The following account of the death of Mary Doan, a member of the class of 1915, daughter of Joseph A. Doan, manufacturer of Franklin, Indiana, and a grand-daughter of Addison Cofcin, is copied from the Philadelphia Ledger of September 1.
After more than 24 hours of aimless wandering, bereft of her mental faculties, Miss Mary Doan, former Bryn Mawr College student, and of late instructor at Ellis College, Chestnut Hill, found a haven of refuge in the Charles Town Hospital, West Virginia, only to succumb early yesterday to heart disease.
Miss Doan disappeared from her apartment in Hamilton Court, Thirty nine and Chestnut streets, Friday afternoon. Where she passed that night and how she passed Saturday one of her friends know, but on Saturday kindly disposed resident noticed her seemingly in a dazed condition. A plight directed her to the home of night she was seen in Harpers Ferry Dr. Ranson. (That’s how it was written.) It needed only a cursory examination for Dr. Ranson to assure himself that it was a case of amnesia.
Thereupon the physician put the young woman in his machine and drove to the Charles Town Hospital in Charles Town, W.V., five miles distant. There for several minutes, Miss Doan, although unable to tell attendants her name and address, seemed to get better. She asked for a quiet room, saying she felt sure that the morning would find her improved.
Since she seemed to be in excellent health aside from mental trouble, physicians complied with her request and she spent the night in a private room, early the next morning, before the physician could elicit any further information, she died.
Physicians then examined her pocket-book and found her name on a bank-book of the Hamilton Trust Co. An entry on Friday showed that she had deposited $40. They were still puzzled as to her identity when a telephone call from Harpers Ferry referred them to an article in the Public Ledger. Obtaining a copy, they read a description of Miss Doan and an account of her disappearance.
Immediately the superintendent of the hospital wired Philadelphia detectives, informing them that the missing woman had been found. The detectives in turn notified Miss Doan’s sister, Mrs. Sidney Hutton of Browns Mills, N.J. Mr. Hutton thereupon went to Charles Town and took charge of the body.
Miss Doan was last seen Friday afternoon by the elevator boy who took her from her apartments on the sixth floor to the first. Later in the afternoon, her roommate, Miss Kathering (Katherine?) Lehman, returned to the apartment. She thought nothing of Miss Doan’s absence until 7 o’clock. Then she became worried and started to make inquiries. Friends having said they had not seen Miss Doan, Miss Lehman appealed to police to aid in the search.
All Friday night and Saturday the police tried to find the young teacher, and fliers were sent to all the hospitals. Finally, Miss Hutton, who had come to this city, decided to appeal to the Public Ledger, and all the facts she could give were published.
Miss Doan was a native of Hadley, Ind., where her father is a manufacturer. She came here to complete her education and took a post graduate course at Bryn Mawr College.
According to Miss Lehman, Miss Doan had been subject to heart attacks. Friends yesterday were, of course, unable to account for her appearance in Charles Town.
From the front page of The Guilfordian, Guilford College, N.C., Sept. 27, 1922
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