Leon Reporter, Leon, Iowa
Thursday, January 30, l896

Two men by the name of HAMM, father and son, who reside near Kellerton, were here on Tuesday afternoon in search of JESSE HAMM, father of the oldest man, who had mysteriously left his home near Kellerton on Sunday night. The missing man is 74 years of age, and although rather active and strong physically, he has suffered somewhat mentally from the effects of age. His mother is still living in Kentucky and will be l00 years old at her next birthday, and her son having recently expressed an earnest desire to pay her a visit, it is thought that he may have started off with the vague intention of making the journey to Kentucky on foot. At Decatur City the two men were informed that an old man had passed through that place on Monday on foot, whose appearance in a general way tallied with that of their father, and they followed the trail through Leon and on to Lineville, overtaking him just below town, only to find that he was not the man they were in search of. The men had left Decatur City at 3 o'clock Tuesday morning, and in their anxiety to overtake the supposed father and grandfather, had overdriven their team -- a pair of large Clyde farm horses -- and the animals were so completely fagged out on their arrival here that they could not be urged beyond a slow walk. The men were sadly disappointed over the result of their chase on the wrong track, and after resting their team a few hours, departed westward for Harrison County, Missouri, in hopes of striking the right trail.

--Lineville Tribune.

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