Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1909 — DEFAULTING BANK CASHIER RETURNS TO TIPTON. [ARTICLE]

DEFAULTING BANK CASHIER RETURNS TO TIPTON.

Says He Went On Fishing Trip to Louisiana, Mo.—Declines to Discuss His Bank 4 Peculations. Tipton, Ind., July 30.—Noah R. Marker, the defaulting assistant cashier of the First National Bank, of this city, returned here at 6:30 o’clock this morning on an interurban car. and immediately went to his home, where he was arrested by Deputy United States Marshal Boyd at 12:45 this afternoon. He will be taken to Muncie for a preliminary hearing. Mr. Marker said he had been fishing in Missouri and returned to celebrate his thirty-fifth birthday. He received a large number of callers this morning and there was an informal reception at his home. He declined to discuss the affairs of the bank, and refused positively to say what he did with the $60,000 in cash he is alleged to have taken from the bank last Saturday night. His return was as stealthy as his departure, for no one here seemed to have any intimation that he was coming back. It developed here today that Marker recently bought ten thousand acres of land in Texas for SBO,OOO and that he was preparing to found a town. Part of the stolen money may have been used in paying for this land. Noah R. Marker, according to examiner Weir, is short fully $105,000, but the amount may run much larger as Mr. Weir’s examination has not been completed. Besides the $60,000 that disappeared from the bank last Saturday night, Noah R. Marker is alleged to have forged notes and checks to the extent of about $50,000. These forgeries were covered up by manipulation of the bank’s records. But though Marker refused to discuss his defalcation at the bank he did not decline to talk to his callers regarding his trip to Missouri. He said that on arriving here this morning he got off the car at East street, before the station was reached, and walked direct to his home in West Madison street. He immediately called his brother, William H. Marker, and attorney George G. Gifford, F. T. McKeown and other members of the Masonic lodge of which he was a member, visited the home. To them he related the story of his trip. He said that he left Tipton Saturday night as he bad explained to his wife for a rest from business cares, and that he would go fishing somewhere until Saturday of this week.

Marker said he saw two people he knew on the car going to JndlanapoIls, but encountered no person in the city with whom be was acquainted. He proceeded direct to the union station and bought a ticket for the sleeper to St. Louis. There was no person near the ticket window when the purchase was ma-li. He arrived at St. Louis next morning and in the station he met semj men who were going fishing. He asked about a good place to spend a week and was told that Louisiana, Mo, a city about sixty miles distant, was an ideal place. He went there, obtained board anl spent the time tiamp : ng l-:e bills or fishing Marker said he learned of the sensation his disappearance had caused here when the papers from St. Louis arrived at Louisiana on Tuesday. He discussed the articles with the others at the boarding house, and no one had a suspicion of bis identity. He was looked on as a person who came to regain his health, and his name and address were not asked. Ho had Intended to return home tomorrow, but remembered that today was his thirtyfifth birthday and decided to spend It with his famlly.&He had had no communication with his family since his departure. Marker asserted that he saw no one 'in Indianapolis or St. Louis on the return trip who suspected him, and that he did not believe there had been any effort made to apprehend him. He was cordially greeted by his friends here and said be felt much better than he did when he went away. When asked as to the condition of affairs at the bank, be declined to say anything, and asked that any questions on that point be submitted to his

attorneys, Gifford & Gifford, who instructed him to decline to talk. Marker was arrested this afternoon charged with the embezzlement of $50,000 of the funds of the First National Bank of this city, and was taken before United States Commissioner Frank Ellis at Muncie and, waiving examination, was bound in the sum of SIO,OOO to appear before the Federal Grand Jury of this district at Indianapolis next November. In charge of Deputy United States Marshal Alonzo Boyd, Marker then was brought back to-this city, where a throng of his friends and the townspeople awaited him. Several business men signed his bond and he wa!s released from custody. The men who went on his bond were Nicholas S. Martz, George C. Wood, Jesse C. Hadley, T. W. Longfellow, Joseph H. Glass, E. M. Todd, N. W. Nichols and Solomon Rouls. When Deputy Marshall Boyd arrived in Tipton with his prisoner he was given a list of twenty-five names, representing $200,000, to apply on Marker’s bond. He took eight names and four affidavits. Marker would make no statement as to the allegations against him except that he was innocent. All day he had held a reception at his home, and there was a long line of callers. Many business men signed their names to an agreement to give surety for him in any collective amount up to $225,000. One of them said he would sign for $75,000. /