William A. Pettis Is Missing ~ Part One
Decatur County Journal-Iowa
Thursday, December 9, l9l5
W.A. PETTIS IS MISSING; Former Leon Man Drops From Sight in Wyoming.
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WILLIAM A. PETTIS, a former resident of Leon, who has been making his home on a claim near Cheyenne, Wyoming, for several years, has disappeared completely and all efforts of the family, friends and authorities to locate him have been of no avail.He had been in Cheyenne during the day on Saturday, November 27th, driving in with a team belonging to WALTER GASSETT, also a former Decatur County man who now resides near Cheyenne, and had started home when last seen.Forty-two hours later the team he had been driving was found tied to a fence and PETTIS had disappeared.The following account of his disappearance appeared in the Wyoming Weekly Tribune published at Cheyenne on Tuesday of last week:
Where is WILLIAM A. PETTIS?
Or would the inquiry more properly be: Where is the body of WILLIAM A. PETTIS?
Relatives and friends of PETTIS are asking the former question anxiously; the police and the sheriff are repeating it, professionally.
PETTIS, 55 years of age, head of a family and owner of a homestead fourteen miles northwest of Cheyenne, has been missing since late Saturday afternoon.Search for him was instituted yesterday and was continued unavailingly today.
He may be alive, in which event he should be heard from soon; he may be dead, and if that be so it may not be before next spring, if then.
PETTIS last was seen about four o'clock Saturday afternoon on a road running northwest from Cheyenne and passing between Lake Absaracca and Fourth Lake.He had started for home and had reached a point about midway between the two lakes.Forty-two hours later the team which he was using was rescued from this point, where it had been hitched to a fence.But there was no sign of PETTIS in the vicinity, nor has any trace of him since been found.
This morning Sheriff Roach thoroughly searched the country in the vicinity of the spot where the team was found.The shores of the lakes, adjacent ice houses, clumps of brush and the prairie and hollows were examined.Nowhere was anything found to indicate that PETTIS had been in the vicinity.Only the abandoned team and wagon which had stood so long beside the road, and the word of a homesteader who is unknown to the authorities indicated that he had ever been there.
A similar search, previously conducted by the police was equally fruitless.Today the lodging houses and saloons of the city were combed, but nowhere could be found anyone who had seen the missing farmer since Saturday afternoon.
PETTIS on Saturday borrowed a team of horses from his neighbor, W.E. GASSETT, and came to Cheyenne to purchase supplies.He was drinking, it is said, before he began ther return journey at 3 o'clock Saturday afternoon.Accompanying him when he left the city was a homesteader who resides a few miles northwest of the city but whose name is unknown to the authorities.This man, it is said, yesterday stated that when he and PETTIS reached a point near the lakes, PETTIS expressed an intention of turning around and returning to town, whereupon his companion left him, proceeding homeward on foot.
Sunday morning GRENDALL BAILY, a colored man, observed a team hitched beside the road between the lakes.It was attached to a wagon in which was a quantity of flour and supplies, also a cap and overcoat.Other persons in the course of the day also observed the team standing patiently beside the fence, but none considered it his business to investigate.
Yesterday morning BAILEY again passing, observed that the horses and wagon were at the same place.Humanitarian instinct prompted him to have them taken to a nearby homestead, where they were recognized as the property of GASSETT.GASSETT was notified and took possession of the animals and the wagon.
Later uneasines regarding PETTIS began to be felt and an investigation was instituted.It has resulted, as herein before related, in the finding of no trace of the missing man.This morning PETTIS' son-in-law, EARL LEEK, arrived in the city from his farm and took a hand in the search but without result.
Several theories are advanced regarding the missing man. One is that he returned to Cheyenne on foot and still is somewhere in the city.Another is that he wandered out on the ice of one or the other of the city lakes, broke through and drowned.This is considered improbable because of the solidarity of the ice.A third theory is that he wandered away across the prairie and perished from the cold.
PETTIS came to Wyoming from Iowa about five years ago and located on his homestead.His wife and several children are at the homestead.He is well known in Cheyenne, frequently having visited the city.