The Disappearance of Clayton Zinn
During the early evening of Wednesday, June 8, 1910, Clayton Zinn, a highly skilled tinsmith in Downingtown, walked to a small Italian settlement near the village of Gallagherville in Caln Township on the Lancaster Turnpike. The settlement was less than two miles west of his home and business at 101 West Lancaster Avenue in the Borough. Zinn was there the night before with a grate for a stove he was repairing, but because the grate was too large, he needed to return the next evening with one the correct size. He had been to the settlement a number of times before to do work and was well-known among the men, most of whom were laborers on the railroad or who worked in the local rolling mills. The 43-year-old Zinn never returned home that night.
As the evening wore on, Zinn’s wife Annie and three children grew worried. Towards midnight his 21-year-old son John, who was in business with him, and John’s friend William Trego walked down the Turnpike to Gallagherville to the stone house where Clayton Zinn did the repair work. The home’s occupants, after being aroused from bed, were surprised to learn that Zinn hadn’t returned home and couldn’t offer any information on the tinsmith’s whereabouts.
This image of Clayton Zinn appeared in the June 11, 1910 issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

John Zinn and William Trego returned to Downingtown and immediately contacted Chief of Police Thomas Gray who organized several search parties. A number of those who went looking for the missing man were with the Alert Fire Company where Zinn was a prominent member. Unable to find any trace of him that night, the search was called off until the following morning. When it resumed the next day hundreds of Downingtowners were out looking for Zinn, who by all accounts was a well-liked and well-respected member of the community.
Authorities returned to the stone house and questioned the man who had his stove repaired and he confirmed Zinn left his home and was heading toward Downingtown around 9:00 PM the previous evening. The man stated he paid Zinn for this and other repair jobs. He also said that Zinn was carrying a dozen eggs that he sold him as well as the old grate from the stove on which he did the repair work.
An advertisement for Clayton F. Zinn and Son from 1908.

One reporter identified the Italian man as Francis Zebo. Indications are that this was Frank Sbei who was enumerated in the Census (which was taken less than a month before) along with more than 100 other Italian-born persons living near Gallagherville. Frank was married and had a son. News articles also mention the man Zinn did the work for had a son. Living with the Sbei’s were twelve boarders, all of whom were Italian-born and laborers on the railroad.
The first clue that foul play was suspected was when Zinn’s tools and hat were found in a culvert under the railroad tracks near the home of Morris and Margaret Wood which is the current location of CVS at the corner of West Lancaster and Lloyd Avenues. At about 9:10 PM the evening before, Mrs. Wood claimed to have seen a wagon standing by the culvert and thought she heard someone yell 'whoa' or 'oh' after which the wagon continued down the road.
This disappearance of Clayton Zinn made headlines in many Pennsylvania newspapers.

At first, some thought Zinn may have committed suicide but family and close friends quickly downplayed that theory as he was in good health and had no known financial or personal troubles. Some locals also theorized Zinn may have been murdered for retribution. At some point before this, a team of horses driven by John Zinn ran over a young Italian boy in Downingtown. The incident was an accident, and the boy recovered from his injuries, but this nevertheless fueled speculation that there was a revenge plot against Zinn. Some even theorized that the notorious Italian "Black Hand" extortion racket was involved, but this claim was unfounded.
During the day following Zinn’s disappearance, searchers discovered letterhead with the name "Zinn & Son" on the bank of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s reservoir in Thorndale. Thinking that Zinn may have been murdered and his body dumped in the water, or that possibly he did commit suicide, the reservoir began to be drained. As the water went down boats were procured and every square inch of the basin was searched. Despite a heavy rainfall that night, the search went on for several hours, but neither Zinn’s body nor any other clues were found.
Gallagherville was a small village in Caln Township located on the Lancaster Turnpike about halfway between Downingtown and Thorndale.

Earlier that same day in the woods south of Gallagherville, searchers discovered Zinn’s handkerchief and several papers he was carrying when he disappeared. However, neither of these yielded any clues to the lost man’s whereabouts.
The Chester County district attorney and head of the County detectives soon arrived in Downingtown to assist with the investigation. The State Constable was also brought in to help with the case and he interviewed a witness who recounted an interesting incident the evening Zinn disappeared. Robert Miller, a clerk in a Downingtown clothing store and who was also the sexton the Presbyterian Church in Coatesville, recounted seeing a man matching Zinn’s description pass through Coatesville shortly after 9:00 PM on June 8. Miller claimed he had no hat and was acting wildly, so much so that he kept his attention on him but was not able to conclusively prove it was Zinn.
The headline from the Carlisle (PA) Evening Herald from June 10, 1910.

There were other purported sightings of Zinn elsewhere. It was reported that he was seen on the streets of Lancaster but this proved not to be the case. He was also reported to have been seen in a train yard in Harrisburg but this turned out to be untrue as well.
Two Downingtown boys reported that another boy told them his father had murdered Zinn and threw his body into a quarry hole in Thorndale, but further investigation after interviews and at the quarry itself proved this was untrue. Coatesville Chief of Police Charles Umsted, who was assisting with the case, feared that Zinn may have been murdered and his body placed in a boxcar, many of which were sitting on railroad sidings all throughout the Downingtown and Thorndale areas. And since many of these boxcars had a bill of lading for points west, it could be, he theorized, considerable time before Zinn’s body was discovered.
As the days passed some began to believe Zinn would not be found alive. Others felt he had simply wandered off and would return at some point. Law enforcement officials who were brought in to help with the case left Downingtown and returned home, and many citizens of the Borough, some of whom were close friends with Zinn gave up the search as well.
At about 10:00 PM on Tuesday, June 14, nearly a week after her husband disappeared, Annie Zinn heard a knock on the door of the tin shop at 101 West Lancaster Avenue. When she opened the door a dirty and disheveled Clayton Zinn walked in. Oddly, though Zinn was filthy he was also clean shaven. He was also carrying an umbrella, and was wearing a cap similar to what automobile drivers wore at the time.
The Zinn residence and tinsmith business was located at 101 West Lancaster Avenue in Downingtown, now the location of Crossroads Hotel

The reunion was short lived as Zinn made a dash to the rear of the building upon hearing a car horn nearby. Because of his actions, the family’s physician Dr. Laban Bremerman, who lived close by, was immediately summoned. After an examination, Bremerman pronounced him sane but incredibly nervous and scared, and very weak. Zinn also had severe pain in the back of his head but no obvious injuries. He was given an opiate and fell immediately asleep. Dr. Bremerman returned the following morning and found his patient much improved. Zinn was still weak and in pain but was able to share an incredible story.
According to Zinn, on the night he repaired the stove in the Italian settlement near Gallagherville, he was walking back to Downingtown along Lancaster Pike. He was carrying $34 and had hoped to return on the trolley but had missed the last eastbound car that evening. He ran into Alice Rambo and William Williams who were out for a buggy ride. After exchanging pleasantries, Zinn walked on and was approached by two men in a car coming from the direction of Coatesville. The car stopped and one of the men got out and approached Zinn, asking for a match. The driver, who was wearing a straw hat, remained in the car. Zinn dropped his tools and the eggs he was carrying, and as he went through his pockets looking for a match he was hit from behind and lost consciousness.
Dr. Laban Bremerman of Downingtown who took care of Clayton Zinn after his return.

The next thing Zinn remembers was that his face was covered in tar and that he was in a strange village. He found a barbershop and got a shave but recalls nothing else. This was Monday, June 13, five days after the incident.
Zinn next recalled being in a larger town the next day, which was Tuesday, June 14. At first he didn’t recognize the place, but as he regained some of his faculties he realized he was in West Chester when he saw the courthouse. He also recognized the store of his friend John Furlong, but in his condition decided not to go in. He did not know how he got to West Chester, and all the money he had, except for $1, was gone.
At this point he started walking to Downingtown, still suffering with significant pain from the blow to his head. He headed west along Strasburg Road to Copes Bridge, turned north to Sugars Bridge, then followed the trolley line to Downingtown. In Downingtown by the Miller Paper Company, he climbed up to the railroad tracks, walked west along the tracks to Viaduct Avenue, then down to his home and business at the northwest corner of West Lancaster and Downing Avenues. During the entire time he was walking, whenever he heard an automobile, Zinn would hide himself until the auto passed, fearful the men who abducted him would return.
After Zinn returned home and after his initial examination by Dr. Bremerman, he stayed in bed for several days to recover. His return was the talk of Downingtown and his strange disappearance and reappearance was complicated by the fact that even though he was injured and starving when he arrived back home, he was strangely clean-shaven and his clothes were in good condition.
Some didn’t believe his story as two separate witnesses came forward claiming to have seen Zinn in Gallagherville at about the time he was walking from West Chester. Irene Edwards, who lived near the village, claimed to have seen a man matching Zinn’s description wearing a cap and carrying an umbrella walking on Lancaster Pike. Her story was corroborated by James Gibbons, who was a delivery driver for J. Hunter Wills’ store in Downingtown, who claimed he also saw Zinn at about the same place as Edwards saw him which was not far from where Zinn allegedly came into contact with the men in the car. Gibbons was even brought to the Zinn home where he positively identified him though he did say that Zinn “had the appearance of a demented or dazed man” when he saw him on the road the night he returned. So, it is quite possible that Zinn was in Coatesville and not West Chester, but his clear recollection of being in the latter place and of his travels from there to Downingtown just adds confusion to the case.
This is the approximate location on the Lancaster Turnpike where Zinn allegedly came into contact with the two men.

Those who didn’t believe his story were denounced by a local newspaper that stated, "it is strange to understand how so many people, heretofore professing friendship for Zinn, should now be so anxious to discredit his story, and harbor evil thoughts in the matter." On the other hand, there was no evidence, especially given his condition, not to believe Zinn’s statement. In fact, Zinn’s account gained further support when on the night he disappeared, Emmett and Mary Ramsey and their son Henry, as they were returning to their home in Romansville in West Bradford, encountered two strange men in an automobile along the road in West Bradford. One was wearing a straw hat.
As no one outside the family was allowed to talk to him, all information about Zinn’s experiences was provided by Dr. Bremerman who had become the family’s de facto spokesman. Up to the morning of Friday, June 17, even Downingtown Chief of Police Thomas Gray had not yet interviewed the tinsmith.
The two men in the automobile were never found and the excitement of the week eventually died down. The mystery was never solved. Life went on for Clayton Zinn. He continued as a tinsmith in Downingtown but stopped for a period when he became superintendent of the Harbison-Walker brick factory north of town. In 1918, the family moved from Lancaster Avenue to a home on Pennsylvania Avenue. In 1925, John Zinn died from complications of a hernia infection. He was only 36. That same year, Clayton and Annie Zinn moved out of the Borough and back to his hometown of Newville in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania where he again took up the tinning business.
The incident in Downingtown wasn’t the only time Zinn made local headlines for some misfortune. In 1877 when he was ten years old, he was driving a wagon when a shaft broke. The wagon overturned and the young Zinn nearly had his head crushed by a wheel. In 1928, a torch exploded while he was soldering tin, causing serious burns to his arms. In 1931, he fell unconscious in his garage by carbon monoxide poisoning while working on his car and was rescued by one of his customers who happened to come by at the same time. In 1932, while working on the roof of his shop, he was overcome by heat stroke. But a positive headline emerged in local papers in July 1957 when his 92nd birthday was recognized. Clayton Zinn died the following October.