WEALTHY RECLUSE DIES

PEOPLE SEARCHING HUT OF AGED
FERGUS FALLS MAN DISCOVER
OVER TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS

FERGUS FALLS, Minn., Sept. 30. – Persons appointed by the probate court searched the hut of William Trombler, the old man who died of apoplexy Saturday, and found the squalid habitation a regular gold mine. One battered trunk contained $400 in gold coin; a memorandum book which had been thrown aside was found on a more careful examination to contain $200 in bills, carefully secreted in a slit in the cover. Two or three pocket pocketbooks were found fairly bulging with coin. A total of $2,350 has been discovered in all, and the search is still in progress.

Trombler came here from Red Wing about seventeen years ago. He had lived alone in filth and wretchedness, and when found had been helpless for no one knows just how long.

Fergus Falls in about 1905: N.J. Trenham's Photograph Gallery, left, and August Schacht's grocery store. (Photo courtesy mnhs.org)