| Notes |
- MHR note: At age 20 Charlie got into a scrape with a girl who was half-witted. He skipped out with a horse and buggy. The horse was mortgaged but he sold it, and when questioned by A. V., said it had broken through a bridge and broken its leg and he'd had to kill it. Uncle Cappy [Peter Thompson Hedges] had to pay the money. He had to give the girl money and took her to an aunt in Florida. After they arrived, her father had her swear that she and Cappy had been registered as man and wife at a hotel on the way and extorted more money from him. He sold his farm and moved.
Charles is buried in Forest Grove Cemetery next to his parents.
[4]
- Miss Ida A. Helvey, daughter of Chas. Helvey, was married at Leavenworth, July 26 (Sunday) to Chas. M. Hedges, an attorney, who has had an office at Horton. They will make their home in Kansas City, where Mrs. Hedges will open an office. Mrs. Hedges has many friends here who will wish all possible happiness.
Troy Times, Troy, Kansas. Friday, 31 July 1898, page 4.
[7]
- 30 November 1898
Charles M. Hedges, manager of the American Law association at Kansas City, Mo., is mysteriously missing.
The Atchison Daily Champion, Atchison, Kansas. Wednesday, 30 November 1898, page 2.
[7]
- 1 December 1898
No Trace Found of Charles M. Hedges
Whereabouts of the Missing Attorney Still Shrouded in Mystery – Police Are Puzzled.
“Where is Charles M. Hedges? Has he met with foul play?
These are the questions which the police and the fiends of the missing man are asking themselves. His whereabouts is as deep a mystery as when he first dropped out of sight last Sunday. The police are puzzled over th case.
As told exclusively in yesterday’s Times, Charles M. Hedges was a manager of the American Law association in the Nelson building and disappeared last Sunday afternoon. He was last seen at the Leland hotel in Liberty as he was starting to the depot to catch the 7:45 train over the Hannibal and St. Joseph road to this city. He lived with his wife and 7-months-old child at 1622 Broadway and went to Liberty last Sunday morning to visit his uncle, the Rev. Mr. Vawter, pastor of the Christian church of that town. His uncle was in Platte City and was not to return until the next day so Hedges went to the Leland hotel to stay until train time.
He left the hotel about ten minutes before the time for his train to start, saying that he “must go home and see his wife and baby.” That was the last anyone remembers seeing of him.
Hedges rented desk room in the law office of Charles H. Winston in the Nelson building and was well known to the business men of the city as a collector. Mr. Winston can find no trace of Hedges, and he believes that the missing man has been foully dealt with. Last night he said: “I am doing everything in my power to find Hedges. I knew him well and can not account for his continued absence.”
Hedges brother, the Rev. T.A. Hedges, a Christian minister at Lancaster, Mo., was in the city all day yesterday trying to find the missing man. The conductor and brakeman of the Hannibal and St. Joseph train on which Hedges is supposed to have come from Liberty last Sunday were seen and questioned, but neither remembered anything of a man who answered the description of Hedges. The Rev. Mr. Hedges left for Lancaster last night and will wait until something turns up.
Hedges is 25 years old, of medium height and weight and was well dressed when he disappeared. His friends say that he left money on deposit here in the National Bank of Commerce, and that his business was prosperous. None of his friends can account for his absence.
The Kansas City Time, Kansas City, Missouri. Thursday, 1 December 1898, page 6.
[7]
- 18 December 1898
Hedges Case Baffles Them
Police Can Not Penetrate The Mystery Surrounding It.
For More Than a Month Charles M. Hedges Has Been Missing, and Not the Slightest Trace of His Whereabouts Has Been Found – His Wife Still Has Hopes of His Return, and Continues His Business.
In an office on the sixth floor of the Nelson building a woman with traces of suffering in her finely-chiseled face, sits all day at a desk and carries on the business which her husband built up during five years of constant toil in the face of many difficulties. She is the wife of Charles M. Hedges, the manager, of the American Law association, who disappeared as mysteriously on November 27 last as if the earth had opened and swallowed him from sight.
This woman is carrying on the business of the association as if nothing the world had happened and as if she had been doing it for years. The desk where her husband sat is loaded down with just as many papers as when he was there. Business men of the city who have had occasion to place any of their affairs in the hands of this woman say that she is as much a manager of affairs as was ever her husband.
Before her husband disappeared he was a collector of other men’s bills. As manager of the American Law association he solicited unpaid bills from business men and by letters to the delinquent ones tried to get them to settle the bills. Those who knew him best say that he kept a record of every man who paid a bill which had been entrusted to him for collection and that this list was sent monthly to the business firms of the city so that these firms might know who the men were who could pay the bills they had contracted. In writing these letters to the men who owed money to business firms, Hedges would state that if the bills were paid the man’s name would be place on this list and the firms of the city would thereby know whom to trust in selling goods on time. Friends of the missing man say that Hedges never had the bills in his possession, but would simply write the letters to the debtors and collect his commission from the creditors in the event of the bill being paid as a result of his efforts.
Mrs. Hedges Still Has Hope.
Writing letters is the task which Mrs. Hedges has during all of each day. Every morning when the mail is delivered to the office she tears open each letter with a look of hope in her face. “There may be a letter from Charlie, and he may be sick some out-of-the-way place and can’t come home,” she says. Although disappointed at every mail, she has not give up all hope. “He will come back sometime.” That is what she lives for.
While this woman thumps diligently away at a typewriter, a little baby boy plays around on the floor of the office. This child was the delight of Hedges, and when he left his home for a day’s visit at Liberty, he kissed the child good-by. All remembrance of its father leaves the child for days at a time. Sometimes this little boy asks for him, but these requests are becoming fewer and farther apart as the days go by.
“The boy has almost forgotten that he ever had a father,” the mother says. “I suppose the child would recognize him if he would come back, but I am not so sure of it.
The search for Hedges is still on, but not even the shadow of a suspicion of his whereabouts has been learned of by the police or the missing man’s friends since he dropped out of sight. Hedges’ disappearance is the strangest case the local police have ever been called upon to unravel. To drop out of sight as completely as if a fire had consumed every atom of one’s body is a thing seldom heard of hearabouts. Although nearly a month has passed since Hedges disappeared, not one man has been found who remembers seeing him or anyone who looked like him since he left the Leland hotel at Liberty to catch the 7:45 o’clock train to this city on the night of November 27.
The police, the missing man’s lodge of the Odd Fellows and a dozen close friends have done everything possible in the search for him, and none has found the slightest trace. Hedges’ accounts were as straight as a string, and he owed no man, as far as his friends here know. He left a wife and a child, both of whom he is said to have loved dearly. His wife says that there was never anything but the happiest of relations in the family home, and that her husband was a sober, studious man.
The Kansas City Time, Kansas City, Missouri. Sunday, 18 December 1898, page 5.
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- 26 December 1898
Hedges Is Still Missing
His Wife Has Given Up All Hope of His Ever Returning to Kansas City.
It has now been a month since Charles M. Hedges, manager of the American Law Association, mysteriously disappeared. His young wife and 9-month-old baby boy, having waited in vain for him to return, will leave Kansas City today for Lancaster, Mo., where Rev. Mr. T.A. Hedges, a brother of the missing man, resides.
Mrs. Hedges sate with the baby in her lap feeding it bread and milk when a report for The Journal called at 2201 McGee last night. She said she had not expect particularly that Mr. Hedges would come home at this time and make a Christmas present of himself to his wife and baby. She had got ready to leave Kansas City, she said, and was going.
“I have not found the slightest trace of my husband,” she said quite calmly. “He has never written me a line since he left, and I do not know whether he is alive to write.
“When he left Kansas City n the morning of November 27, the last day that I saw him, he kissed me and the baby good-by just as usual, and started for a visit to his uncle at Liberty, MO. Arriving there, he found that his uncle was out of town, and he waited about the Leland hotel all day for the train back to Kansas City. At 7:35 p.m. he left the hotel to take the 7:45 train for home. That is the last ever seen of him. I went to Liberty and made inquiries and a thorough search, but could trace him no farther.”
Mrs. Hedges denies that her husband was short in his accounts or that his business affairs were tangled. She says she cannot imagine any motive he could have had in going away. She became acquainted with Mr. Hedges at Horton, Kas.
Kansas City Journal, Kansas City, Missouri. Monday, 26 December 1898, page 5.
[7]
- 15 January 1899
They Are Still Missing
Many Sudden Disappearances Are Yet Unexplained
[long article about several area disappearances, including Charles]
One of the mysterious disappearances the police of Kansas city have been called upon to unravel is that of Charles M. Hedges, manager of the American Law association. Hedges dropped out of sight on November 27, at Liberty, Mo., while there on a day’s visit to his uncle, an elder of the Christian church. Not even a suspicion of a trace of him has ever been found, although the police, the missing man’s lodge of the Odd Fellows and numerous friends have all joined in the search for him. Hedges is said to have loved dearly his young wife and infant child, who were left alone in the world. He kissed them goodby on the morning of Sunday, November 27, and said he would be back again at night. That was the last either of them ever has seen of him.
The Kansas City Time, Kansas City, Missouri. Sunday, 15 January 1899, page 5.
[7]
- Rock Creek, Kan., Feb. 23, 1900.
Editor Headlight,
Dear Sir. – Some time ago I believe I saw a local in your paper in regard to the mysterious disappointment [edit – disappearance] of one Charles M. Hedges of the American Law Association of Kansas City, Mo., formerly located at Horton.
Now to come to business I am in search of Mrs. Hedges address. Could you throw any light on the matter? Could you inform me of either Mrs. Hedges address or that of her parents.
Thank you in advance for your kindness, which shall be appreciated most highly.
Yours Humbly, Percy G. Hawley.
P.S. Please do not fail me in this matter as this is very important, in fact grave. Yours, P.G. Hawley.
The Horton Headlight-Commercial, Horton, Kansas. Thursday, 8 March 1900, page 5.
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1869 - 1922 (52 years)
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