Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

On July 1, 1874, four-year-old Charles Brewster Ross was kidnapped by a man who offered him candy and fireworks. His brother Walter, also kidnapped, was released, and his father was given a ransom that he couldn’t afford. In spite of the strenuous efforts of police, the kidnapper was never found, and Charley ross never turned up.

This has nothing to do with Clinton County. It happened two hundred miles away. But, of course, we have to find a way to make it all about us, somehow. This is what John Notter did when he contacted the local newspapers in

1912.
Now, this gets pretty complicated, so pay close attention here.

John Notter of Philadelphia was the subject of a newspaper article on April 15, 1912, headlined,”This Mysterious Man May Be Charley Ross.”

Notter, who was at the time going under the name of Charley Ross, claimed to remember being about four years old, and being given to a family named “Blush” in Swissdale, the father being Christian Blush. He recalled this as happening on April 19, 1868, which should be the first clue that this was getting weird, as it was six years before the Ross kidnapping. He remembered staying with the Blush family until he was nineteen, at which point he moved out, became a barber, and went to Philadelphia.

Two days later, an anonymous letter-writer explained some of this weirdness by writing in to the newspaper. Now, the word “explained” is somewhat relative here, as there were still plenty of unanswered questions. But the newspaper ran the headline,”Mystery of Mysterious Man is Cleared Up.”

The letter-writer didn’t reveal his name, which is often a clue that his information is unreliable. But he came across as far more credible than the story Notter was telling. He began,”Your correspondent doesn’t wish to cast any reflection upon this mysterious man character, but if he does not know who he is, we believe if he comes here to Clinton County he can soon find out.”

The man claimed to remember John Notter from school in Swissdale as a kid, where, he said, Notter was “of a peculiar make-up, always trying to spring some sensation among the boys and girls he mingled with.” Apparently Notter continued that trend into adulthood.

The Notter family was said to be in “the most distressing circumstances.” So little John had been sent to live with the family of Christian Blesh of Swissdale—Notter was very slightly misremembering the “Blush” name. He was given the name of John Blesh, though he later reverted to the name of John Notter, and much later, apparently, Charley Ross.

The letter-writer claimed to have lived nearby, and remembered growing up playing with John, who had, in fact, left once he’d reached adulthood. This also brings up a few questions about Notter’s memory—I can’t claim to remember much that happened when I was four, but I’m pretty clear on the details when I reached nineteen, at least as far as where I lived, what my name was at the time, and so on.

Mary Notter is buried in Saint John’s Cemetery in Dunnstable Township. She was most likely John’s mother—She died in February of 1868 when she fell through the ice on the river at age thirty-one. An article in the Clinton Republican suggests she may have done it deliberately, as she had mental issues and her husband had left her. Note that this was not long before John Notter had been placed with the Blesh family, and it would explain a lot.

Not that this clears everything up exactly, but it’s more answers than we had. I haven’t found a grave for John Notter, which is not surprising considering the number of names he had.