Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-01-15
ARRESTED FOR FoRGERY--G

ARRESTED FOR FORGERY.
=. Ward, editor of the Dodgeville Sun.
was arrested last Saturday on charge Of
forgery. The complainant, w. G. Walk
en- OF Madison, alleges that Ward
signed an order for 1925 on the First
National Bank of Madison, with the
names of Macarthur, Jones and Ward.
OF Dodgeville. and secured Herewith a
power printing press from the COM
piainant. Macarthur repudiated the
order and asserted that the use of his
name upon it was a forgery. The press
had been shipped to Dodgeville before
the faislty of the order had been dis
covered but was taken charge of by the
authorities there upon receipt OF tele-
gram from Walker Just as it was about
to be removed to the Sun Office. Ward
was Immediately arrested and taken to
Madison, andin default of $500 bail
was remanded to Jail. Ward is about
2Syears of age and has borne the reputa-
ton OF Crank and rather slippery
character.
His record as summed up by the
State journal is as follows: Ward was
a student iii the university law school
during portion of last year and was
regarded as an erratic, impractical in-
dividual. He was gwen to bluff and
buster and gained considerable notori-
ETY. among his fellow-students by rea-
son OF his peculiarities. Prior to COM
ing to Madison. he was pedagogue,
and at one time was a leading candid
ate for superintendent of schools Of
Iowa county. He was a regular atten-
dant upon teachers meetings and uni
versally rendered himself obnoxious by
his obstreperousness. Ward is a spiri-
tualist, and has delivered number of
lectures on the subject of spiriturIism.
After leaving this city, he studied law
for brief period and then succeeded in
passing the required examination and
gaining admission to the bar. This
achievement on his part aroused the in
dignation of many of the law students
who had studied with him, and as the
belief was quite general that he was not
qualified to enter the law by reason of
his brief study of it, serious endeavor
to debar him from practicing was con-
templated. This, however, was aban-
homeland Ward located at Mazomanie,
where he flung his shingle to the breeze.
The discerning people of that lively
burg were not long in arriving at cor
rect estimate of the, quasi-lawyer's char
acter and ability, and the clientage with
which he was favored proved to be
simply mythical. Finding himself un-
able to exc out an existence in the prac-
tice of law, Ward essayed journalism.
This eccentric mutation would seem to
be almost sufficient to place the fellows
sanity IN dabioaq The old press in The
Sun office appears to have been too
antiquated to harmonic with Wards
progressive notions of things, and, inde-
pendent of the prime requisite of money
or good credit, he proceeded to intro
duce q modern power press. Proceed
ing on an unprofessional basis, he has
come to grief, and future events alone
can determine what win be the eventual
outcome.
1t is said that Ward had just got out
of jail at Dodgeville when he was ar.
rested for the alleged forgery of the 1925
order. The report is that he forged his
brothers signatute to note for several
hundred dollars and that the crime was
detected when an attempt was made to
negotiate the instrument. Ward was
thereupon arrested and cast into Jail,
but the yictimized brother failed to
prosecute and the ease was dropped.