Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 92, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1898 — No Word From Petrie [ARTICLE]

No Word From Petrie

People at Wheatfield have as yet, heard no word from S. H. Petrie, whose mysterious disappearance is elsewhere related. Mrs. Petrie, after the death of her baby, returned to her father's residence near Lowell. We learn, from reliable source, that it is now generally thought in Wheatfield that Petrie’s disappearance was his voluntary act, which view best explains thtfJfact that when last seen he was in Chicago, and when he should have been at another place, had he gone where he told his family he was going. It is know that Petrie has long been in hard luck, owning to his wife's sickness and other causes, and it is also intimated that probably his home life was not a happy one, and for these reasons it is thought he concluded to go away. Mr. Petrie always enjoyed the confidence and resect of the people of Wheatfield, in an eminent degree, and for that reason it seems unlikely that he meant to wholly abandon his family, but probably thought that by going away he could eventually do better by them than by staying with them. ’