Come Hell Or Clawater

"Excuse me," said the girl at the desk. "May I sign up for a library card?"
"Oh, sure," I said. "I just need to see some ID." I got out the form and handed it to her. "Nice lanyard. That's pretty cool." The lanyard around her neck had aliens on it---I couldn't help noticing. "Are you into that?"
"Oh, yeah. I like that stuff. You?"
"Yeah, me too. UFOs, Bigfoot, ghosts. I do a lot of that---I'm a writer and paranormal investigator."
Her eyes lit up. "Really? That's awesome!"
"I give tours, too. I take people all over Lock Haven and show them the haunted places. I can always be booked for private tours. Bring your friends."
"I just moved here. I don't really have any friends in Lock Haven."
"Well, I guess you do now." I held out my hand. "Lou."
She shook my hand and looked pleased. "Laura."
I gave her her library card. "Welcome to Lock Haven, Laura."

I was at the Piper Museum when President John walked in. He pointed at me. "You. I needed to talk to you. I liked that article you did on the time they used explosives to loosen the ground in Highland Cemetery."
"A Dynamite Mystery? Yeah, that was a good one. What can I do for you, John?"
In between the ghost hunts, writing about local history, and working at the library, I'm the curator at the Piper Aviation Museum. Which is also haunted. It's like I missed that day in school when they taught you how to have a normal career.
President John asked,"Are you involved in that TV show they're filming about the history of Lock Haven?"
"Yeah, I am," I said. "There's a meeting at the library tomorrow. City council recommended me."
"Great. I want you to be the guy who represents the Piper Museum. That way I don't have to do it."
I laughed. "I can handle that. I'm already representing the library, Highland Cemetery, the Paranormal Seekers....."
"Well, us too. I have the flyer in my office. You need a copy?"
"God, no. City council mailed me one, the channel sent one, and the new boss gave me one....I got like twenty of those things on my desk."

"So tomorrow is Valentine's Day," I said to Tracey. "I need a woman's opinion here. I want to wear red and be part of the theme, but I only have so many red T-shirts. Which one screams romance: The Flash, or 'I survived the zombie apocalypse'?"
Tracey laughed. "I'd have to say it's about fifty-fifty."
I went out to the front desk to prepare for the meeting---The TV people were scheduled to arrive in an hour. Most of the time, when someone mentions television, I get hives. Television is about the worst medium for history and paranormal education; they tend to boil it down and overdramatize it. People ask me if I watch the ghost-hunting TV shows, and it's all I can do not to grow quills on the spot. I'm still pissed off at America's Most Wanted and The Dead Files, and it's been years.
But twenty years ago, a state TV channel had done a show on the history of Lock Haven, and it had been a pretty good job. They were coming back for another episode, and city council had recommended that they'd have me involved. I'd been asked to do TV shows before, and my reply had usually been a flat no. But this one was worth doing. I was already wearing the shirt that said Historian: You'd Be More Interesting If You Were Dead.
My friend Joby, the LHU head librarian, arrived before the meeting started. He said,"Hi, Lou. Thought I'd get here a little early and do some digging. I'm still looking into our missing mayors."
"Oh, yes. I wrote an article about them years ago---The three mayors that don't have portraits at City Hall, so everyone forgot about them. I've found one picture, William Mayer, and you found one of John Wynn, which I can't even believe. One more, and we stand a good chance of getting them up---City council has some interest."
"I loved the sideburns on William Mayer," he said.
"I know, the way some of those guys looked....James Jefferis, he was, what, I think mayor number five...."
"Number six," said Joby. "I have them all written down."
He showed me a list, and I looked at the names. I said,"Wait a minute....What's this? Where did you find this?"
"I think I got it out of the Furey book," he said. "W.S. Clawater, mayor in 1881. He left office in April of 1882, and Seymour Durell Ball took over."
"Joby, I didn't even know about Clawater!" I said. "You've discovered a totally new mayor!"
"You want me to show you the page?"
"Nah, you're one of the people who's as good at this as I am. If you say you found it, that's good enough for me. We're going to have to look into this guy!"
"He had a daughter who died in 1881," said Joby. "That's probably why he left office."
I nodded. "It was common, back in those days. I've seen other times when a parent basically quit everything after losing a child."
"We'll have to find out more about him."
"I may get a column out of this," I said. "I'll give you credit for the find. This is amazing---You've found a mayor we had no records of! Of course, now we're going to have to find his picture for the wall."

I got into the library the next day and went straight to work. (I'd opted for I Survived The Zombie Apocalypse.) I started checking through the library's files---Joby is good; he's very good. But there's something to be said for working on your own territory. Right now, the question was how much I could get done before the staff meeting.
I checked the index file first---Get the easy stuff out of the way. There were obits for both his daughter and his wife, but not Clawater himself. He'd moved out of town, which probably accounted for the lack of records of him being the mayor. I got both obits; little Bessie had died of cholera in 1881.
"Aren't you working the desk?" Sue asked as she walked past.
"I been as far as six blocks away while people think I'm on desk."
"So what're you working on?" Fewer and fewer people want the answer to that.
"Doing a little research," I said. "Looking for a missing mayor. Later I'm gonna write an article on the 1918 flu epidemic."
"Got a title for that one?"
"I'm thinking One Flu Over The Cuckoo's Nest."
I took a quick moment to e-mail a couple of EVPs to my new friend Laura. Then I pulled the records for Highland Cemetery, and found his widow and his children buried in Section J, on top of the hill. Then I looked through the city directories---Maybe I could figure out where the mayor's mansion was during the Clawater years. It's amazing how much stuff I do that's not technically library-related.
The city directory is kind of like a reverse phone book. Just like every other type of document, the further back you go, the sketchier the information gets. We had directories for 1874 and 1895, but very little in between. The Clawater family wasn't listed in any of them, but I found them on Bald Eagle Street in the 1880 census with no house number.
Then I had a flash of a plan, and went back to the city directories.

I biked over to West Bald Eagle Street. Pulling the map out, I walked along the block, comparing buildings. The boarding house was no longer there, but I knew where it had been. 46 West Bald Eagle still stood. There was a row of three houses that appeared on the map.
At a guess, I'd put the Clawaters in one of those. I'd started with no idea, and narrowed it down to a couple of buildings. I like being the best at what I do.
I rode over to the grocery store. Ashlin was working.
"Hey, Ashlin," I said. "You up for a little adventure? I'm looking for a missing mayor of Lock Haven."
"Sure," she said. "I'm in."
"He lived right here in the neighborhood," I said. "I tracked his property down based on the census list---I looked up all his neighbors in the city directory, and used them to figure out where he lived. I figure it's a good bet that he was near his neighbors." I'd compared the city directories with the census, plotted it out on the Sanborn map, and was proud out of all proportion to anything I'd actually done.
Ashlin grinned. "Yeah, I'd say that makes sense."
"You want to go explore Highland Cemetery with me before the next meeting?"
Her eyes lit up. Immediately, she said,"Yeah!"
"Thought you might."
And this is why Ashlin is one of my best friends. I don't invite people to go do normal stuff. Fortunately, with my friends, it doesn't matter.

On Friday morning, I go on the radio to promote the library. I join in for a half-hour show where I announce upcoming library programs and talk about local history. I'm paid in coffee. It gets me out of the building for a while, so after the show, I biked from Clinton County's haunted radio station to our cursed courthouse. You get used to it.
The women in the Register And Recorder's office all greeted me as I walked in. The RAR said,"Hi, Lou! How's your son?"
"He's good. Growing. He's a little cutie. I'm just in to check out some deeds."
"Oh, sure. What're you working on this time?"
"A missing mayor in Lock Haven's history. In 1882, we managed to lose a whole mayor."
She grinned. "It's never anything boring with you," she said.
I went into the big room and dug into the deeds for a while. There's a learning curve to that. It's really intimidating at first, but you adjust---These days I can find out anything about anything.
"Thanks, guys," I said, walking back into the office room. "Gotta get back to the library."
"Find what you needed?" the RAR asked.
"More or less," I said. "Winfield Clawater owned a lot of property, but sold it all in 1882. Which tallies with what we know. We have this entire mayor that we know nothing about....I love this city."

I walked into city hall and into city council chambers. I hadn't asked anyone---It's been a while since anybody tried to throw me out of anywhere. I walked around the wall, looking at all the portraits of historic mayors.
Mackey....Smith....Bridgens....Crist....Ball. No Clawater. His picture was missing, in addition to the missing pictures we'd already known about. Of course, Clawater himself was missing, too.
I'd arranged for free blood pressure readings at the library that morning. Mine was somewhat high, I'd discovered. I was wearing my T-shirt with a vampire bat on it. It seemed appropriate.
Back at the library, I got back to the microfilm. Scrolling through 1881, I looked for something that mentioned him leaving office.
There was nothing, but I stumbled on an article about the assassination of President Garfield. I read through it, and Clawater was mentioned. I did a little mental math, and put the dates together.
"My god."

You have to wonder what's gone wrong with your life when you spend most of your time around dead people. In the fog, Kara drove her car up the path at Highland Cemetery. Ashlin hadn't been feeling well and had cancelled out on the meeting. Fortunately, Kara was giving me a ride, and was also cool with exploring the cemetery a bit. Was a time I'd ridden my bike to these things. As I got closer to my friends, I was getting to be a lightweight.
"So who are we looking for?" Kara asked.
"Turn here. I told you about that mayor we discovered, the one we had no record of. He seems to be buried in Ithaca. We're looking for his family."
"The family he abandoned."
"You know, I actually don't think he did," I said. "Not exactly. He left office and Lock Haven because of the death of his daughter, but I think he kept sending them money. I don't think he bailed on them exactly. I've been researching this guy, and I think he was a much better person than that."
"Really?"
"Well, some of what I do is intuitive sometimes. You've seen me do that before. I learn all the provable facts about something, and I get a feel for it. Clawater was a great man. Park here."
Kara parked on the path, at the top of the cemetery. We were blocking the path, but it was irrelevant at the moment---On a miserable, rainy night, there wasn't going to be anyone up here but us.
We got out of the car. Kara went around the front, and I moved around the back. Then I saw her up there, we reversed, and met on the side of the path.
I was wearing my heavy black jacket with a million pockets---My adventure jacket. I fished a flashlight out of the left sleeve.
"Winfield Clawater was the mayor when President Garfield was assassinated," I said. "Back then, they took these things a lot heavier---Everything closed, people went into mourning. Clawater called a citywide meeting at the courthouse."
"To announce the assassination?"
"No, that had already been in all the papers. To gather everyone together, to give people time to grieve. He wanted to give everyone a safe place, an outlet."
"That was good of him."
"Especially so," I said. "I found this out the other day. He did this just days after the death of his own daughter. Clawater was a great man---He gave his city support when he himself needed it most."
"Wow."
I turned on my flashlight and stepped toward the graves. "Let's find his family."
We walked among the graves. I passed the Celtic cross, looking around with the light. I knew I had the right neighborhood.
"It ever freak you out, walking around on people's graves?" Kara asked.
"Hey. They're already dead." I kept looking at the stones. "I don't think about it a whole lot; most of history involves dead people. It's just kinda what I do."
"Fair. That's why I want to be cremated."
"I'm not sure what happens to my body when I'm done with it bothers me particularly."
"You belong up here," said Kara. "You should be here, in Highland, with most of the great people of Lock Haven."
"Dammit, I think I've gone too far. I left the paperwork in the car....I've learned the hard way not to assume I can do it entirely from memory."
"Go on and get the papers," suggested Kara.
I went back to the car, dug into my pack, and pulled out all my papers. "No, that one's UFOs in New Jersey.....Here it is. The cemetery listing. We were in the right neighborhood."
I started again, walking back and checking each name against the listing, shining the light on the gravestones. "Hahne....We're getting close....Ah. Here they are. Walked right past them."
There was a large stone, with five names on it. Clawater's in-laws, the Waggoners, his wife Patti, and his children, Charles and Bessie.
"There you are, Bessie." I knelt down by the grave. "I got you, honey."
"They're all buried together here?"
"They are. This is the place." I looked at Bessie Clawater's name. "Think of how much Clawater could have gotten done if he'd been mayor longer than a year. This guy was incredible; just think of what he could have accomplished. This child's death....It changed Lock Haven's history."

"I'll be back in a bit, Joe," I said. "Going out to the TV meeting at the Arts Council."
"Have fun," said Joe. "No rush."
I walked outside the library and got my bike. I climbed on and rode southeast, getting on Church Street. I crossed Bellefonte Avenue where the old train station had been, and rode over to the Arts Council building.
I love this place. This is my city.
I parked my bike. I could see City Hall. I heard a train coming in the distance. Overhead, a Piper Comanche was flying west.
This city is full of mysteries, new discoveries to find. And even after all these years, I'm still not done with them.
The sun was going down.
I smiled and went into the building.