Americana

In 1965, the son of a former Wapakoneta Chief of Police, Jimmy Ague, related to me the most dramatic incident in his father’s law enforcement career. He revealed to me how in December of 1923 citizens reported to Chief Ague that a band of Gypsies had driven into downtown Wapak. At the end of the gaudy caravan was a truck which pulled a trailer carrying an old Gypsy wagon of ornately carved wood, driven by Gypsy man who was very intoxicated! Ague had learned they’d driven back roads from Michigan and were heading south to Dayton, and belore sending them on their way Aque fined the band for Disturbance of the Peace and put in jail overnight the Gypsy driving the truck carrying the wagon for being Drunk and Disorderly. The chief thought if he fined and jailed them, they wouldn’t return to Wapak.

When one policeman commented to drunken man why he was not as dark as usual Gypsy, the man proudly announced he was English and was not a “Gypsy,” but a “Wanderer” and a “Sojourner” on his way to Dayton, Ohio to use the old wagon shipped from England in celebration of “The Queen.” The next morning, when Ague went to drunken man’s cell to send him on his way to catch up with the rest of his expelled band, THEY FOUND HIM DEAD! Doctor said it was apparent heart attack. Though no identification papers, he had photo of self. He had on chain around his neck 1866 coin with STANLEY stamped in it; he also left golden figural buckle on his black top hat. The other items pictured in frame were all found in truck or the ornate Gypsy wagon. There’s the King and Queen of England medal; deck of Gypsy fortune telling cards; photo of a Gypsy queen Cleo; photo of Gypsy horse trader; Gypsy post card; Gypsy girl valentine; strange ceramic turbined figure (used in fortune telling); and two booklets on Gypsy fortune telling and dream interpretation. The articles to the right and below in frame are from my collection of Gypsy-related Wapak items. No one came to claim the truck, trailer or ornate Gypsy wagon, which was eventually destroyed in collapsed barn, only surviving piece of it is carved dragon, saved when used as a hat rack in Wapakoneta police station.

The Gypsy man who had died of a heart attack in 1928, while under custody in the Wapakoneta city jail, was never identified. No one representing the Gypsy band ever came to claim the body, or to pay the fine and leave with the items listed on the front of the frame, nor claim the truck/trailer or stored old, highly ornate Gypsy wagon. But most revealing was the punched coin from 1866 the unidentified man was wearing, which had been stamped with name STANLEY. The man had said he was English and was on his way to Dayton, Ohio, to use in a celebration of the Queen. Police Chief Ague thought he was just a drunk babbling about the Queen of England, but what he was talking about was going to Dayton to use the old Gypsy wagon in celebrating the anniversary, fifty years in 1928 since the death of the beloved Queen of the Gypsies, Matilda Stanley in 1878!