The evening times., 1897-04-17

When Commissioner ButterwOrth was
shown the above dispatch he said he was
| familiar with it; had nothing To say. aud
| referred The Times representative to Mr..
James Du Bois. a lawyer, who has anuffice
in the Inventive AgAbuiliing, and who said
he had SO, 900 invested ia the company.
Mr. Du Bois very readily consented TO talk
about the affairs of the company, and said
that its embarrassed condition was prnci-
pally due TO the fact that big prices We're
paid for laud which hardtimes deprecated.
In February" he said, at a meeting of
the stockholders held in EIizabethton, all of
the holdings and belongings of the old Co
operative Town Company were sold by
unanimous vote of ali the stockholders
present, and represented by proxies, TO the
Watauga Land Company, with the agree
ment that the Watauga Land Company
would give the old stockholders a chance to
wipe out the then existing debt of about
$50, 900, a9d thus save their valuable prop
erty, and if they could not do it, that the
trustees would take care of the debt. The
property is valued at about S27 900, and
the debt is only about $50 600 Now, short
ly after this tran sfer George II. Towle and
Mr.. Patch, two Of the trustees, died OF yell
low fever while on visit to the Windward
Islands.
Two new trustees were appointed
who live at Boston.
''Theuld subscribers were offered a chance
OF saving their property upon the following
terms. For every $40 a shareholder of tie
old Cooperative Company has paid into
the treasury Of that company he would
10y paying an additional So into the Wa
tauga Land Company receive SIS share
OF stock in the Wanuga Land Company.
To this appeal the old stockholders re-
sponded very slowly, and while the debt
has been reduced through their suhScrip-
tions from $50, 900 down to about SSO,-
600, this has not been sufficient to satisfy
the claims of the lein holders, who arc
absolutely secure in their liens.
"The directory of the old Cooperative
Town Company was composed OF pronia mt
men OF national reputation. They have
borrowed thousands of dollars on their
own personal credit in order 10 save the
company in two or three instances, and
they have given all of their services to the
company without having received a single
cent in remuneration.
They could have wiped out the debt
easily, and would have been II possession
of one of the finest town sites In the
South, upon which are number of in
dustries, which contain about l 90 houses;
has .16o beautiful lots, and 800 acres of
building lots unplatted together with a
number of improvements, whose total
valuation is Sls6 300 at very conserva-
tive estimate. Besides this, it owns eight
cen distinct pieces Of property surround
ing the town site and Elizabethton, the
county seat of Carter county, numbering
in all 4,726 acres, which, at the lowest
estimate, Is today worth SS5,000.
The receivership suit was brought some
time ago for debtof only ST i 90, and this, |
it is believed, the company will be able |
to take care of without any trouble. But |
two or three of the creditors have secured |
judgments against the company, which |
will have to be satisfactorily arranged |
within these next sixty days, or these |
debts may become troublesome to the vel |
fare of the enterprise.
THE old directors of the Town Company |
were r. r. Porter, Senator Harris Senator |
Carlisle, Senator Hansbrough, C. w Adams, |
Judge McComas, B. A. jenkins, Benjamin /
Butterworth. a. Davis and W T. Love"