Frank Gerwe
Cincinnati Enquirer, Sunday, 28 January 1900, page 8
DIES IN CHICAGO
Word was received in Newport yesterday of the death at Chicago of
Frank Gerwe, formerly a well known mail carrier of Newport and son of John Gerwe,
of West Sixth street in that city. Gerwe left Newport about 10 years ago and was
one of six men who tore out one end of the City Jail and made their escape.
He had entered the Postal Service as a messenger boy and by strict attention to his duties, was promoted to carrier. New officials being place in that department he was relieved. He then entered the employ of the late druggist Gus Holzhauer, by whom he was subsequently charged with the embezzlement of funds amounting to $200 or more, with which he had been entrusted to take to the bank.
Gerwe was arrested out West, brought back to Newport and was awaiting trial in jail when he, with five others prisoners, pushed out a part of the wall and escaped. His friends in this city had never heard from him until the receipt of the message announcing his death. He was of a good family and was very popular among young people.
A special dispatch to the Enquirer concerning Gerwe's death says that he was known in Chicago as Frank Gerno, Frank E Gerve and Frank Gerwey. His death occurred at the Cook County Hospital on Friday. He had been for some time in a lodging house at 79 Van Buren street, that city. The people there knew very little about him. He was taken sick early in the week and was removed to the County Hospital, where the physicians diagnosed his trouble as pleurisy. Despite the best of treatment he died on Friday.
Letters found in his room at the lodging house gave a clew to the relatives and they were communicated with. The body has been placed in the county morgue pending instructions from them as to the disposition of it.