A Governor's $1,000 Reward for a Missing Spokane County Farmer
Charles F. Gloystein vanished from his Mica home in July 1894. As neighbors whispered murder and Populists attacked his name, Washington's governor offered cash for his body and for his killers.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
OLYMPIA, Aug. 10.—[Special.]—The following proclamation was issued today by Gov. McGraw:
"Whereas, On the night of Sunday, July 29, at Mica, in the county of Spokane, state of Washington, one Charles F. Gloystein was decoyed from his home by some person or persons unknown, and strict search and investigation throughout the community in which he lived and elsewhere has failed to ascertain his whereabouts; and
"Whereas, It is generally believed that said Gloystein has been murdered; and
"Whereas, The county commissioners of the county of Spokane have offered a reward of $500 for the recovery of said Gloystein, if injured, and the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators of the outrage;
"Now, Therefore, I, J. H. McGraw, governor of the state of Washington, by virtue of the authority in me vested, do hereby offer a reward in the sum of $500 for the discovery of the body of said Charles F. Gloystein, dead or alive; and, should the said Charles F. Gloystein have been murdered, an additional reward in the sum of $500 is hereby offered for the apprehension, arrest and conviction of the person or persons who murdered him.
"J. H. McGRAW."
EVERETT, Aug. 10.—[Special.]—The Populist efforts to smirch the character of Charles F. Gloystein, the Mica farmer, have aroused the indignation of friends who have known him. C. P. Clark, city clerk of Everett, says he was well acquainted with Gloystein, having worked with him for a year in the retail grocery store of Harney Bros., at Englewood, Ill. Afterward the firm was in the furniture business. Gloystein and Clark were acquainted for a period of four years, and Mr. Clark says he never knew a man of better habits or one who more fully enjoyed the confidence of all who knew him. It is stated by the Populists that Gloystein left Illinois under a cloud, but Mr. Clark pronounces such charges as "rank and rotten," for it was a well-known fact that Gloystein was going to leave for Washington, and the day before he left he got a letter of recommendation from Harney Bros. Gloystein was a very earnest worker in the Methodist church, and a man personally whom everyone liked. He went into business with a man named Carroll, under the firm name of Carroll & Gloystein, and they failed. That was the only misfortune Mr. Clark ever heard in connection with Gloystein, and then the failure, he says, was through no fault of Gloystein. In conclusion, Mr. Clark said: "I don't know of a man I would bank on more readily than on Gloystein."
“I, J. H. McGraw, governor of the state of Washington... do hereby offer a reward in the sum of $500 for the discovery of the body of said Charles F. Gloystein, dead or alive.”
In 1894, a missing Spokane County farmer could draw a governor's proclamation and $1,000 in rewards while his neighbors fought over his reputation. The case has the shape of a modern missing-person investigation, where rumor and political motive can outrun evidence. Mica remains a small community east of Spokane, a reminder that rural disappearances once commanded statewide attention.
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