The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1889-01-31
GILT EDGE FRAUD.
Raw Land Foisted on Inysstmsnt
Seekers for Town Property.
HIGHLAND PARK ON PAPER
Is Charming Suburb of the City of
EmpOria.
POCKET PICKERS' PARADISE
Town Lots Seven Miles from the City
on the Market.
BOGUS ABSTRACTS
The Registers Endorsement Aston.
| ishss the Purchasers.
THE MYSTERIOUS MORGAN
| This Alleged Promoter of the Scheme
Mighty Scarce.
AnArtEstic Plat POrtraXing Highlan
Park as Pretty Village. HaV-
ing Numerous Avenues Bear
. anG the NaEnes of DistIn-
EuIshcd Statesmen, but
Not a stake Driv-
en- ln Entire For
AZ Acres.
The Registers Endorsement Aston
ishss the Purchasers.
THE MYSTERIOUS MORGAN
The Alleged Promoter of the Scheme
Mighty Scarce.
where is Hichland Park?

Where is Highland Park?
That is a question that has been
asked quite often of late. That there
was such a park adjacent to Emporia,
no one had ever known until a short
time ago, when a mysterious rumor
got abroad somehow and moved slowly
about without causing much comment
or exciting any curiosity, being re-
garded probably by most who heard it
as characteristic western myth or
exaggeration, or may be big name for
somebody's kitchen garden.
There ere some, though who knew
better, who knew that it was reality
and something more, a swindle and
fraud of the most audacious kind
The wild and God forsaken Garden
of Eden'' pictured so graphically in
Charles Dickens Martin ChuZZlewit"
was by no means swindle as bold,
reckless and audacious as Highland
Park" Where is it and what it?
The park, so called. is forty-acre
strip of ground in the sxtreme south
west corner of Emporia township, four
miles in straight line from the town
limits. and about seven miles by road.
1t is registered as the sw Or of the sw
or of 31-19-11. The title to the park IS
in one W. G. Morgan, whoever he is.
This Morgan appears to be fictitious.
as no one has ever been able to lay eyes
kon him. w. G. Morgan came into pos
Session of the park August 20, as the
records show. by transfer from A. O..
Wharton, the consideration being
S12 ,OO0-on the books.
On the same day a neat and artistic
plat of the park was produced by w.
M. Organ and by him given to the reg
lister of deeds, purporting to be &C
knowledged by w. G. Morgan, but was
not filed for record, as the books show,
until august 81.
This plat shows very pretty village
with number of avenues running east
and west. north and south. The three
avenues running east and west, begin
ming on the north side, are first Logan,
then Harrison and lastly Blaine avenue.
Those running north and south are.
beginning at the west, Lincoln, Grant,
Hayes, Garfield, Arthur and Cleveland
avenues Mr.. Morgan was very patri-
| otto, it will be seen, and tried to honor
some of the nations great men and
perpetuate their fame by connecting
their names with the classic avenues of
Highland Park. There are no streets.
Everything is an avenue in the park. 1t
will be noticed that every evenue but.
two bears the name of president, and
one them is Logan avenue. There is
a reason why it was gwen that name.
By looking on the plat of EN-
poria you will see that
Logan avenue forms the south line of
the city proper 1t is also the north
line of Highland Park. How easy in
bargaining with stranger in Kansas
| City to show him that Highland Park
is an addition" to Emporia. For the
same reason Lincoln street, which is
the west line of the city was made the
park. In other words it can be made
perfectly clear to stranger that the
park lay at the junction of these ave-
nues, or just where is seen on the m ap
| the property of Leville McColloch.
In reality. however, it is several miles
away and over the river. OF course
| the fraud in the plot is glazing, not
only in the fact that it is so far away
but that there is not line drawn or a
stake driven in the entire forty acres.
The purchaser of lot would have a
sweet time IN finding his property.
Let us now take look at the history
of the park and see with what rapidity
it increased in value in the past few
years. There would have been mil
lions in it for John T. Raymond if he
had known of it. We won't go back
further than 1874. The transfers be.
fore that are too numerous, and were
frequently made by the sheriff. In
that year it passed from r. G. Ward
to E. Epstein, consideration $lO0. In
1876 Epstein sold it to John Young
consideration S160. In 1884 Young
sold it to A. w. Stubs, consideration
$500. In 1885 Stubs sold it to @. D.
Bates, consideration $500. March %,
1886, Bates transferred it to A. O.
Wharton, consideration $1,000. Last
August, as stated above, Wharton
transferred it to w. G. Morgan foI
i $l2 600. The land is said 30 be worth
about $40 an acre. at any rate. when
plated in August, it was mortgaged
for about that sum to different parties
The mortgages have since been re.
leased, Morgan finding it difficult ia
place lots in it while the records showed
membranes.
So much for its history. Now let US
see how the scheme is being worked
and the addition paimed OF on the
public. No effort. of course, was made
to sell lots in this part of the state.
Victims were sought at a distance, the
farther away the better. Purchasers
were found in various places, some OF
them being in Kansas City. The rec
ords in the register of deeds Office
show that lots in the park have been
sold to as many as sixteen or eighteen
different parties in the last few weeks.
One man at Kansas City, w. g. Stur-
CESS (singleI who appears TO be stool
pigeonin the game Of roping in stran-
strangers, bought altogether about
$50 lots. It IS proper to sag inst here
that the deed II each case parp9rts to
be acknossssd before A o. VhaEson. :
1nls!lss bs II 6. Morgan some