen seventy five. As a young man, he
Speaker 1: worked as a stonemason, and he was by some accounts,
Speaker 1: in General Jackson's army as a captain and fought at
Speaker 1: the Battle of New Orleans in eighteen fifteen. That military
Speaker 1: service is disputed due to lack of records or supporting evidence.
Speaker 1: You'll find that comes up a lot with Morgan because
Speaker 1: many people told the story over and over and the
Speaker 1: facts shifted along the way. Sometime during this period of
Speaker 1: his life, when he was still a fairly young man.
Speaker 1: Morgan joined the Masons probably in eighteen nineteen. William married
Speaker 1: Lucinda Bendleton, a minister's daughter from Richmond, Virginia. The couple
Speaker 1: moved to Canada in eighteen twenty one. William made a
Speaker 1: living there as a brewer for a while, but then
Speaker 1: the brewery burned down. Rather than rebuild that brewery, Morgan
Speaker 1: moved to Rochester, New York, than to Leroy, which is
Speaker 1: a place nobody agrees on how to pronounce. Then finally
Speaker 1: they moved to Batavia. He had returned to his Stonemasonry career,
Speaker 1: and he and Lucinda had two children. In New York.
Speaker 1: He continued his association with the Masons, and he was
Speaker 1: probably made a Royal arch Mason in eighteen twenty one.
Speaker 1: As was written in eighteen ninety nine by Peter Ross,
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about his account several times. Peter
Speaker 1: Ross definitely not especially kind to William Morgan. He wrote, quote,
Speaker 1: as to his Masonic affiliations, much diversity of statement exists.
Speaker 1: Just how involved with the Freemasons William Morgan was is
Speaker 1: pretty nebulous. That is something that becomes kind of central
Speaker 1: to his story. According to one account, included in a
Speaker 1: History of New York Freemasons. He was known to visit
Speaker 1: the Wells Lodge in Batavia, and the royal arch degree
Speaker 1: is on record in the lodge at Leroy, but the
Speaker 1: Wells Lodge wasn't in Batavia. That particular lodge was in
Speaker 1: a different town. Additionally, there are some accounts that suggest
Speaker 1: that some of the documents of mason business which Morgan
Speaker 1: was allowed to sign were destroyed when members quote had
Speaker 1: become aware of his character and habits. Yet another version,
Speaker 1: in a History of Freemasonry in Batavia, specifically states that
Speaker 1: Morgan was never a member of the Lodge at Batavia
Speaker 1: because he was refused admission and only ever visited the
Speaker 1: lodge at Rochester, not becoming a member with a hint
Speaker 1: that he did so. He managed that visit in some
Speaker 1: sort of sneaky or underhanded way. There are also other
Speaker 1: versions of this story that say that he was a
Speaker 1: member in then had some sort of falling out with
Speaker 1: the Batavial Lodge which caused him to be angry and vengeful.
Speaker 2: In early eighteen twenty six, William formed a partnership with
Speaker 2: a man named Colonel David C. Miller. Miller owned a
Speaker 2: printing office, and Morgan was working on a manuscript. Two
Speaker 2: other men were brought onto the project to pay for
Speaker 2: the printing and the distribution costs. These were Russell Dyer
Speaker 2: and David Johns. David John's sometimes appears in the accounts
Speaker 2: as John David's and sometimes as Daniel Johns. Just to
Speaker 2: kind of keep things interesting, we are going to stick
Speaker 2: with David Johns, just for the sake of consistency. In
Speaker 2: their discussions. The men anticipated that this book would make
Speaker 2: money and they were going to split the profits for ways.
Speaker 2: They thought this was a sure thing because Morgan's manuscript
Speaker 2: was going to reveal the secrets of Freemasonry. There are
Speaker 2: accounts that indicate that David Johns was a Mason who
Speaker 2: was in this whole inn with the intent of shutting
Speaker 2: it down from the inside, and that's because the Freemasons
Speaker 2: didn't want it to happen. William Morgan started telling people
Speaker 2: that he intended to publish an expos on the Masons
Speaker 2: to promote his upcoming book, and that intention was met
Speaker 2: with great hostility. As for Morgan's motivation for writing such
Speaker 2: a manuscript, he claimed that he had come to believe
Speaker 2: that the organization was corrupt and that it needed to
Speaker 2: be exposed. He was threatened with everything from imprisonment to
Speaker 2: bodily harm, and it appears that those threats were carried out.
Speaker 2: The New York Times in eighteen eighty one wrote of
Speaker 2: the response quote The result was that some two fanatical
Speaker 2: Masons in and around Batavia set themselves to work to
Speaker 2: prevent the publication at all hazards had they paid no
Speaker 2: attention to the announcement and allowed the work to proceed quietly.
Speaker 2: The probability is that the book, when published, would have
Speaker 2: fallen flat upon the market, but the scenes of violence
Speaker 2: which preceded it heralded it to the world as no
Speaker 2: other form of advertisement could have done. Before anything happened
Speaker 2: directly to Morgan, there was a campaign to warn people
Speaker 2: about him. There were short warnings placed in newspapers that read, quote,
Speaker 2: the Masonic Fraternity and others are cautioned against a man
Speaker 2: calling himself Captain William Morgan, as he is a swindler
Speaker 2: and a dangerous man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there are variations on that blurb, but they were
Speaker 1: peppered throughout newspapers in the New York area. On August nineteenth,
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty six, Morgan was arrested on a civil suit
Speaker 1: and some of his papers were seized by the constable
Speaker 1: that made that arrest. That constable was a Mason. Morgan
Speaker 1: was released on bail two days later. I never found
Speaker 1: a clear indication of what this suit was about, but
Speaker 1: it seems as though it was a pretty minor complaint
Speaker 1: between two people, like some of the others that we
Speaker 1: are about to hear about. On September eighth, there was
Speaker 1: a meeting in a tavern and a town several miles
Speaker 1: away from Batavia. During that meeting, a plan was hatched
Speaker 1: to burn down Miller's printing office. There was a fire,
Speaker 1: but it was put out really quickly, not a lot
Speaker 1: of damage was done. Miller was taken into custody by
Speaker 1: Constable Jesse French, who was a Freemason, and he was
Speaker 1: pressured during his imprisonment to give up the plan to
Speaker 1: print Morgan's book. He was, after his friends interceded, taken
Speaker 1: before a magistrate, but the men who captured him did
Speaker 1: not appear at the hearing, and Miller was released. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: French and three of his friends were indicted for riot,
Speaker 1: assault and false imprisonment for their actions. Three of the
Speaker 1: four men were found guilty and given jail time.
Speaker 2: Then Morgan was arrested again. The claim was that he
Speaker 2: owed a tavern keeper some clothes. According to his version
Speaker 2: of the story, he borrowed a shirt and a cravat
Speaker 2: from a tavern keeper name Kingsley, but then he was
Speaker 2: accused of stealing them. Morgan was arrested under the charge
Speaker 2: of petty larceny on September eleventh, but when he was arraigned,
Speaker 2: the charge was dismissed.
Speaker 1: But soon, really soon, there was another charge against Morgan,
Speaker 1: also by a tavern keeper. This time Aaron Ackley, said
Speaker 1: that Morgan owed him money, which he did a small amount.
Speaker 1: This is sometimes reported as two dollars, sometimes a three,
Speaker 1: and various points in between, but it was enough because
Speaker 1: this time Morgan was jailed of Note all of this
Speaker 1: was happening very quickly. The initial arrest for the clothes,
Speaker 1: the dismissal, and the second arrest all happened on the
Speaker 1: same day, September eleventh. The black Rock Gazette reported a
Speaker 1: month later on the details of these two arrests. Quote
Speaker 1: on the eleventh of September, William Morgan, a native of
Speaker 1: Virginia who had for about three years lived in this village,
Speaker 1: was under pretext of a justice's warrant, hurried from from
Speaker 1: his home and family and carried to Canadagua. The same night,
Speaker 1: he was examined on a charge of petty larceny and
Speaker 1: discharged by the justice. One of the persons who took
Speaker 1: him away immediately obtained a warrant against him in a
Speaker 1: civil suit for an alleged debt of two dollars on
Speaker 1: which he was committed to the jail of Ontario County.
Speaker 1: We'll take a break here and hear from some sponsors
Speaker 1: when we get back. Well see how Morgan's situation escalated
Speaker 1: to a far more dangerous level. Although he was incarcerated
Speaker 1: for the money that he owed Aaron Aclee, William Morgan
Speaker 1: did not stay in jail for long. On September twelfth,
Speaker 1: Morgan was released when a man named Lowten Lawson paid
Speaker 1: the amount that was owed to Aaron Aclee. He went
Speaker 1: to the jail to pay it, but Lawson was not
Speaker 1: Morgan's friend. Far from it. As William Morgan stepped outside
Speaker 1: with him, he was grabbed and forcibly taken via carriage
Speaker 1: to Rochester. The men who took him were Edward Sawyer,
Speaker 1: Nicholas G. Cheesebro Lowten Lawson, and John Sheldon. Once the
Speaker 1: carriage reached Rochester, Morgan was given over to a different
Speaker 1: group of men. Their identities are unknown, and on September twelfth,
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty six, William Morgan disappeared.
Speaker 2: After it became clear that Morgan was missing, pressure was
Speaker 2: put on his wife to hand over any papers of
Speaker 2: his that she had that could be damaging to freemasonry.
Speaker 2: She was told that if she did this, she would
Speaker 2: be taken to William. So Lucinda did. She turned over
Speaker 2: whatever papers she could find, and she was taken to
Speaker 2: Canadagua was not reunited with her husband. Though this piece
Speaker 2: of information came from a news report that was published
Speaker 2: about a month after the disappearance, it's not really clear
Speaker 2: if she was just taken home again after not getting
Speaker 2: sight of if William, or exactly what happened.
Speaker 1: There were some indications about what had happened to William
Speaker 1: After his carriage ride. It became known that he was
Speaker 1: taken to Fort Niagara and then into Canada. On the
Speaker 1: road from Batavia to Fort Niagara, several stops were made
Speaker 1: and the party changed carriages and even persons switched out
Speaker 1: at various points in what seemed like kind of a relay.
Speaker 1: Various witnesses saw the party on the roads or on
Speaker 1: their stops, as well as at taverns and at a
Speaker 1: toll house, which all revealed a piece together map of
Speaker 1: their movement. The information about William's imprisonment at Fort Niagara
Speaker 1: came to light when a man who admitted to having
Speaker 1: been one of his jailers there was questioned about his
Speaker 1: part in the story.
Speaker 2: Edward Giddons was the keeper of the fort. Giddins gave
Speaker 2: a statement that began with a description of the magazine
Speaker 2: that's the area of the fort where Morgan was held quote.
Speaker 2: This building stands on the south side of the fort.
Speaker 2: Is built of stone, about the height of a common
Speaker 2: two story building. The side and end walls are about
Speaker 2: four feet thick. The wall over the top is eight
Speaker 2: feet thick and considered bomb proof, covered with shingle roof.
Speaker 2: There is but one door. There are no windows or
Speaker 2: apertures in the walls, except a small ventilator for the
Speaker 2: admission of air, and one small window in each end
Speaker 2: about ten feet from the ground. They are usually closed
Speaker 2: and locked on the outside with a padlock.
Speaker 1: In addition to this description, he stated that there had
Speaker 1: been an attempted transfer of Morgan to Canadian Masons. According
Speaker 1: to Giddons, Morgan himself had rowed alongside his captors to
Speaker 1: cross the Niagara River, but when they reached the Canadian side,
Speaker 1: it was discovered that the Masons there were not yet
Speaker 1: ready to receive the captive, and back the boat went
Speaker 1: to the US side, and it was at this point
Speaker 1: that Giddons made the case to just let Morgan go.
Speaker 1: He told authorities later that he and the other men
Speaker 1: had argued over this issue for several days, and that
Speaker 1: on September seventeenth, Giddons left the fort. When he returned
Speaker 1: four days later on the twenty first, William Morgan was
Speaker 1: no longer there, and Giddons did not know any more
Speaker 1: than that. This account was contradicted by another man, Elisha Adams,
Speaker 1: who had brought food to the fort for William Morgan.
Speaker 1: He told investigators that on the night the boat left
Speaker 1: carrying Morgan and five other men, the other five returned
Speaker 1: via the same boat rather quickly without Morgan. But when
Speaker 1: Adams testified at the eventual trial of the men involved,
Speaker 1: he stated that he knew nothing about the matter. Adams
Speaker 1: allegedly was told by the abductor's legal team that if
Speaker 1: he shared his knowledge of the case, he would be implicated.
Speaker 1: But even as this information came to light that he
Speaker 1: had kind of been coerced into hiding the truth, none
Speaker 1: of that was used in the case.
Speaker 2: There were two different people who gave sworn statements about
Speaker 2: Morgan's abduction to investigators. There was the jailer's wife, Missus Hall,
Speaker 2: who was the person who received the money from Lowton
Speaker 2: Lawson that enabled Morgan to be released, and there was
Speaker 2: a man named Willis Turner, who lived near the jail
Speaker 2: and saw this happen. Both of them said they heard
Speaker 2: William Morgan cry out murder as Lawson and his cohorts
Speaker 2: wrestled him into the carriage. Turner said that he saw
Speaker 2: the men put a cloth in William Morgan's mouth to
Speaker 2: silence him. Turner had also seen Cheeseboro and Sawyer whispering
Speaker 2: outside the jail. Both witnesses said that one of the
Speaker 2: men wrapped the curve with a stick to signal the
Speaker 2: carriage to pull up.
Speaker 1: The driver of that carriage was a man named Hibbard.
Speaker 1: He also gave information about the journey. He was the
Speaker 1: keeper of the nearby Livery Stable, and he had been
Speaker 1: hired to drive to Rochester. He stated that the carriage
Speaker 1: stopped many times along the way and he had not
Speaker 1: seen any indication that an unwilling prisoner was involved, because
Speaker 1: he thought there were ample opportunities for such a person
Speaker 1: to raise an alarm. But he also said that he
Speaker 1: didn't know who was in the carriage, Although the bill
Speaker 1: for the journey was later paid for by cheesebro. One
Speaker 1: of the stories that began to circulate after Hibbard said
Speaker 1: he didn't see any sign of struggle from any prisoner
Speaker 1: on the journey was that William Morgan's captors had kept
Speaker 1: him heavily intoxicated and in a stupor, possibly hoping that
Speaker 1: he might die of alcohol poisoning.
Speaker 2: In the days and weeks that followed the disappearance, plenty
Speaker 2: of people gave their opinions on William Morgan's character, and
Speaker 2: these opinions were all over the place. Some people echoed
Speaker 2: the warnings that had been placed in the paper, suggesting
Speaker 2: that he was dangerous. Others touted him as a man
Speaker 2: quote gentlemanly and engaging above his equals. Others just kind
Speaker 2: of called him worthless. The fact that he had planned
Speaker 2: to break his Masonic promise to never betray the fraternity
Speaker 2: with enough in his detractor's views to just prove that
Speaker 2: he was of low character. The reason why he was
Speaker 2: planning to publish such a book has generally been assumed
Speaker 2: to be financial gain. This was also used as a
Speaker 2: means to show his failings, that his lack of financial
Speaker 2: stability was seen as a character flaw.
Speaker 1: On October fifth, the black Rock Gazette of Blackrock, New
Speaker 1: York ran an account of a meeting that was held
Speaker 1: the evening before quote to take into consideration the strange
Speaker 1: proceedings which took place in Batavia Village on September eleventh.
Speaker 1: Their committee statement from that meeting mentions that Morgan's quote
Speaker 1: distressed wife and two infant children are left dependent on
Speaker 1: charity for their sustenance, and states that the fears of
Speaker 1: her present that Morgan was murdered, but there is lingering
Speaker 1: hope he will be found in Canada. The news article
Speaker 1: mentions that missus Morgan had been promised she would see
Speaker 1: her husband, but that promise was not kept. The write
Speaker 1: up also condemns the men who took Morgan. Quote.
Speaker 2: The origin of this terrible excitement, this kidnapping, this carrying off,
Speaker 2: this taking the scepter of justice into the rude hands
Speaker 2: of a mob, an unlawful assemblage at all times, is
Speaker 2: said to have been in consequence of a book now
Speaker 2: in progress of publication by mister Miller, containing an exposition
Speaker 2: of Masonry. Whether this book is fully published would most
Speaker 2: expose the Masonic Fraternity or its authors. We will not
Speaker 2: pretend to say, but the rash proceedings of one party
Speaker 2: can in no wise be justified by any supposed wickedness
Speaker 2: of the other. There was a Where's Morgan campaign launched,
Speaker 2: and groups of volunteers set out to try to find
Speaker 2: him and also figure out who had abducted him. A
Speaker 2: number of prominent citizens made the case that the Freemasons
Speaker 2: should spearhead the investigation because their members were so heavily implicated.
Speaker 2: There was also an appeal made to the state legislature
Speaker 2: to form an official investigative committee, but that idea kind
Speaker 2: of died on the vine. No one in the legislature
Speaker 2: took such action. Coming up, we will talk about how
Speaker 2: both Masons and non Masons reacted to the subduction first, though,
Speaker 2: we'll hear from the sponsors that keep stuffiness in history
Speaker 2: class going.
Speaker 1: This whole series of events and the vanishing of William
Speaker 1: Morgan led to a surge and anti Mason sentiment, which
Speaker 1: ultimately gave rise to the Anti Mason political party that's
Speaker 1: considered the first third party in the United States. It
Speaker 1: also caused rifts within the Masons. There was recognition that
Speaker 1: this entire situation reflected really badly on the fraternity, and
Speaker 1: the men involved were chastised as acting outside the ideology
Speaker 1: of the group. But despite public denouncement from the Masons,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of damage to the organization's reputation.
Speaker 1: The governor of New York at the time was DeWitt Clinton,
Speaker 1: who was a Freemason, and he put up a one
Speaker 1: thousand dollars reward for the capture of Morgan's abductors. This
Speaker 1: award was announced in the papers as a proclamation, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't one lump sum. It was allocated out for
Speaker 1: different pieces of information. According to the printed notice, Clinton
Speaker 1: was offering quote, a reward of three hundred dollars for
Speaker 1: the discovery of the offenders and a reward of one
Speaker 1: hundred dollars for the discovery of any and every one
Speaker 1: of them, to be paid on conviction, and also a
Speaker 1: further reward of two hundred dollars for authentic information of
Speaker 1: the place where this said William Morgan has been conveyed.
Speaker 1: The governor also added quote, I do enjoin it upon
Speaker 1: all sheriffs, magistrates, and other officers and ministers of justice
Speaker 1: to be vigilant and active in the discharge of their
Speaker 1: duties on this occasion. Some people viewed this proclamation as insufficient.
Speaker 1: A different column in the same paper states, quote, the
Speaker 1: reward offered for the discovery and a rest of those
Speaker 1: who have violated the laws is sufficiently ample, but the
Speaker 1: one proffered for the discovery and recovery of William Morgan
Speaker 1: is not considered large enough. We live in a government
Speaker 1: of laws, and shallaman under such government, no matter whether
Speaker 1: he be certified to be the pattern of all the virtues,
Speaker 1: or whether he be maker of certificate upon certificate, whether
Speaker 1: he be guilty of the most gross instances of ingratitude,
Speaker 1: whether he be guilty of crimes the recital of which
Speaker 1: would shock the feelings of an ingrate, or whether he
Speaker 1: be guilty of such behaviors, as to suffuse the cheek
Speaker 1: of modesty and wring the hearts of his friends. We say,
Speaker 1: to wrest a man from his family, his friends, from society,
Speaker 1: or from his country, by no other warrant or mandate
Speaker 1: than that of infuriated passions, is an assumption of power
Speaker 1: and authority unknown in the administration of government, repugnant to
Speaker 1: the feelings of men, and diametrically opposed to the less
Speaker 1: the spirit and the genius of our institutions, and cannot
Speaker 1: will not be permitted with impunity. The volunteer groups that
Speaker 1: had assembled were able to track down information that led
Speaker 1: to the arrests of Edward Sawyer, Nicholas G. Cheesebrow, Lowten Lawson,
Speaker 1: and John Sheldon. All four men were tried for kidnapping
Speaker 1: and were found guilty. Lawson was sentenced to two years
Speaker 1: in jail. His penalty was the most severe. Cheesebro got
Speaker 1: a year, Sheldon got three months, and Sawyer got just
Speaker 1: one month of jail time as his sentence.
Speaker 2: Immediately, stories spread about what people thought had happened to
Speaker 2: William Morgan. The most popular and most widely accepted was
Speaker 2: that he had been dumped into the Niagara river to drown,
Speaker 2: and people speculated on the way he might have been
Speaker 2: murdered and whare But a lot of rumors also sprang
Speaker 2: up that suggested that some people believed he had not
Speaker 2: been killed and had either escaped or been set or
Speaker 2: maybe even had staged the whole thing himself. Among the
Speaker 2: rumors were stories that he had decided to live a
Speaker 2: better life and went somewhere to start fresh, free of
Speaker 2: his creditors, which would mean that he left Lucenda and
Speaker 2: his children behind that does not make much sense. Or
Speaker 2: that he wandered into Quebec and became a drunkard, or
Speaker 2: somehow ended up with a lot of money and was
Speaker 2: living in Maine, or had been transferred from one Freemason
Speaker 2: lodge to another until he was in Texas and then
Speaker 2: managed to escape and fell in with an indigenous tribe there,
Speaker 2: Or that he moved to the Caribbean or Australia, or
Speaker 2: that he went into hiding in Turkey and taught English
Speaker 2: and French there under the name Mustafa. This one actually
Speaker 2: had a lot of traction for decades. Decades is gonna
Speaker 2: come up again. There's also one that he lived in
Speaker 2: the Cayman Islands. There were obviously no end of ideas
Speaker 2: and rumors, and some of these stories people told just
Speaker 2: certain that they were the truth. Also, because William Morgan
Speaker 2: was a common enough name anytime it showed up in
Speaker 2: the papers, even if it was in a far distant country,
Speaker 2: it seemed like people started to think that they had
Speaker 2: stumbled onto the real story of what had become of him.
Speaker 2: A periodical called The Morgan Investigator was launched as the
Speaker 2: search for clues continued. Colonel Miller supplied an article for
Speaker 2: it the year after the abduction, and he mentioned that
Speaker 2: in the months leading up to the fire at his
Speaker 2: office in William Morgan's disappearance, he knew he was being watched.
Speaker 2: He mostly use this opportunity to talk about the way
Speaker 2: David Johns, who he refers to as Daniel, had infiltrated
Speaker 2: their plan to print the book. He also made it
Speaker 2: seem as though Johns was able to steal a portion
Speaker 2: of the manuscript. According to Miller, there were multiple break
Speaker 2: ins and thefts at the printing office in the months
Speaker 2: leading up to the planned publication. There was a burial
Speaker 2: for William Morgan a year after his disappearance. A body
Speaker 2: had been found in Lake Ontario, and initial reports indicated
Speaker 2: that it was believed to be Morgan. Once again. A
Speaker 2: volunteer committee formed to have an inquest, and there were
Speaker 2: public notices regarding the finding and the effort to determine
Speaker 2: if it was truly Morgan. The body was buried near
Speaker 2: where it was found, but was then exhumed for further investigation.
Speaker 2: One of the investigators had been given details by William
Speaker 2: Morgan's widow that could conclusively identify the body, in particular
Speaker 2: a scar on his foot, his unusual habit of wearing
Speaker 2: his fingernails long and trimmed to a point, and the
Speaker 2: fact that he had hyperdnchia. Morgan apparently had two full
Speaker 2: rows of teeth, a detail that was confirmed by his doctor,
Speaker 2: a doctor Strong. Strong also gave details about a tooth
Speaker 2: extraction that had been conducted on Morgan, and he even
Speaker 2: had the tooth still on hand to match to the
Speaker 2: mouth of the dead man, and according to the person
Speaker 2: who used these details to examine the body, as well
Speaker 2: as a coroner's jury, everything matched. The body was taken
Speaker 2: to Batavia and buried as William Morgan, but its identity
Speaker 2: was soon in question again. Word reached Batavia that it
Speaker 2: was the body of a man named Timothy Monroe who
Speaker 2: had drowned in the Niagara River. There was yet another inquest,
Speaker 2: and Monroe's widow and son gave statements. Although details like
Speaker 2: hair color and height didn't match up to the body
Speaker 2: that had just been buried under the name William Morgan,
Speaker 2: two specific things did match up. The clothing description down
Speaker 2: to just the tiniest details, and then, oddly enough, double
Speaker 2: teeth all around. Though this would seem more confusing than ever,
Speaker 2: the body was declared to be that of Timothy Monroe,
Speaker 2: even though there was an official ruling by a coroner's
Speaker 2: jury to declare the body as Timothy Monroe and not
Speaker 2: William Morgan. A lot of people still believe that it
Speaker 2: was Morgan and that this whole Timoth theme and Roe
Speaker 2: story was a cut. It does seem a little suspicious.
Speaker 2: All of this honestly seems a little suspicious.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: There were also allegations that members of the committee that
Speaker 2: first identified the body as Morgan's had mutilated it to
Speaker 2: fit the description that was given by Lucinda Morgan. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there is a lot of accusations from both people who
Speaker 2: think the Freemasons did it and people who did not
Speaker 2: that the other side was like falsifying evidence and stories
Speaker 2: to support their side of it. No one on either
Speaker 2: side of the question seemed to change their position on
Speaker 2: the matter. One witness to the body, Samuel Green, who
Speaker 2: were going to talk about in more detail later in
Speaker 2: this story, stated of the found body, quote, let it
Speaker 2: be understood that the proof of his death by violence
Speaker 2: does not rest upon identification of the body. The fact
Speaker 2: of his death was established on evidence entirely independent of this.
Speaker 2: The finding of the body was only a strange and
Speaker 2: unexpected sequel. It serves to make an ending for the story,
Speaker 2: but its beginning and middle had already passed into history
Speaker 2: when this Danumont came, and that's where we leave this story.
Speaker 2: Next time we'll talk about the manuscript that likely led
Speaker 2: to the end of Morgan's life. So weird, it's weird.
Speaker 2: Do you have some listener mailer it stays weird? My
Speaker 2: listener mail isn't weird. It's delightful.
Speaker 1: Oh good, it's cracked me up. It's from our listener, Mary,
Speaker 1: who writes, good morning, Tracy and Holly. I'm going to
Speaker 1: try to do justice to the events that occurred while
Speaker 1: listening to the Billy Burke episode with my ten year old.
Speaker 1: She was doing her math homework while I was listening
Speaker 1: to the episode. It got to the part about the
Speaker 1: infidelity and she exclaims, ooh, drama, where's the popcorn. I
Speaker 1: stopped the episode and explained that Hollywood at that time
Speaker 1: was full of stories like this. I went about my
Speaker 1: business without starting the episode, playing wrong thing to do.
Speaker 1: She piped up with, mom, I want to listen to it.
Speaker 1: This is history. I hope you get a giggle out
Speaker 1: of her amazing reaction. Attached are pictures of my black
Speaker 1: cat kitten who live to be twenty should passed last year.
Speaker 1: Dante is the fluffy one who will talk your ears
Speaker 1: off at anytime, day or night, and Lynn, the sweet calico.
Speaker 1: Thank you for all you do, hugs, Mary. This is
Speaker 1: such a fun story. I love the idea of you know, listen,
Speaker 1: history is full of interesting stories. That's the whole premise
Speaker 1: of our show essentially. So it's good that people recognize
Speaker 1: these cats are so cute. Oh I love it. I
Speaker 1: love a talkie kitty too, so that made me chuckle
Speaker 1: and thank you, thank you, thank you. That was like
Speaker 1: you have overpaid your text your cat text I have
Speaker 1: to say, this is a lot of good cat action.
Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us, you can
Speaker 1: do so at History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. You
Speaker 1: can also find us on social media as Missed in
Speaker 1: History and if you have not subscribed yet, you can
Speaker 1: do that on the iHeartRadio app. Whever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.
Speaker 2: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
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Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.