Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-05-18 | Page 24 | Girl Seeks Missing Father Searches Five Years in Vain

Girl Seeks Missing Father & a' Searches Five Years in Vain . MAEY STURGEON CALDWXLL, Utah girl, who has returned to Salt Lake in a search for her father, Henry E. Sturgeon, who has been miss-i miss-i ng more than twenty years. 1 rvte ms. lewi I! fr:x;::::':s!;:Ki:::;:iii:' ?;y:i:i;';i'::;;:''-'i::"t 'i.'-i:-!: oi: W i: ':.::::'.:-i i:i::::!;: ::i::i::::i':::::ii .-i" Loses All Trace of Parent, Whom She Has Not Seen Since Babyhood. "r WANT to know, I must know, and I'ni going to learn -whether or not I my father Is alive," Mary C Sturgeon said as she came yesterday yes-terday to enlist the help of The Tribune in the search she is making for word of her father, Henry E. Sturgeon, whom she has not seen since she was IS months of age. Miss Sturgeon, or better, bet-ter, Mrs. Caldwell, for she was married a few years ago, has spent all of her spare time the past five years investigating investi-gating the public records of western states In an endeavor to find eome clew of her father's whereabouts. Through California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon and Utah she has gone always on the fruitless quest, to the police, to the health departments, to hospitals and hotels. AU public places, all public records rec-ords of men and their goings and comings com-ings she has investigated, but all to no avail. There is no record of her father since sixteen years ago when he was last known to have been in Salt Lake. Clew is Lacking. Miss Sturgeon, as she prefers to be known only on tnis quest, has been able to find no clew whatsoever since 1903 that could enable the authorities to find her father. Miss Sturgeon is a Utah girl and spent her childhood in the southerly part of the state, going to California seven years ago. From various sources she has gleaned with great endeavor the following follow-ing facts relative to his life and person: Mr. Sturgeon is a mining engineer, a graduate of two universities, probably in the east. He Is a son of Mrs. Austin Sturgeon, formerly of Detroit, Mich. He came to Utah In the early '90's to follow his profession, and is known to have been, engaged in mining work since that time. Has no Trace of Brothers. i There are two brothers, Charles and Joseph Sturgeon,, who likewise came west. Their work was done in the mines of Montana, Trace of them has disappeared as well, but the word which was last available indicated that one or both of them had returned to Detroit or some city in that vicinity. The lost father, if living, is 69 years of age. He is 5 feet 6 inches tall, has light brown hair and blue gray eyes-While eyes-While it is probable that the years have changed the color of his hair, and have perhaps brought down his weight. Miss Sturgeon expressed the hope last night that his height and the color of his eyes will help someone to place him, and in that way get word to her of her father's whereabouts. Studies Publicity. In the five years she has been searching, search-ing, Miss Sturgeon has sought to avoid making public her predicament. She has secured the co-operation everywhere of the officers who might tell her story broadcast. Three years ago she decided to take up a study of newspaper and advertising ad-vertising work and enrolled in the University Uni-versity of California at Berkeley. While there she made the acquaintance of August Au-gust Vollmer, chief of police and one of the leading criminologists on the Pacific coast. She told Chief Vollmer her story. He examined the records at his disposal, without result. Then he asked Miss Sturgeon to present her case to the public pub-lic through Uie press as the best possible way, and possibly the only way left to her of getting trace of her father. This Miss Sturgeon Jong hesitated to do. She is a girl of Z't years, and at college shunned the notoriety that publication might bring her among her college friends, for she was making her own way there. Believes Him Alive, But as the search has continued, as query after query has met with the blank response, "We have no record concerning such a Derson." Miss Sturgeon gathered courage to take the public into her confidence, confi-dence, to enlist the aid of every individual who might possibly have some light to bring her. "I'm not going to stop until I get some word of my father. I'll not allow myself to give up hope. It has been only the Insistent, the nevr-ceaylng feeling tha t he is alive so mew here and that I shall pep him that has knt my courage and my faith alive," says Miss Sturgeon, a young lady who gives one the assurance of meaning just that, and whose record of persistency thus far indicates her strength of purpose. Local authorities have done everything !n their power to assist her, and have helped her to ascertain the names of her uncles and a feu other obscure details of her father's history. She plans to wait hrro until she receives some word, and rci'j"-Tl.jit any information avaMahle be addressed to her in care of The Tribune.