Omaha daily bee., 1897-06-04
MONEY In MERCHANTS BANK
State Deposit There Grew Under Treasurer
Meserve's Administration.
SINGULAR FEATURES OF THE TRANSACTION
One Of the Stockholders on the state
Trcnsurcr's Bond in n sum Ex-
ceeding what lie IL Thought
10 ne worth.

. LINCOLN, June .--(special)-Last Tues
day. when the Merchants bank closed its
doors 1t had on deposit sS.731.S5, money
belonging to the state. as compared with
the s6,41S.24 left on deposit there by Mr.
BARLEY. During the last five months, while
there has been so much agitation over the
manner in which the state funds have been
cared for, the state deposit in the Mer-
chants bank OF Lincoln has been Increased,
and when the bank was taken in charge by
the state bank examiner 1t contained S2,313.6l
more than was deposited there when j. s.
BARLEY turned the state treasury over to
III. Meserve
Some OF the officials OF the Merchants bank
were very active in securing signatures for
Mr.. Meserves bond last December, and one
of the earliest signers was J. W. Fullerton.
son OF William Fullerton, president OF the
bank, and himself connected with the in
stitution. On December IL j. W. Fullerton
made oath before a notary public that he
was worth $4,000 above all liabilities and
exemptions. diligent search fails to show
that he was worth anywhere near that
amount, or that he has In his private bus
ness ever made any pretensoHs of so much
wealth since that time.
The rumor having been circulated that the
deposits in the Merchants bank had been
Increased since the first of the year the
reporter of The Bee went to the Office OF the
state treasurer today to ascertain the facts.
Inquiry was made as to the exact amount
OF money left In the bank by Mr.. Bartley.
The figures were given out with great re-
luotance, and as taken down and verified
were $S95024.
DEPUTY REVERSBS HIMSELF.
When asked II any deposits had been made
since that time, the treasurer's deputy said
that some small checks had been deposited
aud others drawn on the bank, but that 1t
was Of no consequence" the bank having
trlie of $21S39 less on deposit when 1t
closed than 1t had on January l. Thirty
minutes later the reporter returned to the
treasurer's Office and told the deputy that
word had been received from Mr.. BARLEY to
the effect that on January l there was less
than $4,000 state money on deposit in the
Merchants bank. The official seemed much
surprised at this and again turned to the
books. This time the statement was made
that when Bartley turned the books over to
Meserve there was exactly $6,41S.24 state
money on deposit In the Merchants bank :;
that Mr.. Bartley's last deposit had been
made early in December. and that no. fur
tier deposits had been made until after Mr.
Meserve had taken charge OF the Office No
attempt was made to explain the dscrep-
ancy in the two statements given out.
Tho last bond given by the bank to Sc
cure the state deposit was approved Feb
ruary 81, 1897. The signatures and the
amounts justified for are as follows: R. S.
IOuHB, SGU,UUU, y. "A, SEeSn, S0,UUU, DdNlu
Fitzgerald 100000; John Z. Fullerton, $2O-
900; C. l.. Chipman. $1,000; william Fuller
ton, $4,000; William Ryons, $1,000; e. A.
Stephens, $l0,O00 Joseph l.. Ryons, $4,000.
OF the above Sheen, Young, The Fullertons
and Ryons were directly connected with the
bank
The statement Is made by prominent
banker of this city that one reason for the
gradual withdrawal of money from banks
Is that the individuals are using their Idle
money in buying up state warrants, feeling
that they will thus be safer than IL they
allow the money to remain in the banks.
For the four months ending April 80 about
Si75,000 worth of warrants We're bought up,
and this represents almost that much with
drawn from the banks of the country. The
anxiety to find a sale place to put idle
money also explains the rise in the price
OF warrants. b.. ..
Governor Hocomb has honored the requisi-
ton of the governor Of Missouri for the re-
turn of Dennis Rose to that state. Rose
convicted Of stealing harness from a
Lafayette county man to the value OF $40,
but escaped to this state. and is now in
custody of the Omaha police.