rosemary, I really enjoyed your talk! What a fascinating story. You certainly have a book in all this!

Interesting story. If you are considering at all, writing a book on the story, you might be wise to keep some of the details back--not releasing them in speaches or on the internet. If the story has already been disseminated and available for free, it might make publishers less interested in taking on the project.

As to fundraising? Hate to be a wet blanket here, but this is a personal quest. It's NOT something that's going to benefit the public the way medical research or educational scholarships would. The general public isn't going to be running to toss money at something that is mainly just to answer your family's questions--a few of the curious, or those interested in cold crime might. But I think it would be extremely difficult to have a successful benefit with this as the hook for getting people to pitch in. Most people see this sort of thing as something the family pools their resources for, rather than something the public would be expected to fund.

However, I do have a suggestion. It would take some digging on your part--but what about searching out some of the groups interested in researching historic, cold crimes? or possibly presenting this concept to a publisher or the producers of some of those TV series that do the old crime cases. I honestly think you're going to have to target people who have an interest in solving ancient crimes, for fundraising to be successful for a venture such as this. You would, of course, most likely give up some of the rights and profits of the story if you turn it over to one of those entities--but it might be a way of getting answers without costing too much out of pocket.

Alternatively--if you don't yet want to share or give up the rights to your family history--what can you do to make the money yourself? A parttime job? selling off your excess stuff on E-bay? using a hobby to make money? babysitting? If your family is interested, perhaps you could create some sort of family corporation, where all contribute now, and all would reap the financial rewards of any future talks, books, tv shows, etc.

Good luck--just from an outsider's point of view, it is a fascinating cold case to look into. I can certainly see that it would be compelling for family to find answers to their questions

I love the part about going to the people involved in solving cold cases...that would be my first step. Good luck and thanks for some very interesting reading.

Azzalea, you make some interesting points, but the fact is, every murder case is technically a "family affair" but the state becomes involved (and pays 100% for prosecution) because the state (the government) has a compelling interest in protecting society and ensuring that laws are honored and upheld.

Enoch is dead, so the issue of protection is no longer there, but there is a need to make sure the law is honored, and that the truth is upheld and that a wrong is righted. I really do believe - down deep in my bones - that we all share an interest in that.

I've already had several offers of financial help, but I don't know how to organize this. Do I have to hire an attorney to set up a 501(c) non-profit thingie? Or can I just take people's money?

People are fascinated by this story. It's amazing how many emails and comments I've received. At my talk, they were expected 20-25 people and more than 100 showed up!

As the quote says, "All it takes for evil for prosper is for good men to do nothing."

This is more than the story of a lone murder 110 years ago. It's about exposing evil to the sunlight of truth.

It's time.

If you have not seen it, Lesy's 1973 "Wisconsin Death Trip" is nearly a cult-classic book of photographs of turn of the century death, crime, and disease from small Wisconsin towns. It is still available on amazon.

Just a thought--UW-Madison has a Criminal Justice program where students do internships on cases. You might contact them. Lake Mills, of course, is ideally situated between Madison and Milwaukee so plenty of other state and academic institutions that might be interested as well.

None of us non-lawyers can give you legal advice, of course. Have you called your lawyer and run this buy him/her? That's the best way to get the right legal answers for your locale (laws vary from state to state). You definitely want to make sure that anything you do is absolutely legal and won't cause you problems down the line.

But again, good luck with the quest.

First of all....it was so nice to "meet" you almost in person.

Oh how I would enjoy digging into something like that.

I hope you succeed in your journey and that Miss Addie can truly "rest in peace"

patti

Addie is on facebook now. :) I'm hoping to increase awareness of her story, and I'm delighted to learn that the video has had almost 200 views now.

When I was at the Fargo Mansion over the weekend, I did not feel *any* presence, and I'm pretty sensitive to such things. I have a feeling she has moved on.

Take a look at Addie's house:

If Walls Could Talk...........

She is a beautiful young bride, and her photo 5 yrs later shows she is still a beauty. Her 5 yr later face does show either weight gain or some other stress. You have to ask, why would he want to kill her? He had a nice looking young wife. I suppose something unintended happened. Maybe he hit her too hard and she fell down the stairs or injuried her neck.

Did you find any evidence of unfaithfulness? That could have caused a fit of rage.

You really do need to find the cause of death to solve this one. At this late date, that will be difficult, but a gross injury like a broken neck would be discerable.

In her wedding picture, her lips are much thinner and the lip line is different. I was about to declare these were two different poeple because of the lip line. Can you tell if the wedding photo has been heavily retouched? This could accout for the change of shape in the lip line.

This sounds like it would make a great movie... I love the photos of her house. I grew up in a house built around 1920, looked very similar. This is a fascinating story...

I see that the home is now a B&B - what do the present owners think of your research?

Rosemary, this may sound harsh, but why is this necessary? I understand tracing our roots, but to do it we must go back to the beginning of time. We ALL have stories like this in our families - I certainly do.

How will your life be different if you learn she was murdered? What if you learn she wasn't really your aunt? What if you cannot find out the cause of her death because it was a coldsore on her
lip?

You're a good storyteller,though. I hope you find what you're looking for.

Why is it necessary? Because a 29-year-old woman was murdered in cold blood, and her 52-year-old wealthy husband got away with it.

As I said in my talk, it's one thing to die from a disease process. To be murdered - by your own husband - is a wholly different affair. To be murdered and have your murdering husband GET AWAY WITH IT is unspeakably horrible.

It's said that Addie's ghost haunted the B&B (Fargo Mansion Inn). My #1 goal is to do whatever's needful so that her soul might rest in peace.

Down deep in my bones, I feel that Addie can rest in peace now, because the ugly secret that Enoch struggled so to hide has been uncovered and revealed.

"All it takes for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing."

This isn't just about murder - it's about unbridled evil getting its way.

Evil - even OLD "who cares, every one is dead now" evil - needs to be exposed to the sunlight of truth.

I feel very strongly about that.

And so many doors have opened as I've trod this path. People have shown up at just the right times to help, and documents have appeared that officials thought were lost.

It's been an amazing experience and it's so clear to me that I'm not alone in this quest, but am being led all along the way. In short, it feels like the RIGHT thing to do.

And yes - she is my Aunt. Below is a picture of her sister Anna Hoyt Whitmore (my great grandmother) and my Aunt Addie. You can see the family resemblance. (Anna Hoyt Whitmore is in the blue dress.)

Plus, we have census records and death certificates and all kinds of documentation proving that Addie and Anna were sisters. And I know Anna is my great-grandmother!

There was a time when a mother and father doted on this young woman, and there was a time when her older sister (my great-grandmother) probably adored her baby sister and there was a time when people cared about what happened to Addie.

If this were YOUR beloved baby sister, wouldn't you care?

We also have proof that Enoch didn't inform the family of Addie's death until 1904 or 1905. At this point, Addie's parents were dead and her brother was traveling from pillar to post, looking for work. He was not an impressive guy and apparently lost touch with his sister.

However, Anna Hoyt Whitmore was not told about her sister's death until sometime after 1904. Anna was living in Denver at the time, and that was a long, long way from Lake Mills in early 20th Century America.

Still, it's shocking that Anna didn't know that her sister was dead.

We're now searching old records to find out if Addie had a will, and what happened to the money when she was murdered in 1901.

It's possible that Enoch didn't tell the family of Addie's death so that he could steal the money from her estate.

If someone I cared for was murdered in cold blood and the murderer got away with it (as happened here), I would hope that there'd be someone in the world who cared enough to right this wrong.

The owners of the B&B have been very supportive, and very interested. They also want to know the truth about this old murder case.

As I said, I hope you find what you are looking for. Good luck.

Well what an interesting quest!!! I hope you are successful and just a caution than even though he beat her you could still pay for an exhumation and an autopsy and then find out she did die of diptheria after all...just be prepared for anything! Maybe the people at Ancestry would be interested in the story!
Joann

So you can just dig anyone up if you have the money or suspect something? How does that work? Do you have to be a relative or have some sort of court order? Would she *want* to be dug up? Obviously you can't get her permission but it seems strange to be able to dig someone up because you're suspicious. I mean, I understand if it pertains to a homicide or suspicious death but the assumed murderer is long dead so I'm curious why it would be allowed.

I don't blame you for wanting to know, Rosemary. I've always wondered what really happened to my grandmother, my dad's mom. After talking to the family, I found out my grandfather left her with small children for days at a time without food. Also found out she lost a baby girl who my dad never heard about or decided to forget? She was sent to a sanitarium where she died. I requested her death certificate last Spring and finally found out the truth. She didn't die of TB like my dad told us all these years. She also didn't die when he was 4 years old. He was 16. It breaks my heart that his mom was taken away from him at such a young age. She had just lost a baby and I now wonder if she just had postpartum depression. Did they lock her up and throw away the key, when if it happened today she may have been helped with medication or just being able to talk to someone? I'm never going to tell my dad. When I told him I was looking into things he basically told me it was in the past and just sad and did not want to know anything.

I also wonder if our lives would have been better if she had raised my dad, instead of his grandmother and abusive grandfather.

Rosemary, you don't need to justify yourself to anyone. I find your quest for information about Addie and her tragic demise fascinating. It's nobody's business but yours as to why you continue to search for clues, but I would like to thank you for it. I hope that Addie's soul can now rest in peace, if indeed she was haunting the mansion. Thank you for posting the pictures, also.

You know, we are all the products of everything that has gone on before us. We are all accidents of the momentary interminglings of all of our ancestors over thousands of years. We cannot change the past. Things are what they are. Or, were. Mysteries, even unpunished murders from a century ago, are over and done for. And, believe it or not, I really am interested in the past! I love history, family history and lore.

But, we need to remember that we are looking at the past through our 21st Century eyes, with our 21st century values and capabilities. Things have changed. As I said earlier, I am sure we ALL have odd, questionable things in our heritage.

In about 1902 it was assumed that my great-aunt spent 17 years in prison. She returned to her family and never said a word about it. No one will ever know why she was gone, but there was plenty of speculation in the family, from being a madam to possibly murdering one of her clients. Does it matter? Not to me. It is a great story, though.

My husband's grandfather had two families, one on each end of the railroad line he worked on. He didn't die of TB, either, like the family lore has it. But they don't know how he really died, and, to their knowledge, no one from either family has ever met.

My great-grandmother did not know that her mother died in another state until several years later, either. She hadn't run away or anything. She was simply out-of-touch for a few years. It is just the way it was back then. And, they didn't always know cause of death. People simply died and were buried.

A lot of personal fortunes - personal, financial, historical, political - have gone astray through history. Even things thought to be well-documented, like historic battles, JFK's assassination - for goodness' sake, even the moon landing is disputed!

It is all wonderfully interesting, and part of our lives. Five thousand dollars is a lot to spend on curiosity, though, to my way of thinking. But, if you have the money, spend it on whatever you like. Fundraising? Well, um.....

I find the story interesting. In my case, I found out my GM had been married 3 times, instead of 2. My mother did not like my grandma or several of the relatives on my Dad's side but would never tell me why. I really did like them. But then she did not like many of her relatives, like my Grandpa's sisters (her side) but I loved them. I found out on Ancestory.com about the marriage bit regarding GM.

Actually, I was surprised at how dissimilar the sisters appear; I don't see a resemblance (I'm not questioning that they're sisters). But I'm intrigued by the story and I think it'd make a great novel; I'd buy it! And I'm in love with that gorgeous house.

I have been following your quest of truth in this case since the very first post and I am still following it, It is extremely interesting and I too would do just what you are doing and try to uncover the truth of the story. I agree such a crime old or not should not be allowed to go with out investigation. Cold cases are opened and solved years after the fact. All of the things that Enoch did along the way showed he was a very questionable man. His affairs were surely something his young wife was not happy about. So should he be allowed just to rid himself of her and move on to the next one?
I am glad to see you have become so involved and are bringing her story to light. Have you checked with that DAR chapter since she was so active in their original group they may be very interested in aiding you with some of your quest.
Keep up the good work!! I for one would love to see a book come out of this very interesting history! That may be your source for funds, contact some publishing houses and get this story published!

A few of my favorite photos of Addie below. BTW, I threw this photo album out TWICE while cleaning out my late father's apartment. And then I retrieved it twice!

Amazing how those things go, isn't it?

I was so overwhelmed with cleaning up his apartment that I literally tossed these photo albums (there were two of them) right into the trash can.

Two weekends ago, Hurricane Irene was bearing down on us. I assembled a box of things to save, in case we had to evacuate immediately (which was looking likely). These two photo albums were in with that box of treasured possessions.

Funny how those things work out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tonight's post on Addie