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By Tim Ruzek

Dynamite exploded in the night March 1919 on the frozen Cedar River at Austin Mill Pond as police, firefighters and citizens searched for a local businessman.

Marcus Evans, 38, who ran the Manhattan Oil Co. in Austin and was active in business groups and the Methodist church, apparently drowned himself in the Cedar.

Evans left a note March 11, 1919, at home for his wife, Jean, saying his body would be found at a boat landing upstream from Mill Pond. A family rented boats there (the original YMCA’s future site) on a stretch filled during the 1960s when the city redirected the river.

With his overcoat left on a fence, Evans axed a hole through 1 foot of ice. His hat was floating in the hole, and a note pinned to his coat said he chose the spot for its quietness.

While the Mower County Transcript-Republican declared March 12 that Evans ended his life, the Austin Daily Herald asked “Is Marcus Evans Dead?,” noting many didn’t believe it.

On March 11, Evans had $200 and played checkers much of the afternoon at Abe Usem’s office. That evening, Evans and his wife left their southwest Austin home for a party.

The couple had moved in 1913 from Iowa to Austin and often were named in the newspaper for attending or hosting social events, including for 35 people at their home a month before Evans’ disappearance.

On their way to the party, Evans said he forgot to shut their furnace draft. Jean waited at a friend’s house but became worried and went home, where she found money and the note. She went with friends to the landing.

A search of the Cedar started at 10 p.m. March 11 after a fire alarm drew dozens of people. Dynamite broke ice and was hoped to bring the body to the surface.

Searchers worked until 3 a.m. March 12, regrouped six hours later and searched all day. Men cut long ice strips while crews dragged the Cedar for days.

A week later, river draggers from Waterloo, Iowa, searched for two days as high water removed most ice.

Still, there were no traces of Evans. Locals considered draining Mill Pond.

Those who believed Evans took his life remained “tireless in their search of the river,” the Herald wrote March 19. “If Evans has played this trick on his family and wife, the greatest indignation will be felt towards him.”

Rumors circulated of Evans being seen alive, and many believed his note aimed to misdirect searchers.

A railroad conductor, who just returned to Austin, then reported a man used a flashlight March 11 to flag his train a few miles south of Austin near Varco (now a “ghost town” west of U.S. 218). Sweating profusely, the man boarded with two heavy satchels.

Giving the name “William Roberts,” he said he was working for a farm when he heard his mother in Nebraska was ill and he needed to get there soon.

Later, the conductor found Manhattan Oil Co. tags with the name “Evans” in a restroom. He didn’t think much about it until learning later about Evans missing.

On March 21, newspapers reported Evans did not drown. Viewing a photo, trainmen identified Evans as the man who boarded near Varco and paid to travel to Omaha, Neb.

A week later, Jean Evans wrote in the Herald about reuniting with her husband at a train station near Omaha. He looked unwell and remorseful about his disappearance stemming financial problems.

After hearing the train stories, Jean had phoned her brother near Omaha. He thought he could find Marcus. She headed there by train and was surprised to see Marcus instead of her brother.

“(Marcus) expressed the deepest regret for the anxiety and expense he caused the people of Austin as he had no intention of being such a burden to them,” Jean wrote March 29.

After friends declined to help, Evans thought his only solution was his parents and repaying them.

“He felt that he was in a financial vise that would squeeze the life out of him before he could adjust matters satisfactorily and honestly while the plan he chose would give him a chance to make good without sacrificing everything he had,” she wrote.

Jean forgave her husband and asked others to forgive him and be less harsh.

Friends thought Evans’ brain was affected by falling in October 1918 from a work wagon that “partially paralyzed” him for some time.

Overall, the city spent about $2,500 in today’s dollars searching for Evans.

Financial issues surfaced afterward for Evans, including a 1919 lawsuit for owing someone nearly $600 in today’s dollars and a mortgage foreclosure in 1928 for farmland he bought near Austin.

In April 1919, Jean and her son moved to her sister’s Iowa home; their Austin house was sold that summer. Evans moved to Illinois, where he later reunited with his family.

In Illinois, the Evans welcomed two children – a son in 1923 who died as an infant and a daughter in 1925. Marcus worked for 13 years as a church custodian and died in 1943 from illness at age 62.