Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-05-17
IN BAD SHAPE.
A ClarksvilIe Loan and Invest.
ment Agent Missing.
SHORT BUT EVENTFUL CAREER.
The Further His Business Affairs are
Penetrated the Darker His Schemes
Appear-The Theory of Sui
eide Advanced.
Special to the Gazette

! special 10 tne Ga2etle.
GAINESVILLE, Tex, May 16-Quite a
sensation was caused here by the sudden
| disappearance of II. B. Wright on yesterday
! afternoon, and the issuance of a warrant
for his arrest on a charge Of embeZzling
$500.
! Wright was member of the prominent
law firm of Sims s. Wright, and had the
( implicit confidence Of many. He came here
from Virginia about six years ago,
/ and soon became partner with Capt.
! NJ l.. Sims. He has for the past three or
four years represented several loan and in
! vestment companies of this state, but car
RED on his business apart from the part
nership. About year ago John Watson of
this county applied for loan of $40, 900 on
1000 acres of land to the Middlesex banking
company of Dallas, at which time
the land was encountered by $500
by the Texas land and loan company of
Galveston. Both companies were repre-
scented by Wright. The Dallas company
offered to make the loan, provided the $500
OF the other company was released. Wright
then wrote to the Galveston company tell
ing them that Wilson was dead, and the
matter would be settled by administration,
upon which they sent him the note for
$500 for collection. He then marked
the note paid, forged a release deed
ana sent to the Dallas company upon which
they forwarded $4,000, Wright retaining,
as he said, $500 to pay the release, which
he never did, but appropriated the money
TO his own use, in the meantime advising
his client that the administration was pro-
crossing slowly and they could not settle
the matter before the fall of 1891
4 few days ago an agent Of the Galveston
company came here to look after the mat
ter. and found Watson walking on the
streets, returned to report the fraud, and
about noon yesterday Lewis Dabney. a
Young attorney from Dallas arrived in
town and demanded his compauy's money,
showing Wright the proof. He quickly |
confessed that he had taken !
their money, lost it in cotton !
futures. but promised to make it good |
by deciding all his lands to him, and ar |
ranged to meet Dabney at 80 to fix it. !
Going home to dinner, he took 4 revolver, |
and has not been heard of since.
When it became known to-day that he |
was an embezzler and q fugitive from JUS
tice, the greatest excitement prevailed, and |
local creditors at once took steps to protect
themselves by running attachments, and it
was developed that his liabilities might run
anywhere from twenty to fifty Thousand
dollars. How much cannot be told now
His business was in bad shape and his
lands all covered with mortgages.
Some bad features have been developed
by the investigation, and it turns out that
he had taken $1,000 belonging to heirs and
purchased land with it in his own name,
and mortgaged it for more money.
The more the matter is looked into the
worse it looks. People are dumbfounded,
and nothing else is talked Of
Wright's friends claim that if he has not
suicided, as they fear, that he will, as soon
as he can reach his friends, arrange to pay
every dollar.
Among those who had placed money in
Wright's hands to invest was Hon. W. F.
Wilcox, member of congress from the
New Haven district in Connecticut, who is
thought to be into it to the extent
of $1,000. His brother, W. 81. VIII
cox, who lives here, had loaned
Wright $1,000.
Many others were caught in neat sums.
Last year Wright ran for the state senate.
but was beaten for the Democratic nomina- |
ton by Hon. James Clark, the present en-
cumbent.