Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 295, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1913 — REOPENING DEAL for Male of road [ARTICLE]

REOPENING DEAL for Male of road

Engineer Here to Make Further Survey of the Chicago & Wabash Valley Railroad. Negotiations are again on for the purchase by Chicago interests, whose (identity is clothed in secrecy at this time, of the Chicago & Wabash Valley railroad, the road, and D. C. Dunlap, a civil engineer, has again been sent here to go over the road and make another estimate of the value. It is said that the offer the Chicago people made several months ago still holds good and that Executor Gifford and others interested are more disposed to consider a sale now than they were some time ago. Ed Oliver, the hustling real estate agent and chief booster of Gifford farm lands, is again active in the effort to bring negotiations to a close. Wednesday Executor Gifford, of Tipton, who is the president of the road; Vice President and General Manager Frank E. Lewis; Engineer C. J. Hobbs and Secretary N. G. Halsey were in conference. They declared to a reporter that there was no significance in th meeting. The Republican was told, however, by one of the heirs recently that he personally favored the sale of the road at the figure offered and that he believed a number of the )ther heirs also favored it. This would make the settlement of the vast estate,possible and If the road is not sold,' it will take a long time to close up the estate and it will be a long time before the heirs can realize anything from the bequest. There is every probability that the people who are trying to purchase the road are representing some other railroad system and that the consummation of the deal will mean the improvement and extension of the road, which wpuld be a grand thing for the land it traverses and would herp materially in the development of the farms' and their increase in value.