F.J. Thrun: The saloon keepers’ secret

Continued from previous week

The year 1893 started out with much mystery still surrounding the case.
The insurance companies, at first, refused to pay out the insurance money to the family, insisting that F.J. Thrun was still alive.

“For some weeks, the charred remains found in the ruins of the (Romeo) house have been undergoing a system of analysis by a local doctor of this city and several Chicago physicians,” the Oconomowoc Free Press stated. “The doctors think that the body was not that of the missing man, as the heat could not have been so intense as to leave a body in the conditions of the one found in the ruins.”

Meanwhile, the Twin City News in Neenah came up with a conclusion as to how Mrs. Thrun came into her windfall, after looking into the haunted house story and discrediting it.

“About 16 years ago, a saloon was opened and conducted by a man and his wife,” a Twin City News story stated.

The article tells of a “strange man” coming to Neenah and settling in at that saloon, located on Wisconsin Avenue.

“He was known to have in his possession about $11,000 in cash, and man and money disappeared together.

“In a very short time afterwards, the proprietors of the saloon both died, and so ended any investigation that might have been made as to their complicity in the stranger’s disappearance.

“The building is now and was then owned by Andrew Anderson, of Clayton, who about 12 years ago occupied it as a residence.

“Mrs. Thrun, at that time Miss Mary Halverson, was then a member of his family, being an assistant in the store and dressmaking shop conducted by the Andersons.

“The affair of the saloon keepers was frequently talked over and specualtion indulged in as to whether the money was concealed about the premises.

“Mr. and Mrs. Anderson soon after had occasion to leave home, and Miss Halverson was left in charge of the house for a month.”

“Whether she searched for and found the money during this period cannot, of course, be positively stated, but subsequent events would point to such conclusion,” the Marshfield News and Wisconsin Hub stated in their coverage.
But, by early February, Mary Thrun began to win her battle with the insurance companies and Northwestern, of Milwaukee, and the Mutual, of New York, settled with her on the $10,000 carried on each policy.

However, new information would surface just four weeks later that started to bring the mystery to a close.

To be continued