My mother’s side of my family has long been tantalized by the mystery of what became of my great-grandfather, Walter Scott Fenimore, who disappeared after leaving for work in Beverly, NJ, without a trace in September of 1913, leaving my great-grandmother, Katharine Hathaway Fenimore, after whom I am named, and her four children. My grandfather, H. Haines Fenimore, being the only male offspring, was left to support the family.

Speculation about Walter Scott Fenimore’s disappearance has suggested he was an alcoholic and that perhaps he ran off to Alaska, maybe to prospect for gold.

My mother’s family has always known little of the circumstances of my great-grandfather’s disappearance until recently when my sister Robin began to do some digging and found the newspaper clipping shown here (his middle initial was mistakenly reported as “F.”) that relates that $500 in bail money also disappeared with my great-grandfather. I had never known he has a justice of the peace, similar to a judge of today.

A subsequent clipping from the Philadelphia Inquirer on Sept. 24, some two weeks after his disappearance, noted that he had been the “committing magistrate” for the city of Beverly, and “the records of important cases that came before his court are said to be much complicated because of his continued absence.” The clipping mentions a sensational case involving the shooting of a National Guardsman, allegedly by a chauffeur who cited the attentions of the Guardsman to the chauffeur’s wife. It was the Guardsman’s bail money that disappeared with my great-grandfather.

Could his disappearance have been related to that case or another case before him as a judge? Perhaps the story will continue to be unraveled.