Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1908 — Page 1

Jasper County Democrat.

SI.OO Per Year.

BOWERS DECIDES.

Says Creditors flust Accept Compromise IN THE DELOS THOMPSON MATTER. Creditors May Appeal From Decision II T) ie y Desire, If Done Within Ten Days. v After the usual long delay, Referee Bowers has at last decided the proposed compromise of the 154,000 Rensselaer Stock Farm indebtedness to the defunct McCoy bank, holding that the creditors must accept the SIO,OOO offered by Delos Thompson, one of the partners in the old Stock Farm,as full settlement of the claim sued,upon and which has been pending in court for some' two years or more, it now being in the Lake circuit court where it was taken on change of venue by Mr. Thompson from ' Jasper county. It was rumored two weeks ago that MF. Bowers had intimated that he would so decide this case as he “wanted to get it out of the way so he could attend to the Parker bank troubles.” As we understand, the creditors who oppose this compromise can, if they choose, appeal to Judge Anderson from Bowers’ ruling, and are given ten days under the law to appeal. Whether they will do so or not we are unadvised, but as shown by this paper when the matter was first referred to Mr. Bowers, an overwhelming number of the bank ereditors —102, representing some $131,000 —remonstrated against accepting the compromise, to some 17 creditors and $54,000 represented on the pe-, tition to accept. Of the latter more than one-half were relatives and business associates of Mr. Thompson.

PARKER BANK ASSETS.

N Marion I. Adams of Rensselaer, I). V. Pettit of Wolcott, and I. N. Atkinson, of Oxford, appraised the Parker bank assets at Remington Wednesday and Thursday., At the hour of going to press all the individual footings hadn’t been made, but the bank building and ground was appraised at $4,000; bank fixtures, $2,788; home residence and grounds, $5,000; household goods $260. The total of everything was appraised at $76,000, while the liabilities are about $290,000. An itemized report will «be published next week.

CIRCULATING PETITION TO HAVE FRED GILMAN PAROLED.

A petition is being circulated in Goodland and vicinity for the parole of F. D. Gilman, the former Goodland banker, who was sent to the penitentiary at Michigan City last February for embezzlement in taking deposits when his bank was insolvent. The petition is said to be signed very generally, there not being much of any bitter feeling against Fred because he is not believed to have spent the bank’s money in riotous living, or to have personally profited in any way from the failure, but was simply a victim of overconfidence in loaning the funds to those who could not make good when pay day came. Fred was sent up for from one to three years, and it is thought will be let out at the expiration of the minimum term, which expires next week.

GOOD NEWS, IF TRUE.

Logansport, Ind., January 27. Willard Elliott, of this city, receiver for the Ambia and Fowler banks, owned by (Messrs. Baldwin i, & Dague, which were closed by the State Auditor, filed his report with Judge Lairy in the Circuit Court this afternoon. The liabilities of the Ambia bank ate $129,257.99; asseta!sl3l,44o.oß;e±oeßßof assets $2,182.09. Liabilities of Fowler . bank, $91,965.02; assets $58,256.65; excess liabilities, $33,708.37. Messrs. Baldwin & Dague have .personal deposits in this 1 bank amounting to $29,805.03, which added to the baik’s assets, leaves only a deficit of $3,903.04. This added to the deficit of $516.87, existing fit Goodland, makes a total deficit in the Goodland and Fowler banks amounting to $4,421.21. But this deficit is entirely wiped out by the surplus of $2,-

182,09 and with Baldwin’s private deposit of $448.51 in the Ambia bank, which leaves a total surplus of $1,866.42 to the credit of the three banks. Stockholders of the Foodland bank will receive 10 per cent, dividend, and another dividend will follow aoon.

HANDSOME NEW BANKING ROOMS

Jasper Savings & Trust 00. tank is now moved into its elegant new quarters in the former Long drug store room, which has been thoroughly remodeled for its use. The entire fixtures are all new throughout and make it the handsomest bank in this section of the state. The wood work is all mahogany throughout, even the private desk, type-writer desk, chairs counters, tables, wainscoating, etc. The floors of the lobby are tiled and of the private office rooms are covered with cork carpet or linoleum. The whole interior is a model of elegance, convenience and stability,

WILLIAM EGER DEAD.

Prominent Rensselaer Hardware Mer- . chant Dies After Short Illness. /*W. H. Eger, the well known hardware merchant, died at 10 o’clock Saturday night after a brief illness from congestion of the lungs and heart failure. He had been troubled with his heart for some yeSYe, and had taketra severe cold a few days before his death. He went about bis business as usual, however, and was up town Thursday. That night he seemed to be feeling somewhat better than he had for a few days, but Friday morning he was seized with severe pains in the region of the heart soon after getting up and it was seen that bis condition was critical. He gradually became worse and Friday evening a council of doctors was held and it was agreed /hat there was no hope for him. ffle had frequent spells of coughing and some hemorrhages. He could not lie down and get a breath, but sat in a chair, leaning over forward to get any relief at all, and died thus, althongh he lap. sed into a semi-conscious condition a couple of hours before death issued, and the end was peaceful. Hypodermic injections of morphine relieved the agony of pain 'which he first suffered and eased his few remaining hours. The funeral was held Tuesday at 2:30 p. m. from the house, conducted by Rev. J. C. Parrett of the Presbyterian church, and was largely attended by the people of the city, especially the business men of Rensselaer of whom be bad been one for a great many years. Interment was made in Weston cemetery, the services at the cemetery being in charge of the Masonic lodge of which he was a member. The floral tributes was most profuse and very handsome. As a mark of respect the business houses closed from 2 to 4 while the ceremonies were going on. William H. Eger was the eldest child of Michael and Louise Eger, and was born in Lafayette Nov. 25, 1851. Two years later his parents moved to Rensselaer where be he had since resided.. He learned the tinner’s trade as a young man and worked at the trade for some time, later engaging in the grocery busiqess with his brother John. Some twenty years Rgo'he started in the hardware business and bad always enjoyed a prosperous trade. Aug. 20, 1882, he was married to Mary Duvall, who' with one daughter, Mrs. Bessie Grant, and two sons, Cleve and Harry survive him. He also leaves a mother, one brother. John Eger, and four sisters, Misses Mary, Lizzie, and Carrie Eger of Rensselaer, and Mrs. Frank Maloy of Lowell. His father died about four years ago. Mr. Eger was one of the'substantial business men of Rensselaer, was accommodating and reliable in business, an excellent neighbor and friend and a good husband and father. His sudden death, al most in the prime of life, is a shook to the community and is mourned by a large circleof friends as well as the immediate family, who have the sympathy of all in their bereavement.' *

HE IS QUITE EXPENSIVE.

Kentland Enterprise: State Auditor Billheimer filed a claim for $249.25 for the part he t ook in closing the Goodland Bank. The amount was allowed by Judge Hanley Tuesday.

Rbnssblabr, Jasper County. Indiana, Saturday, February i, 1908.

SCORCHED.

Fire Fiend Visited Morocco Sunday Night. LOSS IS ESTIMATED AT 535.000. Five Frame Business Buildlufs Destroyed and Only Heroic: Work Prevents Greater Loss.

Sunday night, beginning shortly before 11 o’clock, five business houses in the heart of Morocco, were reduced to ashes. The fire started in the rear of McDonald & Russell’s resturant, and whs driven eastward by a high wind along the north side of State street till stopped by the fireproof building occupied by Kessler & Co., general merchants. The total losses include the following: I. T. Purdy, meat market; Bell & Atkinson, barber shop; Irvin building, with harness and shoe shop, implement store and photograph gallery; Dowling brick building, unoccupied, and the V. P. Hope building. where the fire started. The wind and heat hampered the firemen in their work. Only the Irvin building was uninsured. The others were fairly well covered.' Kessler <fc Co. are heavy losers by goods hurriedly removed and dumped in the streets. The cause of the fire is unknown. The total loss will reach $35,000. County Supt. W. O. Schanlaub, who had rooms in one of the buildings burned, lost about $75 worth of books and clothing which he had not yet removed to Kentland.

MR. PARKER MAKES A STATEMENT

Tells of Some of the Losses His Bank Sustained and of Numerous Bad Investments. Robert Parker, the Remington banker whose bad failure Dec. 18 has been one of the principal topics discussed in this section of the state for the past several weeks, has issued a statement to the public of his side of the failure. The statement is interesting and in view of the fact that most of The Democrat’s readers are acquainted with Mr. Parker and many of them were sufferers in the bank failure we publish it entire, that they may read what he has to say of the causes leading up to one of the most' disastrous bank failure ever recorded in Indiana: Tv THE PUBLIC. “The misfortune that has overtaken and crushed me and the fact that many friends who have known and placed implict confidence in me as a man and banker for more than a quarter of a century are puzzled to account for my sudden failure, without warning, make it imperative that I shall to some extent at least explain the causes that have brought about the calamity. “ ■- “This statement is made without any consideration as to whether it is good or bad policy to write it, and without consultation or advice as to what effect it may have upon my future. My only motive is a hope that those who have trusted me and because of my errors in judgement have suffered loss may believe that the disaster was brought about by a series of blunders of the head and not by intent of the heart to* wrong my friends and patrons. "I can say truthfully, and with no fear of disclosures that would tend to contradict the statement that 1 have not engaged in speculation upon the ‘Board of Trade’ or through 'bucket shops’ and I have not wasted the money entrusted to me in reckless, wasteful or extravagant living. I have lived* with and among most of you as you have lived, enjoying much the same pleasures and privileges, and we have shared with you and yoprs our sorrows and joys. My history has been as an open book and you know whether in your hearts you believe that I ever intended to rob, wrpng or defraud any of you. My protestations now, that I did not, would perhaps avail me nothing, but my life in your midst, and what you have known of me is surely some evidence of my good intent. Further proof is the fact that I have not profited a dollar. Every thing in the nature of assets of which I have or can

obtain knowledge, without secret evasion or concealment, has been and will be surrendered to the trustee for the benefit of my creditors. In the confusion of the crash it was difficult, almoat impossible to classify and list every item of possible assets at onoe, but an honest, earnest effort upon my part has been made and is being made to describe and schedule every thing of value that can be made available to reduce the ag-, gregate of my liabilities. As to some of the items there may be difference of views as to the effect of rival claims of bolding, but so far as I do or may control them have been and will*be turned over to the trustee, and the* manner of their disposition will be determined by the authorities. I only trust that I may be able to sustain those who are dependent upon and who are near and dear to me during the time that it seems necessary that I shall give to the untangling of the complications that were brought about by reasons of the suddenness of my suspension. “My condition has been brought about by no one, but many, unfortunate investments, through a series of years, that at last exhausted my resources and destroyed my credit. It is needless to say that my heart is broken as well, because if I were even so stony as to care not for the woes of others, the fact remains open and apparrent that I am left approaching old age without means, and with nothing by which I may care for my loved ones. “When money was plentiful there grew up around us a custom of high bidding for deposits and I found myself competing with banks of neighboring towns and cities and paying high rates of interest. A very large amount of deposits accumulated and the interest upon the same was a very severe drain, so that it became absolutely neccessary to find some means of investment. In the flush times this became very difficult, and there was at all times for many years a large amount of surplus in the bank that was constantly drawing interest and yet earning nothing. I tiade almost frantic efforts to find safe investments, and ventured nothing but that seemed to me to be reasonably safe, and yet it seemed that almost everything that I touched in the way of financial investments and large loans turned out disastrously. When losses were suffered they became non-earning and yet the money invested continued to be interestbearing.

“Upon examination I will make an effort to go more into detail as to these individual losses than I can do here, bat I state below in a general way, losses of considerable amounts that I can recall, that aggregate nearly one hundred thousand dollars, all of which have been practically drawing interest, (in the way of interest upon deposits that went into losses), for years. Every single loan and investment promised, when made, to be safe and to bring good returns. “I am aware that it is claimed, and will be claimed by debtors below that tney hold receipts for every dollar of their indebtedness to me, and in more than one instance this is true, but the fact remains that the loss was suffered by me and never repaid by the debtor. Receipts were given to avoid forcing the debtors in bankruptcy, and thus make me a total and absolute loser, whereas without bankruptcy there was slight hope of recovery of a part of the indebtedness. Such hope was not realized. “The figures indicate resultant losses to me by the parties of or businesses* named, and they are not intended to be exact but are the best estimates I can make without the evidences before me. Hartley Bros, (failure)>lsooo 00 Hardy Bros, (assignment) 4000 00 P. E. Carson (failure) 4500 00 Star Cash Grocery (failure)... 3500 00 J. H.Tnbbv, (bankruptcy)... 3500'00 Thomas Mullen (failure to pay).. 4000 00 Wm. Shepherd (failure to payF 7200 00 Bull & Whitehead (assignment)....... 530000 J. S. Barnes & Co.(failure).... 4000 00 Patrick McGuire (failure).... 4000 00 Toledo & Chicago Transfer Co (failure)... . 14000 00 J. H. Allman (overdraft) 650 00 On account of swamp lands in southern states 5000 00 Mining stock 15000 00 “There are other losses of considerable amount that I am unable just now ip my present state of mind to recall. I feel that the item of losses by reason of the Toledo & Chicago Transfer Co.,

Continued on Fifth Page.

THE COURT HOUSE

Items Picked Up About the County Capitol.

Commissioners’ court convenes Monday. C —o—jrMarriage Licenses issued: Jan. 27, Albert M. Hurley of Aik, aged 18, occupation farmer, to Iva Swaim, also of Aix, aged 16, occupation housekeeper. First marriage for each. —o — New suits filed: No. 7263. Viola C. Noland vs. Richard Noland; action to replevin one horse, wagon, harness and two cows which plaintiff alleges she owns and which defendant holds possession of without right. The February term of the Jasper circuit court will convene one week from Monday. The docket will not be very heavy from present appearances, only 20 new new civil cases and one ditch case having been filed since last term, P-Bert Baker and Pat Courtney, the Newton county prisoners who have been in jail here for some time, were taken to Kentland Thursday, the former to testify against White in the hog stealing case, and the latter to be tried for larceny. Later: Courtney was acquitted. —o — The Newton county cutting scrape, in which Orren and Arch Elijah were charged with murderderously assaulting Thomas Dowling last October, was tried before a jury in the Newton circuit court this week and resulted in a verdict of guilty and a fine of $l5O each. The evidence was conflicting, the Elijah’s claiming that Dowling was the aggressor. *

—o The republican delegates recently chosen in this district will meet in Rensselaer next Tuesday to select two delegates to their national convention which meets in Chicago next June. Senator Will R. Wood of Lafayette and George Ade, the playwright, who is now back in the race after having “seen” Crumpacker, it is expected will be chosen. Austin White of Roselawn was arrested in Michigan last week and is now laying in jail here to answer the charge of grand larceny, White and Bert Baker, together with their wives, are under arrest on warrants issued upon the affidavit of Harry Baxter charging them with stealing hogs from the Otis ranch. Baker and the two women were arrested in this county at the time of the stealing, but White got a scare and fled to Michigan. White will be tried here, bis case being set for to-mor-row, but Baker has taken a change of venue and his trial will be heard at Rensselaer.—Newton County Enterprise.

WHO WILL BUY?

P. J. Hanley, of Washington, la., has prepared and sent to The Commoner the following interesting. matter which he sugests that republican politicians might use as a hand bill: PUBLIC SALE. Our lease with Uncle Sam, having practically expired, and having decided to quit the business, and retire to private life, we, the undersigned, will offer at public sale at our residence at the Capitol in Washington, D. C., commencing on the second day of February, 1908, the following deer i bed property, to-wit: One elephant, about forty-five years old. One financial panic, old enough to be weaned. One republican platform, the same being somewhat rottenOne big stick. One republican machine, the same being somewhat out of repair. One financial system. Fifty million Teddy Bears, and other articles too numerous to mention. Terms of sale, cash. G. O. P. Owners. Rockefeller & Morgan, Clarks. Wall Street, Auctioner. While it is believed by many that most of the above named ar-

Vol. X. No 44

tides will be purchased as relics, by the stand-patters, still we have been informed on good authority that it is the earnest desire of the G. O. P. that the democratic party be present at the sale and thus show their interest and good will in the same, even though they don’t see anything which they care to purchase.—Bo. Dak. Exchange.

K. OF P. DISTRICT MEETING.

The district meeting of the K. of P. order will be held at Remington next Wednesday, afternoon and evening. The Grand Chancellor and four other grand lodge officers will be in attendance. The Remington lodge will entertain the visiting Knights and an excellent program has been arranged for the occasion. It will pay every K. of P. in district to attend.

CALL FOR PRECINCT MEETINGS.

The democratic voters of Jasper county and all others who desire to affiliate with them are requested to meet at the usual places in their respective precincts on SATURDAY, FEB. 8, 1908, at 2 p. m., for the purpose of electing a precinct committeeman and secretary. The precinct committeemen so elected will meet in the city of Rensselaer on Saturday, Feb. 15, 1908, at 2 p. m., in the east court room at the court house and elect a county chairman? sectary and treasurer. The secretaries of the precinct conventions are requested to report the result of same at once to the county chairman. Lucius Strong, Co. Ohm. N. Littlefield, Sec.

COMMON COUNCIL MEETING.

Not Much Done But Allow the Usual k Grist of Claims. The Common Council of the city of Rensselaer met in regular session Monday evening with all members present except Councilman Williams who was iu Chicago. Following is a report of the proceedings: Dr. M. D. Gwin, who was recently appointed county health officer, resigned as city health officer, he not being permitted to hold both offices, and Dr. Wallace Parkison was appointed in his stead. « The claims of Sarah E. Burns et al for damages for fallingon the sidewalk near the old Foster House last September was dismissed. The marshall was instructed to throw out the old board sidewalk near Lyman Zea’s residence. The “fence” or high tariff wall ordinance to keep out traveling doctors and opticians, introduced at last previous meeting, was not called up, and therefore no action whatever was taken. The last school house bond having been paid off the first of the year and there being $994.57 in the “special additionol fund,” created to pay interest on the school bonds, the same was ordered distributed equally between the corporation and road funds. Both these latter funds are overdrawn largely,the corporation fund about $2,000, we understand, and no more money is available until next June when the June draw comes in. It looks like this fund never would get caught up unless there is a change in policy regarding the reckless spending of money just as if the oity bad it. The following claims were allowed. COBPOBATION FUND. G. B. Porter, Mdse, fire company $5 00 Leslie Clark, blanks, clerk's office 10 50 Same, letter heads, fire chief 2 50 Dr. Miller, sal. on board of health 10 00 E. M. Thomas, nightwatch.. 25 00 W. S. Parks, marshal.*. 30 00 Chas. Jorian, clerk 25 00 J. L. Griggs, firing for council 2 40 James Snedeker. rent hose cart house 12 00 BLKCTHIC LIGHT FUND. C, S. Chamberlain, sai to Jan 15 & exp 55 OS Dave Haste, same.; 30 00 Mel Abbott, same 30 go Illinois Electric Co., suppllee . 23 49 Carnahan-Sherwood Co,, light record 18 50 J. A. Grant, hauling poles 2 25 Motes Leopold, freight... 184 10 WATBR FUND. Ed Hopkins, sal. to Jan. 15 30 00 Mose Leopold, water bonds and int 1463 02 ROAD BUND. Leslie Clark, notices street assessm'ts 200 Chester Zee, labor with eity team...... 25 00 John Alberton, shoveling c0a1... 10 00 Al Pletcher, cleaning sidewalks 3 30 Tom Parker, same 3 30 PUBLIC FAB*. Mosee Leopold, note and interest 174 75 BIVU STRUCT FUND. Same, bond paid .«... 130 00 FOBBBT STBKBT FUND. Same, bond paid. ..24 00 Read The Democrat for news 1