A mystery I probably can't solve...

Earlier today I was scanning some old family photos. I took one of my great uncle, Royal Hoefler, out of its frame and behind it I found an apparently uncashed, but endorsed check for 10 cents made out to A.W. Dunn from the assistant Treasurer of the United States in Chicago, Ill.

The check isn’t dated, although there is a line for a date that apparently wasn’t filled in, but the check has a picture of William McKinley on the left side of the front. The name of the payee (“A.W. DUNN”), the amount (“TEN CENTS--”) and the voucher number (“238522”) are filled in by some sort of machine-generated type. The signature of the disbursing clerk who signed the check looks like “GeoG Box.”

There was a George G. Box who was serving in that role in the office of the secretary of the Department of Labor (in Washington, DC) in 1913 (according to the Official register of the United States, 1913, published by the U.S. Bureau of the Census), but by 1918 (according to the Report of the United States Housing Corporation, December 3, 1918, 1919) had moved on to become treasurer for the United States Housing Corporation.

So presumably the check was issued before 1918.

Royal was from Pine City, and with a little research I was able to determine that "A.W. Dunn" was most likely Alexander W. Dunn, Clerk of District Court in Pine City back in the early 20th century.

Royal Hoefler died of a ruptured appendix at age 21 in 1932, and according to a family tree on Ancestry.com, A.W. Gunn died the year before.

The check clearly had been folded in quarters for a time--one idea that crossed my mind is maybe Royal was carrying it around with him for some reason and had it in his pocket when he died--but guesswork is pretty much all I have.

So why Royal--or some other member of the family--would be in possession of that check, why it was endorsed (but not cashed) and what the connection between him and Gunn may have been are questions we may never answer. How it ended up behind the photo of Royal (who played football for the University of Minnesota and is shown in uniform) and why, may be a mystery we can't solve.