CHAPTER XXI.
THE LEADER OF THE AMISH SOCIETY OF IOWA DISAPPEARS AND IS MOURNED AS DEAD—HE LEAVES HIS HOME HEAVILY IN DEBT, BUT CARRIES THE CONFIDENCE OF ALL—WHEN LAST SEEN HE HAS TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS ON HIS PERSON—PINKERTON’S DETECTIVE AGENCY EMPLOYED TO NO AVAIL—ONE HOPE STILL LEFT.
Mr. Joseph Arnold, known to his friends and the community at large as “Joe,” has for many years past been one of the most trusted of Gen. Cook’s assistant detectives. To him have been entrusted many of the cases which required the closest attention to detail, and a capacity to pick up clues which others less shrewd and less familiar with the small traits of human nature would have allowed to go unnoticed. He is a typical detective. He is one of the best men on a cold trail in the whole country, and is as plausible as a courtier when it is necessary to be plausible. At other times he is quite disposed to be taciturn, and he never gives anything away.
One of Joe’s best pieces of detective work was done in the year 1878, and it illustrates his shrewdness about as well as any story which can be told of him. This consisted in the working up of the case of Christian J. Schuttler, as big a pious fraud as ever dawned upon Denver. Schuttler had for many years lived in Johnson county, Iowa, twelve miles from Iowa City. He was a man of over fifty years of age, the head of a family consisting of a wife and twelve children. He was a member of the Amish Society, a branch of the Dunkard faith, and was a leader among them. Indeed, he was at the head of the society in Johnson county, if not in the entire state of Iowa. He was the financial agent and manager of his society, attending to all the business of his people with the outside world for the entire community. The society in Iowa was prosperous, because industrious and frugal, and Schuttler, as their agent, had almost unlimited credit. He was trusted everywhere as a man of extreme probity and honor; probably because he wore a long beard, as the Amish people never shave; had a meek look in his eyes, spoke in a low tone, wore hooks and eyes instead of buttons, and carried other external signs which made him appear a man whom the world should trust; but most probably because he had the confidence of his own people, and because they backed him as a body in his financial and other operations. At any rate, he was trusted implicitly, and this fact led to his falling into Joe Arnold’s hands.
As general business agent for his organization, Schuttler often made business visits to Chicago. What his general conduct there was on these occasions is not known in detail, but it is supposed to have generally been very loose, though he was not suspected by those who trusted him until after the occurrences which are about to be related.
Schuttler made one of these visits to Chicago in the early part of 1878, and during that visit disappeared mysteriously from the sight of his friends and acquaintances. He had gone to Chicago for the purpose of selling for his society thirteen carloads of fine beef cattle, which had been prepared for the market by his Dunkard friends. Before leaving, as was afterwards ascertained, he had borrowed $4,000 in currency from the Johnson County Bank, of which Mr. John Conden was cashier, and also various small sums from other persons. He had been gone several days before any uneasiness began to be felt; but when at last, after some two or three weeks of waiting, nothing was heard of him, his friends began to grow uneasy, and took the initiatory steps towards making a search for him, if alive, and for his body, if dead. Letters were written to Chicago, but only elicited the fact that he had arrived there with his cattle, and had sold them and gotten the money for them. The cashier of a bank remembered seeing Schuttler in his bank, where he had gone out with a draft for $10,000. This was the last trace which had been found. Search was made everywhere in Chicago, but no one could be found who could throw any light upon the mystery, which deepened every day. Advertisements were put in the papers. Friends became uneasy for the man’s personal safety; creditors grew anxious for other reasons; his family was terribly distressed for their own welfare, as well as for that of the father and husband. But no good tidings were received with which to appease the general uneasiness.
Hardly any one believed that Schuttler had disappeared of his own accord. As has been said, he was trusted by all and suspected by none. It was believed that he had been robbed for his money, and the suspicion that he had also been murdered gradually took possession of the public mind.
At last a heavy reward was offered for the finding of the man, dead or alive, and for any clue which would aid in clearing up the terrible mystery and bringing to justice those who were believed to have been responsible for his disappearance.
At the special request of those interested, Pinkerton’s Detective Agency was employed on the case by those interested, and instructed to spare neither money nor pains in their work. They published descriptions in the papers, searched Chicago from one end to the other, and even went so far as to have the Chicago river dragged for the body. They set their men in every direction to work, but failed utterly to find any trace of the missing man, or to offer any theory which would explain his disappearance. Schuttler’s friends were quite despairing.
But there was still reason for hope, if they had only known, which will appear in the next chapter.