A Strange Coincidence:

In the Southerly part of Princeton there once lived Artemas Maynard, who removed thence to Temple, N.H., where, in 1769, his son Thomas, five years old, was lost. In relation to this event statements are made in every respect similar to those in the case of Lucy Keyes. The agony of the parents, the search for days by organized parties, and the final giving up, with no clue to the cause of his disappearance. But there is a tradition in the Maynard family that this child was murdered by a bitter enemy of the father.

When it is known that the mother of this boy was a Keyes, - that Mrs. Brown, who wrote of the Littlejohn confession, was a Keyes, - that her father lived quite near the Maynards in Princeton, - that he was a connection of the Maynard family, and that Mr. Maynard died in Sterling, where Mr. Littlejohn also died, - it will not seem strange that at first, with all these facts in view, I felt convinced that someone had got these two lost children badly mixed, and that it would require a Solomon to solve the problem. But after receiving a copy of Mrs. Brown's letter, here published, I was constrained to admit that the one case probably had no connection to the other, though it is certainly a strange coincidence.

- an addendum to Francis E. Blake's History of Princeton, courtesy of Craig McColl

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