The answer to one of Oceana County’s greatest mysteries of all time could possibly exist in a collection of articles and photographs entitled “Bicentennial Collection of Walkerville Area,” which can be found on the shelves of the Oceana County Historical and Genealogical Society. I am speaking, of course, of the disappearance of Alonzo Irons.
If you’ve never heard of the Alonzo Irons case before, allow me to give you a brief summary. Irons was a young man, a resident of Pentwater and a storekeeper for Nickerson & Collister Lumber Company near Walkerville. On Friday, June 3, in 1881, Irons and a man named Fisher set out towards the residence of one Mr. Chase in Walkerville. Irons owed Mr. Chase some money for some hay, and Fisher accompanied with the intentions of returning some borrowed axes to the Johnson brothers, who lived part-way to Chase’s house. However, the string holding the axes broke, causing them to fall and cut Mr. Fisher’s heel on the way down. They bandaged the wound and Fisher turned back. Irons took the axes and continued on. He managed to make it to the Johnson brothers and safely delivered the axes. However, he would never make it to his end destination, as he disappeared sometime after leaving the Johnson’s and was never seen again.
The go-to source for information on the Alonzo Irons disappearance is Hartwick and Tuller’s “Oceana County Pioneers and Business Men of To-Day.” According to them, “people from all sections turned out in numbers and scoured the country, and… a solution to the mystery has never been reached.” Not only that, but a Pinkerton detective was even hired to search for Irons. The entirety of the detective’s report is reproduced in Hartwick and Tuller’s book, and it really is a very thrilling read. There are false leads, romances and jealousy - the whole nine yards. The detective (referred to as “Operative C”) even drags a lakebed at one point, although, as we may later see, it is quite possible that he chose the wrong lake. Considerable progress is made in the case. Even though a body is never recovered, Operative C. closes in on a small group of Native American suspects but ultimately gives up his investigation, concluding that the community is too tightly knit and unwilling to give up one of their own. The closing remarks in the report are as follows:
C. thinks that the results of his inquiries among the Indians shows that they must know something about the matter or they would not lie so about it. Sayles, who at first did not believe that the Indians knew anything about it, is now inclined to think that they know more about it than they will tell.
But it seems possible that the detective was even closer to the end of the case than he may have thought. In the Historical Society’s book on the Walkerville Area, it is revealed that one Rodney Negake, an Ottawa Indian Chief, admitted, shortly before his own death in 1971, that he had information regarding the disappearance of Alonzo Irons. According to this source, “Irons had been accidently killed by two Indian lumberjack brothers, who had attempted to scare Irons because of his attentions to their pretty sister. Supposedly, the two brothers confided in Chief Negake and, afterwards, dumped the weighted body of Irons into Cob-Moosa Lake; this lake is located near Taylor Road in south-eastern Elbridge Township.”
Operative C’s prime suspects were brothers-in-law to a Native American girl that Irons was affectionate with. However, the lake that the detective inspected was known as Paybama Lake. Is it possible the detective was deliberately misled? Who knows. Unfortunately, the answer to that question is now lost to time.
