Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1884 — Two More Liesabout Calkins [ARTICLE]

Two More Liesabout Calkins

MBS. DUNCAN’S CHARGES. Special Telegram to The Inter Ocean. La Porte, Ind;, Aug. 16. —The Hon. W. H. Calkins arrived in the city this morning from Auburn, Ind,, where he addressed an immense audience last evening. The Inter Ocean correspondent interviewed him in regard to the published lettei- of Mrs. M. M. Dnncan, ex-Postmistress of Westville, Ind., now a resident of Chicago, wherein she charges she was removed by Calkins for not paying a political assessment of sl2. The following facts will prove that there is no truth in the charge whatever, and that Mrs. Duncan was removed for irregularities in conducting the oftice: in answer to a petition signed by the leading citizens of Westville, including the Hon. C. W. Catheart, ex-United States Senator, and to be succeeded by a soldier’s widow with three small children. Mr. Calkins se*id: -‘in August, 1870, Mrs. M. M. Duncan was appointed postmistress, coming from another State, and the appointment was made without the knowledge or consent of but a few of the patrons of the office, she buying out the former occupant. As far as she personally was concerned she discharged the duties of the office fairly well, but she hud id addition to the office a small millinery and dressmaking shop, a stationery store, and was taxidermist, which occupied a large portion of, her time, leaving the office to unskilled, inefficisnt help, causing more or less complaint,

and in some cases complaints were sent to headquarters. She also had two able-bodied son-in-laws who were able to take card of her had she not been healthy and strong and perfectly able to care for herself* and after her having the office thirteen years it was deemed advisible to make a change. The present occupant was a widow with three children of tender years, One a nursing babe and the other two in the neighborhood of 3 to 5 years of age. Her husband was a wounded soldier, and died from the effects of his wounds. The postmistress herself is very frail, in poor health, with the three children, and no means except a small house and lot, fbr which her husband paid S4OO. and on which was a mortgage of $l5O. As far as the assessment was concerned, she probably did recieve a circular letter, as all the other officers did, and, as a matter of fact, I understand she did pay $lO ol the sl2, and when the removal was asked for I refused to act until it had been returned to her, which was done by Aaron Jones, Chairman ol the Congressional Committee. Her money cut no figures in the removal whatever* Mrs. Miller makes a competent official, and those who at the time favored Mrs. Duncan now say they would not have Mrs. Millur removed.

The School Fund file.

LA Porte Herald-Chronicle. The Argus publishedYast week what will prove in the end to be a veritable boomerang for that paper and its party, it proceeds to show that Major Calkins borrowed S3OO from the comnlon school fund. That was hot an uncommon thing to do. There was no crime about it that we are aware of. It was all done in accordance with law, but the Argus seeks to convey the impression that the land the Major gAve in securing was not properly appraised. The only answer necessary to that is the fact that Ithamar D. Phelps having been one of the appraisers. The Angus says that during the second year of the loan the interest was defaulted and the Auditor had to take tbe land as the property of the State. We are informed by reliable parties that there wasn’t any of thb Kankakee lands but could have been sold for five dollars an acre at the time the loan was effected, speculation being very active at that period. Nov. 15> 1873, Caroline M. and Jacob Forsythe sold the land to Mortimer Nye and W. H. Calkins for $500; July 9, 1874, Mr. Nye gave the Major a quit claim deed for His share; Aug. 21, 1875, Major Calkins sold the land, subject to the mortgage, to W. A. Marlin, the present Dem ocratic candidate for County Treasurer, for SBOO The latter sold it, Sept. 24. 1875, to Harry Shannon for SI,OOO, and- Harry Shannon disposed of it, April 4, 1876, to Ella C. Rollins, of Chicago. It was while the land was in her possession that the interest was defaulted and the property became forfeited to the State. Major Calkins has asked the Auditor to sell the laud and present him the bill for any balance that may be due on the loan aforesaid. So all this worry the Argus speaks of has been wholly unnecessary. Major Calkins is good for any amount due the school fund, and in that particular the loan in question is in a great deal better condition than the thousands of dollars belonging to the school fund wlilch Democratic legislation keeps lying idle in the banks of this city. We are justified therefore in characterizing the Argus! article as a campaign lie, gotten up for foreign consumption, because, if it was considered of much importance, it would have been used long before this, as Mkjor Calkins’ public life ante dates the loan by several years.