Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-27

Conkling. seems destined, after years of liti-
cation, to reach its rightful owners. The
story of how it has been held, or diverted, is
an interesting one, in view of the names it
calls up. General B. F. Butler is cham
pion of the genuine creditors and the
Spragues.
PROVIDENCE, January 26.-The impress
sion is prevalent here that the veteran Gen
eral Benjamin f. Butler will soon add
new wreath to his laurels won at the bar by
final triumph in the great Sprague litiga-
tion. Within few days the Supreme
Court of the United States will have heard
the issues passed upon again and again by
the State courts, and by inferior Federal
courts, involving the validity of the trust
deed by which the Sprague family, about
II years ago, conveyed a vast estate,
worth many millions of dollars, for the
benefit of their creditors, which estate it is
alleged, was frittered away, consumed and
absorbed, without the Spragues or the credi-
tors being benefited, while the trustee, the
late Zachariah Chafee, became very rich
and few prominent men, not original cred
itors to any material amount, obtained val
liable properties for a song. Throughout
the years of litigation attending this proc
ess General Benjamin. F. Butler has
been the steadfast and earnest cham
pion of the rights of genuine credi-
tors and of the Spragues. He fought
inch by inch, with determination charac-
teristic of the man, and he blew aside like
thistledown the barriers which partisan hate
and prejudice erected against him in this
State; for the powers that ruled here were
strongly determined that the Sprague fam
lily should never get on their feet again.
Where these powers could not make their
influence felt-in the Supreme Court of Con-
necticut, in the Federal Circuit Court of
Connecticut, in the highest Federal tribunal
of the District of Columbia-the Sprague
trust deed was decided to be invalid, and
the claims of non-assenting creditors were
sustained.
THE ONE NOTABLE EXCEPTION.
In Rhode Island alone-Chief Justice
Durfee refusing to sit-the deed was sus-
tained and the trustee upheld in his peculiar
methods OF management. To-day the law
yers are few and far between who anticipate
that the United States Supreme Court will
sustain the Rhode Island decision.
The form in which the litigation is pre-
sented to the Supreme Court at Washington
is suit bv Evan Randolph of Philadelphia |
to obtain possession of the stock of the Quid- |
nick Company. The Quidnick property is |
one of the finest mill properties in the Uni |
ted States, and, it may be said, in theiworlG. |
The Quidnick Company at the time OF the |
Sprague failure, was solvent and prosperous, |
the main portion of the stock being held by |
ladies of the Sprague family, including the |
late mother of Governor Sprague. These |
ladies, in their anxiety to save the honor of |
their house, conveyed the Quidnick stock |
under the trust deed. as additional |
security for the Sprague Indebtedness.
They probably thought at the time
that there never would be occasion
to fall back on the Quidnick property, and
that their splendid estate was secure. They
little foresaw that their fortune would be
wrested from them; that they would be re-
1uced to poverty, treated almost with cruel
y and reduced to dependence for the neces-
sites of life upon the generosity Of rela-
tives. themselves but little better off, Yet
such was the fact. While the firm of B. B.
& R. Knight was buying in the fairest por-
ion of the Quidnick property for a mere
1.-THE of its value, the mother of William
Sprague was living in this city in straits
hat she was too proud to acknowledge; the
widow Of q Governor and the mother of a
Senator saw herself the victim of a vim
lictiveness that spared neither the child in
Gems nor the silver crown of venerable age.
REINFORCED IN THE FIGHT.
Evan Randolph was dissenting creditor.
BE refused to accept trust notes for his claim
If about $50, 000 and he resolutely prose-
,uted a suit to recover the amount. He at
,ached and bought in the Quidnick stock, or
he major part of it, claiming that its con-
fha |
md he attempted, as owner, to take possess
ion of the QuIdnick mills. Of course, he
vas defeated in the Rhode Island courts,
,ut he held on with unfinching tenacity.
The trustee, ignoring him, went ahead and
old the property; the Union Company
Fought it in, and transferred the Arctic
mill to the knights, and the QuidnIck mill
% a new Quidnick company. Randolph,
however, carried the litigation beyond the
narrow bounds of Rhode Island, and, with
General Butler as counsel, he will soon have
hearing in Washington.
Should Randolph, in accord with the
common impression, obtain a favorable
lecision from the Supreme Court of the
United States, he will then become owner of
luidnick and Arctic, together readily worth
i 200, 900. Arctic is one of the most pic
spots in New England, about IL
niles from Providence. The scenery is wild
md almost grand, and the impetuous fall of
he river, foaming over its rocky bed, is SUI
icient to run a factory without steam power.
t is now, as stated, owned by the Knights,
me of the firms which have been inflated to
,reatness upon the ruins of the Spragues.
VILLAGE owNERsHIPs INVOLVED.
The village of QuidnIck is owned by the
lew Quidnick corporation. The deeds
which the Knights and the new Quidnick
Company received from the Union Com
,any are not warrantee deeds, but deeds
which stand between a quit claim and
asserting title, but lacking the
clause. The Union Company
vas a syndicate formed to buy the Sprague
property, and especially to prevent the
;pragues from buying it. At present the
Union Company is acting in concert with
he Knights and the new Quidnick corpora
ion in contesting the claims OF Randolph.
should Randolph obtain possession of the
luidnick property, however, it is easy to
ee that the attitude of the Union Company
nd the Knights might become one of
mutual hostility upon the issue of how far
be Union Company could be held RESPONSE
lie for the title which it conveyed to the
Knights.
The destruction of the Sprague estate is
ne of the saddest episodes in New England
history. The village of Cranston,
pc headquarters of the house of Sprague,
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