Couldn't resist this one. ;-) More commonly known as "The Morgan Affair". William Morgan, a former mason, had printed a book exposing the secrets of the very secretive masonic society. He was arrested in the fall of 1826 for stealing a shirt and cravat, aquited, and rearrested for stealing a couple bucks, and thrown in the Batavia jail. This of course was to detain him. He was tossed into a carriage against his will, and taken on a long journey, to Ft. Niagara and confined there. Alledgedly he was kidnapped by the masons, who didn't want their secrets exposed. Another theory is he was taken by anti-masonic friends, who were afraid of what was going to happen to him, made it look like a kidnapping by the masons, and scooted him via Ft. niagara way and into Canada to safty. Ft. Niagara is the last that was ever seen of him. Some say he escaped to Canada, some say he was tossed into the Niagara by the masons. A body turned up in 1827 and was first reported to be his, then l! ater proven not to be. So his body was never recovered. Another version, although I don't know how well known, was written by William Wakeman in 1939(son of a locally famous Batavia atty Seth Wakeman and quite the champion for the Senecas rights to keep their land) who heard the story from Otto Parker and Chauncey Abrams (both Senecas from the Tonawanda Indian Reservation) as told to them by Gen. Ely Parker. A very famous Seneca both here, and in Civil War history. This account says he was taken to the Tonawanda Indian Reservation where he stayed till he died 3 years and one month later. He was supposedly, according to this account, buried on land near the edge of the reservation on the Tesnow Farm. Being the Alabama historian I of course like this version the best. ;-)Anyway, this was important as far as the history of American politics, as the result was the anti-masonic political party. Any paper from 1826 to into the 1830s is page after page, week after week, of mas! onic vs anti-masonic political differences and the missing Morgan. Gets annoying actually when you are looking for other historical things during this time period. ;-)I'm sure if you type in William Morgan + Masons in any browser you will find a ton of sites on it. Unsolved crimes never die. You can also try searching in the Library of Congress digital collection called American Memory at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ and Cornell University's Making of America digital collection at http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/ for books and journels from the time period of the events. You will always find excellent reading material from both these sites of books in their original form, no mater what you are researching.Hope that helps! -- Cindy AmrheinTown of Alabama Historianin Genesee Co., NYExperience the Town of Alabama in Genesee County, NY. http://www2.pcom.net/cinjod/historian/APHNYS (Association of Public Historians of New York State)http://www.tier.net/aphnys __________________________________________________________________The NEW Netscape 7.0 browser is now available. Upgrade now! http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/