Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1871-03-23
The Latest Svindles,


The Cass County Republican thu
relates the doings of land shark il
that county:
A man named Burton, with severa
aliases, claiming to hail FROM Chicago
has recently been detected in carrying
ON an extensive system. of swindline
people by means of forged deeds &c
property which was not his own. .His
plan has been to go to the real estate
records in different counties and ascer
tain the names and residence of owner:
of nonresident lands, signatures of the
owners, and have confederate person
ate said owners for the purpose of &C
knowledgement before notaries. This
accomplished, he was ready to sell to
any one who offered to buy. AS the
records showed the title to be in him,
this was not difficult, as he undoubted-
ly sold at hard-times prices. Ore OF
his operations in this county has Just
come to light. A single lady named
Wheaton, of Philadelphia, owns hal!
section of desirable timber land in the
northern part of the Town of VoEuia,
which different persons had tried in
vain to buy of the real owner-and
when the alleged transfer to Burton
appeared among the published list OF
transfers, Burton had plenty of appli-
cations for the land, thus enabling him
to sell at good figures Mr. Joseph
Warren of Decatur, purchased 160
acres of it, paying $1,000 down and
giving a mortgage for as much more,
rI<, Il H.. n
ing of to a banker in Kalamazoo. A
man from Allegan county was victimiz-
ed for portion or the whole of the
other quarter section. These parties
have been cutting the timber this
winter, and hauling it to the saw-mill
at Decatur. 1t is stated that Warren
has taken measures to stop a legal
transfer of the outstanding mortgage.
These operations should warn notari-
es and other officers taking acknowl-
edgements of deeds to be careful that
the persons whose signatures appear to
the instruments are really personally
known to them, for it seems, by the
means of the too common loose custom
of taking acknowledgements of strang-
ers, this swindler has been enabled to
obtain apparent perfect titles to lands,
and victimize innocent purchasers.
The following Is given by an ex-
change as an incident which may serve
to enlighten farmers on another feature
of swindling operations:
"Some weeks ago a couple of men
travelled through this country represent
ing themselves to be gents of Cleve-
land insurance company. They called
on Henry H. Crandilll, and by their
plausible story convinced him that he
ought to insure his property. They
asked only a small sum of money down,
and for another small balance, they
would take a note payable at some flu
ture time. The agents also agreed to
measure the property up to its full
value. Mr.. Crandall thought he had a
good thing, getting great deal of Sc
curity at very little cost, so he signed
the note, and paid between three and
four dollars at the first ibstallment.
After these prcliminarice wcrc arrang-
ed the bogus insurance agents drove
up ightning-rod wagon and proceed
ed to pnt up rods on every corner OF
Craudall's house. Crandall demurred
to this; he didn't want to go to that
expense. The agent told him that they
charged nothing for the rods; the com
pany paid the cost to secure the prop
srty they insured. Here is where the
point comes in. The other day Mr.
Crandan received notice from the First
Natioual Bank that they held his note
for 1896 for collection. 1t appears
that the bogus agents got him to sign
blank note. which they filed up fol
the above amount. This they sold to
some parties, who proceeded to enforce
collection as soon as possible after the
note became due.n