Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1893-06-10
THE yANKTON AND NORFOLK
Shady Transactions in Connection
With the Road.
A Project to Fill the Pockets OF Few
Schemers.. Contractors, Laborers and
Merchants Want Their Money.
Births on Ferry Boat.

YANKToN, S. d., June TUESDAY
there vas filed in the clerks office of
this county lien on the Yankton, Nor
folk and Southwestern railway, by
John Naulhton, the principal con-
tractor of tn, road, covering the entire
roadbed and work SO far done. The
amount of the lien is about S2s, 900,
balance due himelf, subcontractors,
laborers and those Who furnished sup
plies. The total cos of work done
by Mr.. Naughton was nearly
$50, 900, of which So, 900 has
been paid This is the las lein to be
filed and Mr. Naughton has held off
filing il before because of the personal
pleadings Of the officers of tae road,
that it would handicap them in raisng
the money to go on with the work and
also because of the promise that they
would be able to pay soon and would
guarantee u full settlement Mr.
Naughton has put into the contract
upwards of $4,000 of his own money
and has now due him about $1,000.
Recently negotiations have been
Dy llc VI lllc
for a sale of the line to the Great
Northern, and also with other parties,
and the lien is filed for the protection
of himself and those working under
him. Considerable money has beer
paid by the company within the past
three months. but payment has princi'
pally been made to the American State
bank, and individuals con
nected with it for time checks
and orders purchased at discounts,
sometimes at ruinously low rates, less
than half their face value. At the
present time the paper cannot be sold
at the banks in the city of Yankton al
any price. Work on the line is going
on near Osmond by Owens Bros. with a
small force of their own teams They
were paid $1,000 in cash and given a
couple of miles to work on for the pur
pose of keeping lien off the road and
at the same time TO heep their lier
alive, pending negotiation TO raise the
necessary money to carry on the work
of construction. Chicago capitalists
mad promised money sufficient to pat
the road in operation provided they
should be furnished a guarantee that
their money would be forthcoming
when it was completed. !. T. NJ.
Pierce, who is in England trying to
raise the necessary funds there, writes
that it would be an easy matter to sell
the bonds of the road provided
the line was completed, but that the
parties do not feel disposed TO make
contracts for future delivery, fol
Americans TO speculate upon.
\.
the present Indebtedness of the road
will be paid by Mr.. Pierce, sometime
but when the work will go on is some
thing hard to tell The firm
of Waters IL Bresman have still
about S4.7O0 due them and have re-
moved their lien, but they have the
personal bond of NJ. p. Gilman and III.
B. Wynn, of the American State bank,
Iankton, rs security
Nearly all the merchants of Yankton
are holding three months of their or
ders. John Naughton has been used
shamefully, holding off as he has from
putting on lien, and he has not been
paid cent since last fall.
There are many things in connection
with this road since Pierce went east
that show it TO be skin game on the
part of few and a small fortune has
been made Jy some or rhem. Hpour
S35, 900 to S40,0 has been paid by
Pierce, Wright & Co., treasurers, since
January 1, and there is about $4,000
20 S45, 900 still owing. Messrs Graham
& Co., bridge contractors for the road
filed lien for about $4,000 due then
last week. These liens arosfled in the
counties of Yanllton, South Dakota
Cedar, Pierce and Knox, Nebraska.
The county clerk of Cedar says there
never has been plat of the road tilet
in that county; also that he has appli
cations and inquiries in regard To the
plat or survey and applications for Ger
tilted copies of it from parties in Chi
cago, Boston, New York and in Eng
land. Why it never has been filed is ;
conundrum. 1t has not been filed II
Yankton county.