Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1905 — CHARGED WITH FORGERY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CHARGED WITH FORGERY.

Peoria Banker and Edticafßr la Indicted by Grand Jury. The arrest of Newton C. Dougherty, superintendent of schools and president of the Peoria National Bank, in

Peoria, on the charge of forgery, follows the most astounding revelations by the grand jury and which has been examining the books of the Peoria School Board.' Within a comparatively brief space of time a shortage of $75,000 was d i sco vered,

but the further discovery was made that the peculations have been extending over a long term of years. Before the investigation of Dougherty’s affairs are concluded it is said the defalcations of the superintendent of schools may reach $200,000. Dougherty .asserts the entire shortage is the result of defective bookkeeping, and says his entire fortune, which is estimated at $250,000, will be turned over if necessary to make it good. Mr. Dougherty has been city superintendent of schools for twenty-five years. He is immensely wealthy, and besides being president of the PeoriU National Bank, is a heavy stockholder in the Dime Savings Company, the Peoria Livery Company and other con cerjis.

He is a. trustee of the fund of $175,000 held by the National Educational Association and is a past president of the association. He is a close friend of Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University of New York, and has been for years regarded as one of the foremost educational men in the country. The news of his arrest created the greatest excitement. Although there have been rumors of the gravest character for some time past, the friends of the financier -were loyal to him. According to a Peoria dispatch it was Erwin Schnebly, a youpg bank clerk in the Peoria National Bank, who ferreted out the defalcations which Newton C. Dougherty, superintendent of schools, has been manipulating for many years in Peoria. Schnebly, by watching the skillful work of Mr. Dougherty, followed the case step by step and finally placed in the hands of the grand jury the information which led to Dougherty’s arrest and indictment.

N. C. DOUGHERTY.