Bismarck weekly tribune., 1889-11-29

10 WMch FrederlckSen had no title. These
mortgages are said to have been pledged
as security for loans. Fredericksen & Co.
have been doing a large business in west
ern railroad lands, selling for most part
small tracts of forty or fifty acres on the
installment plan, purchasers being princi-
pally immigrants or poor people who
wished to invest their earnings in farms.
After certain number of payments had
been made. Fredericksen gave a deed,
mortgage on the land being taken for un-
paid portion Of purchase money. These
mortgages, it is alleged, were then given
as collateral for loans or sold outright
through the west. Among others ex-
Governor J. A. Rice Of Wisconsin, R.
Exchange bank of Milwaukee, and E. G.
Comstock. a lawyer of Milwaukee, are said
to be large buyers. 1t is now claimed
that many of these mortgages are worth
less. ''Ihe charge we made" said a rep
resentative of one of the losers, sis that
Fredericksen. Bidgo0d and D. G. NJ. Fred
spiracy. They. got up fraudulent mort
men $5 to sign them, and then went to
capitalists with the mortgages and raised
money on them. They gave mortgages on
land In Minnesota, Dakota and other parts
of the northwest. There are hundreds of
working people in Chicago who paid in
they were buying land and now find their
deeds worthless. Many of these mortgages
were placed in Milwaukee and among the
purchasers are Kindrick Brice and Ru-
dOlph Nummacher, cashier Merchants
Exchange bank. Stephen w. Rawson,
q banker Of Chicago, had some OF them, but
he is not bit for much" 1t is said that
in Milwaukee. s paps An Afternoon teri als0 paper spa
capitalists contributed 100000 to the he
Golfers of Fredericksen & Co., and e. G.
Comstock, a Milwaukee capitalists, drops
about $50, 900. COwie makes statement
in which he intimates that a prominent
Milwaukeean assisted the Fredericksens
friends. Bidgood was arraigned in the
police court to-day and his case was con-
tinued until Saturday in bonds of $4,000
The prisoner looked as If he had spent a
night Of wakefulness and tears. He de-
clares his entire innocence and asserts that
he never had any reason to suppose that
the business of Fredericksen was other
law Of DR.. Rice. OF Harland, Wis, one of
the heaviest sufferers, is here looking after
his father-in-law's interests. He declares
that he will secure the arrest of the missing
Fredericksens if it becomes necessary to
follow them to the end of the world.
..'There are about 200 servant girls
nvessed in seis edg ssg' eS ssS ,e eow!S $50 sseS
in these bogus lands and who
Of course lost all. But aside from
these there are bankers in Chicago who
hold lot of these alleged mortgages
which they might as we'll throw into the
ire, because they are not worth a sou.
Where the money is gone | can't imagine
and that is something that has been
There is from s50O,OOO to 500 0,0O0. to account
for and the only explanation can give is
that major portion went up Milwaukee
way. Fredericksen hasn't a cent and no
property whatever. Now we have papers
to prove it and / am going to prove in open
court that a certain Milwaukee man mem
toned in this case has figured as the
and that he induced hundreds
Of people, among them his own friends, to
20 into this swindle" The Daily News
says: ",The scheme of the conspirators was
q simple one. Fredericksen had plats of
farm lands in Dakota and all the northwest
and by picking out suitable piece, a de-
scription could be filled. out on blank
county wherein the land lay. No abstract
title is required by Minnesota law in ro.
cOruing mortgages and mortgages bearing
all marks OF a genuine document similar
to those held in great numbers against
farmers. was soon back in the hands Of the
sharpers. Then it was easily disposed of
to investors. unless the people to whom it
was offered demanded complete abstract
and this, it seemed, very rarely occurred,
although it is astonishing that some of the