The Saint Paul globe., 1899-03-03
Run ON RUBBER STAMP
ODD FELLOWS, MUTUAL INSURANCE.
COMPANY UNDERGoINGsAN
INVESTIGATION
SAID TO BE ain BAD SHAPE


County Auditor johnson. the Orig
inal Presidents of the Company.
Surprised to ILearn That His
Name Is still' Gonnected with the
Concern -S nearth Says Some
bOdy's In a FIX
insurance Commissioner Dearth Is
engaged in an investigation Of the af-
fa1rs of the Odd Fellows Mutual In
surance company that has brought to
light condition of things that the de-
partment has BEEN ignorant of and ex-
tehd1ng over a period Of four years.
Accordlng AZ . to the ostensible president
ot the company, w. r. Johnson, there
mas been no meeting of the officers for
1our years and the concern is not in
existence and yet, there have. been filed
ahnual reports supporting to have been
signed by the president and acknowl-
eoged before notary. This President
Johnson declares to have been without
ms knowledge. and there are other cir
cufnstances which place the company
In bad light with the state insurance
commissioner. Several prosecutions
may result from the facts disclosed by
I the investigation.
Somebody is in a bad fix in con-
nect1on with the Odd Fellows Accident
insurance company" said Commission
er DeaFth yesterday There seems, on
the statements of an official of the com
pany, to have been wholesale frauds
placticed in the management of it's af-
Ialrs. The. company was incorporated
underline laws. of the state of Minne-
sofa In. 1894 and has since done con-
siderable business in the state 1t is on
the mutual plan with assessments, and
under the lawris not required to have a.
great amount of assets; only enough,
10 pay the outstanding Indebtedness,
and then future assessments are allow.
ed 10 be taken into consideration.
Ever since the Incorporation the Of
ncers OF the company have filed their
annual report regularly, although we
nave not yet received the report for
1888: AS there have been no complaints
regarding unpaid claims we have been
satisfied that everything was all right,
and 1T was not until yesterday that
learned differently.
USED A RUBBER STAMP.
According to the statement made by
the president. or rather ostensible
president. w. R. johnson, the state
ments that have borne his name were
not signed by him despite the fact that
the signatures have been acknowledged
before notary. Furthermore un-t
derstand that a rubber stamp has been,
used in putting fac simile of his sig
nature upon the policies. He says that
he. in common with the other officers,
supposed the company had dissolved
four years ago. lam making a thor
ough investigation in the matter and it
may result seriously for somebody.
WHAT MR. JOHNSON SAYS.
my connection with the Odd Eel
lows Accident Insurance company end
ed soon after it begun" said County
Auditor Johnson yesterday "It was
some time early in 1894 that Charles
A. Lambert, past grand master. came
to me and broached the subject of
starting an Odd Fellows accident In
surance company. He told me-. that
many of the local members of the or
! der We're sending their. money to a
company, in Massachusetts, He had.sa,
| list Of about 1870 who held policies In the
Eastern company tand told me that he
had few hundred, dollars that he was
| willing to invest, and that he had de-
cfded to organize and that James. "A
karney was stes bel general e manager
with i himself EaS secretary land he
wanted to get a. few prominent Odd
Fellows for thez balance of the COM
| pany. He claimed that-swhen; the 1870
| men whose names he had We're to pay
their So quarterly dues in June. that
all had promised him to put the money
| into. the local company instead, In con-
| tinuing tkeir insurance. I thought that
| would give the e-HeW company a good
| start and allowed my name to be used
| as president. The other officers were
DR.. Cochrane, of Minneapolis, vice
| president; J. Quincy Haus, treasurer,
| and Past Grand Master Ed A. Stevens,
| Of Minneapolis, legal adviser
I'VE became incorporated and Lam
| bert got an expensive suite of offices
| in the Germania Bank building and
| started to run things on an extensive
scale Karney did not like the way
| things were going after six months
and came to me very much discourag-
| ed. He said the company was being
| run OH too expensive a plan. I saw
| that things were not going right and
ADVISED THEM TO CLOSE
up the affairs of the company. Then
| Lambert sold out shis interest to Kar-
| ney, who moved the offices into his own
| Office
Shortly after, 1 think it was during
| the latter part of 1894, I went to Kar-
ney's office and resigned the presi-
dency. I advised him then to turn over
| the policies to the Eastern company,
| and 1 understood, that this was done
| 1 believe the other officers followed nv
| example in the matter of resigning,
| and SO far as Icknew the company
went out of existence.
| Yesterday afternoon a man named
| Moran came into my office and told
me that the company. was still running.
| was surprised and told him so. He
| said that was the president of the
| concern, and that 7 had better look
| out for it. 1t was only a few hours
| later that man came in with an in
surance and, as an Odd Fellow, asked
what ] thought of his policy I told
| him what I had told Moran Then I
| looked at the policy which was made
| out in 1897, and was surprised to see
my signature as president. 1t had
| been put ON with rubber stamp and
| WAS A FACSIMILE.
I After he went out telephoned to In
surance Commissioner Dearth and he
said: 'Why,eyour name is signed to the
reports
II told him that there must have
! been a mistake. and he said that it
was acknowledged. He told me- that
| he would make an immediate investf-
| cation and this morning he telephoned
me asking me,to come up to the capt.
| toll I told him that was too busy
and would go up today. -
1.-The stamps bearing the signature
| were some that I had made when 1
| ero >, n. N, a Star for cQnvepiopoo IN