In Lake Mills, the beautiful and elegant Fargo Mansion is decorated in style for the Christmas holidays. The Fargo Mansion Inn is one of the most grandiose and remarkable mansions in Wisconsin, and incredibly, it was slated for demolition in the early 1980s. The two men who purchased it (Tom Boycks and Barry Luce) have done a remarkable job of restoring it.

Since purchasing the 7-500-square foot Queen Anne Manse in 1985, Barry and Tom have poured their heart and soul (and a kajillion dollars) into the careful restoration of the old house, and they’ve done a first-class job. If visiting this house is not on your “bucket list,” it certainly should be. To make a reservation, click here.

Take a look at Addie’s House, all dressed up for Christmas.  (Thanks to Jan Vanderheiden for the photos!)

To read about Addie’s special Christmas present to Wilbur in 1900, click here.

The Fargo Mansion Inn at night - all dressed up for Christmas. (Photos are copyright 2011 Jan Vanderheiden and can not be used or reproduced without written permission.)

Christmas tree at the foot of the staircase in the mansion. (Photos are copyright 2011 Jan Vanderheiden and can not be used or reproduced without written permission.)

When Tom and Barry bought the mansion in 1985, many of the original moldings and mantels had been removed, in anticipation of its demolition. This settee was one of the few original items that remained. (Photos are copyright 2011 Jan Vanderheiden and can not be used or reproduced without written permission.)

A small tree and "Christmas Village" adorn the solarium at the Fargo Mansion.(Photos are copyright 2011 Jan Vanderheiden and can not be used or reproduced without written permission.)

And a beautifully decorated tree sits in the main parlor. (Photos are copyright 2011 Jan Vanderheiden and can not be used or reproduced without written permission.)

It was Christmas 1900 when Addie sent this photo album to her brother-in-law in Denver (my great-grandfather).

Scroll on down to see photos of Addie’s house in Addie’s time (late 1890s).

Addie sent this photo to her family in Denver, Colorado. Her sister Anna Hoyt Whitmore lived in Denver with her husband Wilbur, and their two children. Addie was obviously very proud of her home, and wanted to let her big sister know, she finally had a home of her own.

Addie is on the lower left, with Enoch above her. Elsie and Mattie (sisters) are on the right.

This is my favorite photo, and shows Addie sitting in the master bedroom.

Close-up of that amazing bed!

From the staircase, looking out toward the front parlor.

This "electrolier" (both electric and gas) is adorned with magnolia leaves.

Close up of the fretwork, trim and heavy curtain over the doorway.

I just love these chairs!

Enoch in repose with his evening newspaper.

A picture from one of the parlors, looking toward the front door and grand staircase.

Addie (at the piano) and Mattie (singing) enjoy some quality family time. Elsie is to the right and out of frame in this shot.

This is the front parlor (nearest the front door) looking into the room (on the far right) that adjoins the dining room.

And this is also a favorite photo. That's a heckuva newel post light! Unfortunately, "Our Lady With the Light" is gone, and Tom and Barry would love to know what became of her.

Enoch invented a central vacuum system, and he's shown here "getting his suit cleaned" by one of the servants. This photo appeared in a manual on the central vacuum system that Tom and Barry found. It also shows great detail of the home's interior. This would have been a little after Addie's time, in the early 1910s.

Another photo of Enoch's central vacuum, and this one is in the kitchen.

Tom and Barry have done a phenomenal job of restoring this grand old mansion. They told me that this house was slated for demolition when they purchased it (in1985) and began their life-long labor of restoration. It's an ongoing project, but their love of this house shines through in each and every faithfully restored nook and cranny.

This is one of my favorite pictures, for it captures the workmanship of the original structure, and the painstaking work that had to be done in the restoration.

A view of the parlor today.

I shudder to think that this incredible house nearly ended up as another memory in another small town. Were it not for Tom and Barry, this house would be another pile of forgotten construction debris at the local landfill.

To learn more about Addie, click here.

To learn more about old houses, click here.

* * *

Tripe:  noun
1.
the first and second stomachs of a ruminant, especially oxen, sheep, or goats.
2.
Speech or writing, that is wholly false or worthless; rubbish.

Here’s one example of the tripe that is being emailed to me, and also posted on public bulletin boards, where there’s been discussion of Addie Hoyt Fargo, my great, great Aunt.

Please remember this statement below is pure tripe.

“This rumor (that Addie was shot) was put to rest by your forensic team. In an email Pat Theder, Jefferson County Coroner states that he stood by the results of the forensics team.”

I don’t know where this poor, misinformed soul got this information, but it’s wrong.

Two weeks after the exhumation, I talked with the Milwaukee medical examiner by phone, and he gave me a full report.

The autopsy results were inconclusive.

Inconclusive.

The autopsy did not prove that Addie was murdered (due to both the lack of skeletal remains and their poor condition), and it did not prove that she was not murdered.

Let me share something else the medical examiner told me in that conversation on November 17th at 10:28 in the morning. He said, and I quote, “We didn’t have a lot of [Addie's] skull.”

While her lower jaw was found, with several teeth still in place, her upper jaw and teeth were not found. Nor was her face (the skull bones underlying her face). Nor were a few other pieces and parts.

That’s one of the reasons that the results were inconclusive. You can’t make a definitive finding when there’s a lack of physical evidence.

Lastly, I know of no written report generated by Pat Theder (Jefferson County) and the Coroner’s Office (which is in Jefferson, and is a separate entity from the Milwaukee Medical Examiner’s office).

Honestly, I can’t help but question if such a “written report” exists, because it has NOT been offered (or even mentioned) to Addie’s own relatives, and if such a report does exist, and yet was not supplied to Addie’s own kin, that is inexcusable.

To read more about Addie, click here and here.

Addie's autopsy results were inconclusive. That's a fact.

Did Enoch shoot Addie? Mary Wilson (Enoch’s own granddaughter) says that he did. Read more about that here.

*   *  *

Being married to Enoch was hard on a woman. To see just how hard it was, take a look at these photos below.

In fact, this guy should have come with a Surgeon General’s warning label.

Scroll on down to see photos of Enoch’s first two wives, in their youth, and a few years later.

These images are haunting. Being married to Enoch took a real toll on these women.

It's hard to believe but this IS the same woman ( Enoch's first wife - Mary Rutherford Fargo) in both photos. She died at the age of 37 (allegedly from Typhoid), so in this picture on the right she can not be more than 37 years old. Poor Mary.

And here's a picture of Addie, in 1896 (on her wedding day), and a scant five years later. Life with Enoch took a toll on both wives, and according to Mary Wilson, being married to Enoch not only took away Addie's youth, vigor and beauty; it also took away her very life.

What does Addie's body language tell us here? I'd love to know.

Before Enoch, Addie was a beautiful, vibrant, strong woman. She was 24 years old when she married him; he was 46. Eleven months after her death, he remarried Martha Harbeck Hoyt, a woman that had been living in the Fargo Mansion prior to Addie's death.

Did Enoch murder his young wife, Addie Hoyt Fargo? According to Mary Wilson, he did. To learn more about that, click here.

We do know that Addie’s death certificate was falsified. And we now know that Addie did not - could NOT - have died from diphtheria.

This is a complicated, detailed story. Click on the above links to learn more about the proof we’ve found that establishes - Mary Wilson was right.

To learn more about the Fargo Mansion, click here.

Please leave a comment below.

*   *   *

Several years ago, I drove through the 1920s neighborhoods in Concord, NC and found several kit homes from Aladdin on the beautiful, tree-lined streets. I was on my way to a more distant land, and it was very early in the morning. Due to the poor lighting, I could only get one decent photo. However, I remember finding several Aladdin kit homes on one street.

Now, these many years later, I don’t remember how many Aladdins that I found, but I saw an Aladdin Pomona, and an Aladdin Sheffield, and this Aladdin Shadowlawn (see below). It’s not surprising that this part of North Carolina is so loaded with kit homes, because Aladdin had a major mill in Wilmington, NC. In fact, Roanoke Rapids has one of the largest collections (and most impressive collections) of Aladdins in the country! It’s worth the trip, I promise!

Aladdin was a mail-order company that (like Sears), sold entire kit homes through their catalogs. The houses typically arrived by boxcar in 12,000 pieces and came with a 75-page instruction book that told the homeowner how all those pieces and parts went together. Today, there are about 75,000 Aladdin kit homes in the country, and about 70,000 Sears Homes in the country. More than 90% of the people living in these historically significant homes didn’t realize what they had until I knocked on their door and told them! Aladdin Kit Homes were sold from 1906-1981. (Sears, by comparison, was out of business by 1940.)

If someone could tell me the name of the street where this Shadowlawn is located, we’d also know the proximity of the OTHER kit homes (for they were very close by).

So, please leave a comment below if you know where this house is! And please look for the other Aladdins on the same street!

To learn more about identifying kit homes, click here.

To learn about the Aladdin Homes in Rocky Mount, click here.

To learn more about the massive collection of Aladdin kit homes in Roanoke Rapids, click here.

The Aladdin Shadowlawn was a big, beautiful kit home, and there's a perfect Shadowlawn in Concord, NC. Image is from the 1919 catalog.

And here it is, a perfect Shadowlawn in Concord, but what is the address?

Somewhere in Concord, I think I saw a Plaza, too.

And an Aladdin Pomona.

And I'm 98% confident I saw an Aladdin Sheffield just across the street and down a few doors from that Shadowlawn.

Aladdin also sold entire cities of their kit homes, and their mill was in Wilmington, which would explain why there are so many Aladdin kit homes in North Carolina.

Aladdin Homes were made with quality materials - first growth lumber out of virgin forests - the likes of which we will never again see in this country.

My favorite graphic from the 1914 Aladdin catalog.

*

To learn more about the massive collection of Aladdin kit homes in Roanoke Rapids, click here.

*   *   *

More kit homes have been found in Tahlequah! To read the most recent update, click here.

Dear friend and indefatigable researcher Rachel Shoemaker has found an abundance of kit homes in Oklahoma, and recently, she found one of the prettiest Gordon Van Tine “Roberts” that I have ever seen - anytime and anywhere!  (Gordon Van Tine was a competitor of Sears in the kit home business. GVT sold about 50,000 kit homes from 1910 - 1945.)

This kit home is located in Tahlequah, Oklahoma which was the original capital of the Cherokee Nation in 1838. According to Wikipedia, Tahlequah became a settlement in 1832. Street signs in the city are printed in both English and the Cherokee language.

I’m told that Tahlequah is a lovely city, located at the western edge of the Ozark Mountains, and it’s also the home of Merle Travis, Sonny Sixkiller (football player) and Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

To learn more about kit homes, click here.

To learn more about the kit homes in Oklahoma, click here.

To learn more about Addie Hoyt Fargo, click here.

GVT Roberts as seen in the 1921 catalog.

GVT Roberts in Tahlequah, OK, and it's a beauty! Like the house above, this also has the two-story porch on the left side. (Photo is copyright 2011, Rachel Shoemaker and can not be used or reproduced without written permission.)

The GVT Roberts has had several additions through the years, but still looks much like the catalog page shown above. (Photo is copyright 2011, Rachel Shoemaker and can not be used or reproduced without written permission.)

I'm not sure why this house has a periscope. (Photo is copyright 2011, Rachel Shoemaker and can not be used or reproduced without written permission.)

Street signs are printed in both English and in Cherokee language. (Photo is copyright 2011, Rachel Shoemaker and can not be used or reproduced without written permission.)

To contact Rachel Shoemaker, please leave a comment below.  She’s done extensive research on the kit homes in Oklahoma, and has traveled countless miles, researching and documenting these historically significant homes. We’re both puzzled as to how and why so many kit homes landed here, but it’s time that someone hired Rachel to do a proper survey of this impressive collection of Oklahoma’s architectural treasure trove of kit homes.  Heretofore, all the work she’s done has been at her own expense.

*   *   *

In 1983,  Hollywood released of the scariest movies ever created. The movie was Testament (starring Jane Alexander and William Devane).

Set in the fictitious town of Hamlin (near San Francisco), the movie starts out happy. The children are flopped around the 1980s “television as furniture” console, watching an afternoon show and waiting for Dad to get home so they can eat dinner. In the next moment, Mom and the kids perk up when they see an emergency message pop up on the TV, warning of an impending nuclear attack. There’s a flash of blinding light through the living room window, and then the electricity and phone go dead.

“Testament” is a remarkable movie because there are no fireballs and no mushroom clouds in Hamlin. Neither people nor houses are damaged by the blast. Terrified neighbors pour out of their stately homes and into the street, trying to figure out what has just happened. The people of Hamlin are cut off from the world, knowing nothing, except that a nuclear device has been detonated - somewhere far away.

Before the sun sets on that first awful, post-nuclear day, the real hero of the story emerges. It’s the old man down the street, Henry Abhart, who has both a Ham radio and a small generator. In the gloaming, neighbors in the upper-middle class burg gather at Henry’s house. As they walk up the steps to his magnificent bungalow, we hear Henry in the background.

“CQ, CQ, CQ,” he says with in a voice that’s steady but urgent. “This is Whiskey Six Delta November calling. No, there’s no damage here, except all our transformers are knocked out.”

After a little more time at his Ham radio, Henry walks into his commodious living room to give a full report to his anxious neighbors, who have gathered there.

Looking pensive, he reports, “Well, folks, so far I can’t raise Seattle, Portland, Sacramento or Southern California. San Francisco is silent. The entire Bay Area. North of us, now, they’re okay.”

“What about Chicago?” someone asks.

With great solemnity in his voice he replies, “So far, I can’t raise anything east of Keokuk, lowa.”

After a few more comments he adds, “We may be crippled, but we’re not cut off and we’re not dead.”

I’ve always remembered that scene. Thanks to an old man ensconced in a homemade Ham Shack in the corner of a California bungalow, people are not cut off from the rest of the world. It’s a powerful image.

The take-away message I gleaned from this powerful scene is this: Ham Radio Operators are the helpers. They’re the ones that have both the skills and the tools to keep us going when all the more modern and more complex (and more delicate) systems have failed. I believe that - in my lifetime - our country probably won’t suffer a nuclear event, but we may face natural disasters and severe storms and other communications-interrupting events. And when we do, the ability to communicate (which has the same root as the word “community”) will be an urgent need.

In February 2010, I sat for my “Technician’s” Ham Radio license, and to my delight (and incredulity), I passed the test, getting 33 out of 35 answers right.

It feels good to accomplish a long-cherished dream. It feels wonderful to learn a new skill. I look forward to learning how to “play” with a new-fangled, 21st Century Ham Radio. But it also feels mighty good to know that if there ever were an urgent need in my neck of the woods, I’m equipped and empowered to be “one of the helpers.”

Now, I just have to raise a little dough and give myself a Ham-flavored Christmas present!

To learn about Ham Radio in Hampton Roads, click here.

To learn more about Ham Radio, click here.

To learn about Sears Homes, click here.

The best of both worlds: Ham radio antenna mounted on Sears Avondale in Litchfield, Illinois. Nice house, too.

Catalog picture of the Sears Avondale

Apparently, Sears Homes and Ham Radio go together pretty well. Note the large Ham Radio antennae rising over the Osborn's roofline.

The Sears Osborn, as it appeared in the 1919 catalog.

* * *

Writing about Sears Homes has been a fun gig, but my income from this career has been quite modest. But, there are other means of compensation beyond dollars.

Last year, my co-author Dale and I wrote a book on the kit homes of Montgomery Ward. As part of this research, I pored over old Wardway Homes catalogs, reading the many testimonials from happy customers. And I saw an especially interesting testimonial from a man named “Ringer” in Quinter, Kansas.

“We are well pleased with our Ohio which bought of you,” wrote Mathias Ringer in the 1919 Wardway Homes catalog. “Everybody is welcome on the Ringer Ranch. Everything is modern and is from Montgomery Ward, furniture and all. We want to build two more of these later on” (page 44).

Feeling bold, I sent a letter to all the Ringers in Quinter, Kansas and told them about my project.  Within 30 days, I had a letter from a Gail Ringer, telling me that Mathias Ringer was his grandfather and that Mathias had relocated to Quinter from Somerset County, Pennsylvania to get away from the coal mines. Then 19 years old, Mathias was told that he had the early stages of black lung, and that if he got out of the coal mines and into a better climate, he might live many more years.

And that’s how Mathias Ringer landed in Quinter, Kansas.

Gail Ringer invited me to come to Quinter and stay with him for a few days and see the Wardway Ohio (a spacious cross-gabled kit home) that his grandfather had built. I readily accepted the invitation.

I arrived in Quinter in early August 2007, and the Ringers treated me like long-lost family. Gail Ringer regaled me with stories of his grandfather and father. He shared his memories of growing up in the Wardway Ohio (pictured below).

This whole trip really demonstrates the true benefits of being a writer. I had the time of my life, and it was a delight to find people who had such a clear and strong sense of family and integrity.

Last year,  I received a letter in the mail that my friend Gail Ringer had passed on.  It had been my hope that he’d see a copy of this new book on Wardway Homes before he died (with his interview inside), but it didn’t work out that way.

In the letter from Gail’s son, he wrote, “His anticipation of your 2007 visit was like a spring tonic for him. When the plans for your arrival began to materialize, he perked up immensely. Thanks so much for your part in reviving his spirit.”

As I said, sometimes the best recompense comes in non-pecuniary forms.

Gail Ringer was a class act and a true gentleman and also possessed an amazing memory. He invited me - a total stranger - to come stay at his home in Kansas while I did research for my book on Wardway Homes. Meeting people like Gail is one of the true and enduring joys of being a writer.

Wardway Ohio - from the 1921 Wardway catalog

Testimonial in slightly different form in the 1921 Wardway Homes catalog

The Ringer Ranch in Kansas

And sometimes, there’s a little bit of fame, too!

Fame

To learn more about Sears Homes, click here.

To learn more about Wardway homes, click here.

* * *

“A number of persons who knew [Enoch] will tell the same story - he shot Addie!”

So wrote Mary Wilson (Enoch’s granddaughter) on page 274 of A History of Lake Mills.

Since the articles on Addie have started to appear, I’ve received a surprising number of supportive comments from people who tell me, “I knew Mary Wilson personally, and she was very proud of her book and her work. If Mary Wilson said that Enoch murdered Addie, you can believe that it’s true.”

In fact, three long-time Lake Mills residents have told me that yes, Mary was a little eccentric, but she was also a thorough and honest historian, and she was a woman that was ahead of her time. In an article that appeared in the Tahlequah Daily Press on Mother’s Day 2008, Mary Wilson’s son (E.  James Fargo Wilson) was quoted as saying, “[Mary] was way ahead of her time.” (It’s a fascinating piece, and you can read the full article here.)

Last week, I called Tom Boycks, who (together with Barry Luce) owns the Fargo Mansion Inn in Lake Mills. The first time I met Tom, he proudly displayed his own copy of Mary’s book, The History of Lake Mills, hand-delivered to him almost 30 years ago by Mary Wilson herself.

Tom and Barry knew Mary Wilson very well, and thought very highly of her.

I asked Tom about something that Mary did not address in her book: The source of the story about Addie’s murder.

“Barry and I closed on the mansion in April of 1985,” Tom said. “And it wasn’t long after we closed that Mary Wilson came to the house and introduced herself. The house was still boarded up and it was a real mess in here. Mary Wilson stood right in the foyer, and pointed up at the top of the staircase and said, ‘That’s where my grandfather did Addie Hoyt in - right at the top of the stairs. She was his second wife. To cover it up, he got the doctor to alter the death record.’”

And how does Tom remember that conversation so well?

As they came to know Mary Wilson, she re-told them that story about Addie’s murder, and there was never any deviation from its original telling.

And the source of the story?

Tom said, “Mary Wilson told us that it was her mother, Elsie Fargo Mccammon (Enoch’s daughter), who told Mary about the murder of Enoch’s second wife. It was Elsie that told Mary about Enoch killing his second wife at the top of the staircase.”

Elsie was born in 1876, so she was a scant four years younger than Addie. At the time of Addie’s death, Elsie was 25 years old, and according to the 1900 census, Elsie was living at the Fargo Mansion.

And speaking as a historian and a mother, this account - handed down from Elsie to Mary - is one of the most important pieces of evidence that Addie Hoyt Fargo was indeed murdered.

Why would a mother tell this fantastic story to her daughter, unless it was true?

By all accounts, Elsie was an upstanding, moral, and respectable member of her community. She picked an ordained Methodist minister (Reverend Charles Mccammon) to be her life partner, and remained married to him until his death in 1946. It does not seem likely that a woman like this would lie to her own child about something so important.

Why did Elsie share this story with Mary? Maybe she didn’t want the story of this crime to be forgotten or lost.

Sadly, I’ve also heard from people who attempt to disparage and discredit Mary Wilson’s telling of these events. At the end of her long life (1910 - 1999), Mary Wilson is said to have suffered some dementia, but her book was published in 1983, and speaking as a fellow writer, I’d venture to guess she’d been working on this book for many years prior to its publication. Those who knew her in the early 1980s tell me that Mary was sharp as a tack.

The handful of negative comments I’ve received about Mary Wilson have come from Lake Mills’ natives and/or residents. And that strikes me as especially unfortunate, because those are the very people that Mary was seeking to help and to bless. In the preface of The History of Lake Mills, Mary wrote,

Thanks to my supportive friends, and those who are very interested in the preservation of local history. Also, I would like to recognize the encouragement given by the members of my family. With gratitude, we shall remember those who parted the branches for those of us who followed.

In writing this 820-page tome, it’s clear that Mary was striving to preserve the history of Lake Mills, and I, for one, am grateful that she “parted the branches” for those of us who are following in her footsteps.

To learn more about the history of the Fargo Mansion, click here.

To learn about visiting the Fargo Mansion, click here.

If you’ve enjoyed reading about Addie, please share this link with others on Facebook!

Elsie Fargo was the daughter of Enoch James Fargo and Mary Rutherford Fargo. Elsie married Reverend Mccammon, and they had two children, Paul and Mary. It was Elsie's daughter (Mary Wilson) who wrote the book, "The History of Lake Mills." According to Mary Wilson, her information about Addie's murder came from Elsie Fargo Mccammon.

Elsie Fargo at the Fargo Mansion, about 1899. Elsie told her daughter, Mary Wilson, that Enoch murdered Addie.

The Fargo Mansion in the late 1890s.

* * *

I’ve heard coincidences defined as “wonderful little miracles where God chooses to remain anonymous.”

When you look back at the many events that had to transpire in order for Addie’s picture albums to end up in my possession, it surely does appear to be a long string of God’s anonymous miracles.

It started in 1896, when Addie and/or Enoch hired a professional photographer to capture the story of their day to day life at the Fargo Mansion Inn. The picture album in my possession represents a five-year span, which is quite remarkable. And then sometime in late 1900, Addie - who was obviously a woman who prided herself on her appearance -  permitted someone to take her photo when she was not looking her best.

In fact, she looked awful.

In this final photo of Addie - the last known photo of Addie - her face is badly swollen, her upper lip is distorted and swollen and there’s a pronounced puffiness under her right eye.

In addition, her hairline has receded. This is not the look of someone styling their hair a little differently. This is a hairline that has moved back significantly. Look around the ears, and you can see this even more. In fact, the smooth hairline around the perimeter of her forehead is gone, and in its place is a zig-zag hariline, looking more like a hairplug job gone wrong, rather than a 29-year-woman’s scalp.

Why did she permit herself to be photographed in this condition? Had she been poisoned with arsenic? Typical signs of arsenic poisoning are hair loss. Laying that to the side for a moment, why all the bruising about her face? Was she being beaten by Enoch? People who are ready to discount this out-of-hand need to study their history a little better. In late 19th Century America, there were many who thought it was a man’s duty to “keep his wife in line,” and women were considered more akin to children than equal partners.

I don’t know what’s going on with Addie in this photo, but it’s a radical departure from all the other photos in Addie’s album. And it’s on a remarkably different cardstock (much lighter and thinner) and it had faded significantly (as compared to the other photos). In fact, this photo appeared to be more of a snapshot, whereas the others seemed to be professionally done.

Why did Addie include this small photo in the album she sent to her brother-in-law Wilbur for Christmas 1900? Was it a plea for help? Was it Addie’s way of telling her only surviving family that she was being beaten by her husband?

Seven months after Anna (Addie’s sister) and Wilbur (Anna’s husband) received this parcel at their home in Denver,  29-year-old Addie was dead. According to Enoch’s granddaughter Mary Wilson (author of The History of Lake Mills), Addie did not die of diphtheria (as is stated on the death certificate), but was murdered by her husband, Enoch Fargo.

In 1939, Wilbur died and a short time later, his widow (Anna Hoyt Whitmore) moved to Santa Monica, to be near her daughter, Florence Whitmore Fuller.  Anna Hoyt Whitmore died in 1966, at the age of 99 years and four months. She’d outlived her baby sister by 70 years.

As Florence and her husband Edgar A. Fuller went through Anna’s many possessions, they decided to keep this old photo album.

In the  mid-1980s, both Florence and Edgar passed on, and my father (their son), drove out to California and cleaned out their massive old house.  He dragged home a U-haul, filled with things from their home in Santa Monica.

And then June 2011, my father died, three days shy of his 92nd birthday. Amongst his few possessions, I discovered this photo album.

On June 25, 2011, I sent an email to my friend David Spriggs asking him, “Hey, I found this photo album and I don’t know who these people are. Can you help me?”

It’s hard to imagine that it all started with a Christmas present, 111 years ago this Christmas.

The leatherette photo album that Addie sent to her brother-in-law, Christmas 1900.

Photos inside the album covered a span of about five years.

The inscription reads "A Merry Christmas to Wilbur, from Addie." Wilbur was married to Anna, Addie's older sister. Wilbur and Anna were married about 1886, and moved to Denver in the late 1880s. Why did Addie send this to her brother-in-law, and not her sister?

There were a handful of inscriptions in the photo album, such as this one for "Mattie." Addie must have trusted this woman, because she included her photo in the album she sent to her family. Utlimately, Mattie (real name: Martha) Harbeck became Enoch Fargo's third wife, a scant seven months after Addie death.

And why did she include this haunting photo? Look at the body language. Look at Addie's face. As mentioned above, the quality of this photo (cardstock, finish and depth of tint) is radically different from the rest of the photos in the album. Was she trying to convey a message to her family in Denver?

It's hard to believe she was 29 years old in this photo.

Look at her face. The right eye is puffy, the lips are swollen, and the cupid's bow is badly misaligned with her philtrum.

Five years with Enoch took a toll on Addie. Compare the hairlines in the two photos. That's more than just a different hairstyle. Look around her ears. Her hairline had receded dramatically.

To learn more about Addie, click here.

To learn more about the falsified death certificate, click here.

*   *   *

Addie’s been in the news a few times in the last 30 days, and some of these news articles have given conflicting accounts of what will become of her remains.

Last month, after the autopsy was done, her remains were transported from Milwaukee by David Olsen (Olsen Funeral Home) to a crematory, where they were cremated.

Those remains (”cremains” actually) are now in my possession, at my home in Norfolk, Virginia. When the busyness of the holidays is behind me, Addie’s cremains will be respectfully handled and she’ll get a proper memorial service here in Norfolk.

This I can state definitively: Addie will not be returning to Lake Mills. How I wish that her footstone at the grave site could have been removed, but the city (for reasons I do not understand) did not want it removed.

Further, given what we now know about how Addie’s life ended, it would be wrong to return her to the “family plot” with Enoch, and his other two wives.

Addie’s days in a shallow grave are over.

Addie's head stone in Lake Mills is now a cenotaph.

Enoch's marker has five names: Three wives, one daughter ("Mertie" - 1878-1887) and Enoch James himself. Wife #2 has left the area and won't be returning.

Some of the nasty notes I get from anonymous trolls try to tell me that this is not a shallow grave. Given that the frost line in Wisconsin is 3-4 feet, and given that the traditional burial depth is 6-8 feet, I'd have to say that this picture is worth a whole lot of words.

Turns out, we didn't need those ladders and buckets and ropes to excavate the grave. It was about knee-deep in places.

Addie's foot stone remains at the grave site, for reasons I don't understand.

Ada ("Addie") Hoyt Fargo 1872-1901

To learn more about Addie, click here.

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