St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1895-06-07
COUNTY COURT.
Interest Conferred In the Opening Case.

The June term of the Caledonia
county court opened Tuesday morn
ing with Justice Start of Bakersfield
presiding and p. II. Graves and S. J.
Hastings as side judges. Prayer was
offered by Rev. I. lyric. The grand
jury were empanelled and ably
charged by the court as to their i'm
portant duties. The court appointed
J. G. Hovey foreman of the jury.
Before calling the docket the struck
jury was empanelled in the case Of
Lyndonville National Bank VS.. T. c.
Fletcher. Charles ingalls, OF Sheffield
was excused from this jury as he was
a stockholder in the plaintiff bank.
Frank Walker and w. H. Burbank
were excused as they had formed
opinions in the case. George P.
Blair and Messrs. Johnson and
Houghton were also excused from
serving. The jury having been en-
panelled and briefly charged by the
court, the case was set for trial on
Wednesday m orning. The rest OF the
day was spent in calling the docket.
The bank case was taken up We'd
nesday morning and occupied the
entire day. The court room was
crowded all the time. though there
was little of interest in the evidence,
except to those interested in the law
points that continually arose. The
case was closely contested by both
sides and frequent exceptions were
made to the evidence, especially by
the attorneys for the plaintiff.
The attorneys for the plaintiff were
E. w. Smith of Woodsville, John
Young of Newport, ]. 7. Gleason of
Lyndonvile and Alexander Dunnett
OF St. Johnsbury. The attorneys for
the defense were c. A. Prouty of
Newport. w. P. Stafford, H. c. Bates
and Harry Blodgett, all OF St. Johns
bury. The case is such an import
ant one that our readers will be in
terested in detailed statement OF it.
The case gro WIS out Of the forgeries
committed by Charles T. Walter of
St. Johnsbury, who is now serving a
term in states prison therefor. Col.
Fletcher was an indorser of Walters
notes to the ann cunt of 500, 500. One
ofthese notes for $4,000 was discount
ed by the Lyndonville National bank.
When it fell due it was taken up by
Walter by another note for an equal
amount bearing Col Fletcher's forged
Endorsement. The original note was
stamped paid" by the bank and
was surrendered to Walter, who ex-
hibited it to Col. Fletcher in proof of
payment. Col. Fletcher had no rea-
son for suspecting any crooked work
and took it for granted that the note
had been paid, and, believing that his
outstanding Endorsement had thus
been reduced from $4,000 to ST.
500, he afterwards made other in
dorsements for Walter to the amount
of $4,000.
The forgery was com mitted in Ian
uary, 1891, and other forgeries fol-
lowed until they aggregated $500
$4,000 at the Lyndonville National
bank, $4,000 and $1,000 at the Lyn-
donville Savings bank and $17OOa
the Citizens Trust company of ST
Johnsbury. All these forgeries were
executed with marked skill. The
notes were from one to six months
and Walter kept things along by TAX
ing them up as they fell due by new
forgeries.
Things might have gone along in-
definitely but for the financial pinch
in the summer of 1898. The banks
were hard pressed for current funds
and called in all loans as far as DOS
sible. They notified Walter that his
notes would not again be renewed
and must be paid when they fell due.
Walter was unable to pay them,
and the banks thereupon made de-
mand upon Col. Fletcher, whose in
dorsements the notes bore.
This was Col. Fletcher's first in
timation of any wrong doing on
Walters part. He promptly made
an investigation and soon found that
his name had been forged on notes to
the amount o $500, as before stated.
He confronted Walter, who made a
full confession of the forgeres, first
verbally and then in writing, both in
the presence OF witnesses. Walter
also stated that Col. Fletcher had
indorsed for him wholly out of friend
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