Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-10-16
HALF A MILLION GONE
The Ulster County On. -
Savings Bank Wrecked.
Robbed By the Treasurer and
His Assistant.

The Ulster County Savings Institution, OF
Kingston, v. Y, has closed its doors and 10
m charge OF Bank Superintendent Charles II.
Preston. Expert examiners have been at
work and have found that the enormous
sum OF $462 600 has been stolen by Treasurer
Ostrander and Matthew T. Trumphour,
Assistant Treasurer, and it is feared the
stealings will exceed that amount.
Superintendent Preston at midnight swore
to q complaint charging Trumphour with
perjury in swearing To false statements con-
tanned in the July report of the hank 10 the
banking department. and Trumphour was
arrested at his house by Chief OF Police
Hood. He had his clothes packed and was
preparing TO leave town.
Ostrander was arrested about two weeks
before for embezzling So, 001 and was un-
der bonds of $40 900 His bondsnen turned
locked up. When Ostrander was arrested
there was q run on the bank for three DAYS
but the other banks came TO its rescue and
the trustees made statement, showing that
there a surplus OF S247, 900.
The feeling against the trustees who signed
the statement is bitter in the extreme, and
Parker Sharpe and the Others are charac-
teriZed as thieves for making the depositors
believe the bank was solvent when they
should have known its condition.
In fact, the town went wild. Through the
streets TO the bank rushed hundreds OF ex-
cited men and women.
Within half an hour from the time the
notice on the doors had been read by the first
early risers there was great surging crowd
in front of the bank.
Men rushed about hatlesS and with faces
infamed with passion, wildly gesticulating
and shaking their clinched fists at the closed
doors. Women stood among them, tears
streaming down their faces adding their
heartrending cries to the noisy lamentations.
Gray old men, bent with age, hobbled
through the streets to find if the dreadful
news was as bad as reported, and fell pant
ing and exhausted upon the curbstones.
Widows whose every dollar was entrusted
to the bank read the notice and swoOned.
Then, as the crowd grew thicker and the
clamor became more violent, men threw
themselves against the barred doors and at
tempted to batter them down. If they could
only get inside and reach the vaults they
couldeasily get their deposits, they thought,
but just as they had gathered strength suf-
ficient to make combined assault, Chief
Hood and detail of police charged upon the
throng and drove the enraged men and
women back from the doors and back down
the street.
1t was pitiful spectacle, that procession
of sad-hearted men and women, driven TO
desperation by the loss Of their savings and
swearing vengeance against the men whom
they had trusted and who had betrayed them.
When they were told that Ostrander and
TrumphOur were under arrest and that they
were known to have rob ed the bank OF more
than $500 600, the crowd grew even more
violent and surged over towards the jail,
yelling in their rage that they would drag
the miscreants out from their cells and tear
them limb from limb. Ostrander and
Trumphour in their comfortable quar- ters on
the top floor of the Jail hear the cries that
swelled in mighty chorus from the streets
and begged of Sheriff Dill to strengthen the
jails defenses.
The prisoners, however, were safe from
violence for the Sheriff had taken the pre-
caution to place a strong guard at every
entrance to the Jail, and the police in the
street did everything In their power TO sub
due the crowds and keep them back from
the jail.
The streets Of Kingston were filed all day
with people, and depOsitors arrived on every
train and by all manner Of vehicles. The
men and women wandered aimIessly about,
and occasionally some of the excited farmers
threatened to break into the bank building
and get their money, while others suggested
that a lynching party be formed to hang Us
trander and Trum phour
Business was virtually suspended, and
nothing else is talked about The general
opinion for years was that the bank was as
solid as the rock of Gibraltar. man
named McAndre~s, who has 5000 on de-
post, has developed symptoms OF insanity
ana 1t Is feared GhaC IL VIII be necessary 10
take him to an asylum.
The city officials, fearing that threats to
burn the Jail where Trumphour and Os-
trander are confined would be executed.
summoned Chief Engineer Mooney, of the
Fire Department, who Is now watching the
bank building AMI the Court House and the
Jail opposite.
The system adopted by Ostrander and
Trumphour-tne latter being fully cognizant
of the steal and assisting in concealng it
for the purpose of swindling the depositors
and hiding the theft, which grew by degrees,
was most ingenious, and for twenty years
had baffied the skill of expert examiners in
the employ of the State. In carrying it out
deceit and perjury were frequently and
effectively employed.
Both Ostrander and Trumphour have been
extravagant and high livers. They toasted
on the fat of the land at the expense Of the
depositOrs On all sides IL is asserted that
wine, women and stocG specu!atloas have
been their ruin.