52 Ancestors 52 Weeks - In The News

My husband’s Great Grandfather, Owen J. McDonald made the newspaper on  4 April 1883 in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, New York.

Owen J. McDonald born in 1850, was a butcher with a shop in the Washington Market.  The article says that on the morning of 25 February 1883 he left his residence at 163 Nineteenth St., Brooklyn, NY to go to his office to do the accounts.  

The police put out a search and found that he did go to his shop and did the accounts as he indicated was his plan.  He then went to a bar close by and had one beer, which people said was very unusual for him. After that he was found to have gone for lunch and the next and last time he was seen was at the waiting room of the Pennsylvania Railroad Depot in Jersey City.  The article gave a description of him and the clothes he was wearing.  This was a great find because we haven’t any photos of the man.

When the newspaper reporter spoke to the family, they said there is insanity in the family and maybe that is the cause of him wandering.

This was a very long article on 3 pages with lots of detail.  It mentions his wife and one of his daughters, Nellie.

I have not found another article that indicates that he was found.  I do have his death certificate dated three years later, 28 November 1896, he died of  Emphysema in Bellevue Hospital, New York City. I have come to the conclusion that he had the beginnings of Dementia at that time.  In the 1800’s they had no idea about the disease and thought the people were insane.