Word: parkman
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Friday afternoon in November of 1849 Dr. George Parkman, a widely known philanthropist and instructor at the Medical School, disappeared. A man known for his punctuality and methodically businesslike habits, he had been missed he did not come home for lunch. His son-in-law, Robert Gould Shaw, a leading merchant, offered a $3000 reward for his safe return and on Saturday afternoon had placed advertisements in all the papers and had circulated 8,000 handbills...
...publicity brought in floods of replies. One said that Parkman had been "beguiled Cambridge and done in," while another had him, head covered with blood, driven at breakneck speed" across Craigie's Bridge in Cambridge. One of the more plausible reports was that of a servant in Parkman's household. He recalled that the Doctor had had a call earlier on Friday, who reminded him of a 1:30 appointment on that day. The speaker not be identified...
Sunday morning John White Webster, Professor of Chemistry and Mineralology at Harvard, appeared at the Parkman identified himself as the visitor who had stopped by Friday morning to remind Parkman of his appointment. The engagement had been kept; Webster said he had paid the good doctor $483.64 for a mortgage Parkman had on his mineral collection. "I told Dr. Parkman," he said, "that he hadn't discharged the mortgage; to which he replied, 'I will see to that. I will see to that.' He then went very rapidly from the room...
...mortgage had been a cause of long bitterness between the two men. Webster had luxurious tastes and lived beyond his means, and he had borrowed heavily from the independently wealthy Parkman. Parkman became furious with his debtor when he found that both he and another creditor had been given the same bill of sale as a security. He pursued Webster relentlessly and finally made an appointment to see the latter at his laboratory to collect the debt...
...Parkman never returned. For two days Webster remained behind bolted doors in his laboratory, with his furnace and two stoves going full blast, and the water running continuously. He left word that he was "performing experiments...