OBIT: Charles CLAYTON, 1889, Johnstown, Cambria County, PA

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Morning Tribune
Altoona, Pa.
Wednesday, 17 Dec 1890

Found a Missing Man's Bones.

Johnstown Tribune, December 16: This afternoon about 3 o'clock some 
men found in a sewer at the Cambria rod mill some human bones, which 
are supposed to be those of Charles Clayton.  Clayton, it will be 
remembered, disappeared very mysteriously while at work on the 12th of 
November, 1889, between 4 and 5 o'clock p.m.  The bones found this 
afternoon were in a sewer directly in front of the furnace at which he 
worked.  The furnace is now closed down, and the men had taken up an 
air and gas valve to repair it, when they came across the remains.  How 
Clayton got into the sewer is a mystery, as the only access to it is 
through the furnace or through a flue in the stack.  He could not have 
entered through the furnace as he would have been consumed in an 
instant, nor could he have entered through the flue while the furnace 
was in heat, as it was that day, for he would have been smothered at 
the mouth of the entrance by the gas.


Morning Tribune
Altoona, Pa.
Thursday, 18 Dec 1890

CHARLES CLAYTON'S BONES.
No Definite Conclusion as to How He Came to Fall Into the Sewer.

Johnstown Tribune, December 17: The disappearance of Charles Clayton 
on the 12th of November, 1889, was a most mysterious affair.  He was 
comfortably fixed financially and was earning good wages; his relations 
with his family were of the happiest, and he was not known to have had 
an enemy; he was in good health, and that morning when he left his wife 
and children for his day's work he was particularly cheerful and happy.  
He worked right along at his furnace in the rod mill until shortly 
after 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when, as suddenly as if the earth had 
opened and swallowed him, he disappeared and was seen no more.  His 
dinner bucket and his overcoat, undercoat, and hat were found where he 
had left them.  He had said nothing to Mr. Rowley, superintendent of 
the mill, or to anybody else about leaving or being sick, and nobody 
saw him deserting his furnace, although men were working all about him.

Search was made for him everywhere about the mill and along the 
rivers, but no trace of him was found.  Weeks and months passed and the 
mystery of his disappearance remained unsolved.  The newspapers, which 
had daily reference to the case, ceased to mention it, and the affair 
had passed from the public mind, some persons satisfying themselves 
with one conclusion as to what had become of him and others dismissing 
the matter on still other hypotheses.

Yesterday, thirteen months after the occurrence, when possibly not a 
soul in all the city - except the faithful wife who had never ceased to 
mourn - was giving a thought to the missing man, his bones were found 
not ten feet from the furnace at which he was working when he 
disappeared.  There was not much left of the poor fellow's bones.  
These were charred and blackened and broken, so that they could be 
scarcely distinguished as human remains.  But there were some buttons 
and buckles, some hobnails and a small piece of a pocketbook found 
mingled with the bones, and those were identified as having been part 
of Clayton's outfit; hence the conclusion that the bones were his.

But how they came where they were found - in a sewer to which, under 
the circumstances, entrance was practically impossible for anything 
save the hot air and gas which swept through it from the furnace?  
Neither Mr. Alexander Hamilton, superintendent of the rolling mill, nor 
Mr. John T. Rowley, superintendent of the rod mill, can explain the 
matter.  To them it is as much a puzzle and a mystery as to the scores 
of workmen about the mill who yesterday inspected the place where the 
bones were found and racked their brains for an explanation.  People 
about town, too, wondered how it could be, and many said perhaps the 
bones were those of some one washed into the sewer by the flood.  This 
theory is disposed of, however, by the fact that after the flood the 
sewer was thoroughly cleaned out, and the bones must therefore have 
been deposited there after the cleaning.

No, there can be no mistake about the bones being those of Charles 
Clayton.  The wife is satisfied of the fact, and so is her brother-in-
law, Mr. George Rowley.  Mrs. Clayton is positive concerning the 
buttons, the piece of pocketbook and a buckle, which were found with 
the remains, and which she was shown last evening at her residence, No. 
57 Vine street.  Thus the one mystery, the one uncertainty attending 
his disappearance - was he dead or alive? - is solved, but the manner 
of his death will probably forever baffle all attempts at solution.