Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1885 — INDIANA’S SENSATION. [ARTICLE]

INDIANA’S SENSATION.

Certain Trustees Issue Illegal Township Orders to the Extent of SIOO,OOO. [lndianapolis telegram.] The discovery that certain Township Trustees of Daviess County,this State, had issued illegal township orders to the extent of $100,01)0 or more, and then fled to Canada, has caused much excitement in business circles here, where many of the orders were disposed of, and there is a well-founded belief that the swindle has been extensively practiced in other parts of the State. It is already known that such spurious obligations hive been issued in Posey, Fountain, Vermillion, and Shelby Counties, and at the present time it is impossible to estimate their extent, although it is probably hundreds of, thousands of dollars. Investigation made to-day develops that R. B. Pollard, until recently a resident of Indianapolis, is at the head of the scheme, which was both original and daring. He was agent of various school furnishing houses in Chicago and elsewhere, and his business was almost exclusively with township trustees. With some of these he made a conspiracy by which they were to issue to him township orders in large amounts in alleged ‘payment for school-supplies, and these he was to sell, dividing the proceeds with them. As he stood well financially, 1 having a constant balance in bank of from SIO,OOO to $20,000, and the orders bore on their face evidences of their genuineness, he had comparatively little trouble in disposing of them, especially as he sold them at from 10 to 15 per cent, discount, and they bore 8 per cent, interest They were sold principally to Eastern capitalists, although Pollard disposed of $4,360 worth of them to a diamond and jewelry house, said to be Coon <fc Co., of Cincinnati, for diamonds, and $2,300 to D. Van Wee, of this city, besides unknown amounts to the Third National Bank of Greensburg, and other national banks at North Vernon. In addition to this he paid for a large consignment of school furniture to a Chicago house with them, receiving his commission for them in cash. He and his family left here last week, ostensibly for Boston, but recent advices say that he is at Linn, Ont. There is a rumor, which cannot be traced down to definite sources, that before leaving he borrowed $20,000 in cash from a city bank, putting up $35,000 of these illegal orders as collateral security. The swindle is the most extensive one known in the history of the State, and its full extent is not yet known.