From the Philadelphia Record, Aug. 2, 1895:
Washington D.C., Aug. 1. A letter received at police headquarters this morning from the Superintendent of Constabulary at Glasgow, Scotland, contained information which apparently clears up the mysterious disappearance of Rev. Dana A. Davenport, a young Episcopalian clergyman, son of Rev. Mr. Davenport, of Anacostia, a suburb of Washington. The letter stated that on July 20 a young man was found lying beside the tracks of the Caledonian Railway, at Cambuslang, a town five miles from Glasgow. He was badly injured, and died on that day. He was able to say, however, that he was Dana Davenport, a medical student of Washington, U.S.A. The body was interred by the Caledonian Railway officials.
A description of the deceased given in the letter tallied with that of the missing young minister, except in that the clothes were not the ones he wore when he left home. A notebook found in his pocket contained the addresses of ministers and physicians in Glasgow.
HIS IDENTITY NEARLY COMPLETED
The Washington police immediately notified Rev. Mr. Davenport, the young man's father, and accompanied by two detectives, he went to the State Department, where a request was made that the department cable the United States Consul at Glasgow to forward the clothing and other effects of the young man to Washington, in order that they might be examined. The cable message was sent without delay.
Young Davenport's father has little doubt that the man killed near Glasgow was his son. Dana Davenport was evidently demented. He was 23 years old, and had had charge of an Episcopal Church at Harrisonville, Baltimore County, Md., 12 miles from Baltimore. He was last seen on July 5, when he left his residence in Harrisonville for Baltimore, and called upon a friend there. When he left the house that night all trace of him disappeared.
MAY HAVE BEEN MURDERED
The Scotch official encloses a clipping from the Glasgow Evening News of July 22, narrating the circumstances of his death. It said:
"The injuries upon the body seem not entirely to have been caused by being run over on the line, and the doctors at the infirmary will not certify the cause of death."
When Davenport disappeared from Baltimore, where he was visiting friends, he had $35, a watch and chain and a gloss cross, as well as silver sleeve buttons. Upon leaving his friends he said he was going down the river, but instead of doing so it is supposed he boarded a steamer and sailed for Scotland.
He had expressed a desire a year or more ago to go across the ocean on a European trip, and had said to his father that he thought he could work his passage over without any funds.
Detective McDevitt expresses the belief that young Davenport was murdered. The money he may have expended, but the detective thinks he would hardly have disposed of his watch and cross. There were cuts on his head, and nothing is said in the letter, says the detective, to show that the railroad train killed him. "I think he was probably murdered and robbed," said the detective. "It is possible that he was robbed and then thrown from the railroad train."