Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1893 — FAILURE OF EX-SECRETARY FOSTER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FAILURE OF EX-SECRETARY FOSTER.

Speculation the Cause—Dlsaetroua End of a Bong Business Career. Fostoria, 0., was shaken from center to circumference, Friday morning, by the announcement, that spread with the rapidity of wildfire, that ex-Gov. Charlea Foster had made an assignment. Every man who knows what a public spirited, enterprising citizen Mr. Foster is knew in an Instant that this meant the downfall of some of Fostoria’s most prominent institutions, which he had started and up-

held for many yea- . The report proved too true, for at an .trly hour Attorney Scott, of Toledo, file.! the papers of assignment of the banking house of Foster & Co., the wholesale grocery house of Davis & Foster and of Charles Foster individually, with J. B. Gormley, president of the First National Bank of Bucyrus, assignee. Mr. Foster made a statement to ths public, from which we extract the following: “Words cannot express the deep distress and humiliation I feel. If I could bear al) the burden that my failure will entail, I should feel a sense of relief. It is no consolation to look back over a business life of forty-five years which gained for me a position of confidence that has rarely been achieved, and to know that I have aided hundreds of people to maintain an honorable standing and to gain a competency, and some a large degree of wealth. I know that now I have by my failure injured many people. When I returned from Washington I knew that my indorsements for the window glass companies and the brass and iron works company were very large—so large, in fact as to induce me to fear that I would have to, suspend at that time. These concerns owed more than I then supposed, and to add to my misfortunes, the affairs of the Fostoria Light and Power Company, of which lam a large stockholder and indorser, proved to be in bad shape financially. I struggled, seeking every possible means to tide over the situation, until I am compelled to assign. I did not give up the struggle till Friday, May 26. I can see plainly that in settling my affairs through the courts, thus compelling my assets to be reduced to cash, large sacrifices will be made. This being so, I can not give encouragement that my debts will be paid in full. Charles Foster”

CHARLES FOSTER.