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In the early 1930s, a Williamsport newspaper writer decided to remind the residents of Lycoming and Clinton counties of the time when "the West Branch Valley was shaken from end to end with one of the crudest and yet one of the most baffling crimes ever committed in Pennsylvania" back on Nov. 19, 1903.
His name was William Clendenan and he worked for the railroad in Avis. He, according to the Williamsport News-Mirror from Aug. 19, 1933, "lived with his mother and grandmother... about two miles west."
Clendenan was "not only liked and popular among the men, but the ladies also looked upon him as a fair catch." He was handsome and tall and the railroad paid well because "his position and the salary attached to it were something to be desired."
However, right before he was to end his shift that evening he, "a telegraph operator at Brown's Tower, was brutally murdered, and the crime has remained unsolved despite the fact a train crew and several other men arrived on the scene within fifteen minutes after the crime was committed. "
The News-Mirror reporter said that "The New York Central Railroad Company and Clinton County offered huge rewards" for "the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who committed the crime " but it was never claimed.
Was this part of a deadly conspiracy?
Nov. 19, 1903 was a night of horrors for the local industry that culminated in a brutal attack in Clinton County for a man named William Clendenen (also spelled Clandenen). Thanks to the Williamsport News-Mirror Aug. 19, 1933 edition it recalled that 1903 night.
A man named "Muyel Hafer, (who was an) operator at Allenwood station on the Reading Railroad, was confronted by a masked man who demanded him to throw open the telegraph circuit so no message could pass over the wires."
The newspaper writer said "Hafer was then bound, gagged and robbed and a passenger in the station waiting for a train was chloroformed. "
Fortunately, an "operator working at the tower between Allenwood and Montgomery was unable to get a response from the operator at Allenwood."
This operator immediately "notified headquarters, which immediately sent a crew to the station and found Hafer bound and gagged and lying on the floor in a helpless condition. The passenger who had been chloroformed was still very much under the influence..."
However, it was up in Jersey Shore when train dispatcher Henry Clay received a message from Clendenen: "Clay... received the strange message in Morse code: 'I'm shot and dying. Send help.' It was with difficulty that Dispatcher Clay picked up the signals, as Clendenan's fingers were fast stiffening with death as he clicked off his last message," the writer said.
Clay frantically tried to get to Clendenen but it was to no avail.
According to the 1933 article, "Brown's Tower (was) located on the west side of the Susquehanna River, just opposite the New York Central Railroad Company yards at Avis." In 1933 the tracks crossed "the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks. It is (now) known as the Riverline or Beech Creek Division."
When Clendenan was found by railroad workers, he was found "slumped on the floor" under the telegraph desk "where the telegraph instruments were," said the reporter.
"(Clendenan's) left shoulder was shattered with a bullet, another was in his abdomen, and his skull was crushed as the result of being struck by a spike maul. Upon closer investigation they found another shot that evidently went wild in the telephone box," the newspaper writer said.
Between that and a "broken mop stick... with other evidence that (showed) Clendenan had given his assailants a pretty stiff fight" before succumbing to the "bullets and the spike maul."
Police did investigate but every direction proved fruitless.
"Every clue the investigators followed seemed to lead them into a blind alley," the News-Mirror journalist said. "At first they worked on the theory that an employee of the railroad company committed the crime."
This idea was derived because the spike maul that was used to injure Clendenan was found "several hundred feet below the tower under a tool box, and only someone connected with the road knew where it was kept."
Investigators began to look into the connection with Clendenan and the robbery that occurred near Allenwood.
"A few days later (after the robbery of Hafer) Joseph Moscow was arrested between Shamokin and Sunbury by officers of the railroad company, and he confessed to the robbery at Allenwood," the writer said.
When asked about the murder at Brown's Tower in Avis, Moscow denied having anything to do with it or having any connection to it.
Police were not without their suspects.
"Of all the people who were suspected and questioned, only one person was arrested. William Mitcheltree, a neighbor who resided near the Clendenans, was arrested at the funeral and lodged in the Clinton County Jail at Lock Haven," said the newspaper writer.
This made for a very awkward moment. Because in the long run, Mitcheltree was "held only a short time and discharged for lack of evidence."
However, it turned out Clendenan was "particularly friendly with Mitcheltree's wife."
The arresting officer, Constable Ellis Myers, of Lock Haven, was criticized for the arrest and relying more on hearsay and gossip. The writer at the time called it "ill advised" and "nothing in the record to show there was any intimacy between Clendenan and Mrs. Mitcheltree."
The final reason suspected of Clendenan's was robbery.
"When the crew arrived at the tower they found Clendenan's pocketbook on the floor with the money taken out and his watch and chain were missing. The day before... Clendenan had drawn two months' pay," the journalist said.
Yet this too "then proved to be another washout."
To sum up this unfortunate case, the News-Mirror writer quoted the local coroners.
He wrote, "The coroner's jury was (made up of) R.C. Quiggle, Carson Quiggle, L.W. Conser,
Michael Emmert and Harry L. Simcox, all of whom resided near the scene of the murder."
He concluded, "Their verdict was (that) 'William H. Clendenan came to his death at the hand of some person or persons unknown'."
Here it is over a century and two decades later, the world is no closer to solving Clendanan's murder. It will instead go down as a question mark in local history.
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D. Everett Smith is a writer and history columnist for The Express.