Mr. Drew said he had visited the Morgue and leaned that the bones had been buried in potter's field as "unclaimed," but he saw the casket and got a description of the remains. He said he believed and was almost positive that the body found was that of Warren B. Pilcher, a fur trader, who died rather suddenly at a public dinner given in Carr place in 1842. Pilcher was a wealthy bachelor 65 years of age at the time of his death. At the banquet were Thomas Benton, the Senator, and Mr. Blennerhasset the great criminal lawyer. Mr. Drew said Pilcher dropped dead at the dinner and his brother who was married and the father of four young sons did not hear of the death until after the body of Pilcher was buried. After a few days the will was probated and it was learned that Pilcher gave all his personal effects to strangers and made no reference to his bank account, which was large, nor to his real estate possessions which were quite extensive. Neither wee the deeds found. Strangers too possession of Pilcher's handsome "bachelor hall on Mound street and the brother, who had been assured that he would be remembered generously in Pilcher's will was left nothing at all. He began an investigation and from the servants who worked in his brother's house he was given information which led him to believe Pilcher had been done away with. The servants, however, would give him no definite information unless he promised to share the estate with them. This he would no do and he continued the investigation. He found nothing and when he sought the tenants again they had left town. He died about ten or fifteen years after his brother's death and his children, all boys, who had grown to manhood, were told to keep the subject in mind and look for information. After the war two of the Negro servants returned to St. Louis and made the same proposition to the sons of Pilcher, that they had made to their father. The eldest son refused to listen to the proposition and began an investigation. It was thirty years after the death but he hoped to learn what had become of his uncles's property and contests the possession of it. Mr. Drew said the eldest nephew of Pilcher called him into the case eighteen years ago and told him to hunt up witnesses and the burial place of Pilcher. He worked for a year, but could discover no new facts.

TELLS A STRANGE STORY
Was It Warren B. Pilcher's Body?
An Old Resident's Recollections About A Wealthy Fur Trader
Who Died Fifty Years Ago - The Iron Coffin May Have Been Pilcher's

A mysterious and sensational story developed yesterday concerning the iron coffin and the remains contained therein dug up last week by workmen engaged in excavating for a sewer opposite 2731 Hickory Street. The old-fashioned attire of the remains in the coffin, which was a very costly and elaborate affair, showed that the deceased must have been interred in ante-bellum days, but, as there was no name on the coffin, there was no clew to the identity. It was presumed however, from the costly character of the coffin and his attire that he was at the time of his death a man of wealth. Nor was there any doubt that the remains had been interred in St. Vincent's Cemetery, which once occupied the section. The story developed yesterday suggest a deep-laid plot successfully carried out of murder and robbery that would make a splendid framework of a novel.

The interment who brings forward the clew to the tale is an old resident and retired merchant named John Drew, who resides at 2326 Olive street. He called at the Coroner's office and intermed Deputy Coroner Meade that he had no doubt in his own mind that the coffin contained the remains of Warren B. Pilcher, a wealthy fur trader, who died ver suddenly in St. Louis in 1842.

"Mr. Pilcher," said the informant," was at the time of his death a bachelor about 70 years of age. He had accumulated an enormous fortune in the fur trade and lived in a state of royal magnificence for those days at Carr place at Sixteenth and Carr streets, now the center of Kerry Patch. One day in the winter of 1742 Mr. Pilcher gave a grand ball which was attended, I believe, by Thomas H. Benton, the famous Senator and the great attorney, Blennerhassett. In the midst of the toast, fell back senseless into his chair. He was carried out of the dining hall to a private apartment and medical assistance immediately summoned, but when the doctors arrived he was cold in death. The ball, of course, came to a sudden termination. The brilliant concourse of guests, comprising the brain, wit, beauty and wealth of St. Louis, dispersed in consternation to their homes.

"The funeral must have been a grand one, though the particulars of it I have never learned.

"The deceased had at that time a brother and four nephews living in the East. The nephews were children of tender years. The brother was an old man, who died a few months later. Apparently none of them attended the funeral. Whether they were informed of the death of their relative in time or not I do not know, but the nephews must have been too young to comprehend the nature of the event.

"However, the deceased was interred in St. Vincent's Cemetery with great pomp and ceremony. No expense was spared by Pilcher's friends. Then began the search for the will. It was finally found locked up in a drawer in a room in Pilcher's mansion. To the astonishment of all the deceased made no mention of his relatives who were know to live in the East, but bequeathed a lot of personal property valued at several thousand dollars to friends who were no kin. No mention was made of the bonds and mortgages, the real estate deeds and the vast sums of gold that the deceased was supposed to possess. Several rumors floated about to the effect that the deceased had been robbed of them by unscrupulous friends who had obtained undue influence over him in his old age. It was bruited about also that there were several iron chests in his mansion filled with gold, diamonds and precious stones, and that these had all vanished on the very day that Pilcher took his departure from this earth. However that may be, a thorough search was made for them, but they were never found.

"Years passed and the four nephews of the deceased arrived at maturity. They returned to this city but just at what time I cannot say. At any rate they learned of the great wealth of their uncle that had so mysteriously disappeared when he died. They quietly investigated the matter, and I was told have Blennerhassett $500 to help them find out what had become of the money. While they were pursuing their search for some trace of it, an old white haired Negro named Henry Jefferson, who had been in the employ of the deceased as a servant, called on them and offered to impart important information as to what had become of the fur trader's wealth if they would agree to share the proceeds with him. The eldest brother was in favor of accepting this proposition, but the others demurred. They were afraid of being robbed of their share of money. While discussing the matter the darky disappeared and has never since been found. All of the brothers are now deceased, I believe, except one named Warren, who, I think, lives somewhere in the southwest portion of the city. It was the eldest brother who told me this story, and by him I was employed in searching for his uncles' remains. The search was unsuccessful, however, though a headstone was found that bore the name of Warren. I am convinced, however, that the body taken to the morgue is the remains of the fur trader."

The body was interred yesterday in potter's field.

Speaking of the theory advanced by Mr. Drew that the remains found in a metallic coffin a few days ago were those of Warren Pilcher, a St. Louis millionaire of the early days, Mr. George N. Lynch, the well known undertaker, remarked.

"I dislike very much to spoil all the fine-spun theories advanced by reporters and others in the matter of the finding of the remains of Warren Pilcher by sewer diggers the other day, but I will state a few facts, and all can draw their own conclusions. The metallic coffin was never manufactured in Europe, as one reporter had it, and the trial exports of American ones were returned unsold. The patent for the metallic coffin was issued to one, Fiske, of New York in 1849, who finding no sale for them, stopped their manufacture, and they lay in abeyance till Davis & Co. of Cincinnati bought the right and recommenced their manufacture in the fall of 1851; the first invoice of them reaching this city, to my order, on Feb. 24, 1852, just ten years after Mr. Pilcher's death.

"Moreover, the coffin in question was one of Davis' make, he being the only one ever casting that peculiar pattern, it being known in the profession as 'the sarcophagus,' but it was soon shelved for other patterns on account of its hideousness.

"The cemetery in which it was found was known as 'Christ's Church Cemetery,' and extended north to Chouteau avenue, south to Caroline street, east to a few feet east of Ohio avenue and west to center line of California avenue. it was subdivided into twelve squares named after the apostles; six on each side of a central avenue, and St. Luke's square in which he requested to be buried, was about where Hickory street now goes through, and on the western side of the avenue; but if Pilcher died in 1842 he could not possibly have remained nearly life-like in a coffin made nearly ten years after his death.

St. Vincent's Cemetery was situated on the southwest corner of Park and Jefferson avenues, three blocks south of Hickory street, being now intersected by St. Vincent's, Eads and Ohio avenues.

There is also among the papers a letter of directions to the executor of the will as to his burial, which almost clearly proves that the remains found by the sewer diggers are those of Joshua Pilcher. Pilcher's instructions read that his body shall be buried in lot ten of St. Luke's Square Episcopal Cemetery, in a zinc coffin which shall be placed in a mahogany casket.

That would locate the burial place in the old Episcopal Cemetery belonging to Christ Church, which was located where the coffin was found. In the will Pilcher speaks of a tour of the South which he proposes taking for his health and orders that Colonel Benton be notified if he die on the tour.

Ex-Senator David Armstrong said this morning that he knew a Pilcher, a fur trader, but how or when he came to his death he could not remember. He said that Drew's statement that the body had been buried in St. Vincent's Seminary was not correct. It was St. Luke's Cemetery and was located near Jefferson avenue, south of Chouteau avenue.

City Auditor Joseph Brown remembered Pilcher very well. "He was a thin spare man with a full beard," said the Auditor, "and was reputed to be very wealthy. To the best of my recollection he did not die at dinner as stated, but later in the night after he had gone to bed. Yes, the disposal of his real estate was mysterious. I remember his will created quite a lot of talk at the time of his death. He was buried in St. Luke's Cemetery, now St. Vincent's. Pilcher was very well known at the time of his death, and was a genial, polished and honorable man."

It has been learned that the dead fur trader was buried in a copper casket inclosed in a cedar case and this in turn in an oak chest. It was buried at St. Luke's Cemetery, and a marble tombstone marked the resting place. A few years ago it was carefully disinterred with the other bodies that lay in the old cemetery and removed to the New Wesleyan graveyard. St. Luke's was near St. Vincent avenue in South St. Louis.

R.M. Pilcher, who lives at No. 1532 South Second street, yesterday furnished considerable data about his ancestor. Said he to a GLOBE-DEMOCRAT REPORTER: "Joshua Pilcher was my father's first cousin, although they regarded one another as brothers, so close were their relations. My father was named Ezekiel, and both came to St. Louis during their boyhood. Joshua engaged in the fur business with the Chouteaus, and up to the time of his death was on the most intimate terms with my father, even when he moved to Illinois, calling him his adopted brother in his correspondence.

We heirs have long ago come to the conclusion that Joshua was foully dealt with. After his death at the banquet, which Cols. Benton, Reddick and Carr attended, my father sent a lawyer named Blennerhassett $500 from Springfield, Ill., with which to investigate the estate. The will was so thoroughly unlike that of a business man, omitting as it did all mention of personal and business property, that suspicion could not be avoided. We know that he left much real estate, because we have located it. A good deal of it has since been bought up for tax titles. There were from 150 to 200 slaves in the estate that Joshua never sold. A druggist named Brook was the executor, and he owed the estate a note for $7500. I presume he died many years ago, however, Col Benton, too, owed $3000. Some time after the death an old decrepit slave, who had been a faithful servant, visited my father while he was at supper and volunteered to tell his family where the valuable were. A week later the Negro's body was fished out of the Mississippi River.

"The reason why we feel so positive that foul play had something to do with my uncles's death was, that within an hour after he breathed his last his safe had been opened, all his books and papers had been looked at, and his desks ransacked. That was in 1856. My father moved to Woodbury in 1858 and as the war came on he dropped the matter."

Joseph Warren Pilcher, the man who has been for the past ten days entertained by newspapers accounts of how his body had been disinterred after forty years, walked into the Four Courts yesterday afternoon and requested the privilege of a statement. Mr. Pilcher has borne patiently with lengthy obituaries of himself, but he has felt that he must draw the line somewhere, and therefore, when he read the statement that he had been ejected for rent, he emerged from his retirement and made a statement.

Mr. Pilcher, who is a resident of Rock Hill, eight miles out in the county, says that the man referred to is his grand-uncle, Joshua Pilcher. The latter was born in Culpeper County, Virginia in 1790. He died in St. Louis in 1842, having been found dead in his bed on the morning after a banquet. "My father, Ezekiel Pilcher, was born in 1800 in Jessamine county Kentucky," continued Mr. Pilcher, and was a great favorite with Joshua Pilcher, the fur trader. It was with great surprise, therefore that my father heard, when his uncle died, that he had not been remembered in the will. He employed a Lexington lawyer named Johnson to come over to St. Louis and clear up the mystery of the will and my grand-uncle's sudden death. Johnson was as poor as a church mouse when he was sent over, indeed my father had to pay his fare. He came back in a few days, said there was absolutely nothing in the matter, and put himself up in a $5000 house. The will, which I have seen on file here does not look like that of a business man. It is my opinion that Joshua Pilcher never made that will, but that it was written by the parties named in it. My grand-uncle owned thousands of dollars worth of real estate in St. Louis which was never mentioned in the will. I have located a great deal of this, and am working to clear up the mystery that surrounds the whole affair.

"I wish to say also that Mr. Pilcher was never ejected for non-payment of rent. I know the body dug up the other day was not that of Joshua Pilcher, as he was buried in the old Christ Church Cemetery in South St. Louis."

Updated 18 Oct 2008
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