Yesterday we began a twisted tale that began when 34 year-old Jay Caldwell disappeared in the summer of 1907. Jay and his wealthy father, James, ranched in the Taylor area near Dickinson.

That same summer, a man of similar age and description was found wandering in Waseca, MN; he couldn’t speak, his right side was paralyzed, his left temple was dented, and he seemed to have no memory. National newspapers dubbed him “J. C. R. Man of Mystery,” because of initials sewn into his clothing. Eventually, J. C. R. was committed to the “insane asylum” at Rochester, and six years later, the famous Mayo brothers operated on his brain. Unfortunately, they couldn’t correct J. C. R.’s problem, but the operation put the mystery man back in the national spotlight.

Certain people began to suspect J. C. R. was the long lost Jay Caldwell. On this date in 1914, the Bismarck Tribune reported, “There has always been a mystery surrounding the sudden disappearance of Jay Allen Caldwell seven years ago. It was supposed that he was possessed of considerable personal and real estate property and that his father, James A. Caldwell...had quarreled with his son and possibly was responsible for his leaving.”

The younger Caldwell’s only sibling was an older sister – May Caldwell-Luff-Moran. The Tribune reported that when J. C. R. arrived in Dickinson, “[May] recognized her brother at once and embraced him most affectionately. The various scars and marks of identification on his body, which she had minutely described to the authorities, were plainly visible.”

As many as 100 neighbors agreed the mystery man was indeed Jay Caldwell, but Caldwell Sr. vehemently refused to recognize the man as his son. In response, the neighbors chipped in to hire an attorney for the man they believed was Jay Caldwell, but Caldwell Sr. won the case. J. C. R. also lost an appeal. The case had a fatal flaw: J. C. R., Mystery Man, was found wandering in Waseca several months before Jay was ever reported missing. May still believed J. C. R. was her brother, however, and opened her home to him.

Just four months after winning the case brought by J. C. R., James Caldwell and his second wife were shot and killed by their hired man, a 27 year-old Russian named Mike Chumack*. Chumack argued with the 74-year-old Caldwell over his wife’s “companion” – a 14 year-old orphan girl. While window peeking into the girl’s bedroom at night, Chumack had watched the old man sneak into the girl’s room to molest her. Chumack said, however, that it was only when he brought up the topic of J. C. R. that the old man went for his gun. Chumack said he shot the couple in self-defense and then tried, unsuccessfully, to kill himself. This turned out to be not true, but that’s a different story.

After the burial of the ranching couple, Caldwell’s will was opened. He bequeathed $1,000 to each of his two sisters. His wife was to have received $15,000 and all of his property. The remainder of his fortune was to go into a 25-year trust for his missing son, should he ever return. To his daughter, May, he gave just $25.

The violent death of James Caldwell once again put J. C. R. in the national news, and in the summer of 1920, a St. Paul woman named Mrs. Blue positively identified him as her former husband, J. P. Harris. She said Mr. Harris went fishing in the summer of 1907 and just never came back. Another woman, Mrs. Rose Harris, backed up Mrs. Blue’s identification – Rose Harris was J. P. Harris’s first wife; Mrs. Blue his second.

Most believed the J. C. R. mystery was finally solved. Mrs. Blue and her new husband took him back to their St. Paul home for the sake of Mrs. Blue’s daughter – fathered by J. P. Harris before he disappeared.

* Also spelled Chumik, Chamak, Chamack and Chumick.
Sources:
The Newark Advocate (OH). 1 Aug 1913.
Bismarck Daily Tribune. 23 Aug 1914; 29 Aug 1914; 5 Nov 1914; 10 Apr 1915; 11 Dec 1916;
2 May 1917; 3 May 1917; 19 May 1917.
Dickinson Press. 5 May 1917.
Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News. 26 Nov 1919.
Hansboro News. 18 June 1920

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