Dell Continues To Elude Us...

…or is that “delude”?

Despite hours of research and reams of data uncovered, we’re no closer to knowing what happened to Dell than we were when I first wrote this.

All the other players in our little drama have been largely accounted for, their lives spelled out in official documents and newspaper articles.

William C Powers finally settled down and married Callista O’Dell, living first in New York City, then spending the remainder of his days in Syracuse NY. Settling down was no small feat for Will. Will had, what is known today euphemistically as “a zipper problem”. Many  details of this have come to light – the newspapers then, as now, seemed to delight in the foibles of the wealthy. He was successfully sued by Sadie Eakins in London for breach of promise. It seems he'd asked her to marry him and bought her an engagement ring and everything. The only fly in the ointment was that he was still married to Dell. He was later sued by another woman for the same reason.... while he was in Japan, living with yet another woman. That's on top of Rose Phelps who he disappeared with earlier, while married to Dell.  William died in Syracuse in 1935.

Daniel D Powers was living in Colesville NY in July of 1896 with Dell’s newly discovered relatives when she wrote the letter to her cousin that touched off this whole “investigation”. Ten years later, he turns up living in NYC, boarding with someone we believe to be a family friend. We suspect that he was going to college, but have, as yet, been unable to verify that. After that, he listed his address with William and Callista,in Syracuse but was only there sporadically. He worked for a time as a draftsman at “the auto works” in Syracuse NY (possibly Franklin).  He continued his nomadic lifestyle, taking work as an engineer in a power plant in Watertown NY, (where he lived with his cousin Fred) a paper mill in Oswego NY, a paper mill in India, and Shanghai China. When his father died, his stepmother moved back to Watertown (where her family roots were). He went with her. He eventually retired to Culpeper VA, living at the Lord Culpeper Hotel for a time before buying his first and only home in Culpeper. When his health took a turn for the worse, he sold his house and ended up at the Hill Haven nursing home in DeWitt NY, near his cousin Fred, who presumably looked after him during the last year of his life. He died a bachelor November 4 1971.

Dell’s mother Sarah Pratt and her father William A Morgan continue to be a bit of a mystery. We believe Sarah’s first husband E Orlo Reed went West and “forgot” to come back, eventually remarrying. When William Morgan came into the picture, and whether he actually married Sarah remains unsure. We do have a census entry from 1865, showing William, Sarah and Dell living in Colesville. The census lists William’s birthplace as Schoharie County NY and we found a very likely candidate in the 1860 census listing for a “William Morgan” of the right age, in Richmondville NY. What’s extremely curious about the 1865 census entry is that Sarah lists “marriage” and “children” as “one” each, completely overlooking her marriage to Orlo AND her other child - Dell’s stepbrother Henry (who was living with Sarah’s parents at the time). Very shortly after Sarah’s death, William took Dell and moved on, despite making a good living as a “farmer and sawyer”. Given that Sarah’s father “neglected” to include either Dell's birth OR William and Sarah's marriage in the family Bible records, it’s quite possible there was bad blood there. 

Dell herself continues to remain a cipher. Her last confirmed whereabouts was the Morello Hotel in NYC from where she wrote to her cousin in Colesville. In that letter, she stated that she would be coming “home” (her choice of words) for the 4^th of July and then would be going on a trip to “England and then Buenos Aires”. 

Then she disappears.

The only further clue is that in August of 1900, she or someone, sold the eight grave plots she had purchased in 1895  in the Mount Hope cemetery in Rochester NY.

Somewhere, between July of 1896 and August of 1900, something of great importance happened. Try though we may, we still don’t know what that was. The only reason you sell a grave plot is because you don’t need it. This means either you’ve died and are buried elsewhere or no longer wish to be buried there – you have other plans.

I can’t help feeling that the little smirk on her face in this picture is at least in part, directed towards those of us on the trail of what happened to her. I have a feeling she’s taking great delight in all this.