Who is the merchant prince in "Rosie Roberts" from Spoon River Anthology?

Each of the poems in Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon
River Anthology is told from the perspective of a ghost.  The ghosts, former
residents of the small, fictional town of Spoon River, reveal much about themselves,
their intersecting lives, and their views on mortality.  "Rosie Roberts" is no
exception.

When reading poems in this book, it is helpful
to remember that they are written in a very limited first-person point of view.  Many
details are left out, but can be extrapolated from the information given by the
ghost.

Rosie was formerly a prostitute in the large city of
Peoria, Illinois. We can figure this out by noting that she is addressing the police of
Peoria from her "girlhood home in Spoon River," and that she mentions "Madame Lou's"
twice (brothels are operated by madames).  She confesses to killing "the son/Of the
merchant prince," a crime which was then covered up by "the crooked police" to avoid a
scandal.  If we know that she was prostituting herself in a large city at the turn of
the century, we can guess that the "merchant prince" is probably some important
businessman.  In order to keep his son's visit to a brothel out of the papers, the
businessman asked the police to report the death as an
accident.

Very sick and on her deathbed, Rosie obviously
wants to repent for her past and face up to her sins.  This is why she has chosen to
write to the police and confess her crime.  We can see that, despite the fact that she
was a prostitute, Rosie does retain some morality, and, in fact, could be considered
more moral and upstanding than the police or the "merchant
prince."