In 1855, Paris attorney Charles Summers boarded a train bound for Charleston, Illinois. The train arrived. Summers did not.
What happened to Charles Summers?
Charles Summers was a well-known attorney in Paris, Illinois. One night in 1855, he boarded a train for Charleston and seemingly vanished. His disappearance prompted newspaper advertisements, searches, rumors, and theories about what might have happened to him.
Years passed, but the mystery remained. Decades later, the strange disappearance was still being remembered and discussed in the newspapers.
The story of Charles Summers was preserved for Shelby County readers by a local newspaper editor who had once been a student of Mrs. Summers. Years later, he recalled the mysterious disappearance of her husband and the questions that had surrounded it.
That account was later preserved in Shelby County Ancestors, where it became part of the Society's collection of historical and genealogical stories.
Follow the mystery of Charles Summers in this From the Archives story, based on the account preserved in Shelby County Ancestors.
The full story of Charles Summers and his mysterious disappearance appears in Shelby County Ancestors, Volume 9, No. 2.