Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1910 — PURTELL’S RECORD NOT GOOD. [ARTICLE]

PURTELL’S RECORD NOT GOOD.

Electric Railroad Promoter Finds Hard Sledding, SAYS A HAMMOND NEWSPAPER Conservative Men Do Not Look With Favor on Indiana & Northwestern Traction Co. and Proposition Is Investigated Thoroughly.

Having become convinced that the operations of Eugene t'urtelle of the Northwestern Indiana Traction company are such as are not approved by the more conservative promotors of street railway enterprises, and that the whole project savors of a doubt, some Hammond men have made an exhaustive investigation of Purtelle’s record. *

The necessity for going into this matter arose when the information came to this paper that the bond agents of this company are operating all over northern Indiana and are selling the stock and bonds of the company at whatever terms they are able to secure.

It is believed that there ’are .at least thirty stockholders in Hammond alone, and it is hard to tell* HpW many hundreds of people in the other towns along the route of this railroad have been induced to purchase stock at prices varying from 75 to par. The following is the report from a source which is positively reliable which gives an indication of the manner in which Purtelle does business:

In promoting the project to build the electric railway from Hammond to Dyer and other points south, two companies were organized. The first was the Northwestern Indiana Traction company and the second is the LaSalle Supply and Construction company.

The capital stock of the Northwestern Indiana Traction company is $50,000, which is about to be increased to $2,000,000, The LaSalle Supply and Construcifctqn company, 222 LaSalle cago, was incorporated unadr the laws of the state of Illinois in November, 1909.

The latter company has a capital stock of $5,000, which has been paid in cash, and is apportioned as follows: W. F. Mulcahy, 32 l / 2 shares; L. C. Garver, \2 l / 2 shares and M. W. Hanley, 5 shares. . j

The LaSalle Supply and Construction company occupies the offices formerly tenanted by Eugene Purtelle & Co. Purtelle was regarded to be the principal owner of the business.

In November, 1902, Purtelle started into business in . partnership with his brother under the name of Aubrey, Purtelle & Co., and in June following, changed the name to Purtelle Bros. & Co. In the spring of 1904 this house failed for a large amount, and so far as can be learned have paid none of their debts. In October, 1904, started another business in Chicago, under the name of Purtelle, Price & Co. He ran it for a short time and closed up and subsequently opened an office and later the government issued a fraud order against this concern, prohibiting it the use of the mails.

In May, 1906, Purtelle operated the Illinois Security company at 204 Tacoma building. The furniture was seized for debt. Judgment was rendered against him July 3, 1908, for $32.25, and in December, 1908, he and George A. Haskell gave a chattel mortgage to David Wasserman for S3OO, balance due on office furniture, which was released Jan. 2, 1909.

Recently Purtelle gave up the business, apd now appears at this address avowedly, having no connection with the LaSalle Supply and Construction company, but very apparently furnishing the concern with its motive for organizing. This company claims that it is

in the market to construct railroads, and their first contract is the Northwestern Indiana Traction company, of which Purtelle is president and W. F. Brucker, an Indiana man, is secretary. The Northwestern Indiana Traction Co; has headquarters at Monticello, Ind. It claims to have part of the right-of-way and all but two franchises for the operation of the road, which they say they Will begin - to construct in thirty days. Regarding the LaSalle Supply and' Construction company Michael Hanly is president, Lewis A. Garver is secretary-treasurer. Garver came originally from Rockford, 111., and was formerly of the law firm of Hayes, Garver & Octagin. Hanly is a clerk in the employ for many years of the Armour Grain C 0.,. 205 LaSalle street. Mulcahey, it is claimed, is a Chicago capitalist, now in California. —Hammond Times.