Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1893-06-03
FOSTER FAILS IN BUSINESS
The Ex-Secretary Of the Treasury
a Financial Wreck.
News OF the Failure StartIes the Business
World..Liabtios Given at Six Hun.
dred thousand Dollars, Assets
About the Same.

FosroRIA, o., May 27.--Ex-Secretary
of the Treasury Charles Foster startled
the business world Friday morning by
making an assignment for the benefit
of his creditors His assignee is j. Il.
Cormee, a prominent banker of Buoy.
rus. and a warm friend of Mr.. Fosters
The liabilities were given ont by Mr..
Foster as being $4,000 and the assets
as about the same. He made
the assignment during the night
and the papers were filed
at Tiffin by Mr.. Scott, his attorney.
of Foster and company was closed ON
an attachment for 80, 200 in favor of the
Isaac Harter Milling company, and at
the same time the wholesale grocery
house of Davis & Foster was closed
10y an attachment for $1,000 in favor
of O. I. Brown. The presence of the
sheriff was the fiis inkling many peo-
pie had that there was something
wrong and il soon leaked out that an
assignment had been made The news
spread rapidly and soon the streets
were filled with people eager to learn
,Giy.x<ent of the calamity that had be-
fallen the city.
The assignment of ex-Secretary Eos.
ter was the signal for the assignment
of number of concerns in which he
was interested
The brass and iron works was one
OF the concerns to assign. Besides Mr..
Foster Mr. Portz was one of the owners
of the concern. The liabilities and
assets of this company are included in
the personal statement of Mr.. Foster.
The Mambourg, Calcined and Crocker
window glass companies, three con-
Germs that have been backed by Mr..
Foster, will assign today. The extent
of the failure is so great that its sig
nificance can scarcely be realized. A
half dozen prominent industries will
go to the wall and hundreds of people be
thrown out of employment.
The loss to business men who are
depositDrs in Foster & Co. g bank is
one of the deplorable features of the
crash, but it is confidently believed
that none of them will suffer to an ex.
tent that will cause them to assign.
run was made on the Mechanics
Savings bank as soon as its doors
in currency piled up on the cashiers
desk, the demands of all frightened de-
positors were promptly met and none
turned away.
1t is claimed by his friends that his
dnstinted generosity and phenomenal
public spirit have been the indirect
cause of Fosters financial downfall, as
he was ever ready to lend q helping
hand to the poor and worthy. The as
signment of Davis & Foster, the whole
sale grocers. will probably be the di-
rect cause of the failure of number of
grocery concerns throughout the coun-
try. 1t is said that the firm has sl25.-
600 in unpaid accounts and notes due it.
The deposits of the bank at the time
of its last statement were about sl75,-
600, but it is impossible 10 ascertain
what they arc at the present time, as
the cashier of the company, Mr.. j. l..
Wilkinson, is reticent and prefers to
have the assignee make q public state
ment. Mr.. Wilkinson is also treasurer
of the Fostoria school district. The
board of education had $4,000 in cash
On hand and as Messrs Davis and Fos-
ter are his bondsmen il Is proba able that
the loss in this case will be consider
able.
= A dispatch from Tifiin, where the as
alignment was filed, says a pointer
j. ,-eems to have been given to the Isaac
liarter Milling company and to O. Il.
Brown, for at . o'clock this morning
the former secured an attachment for
e.. 200 and the latter for $1,000 and
Sheriff Burman went to Fostoria at
once and levied on sufficient goods ia
secure their claims