The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-26
FERDINAND WARD, FuNANcrER.
The Story of His Rascality as Told by One of
His Principal Victims.

II. u
years and his failure was for minute or two
j quite q sensation TO me. did not doubt, how
ever as soon as learned from him the particu-
lars that he told me the exact truth An old,
conservative business man here, he had gone
quietly along i'll life accommodating money slowly,
when Young Ferdinand Ward made his acquaint-
,ance through Wards father-in law, who was
director in the Marine Bank, and at that time
its cashier The old man died, and Ward, who
is a cergymans son, and is now only about thirty
two years old, came to Mr.. Fish to
ask him to deal in moonshine a commodity.
If he could take in General Grant, who had
commanded all the big politicians and soldiers in
the country, might he not as easily take in an
old plain shipping merchant and fnancier! |
believe that both these men were equally taken
in, and think that Fish had the least to do of
the two with asking outsiders to invest with
him. This is clear from the letter he wrote Cen
eral Grant asking if it would not be we'll for
them to come together and advise the young
men. General Grant always had great faith,
and he thought that success was not to be halted
and questioned.
1t was my surmise after this extraordinary
failure that perhaps Ward was lunatic and has
believed he possessed great things out yonder
somewhere. Mr., Fish says there was no lunatc
about it; that Ward was a scoundrel all through,
and most insidious He says that the let
ters Ward wrote him, of which he has a great
stack, show the most delicate interest in his
affairs and his health, and lament that he did
not come to breakfast with himself and wife on
certain morning, as was his won't Ward
mentioned nearly every prominent man IN
America as having interests in their line of CON
tracts. He said one day that Phil Sheridan had
brought them a big contract, land" said he,
1--WE shall make a lot of money on that because
Sheridan is dreadfully hard up and we can
squeeze him strong" Fish, in dazed state of
mind used to challenge Ward and say: How
all these thingsl Is everybody selling out
to the government
oh" said Ward, indifferently, 'you can't
correct the world right away; you nave to fall
right in with If | want check for this
amount"
Mr. Fish says that Ward came TO him little
while before the failure, say two months and
said: Mr.. Fish. l want your check for $40, 900
to buy Northwestern stock"
II won't give it, said Fish Northwestern
is l4O, which is absurdly high, and certainly can
go no higher
Don't you waste any time now" said Ward;
81 have got special point on that stock, and
there is a big thing in it Let me have your
check"
The old gentleman, for whom Ward had APP
parently made great sums. and whose Judgment
was altogether against this thing, still had the
record of invariable success to go on from
Wards suggestion. So he raked up two checks
for S., 900 apiece, and gave them to Ward The
stock moved up about five-eighths of one point,
and then began to drop
Ward" said Mr. Fish II don't want to carry
that stock | want you to sell it, even at a loss.
There certainly is no sense in such purchase as
that
"Do you believe, Mr. Fish, that he bought the
stock at allF
''No, not one share. He came and got my
money on that pretext and can clearly see
that he was doing that all the time Why, l
believed almost everything he told me, be-
cause he brought the money in return for
what he said. There is not case of that sort
which happens IN seventy years-that d.
rector in bank shall use his position to
carry a scheme of swindling. He was one
of our directors, aud he would have sacked that
bank as he broke up our private business but
that shut the shutters up the moment the devil
was to pay to keep our inside men from drawing
their money out. | determined that every one
should suffer equally, and | left everything
had and so did my sons and brothers. when
that bank closed" said Mr. Fish, Il had not one
hundred dollars and have many time eaten
less at my meals than wanted. NJ son, Irving.
and myself have sailed in the morning and
looked at our change to know whether we could
make breakfast fer both of u.s. All the money
have had [ have borrowed, and yet there are
people iu this town who think have got away
with d great sum Of money, and am phenome-
nal scamp"
Said |: did the Erie railroad lose its money
through Grant 6 Ward, or through the Marine
Banki"
why, we all lost our money through Grant
81 Ward; but if you mean to ask how the
account of the Erie railroad got into our hands,
l can answer it by telling you that it was
brought to NE long before | ever saw Ward
You see that, as the President of che Marine
Bank, kept the account of nearly every
had come from. The old vessel owners up
there, who did business with me when 1 was
ship chandler, put their accounts into the bank.
Among other accounts of that kind we had the
Narragansett Steamboat Company, which was
composed of the celebrated steamers the Bristol
and Providence. Suddenly there was a stock
movement by Gould and Jim Fisk, and that com
pany went into the hands of the Erie railroad
managers. They owed the bank money
notes we held, and sent Mr.. Wilbur down there
a Boston man in whom had confidence to
have the notes renewed. Said |: I want moth
ing to do with this new crowd There will be
renewal of the notes and | want them taken up
and that will end it, He began to talk to me
about Colonel Fisk. smiled, for l had no con
fdence IN those people As the notes were not
paid, told Wilbur that they must be paid. He
said to day: Now, Mr. Fish. the least
trouble is the best Renew those notes ami the
Erie railroad win probably make your bank its
depository l said 1 wanted none of their depos
its. However, one day when was down at the
wharf seeing the steamer off, hlr Wilbur saw
me- and Jim Fisk there in magnificent
Uniform, looking at the people who CAME in on
the boat Wilbur hauled him to me and intro
duced him to me. Fisk spoke to me very agree
ably then Wilbur said: Colonel Fisk you must
deposit some of the Erie funds in Mr. Fish's
bank for he has been very considerable with us.
OF course, said Fisk, and he pulled me over to
a little fellow standing there whom had never
met before and said: Mr.. Gould. this is Mr..
Fish, president of the Marine Bank. l think
we ought to make his bank depository of some
of the Erie money. We ought to serve our
friends
''Gould bowed his head and said he thought
that all right. day or two after that got
d note from the Erie officers to come over there,
and saw wonderful scene. There was Fisk,
and Recorder Hackett, and Judge George Bar
Dard, and Sisson, and lot of others all seated
around table. and the champagne being opened
by Ferdinand, the caterer, and they were ali say
Ing smart aud wonderful things, and I thought
IL was about the funniest scene for railroad man
agement had ever known. But they did send
money TO our bank and it was a good while be-
Gore they drew any of it out. Consequently, we
inherited the Erie railroad account when DIR.
Jewett came there
Said l. "Did Ferdinand Ward get into them
muchF