John E. Wilkie.
Dr. De Wolf, in reply to Dr. Hodgson's first inquiry, wrote:—
6 Grenville Place, Cromwell Road, S.W., April 29th, 1898.
Dear Sir,—In reply to your letter of the 27th inst., I regret that I cannot recall with any definite recollection the incident to which Mr. Wilkie refers.
I do remember that he told me one morning he had had a remarkable dream—or conference with some one who knew me when a young lad.—Very truly yours,
Oscar C. De Wolf.
Dr. Hodgson then sent Mr. Wilkie's account to Dr. De Wolf, with further inquiries, to which Dr. De Wolf replied as follows:—
6 Grenville Place, Cromwell Road, S.W., May 4th, 1898.
Dear Sir,—Mr. Wilkie's statement is correct except as to unimportant detail. My father practised his profession of medicine, in Chester, Mass., for sixty years—dying in 1890. I was born in Chester and lived there until 1857, when I was in Paris studying medicine for four years. In 1861 I returned to America and immediately entered the army as surgeon and served until the close of the war in 1865. In 1866 I located in Northampton, Mass., where I practised my profession until 1873, when I removed to Chicago.
Chester is a hill town in Western Mass., and Northampton is seventeen miles distant. While in Northampton I was often at my father's house—probably every week—and during some of the years from 1866 to 1873 I knew Katy McGuire as a servant assisting my mother.