Crime & Punishment: Wanted Freedom During Holidays

Washington Herald (DC)
23 December 1912

WANTED FREEDOM DURING HOLIDAYS

William Eggleston, Who Escaped from Occoquan, Makes Pleas for Few Days More

"Say, I just wanted to be out on Christmas for a little celebration," said William Eggleston alias William Walton, twenty-four years old, alleged professional bicycle thief, as he left police headquarters last night to finish a term of a year and a half at Occoquan workhouse, whence he escaped on Wednesday.

"I think you fellows might have waited until after Christmas to pinch me," said Eggleston, who began his sentence at the workhouse on Thanksgiving Day. Eggleston was "picked up" on suspicion by the police of Alexandria while, it is alleged, he was trying to sell a bicycle, which the police believe was stolen.

Detectives from Washington identified "William Walton," as the  man called himself, as Eggleston, wanted as an escaped prisoner from Occoquan. Eggleston declared he would have returned to the workhouse voluntarily if he had been allowed to remain at liberty until after Christmas. "A bird in hand is worth two in a bush," said Guard Hall, of Occoquan, as he started for the workhouse with the prisoner. 

Eggleston is unmarried and lived in Arlington,. Va.

Matrilineal Monday: Martha J. Lynn

Matrilineal Monday is another blogging prompt suggested by Geneabloggers, focusing on the female line of a family (i.e., histories of female ancestors, brick walls, and fortuitous finds, etc.).

As it happens, one of my personal and most frustrating brick walls involves my great-grandmother.  My grandfather, Earl J. Lynn, was born in Independent Hill, Prince William County on 11 October 1891.  Military records give the name of his mother as Martha J. Lynn, noting (in some cases in scrawled handwritten notes) that "Lynn" is Martha's maiden name, not her married name.  (I suppose my grandfather went through his life having to explain/re-explain that he wasn't misunderstanding the directions on those forms when asked for his mother's maiden name.)   One form notes that Earl's father's name is "John Lynn," but every "John Lynn" in the county at the time is married/with children. 

There are no marriage records for Martha or death records, for that matter, other than those of her birth on 14 April 1869 in Prince William County to Edna Ann (Cole) and John Henry Lynn.  She passed away before 1900, probably sometime during the 1890-1900 census "lost record" years, and is buried in the Cole Family Cemetery .  

My grandfather married Anna Bell Walton on 12 September 1925 in Rockingham County, Virginia.  They had two children, Dorothy Jean Lynn and my father, Howard Moore Lynn, but the marriage didn't last.  Very probably for that reason, I never met my grandfather Earl and there have been no papers/photos/memorabilia handed down to me from the Lynn side of the family.  

After 25 years of searching, the mystery remains, and my brick wall continues to loom:  Who is the father of Martha J. Lynn's child? 

Anna Bell (Walton) Lynn, wife of Earl J. Lynn
Elkton, Rockingham Co., VA (date unknown)