When Henry Toggenbarger, a telegraphy student who had been in Sedalia only a few weeks, died in August 1885 at the Atlantic Hotel, “a thousand rumors” about the cause of death “circulated in all directions.” His death, noted the Sedalia Weekly Bazoo, was “the sole topic of conversation” between Saturday night when Toggenbarger’s body was discovered and Monday when a Coroner’s Jury was convened to hold an inquest into the manner of his death.
The inquest began at the morgue of McLaughlin’s Funeral Parlor where the body had been taken. A large group of ghoulish spectators crowded around the morgue. At 9 a.m., Coroner Overstreet and the jury members spoke to the undertaker and viewed the horrific remains of what had once been a “well built, rather fine looking” man of about 23. Toggenbarger’s body, which had not yet been cleaned, had three deep wounds, each between two and three inches long, on the top of this head. The wounds had been made by a dull hatchet that was found, bloody and stained with brain matter, under the victim, who was lying face down on a bed. Toggenbarger also had deep cuts to the back of his neck.
After the jury members viewed the body, they went to Overstreet’s office to begin examining witnesses. However, the crowd of spectators was so large that the inquest had to be moved to the Circuit Court rooms. The jury spent most of the day listening to testimony of witnesses as to what Toggenbarger had been doing prior to his death.
A.T. Rollins, owner of the Atlantic Hotel testified first. He told of seeing Toggenbarger eat a small supper, then go into the yard where he had been sitting much of the day, and a short time later come to the dining room and ask for a drink of water, which Rollins provided. Rollins said that he went to the depot to meet the train, and while there, was summoned by three of his boarders, who told him a body had been found in a room at the hotel. Rollins returned to the hotel and found Officers Payne and Mason with Toggenbarger, who had been turned onto his back.
Rollins also testified that Mrs. Lou Harris of Clinton had discovered the body in her room. The hotel’s cook, Rollins’ handicapped daughter, and Harris had been at the hotel while he was at the depot. Mrs. Rollins and two of their daughters had been on a carriage ride.
Mrs. Rollins testified she had seen Toggenbarger at the supper table before she and her daughters left for the carriage ride. When they returned, Harris went to her room, found the body, and told Mrs. Rollins.
This testimony differs from what was told to the police when the body was discovered. That day, a young hotel employee named Nellie Jackson told police she had given Toggenbarger the drink of water and that she had later discovered the body when she went to put her hat in the room.
The remainder of the testimony also contradicted much of what had been said the day the body was found. Other testimony seemed irrelevant. Next week’s column continues the odd tale of the investigation into Henry Toggenbarger’s untimely death.
