The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-09
WHO IS MR. CORNELIUS?
STRANGE PARSONAGE WHO
 OPERATED IN BLoUNT.
Bought 12,5oo Acres of Land from Mr. H. Amerine-s~' Offered
 to Make a Deposit of $26,- OOO in Cash.

Birmingham, Dec S.--(SpeciaL )-Who and where is Henry M. Cornelius?
 This Is the name of a business-like man who for the past two months and @half has been living in the vicinity of AL toona, Blount county, and Walnut Grove, Etowah county, making contracts to pur- chase thousands and thousands of acres of coal, gas and oil lands in the vlcini- ties named, and at the same time re- ceiving by express, through the Altoona office of the Southern Express Company package after package of fine jewelry from different wholesale dealers and i'm porters throughout the country.
 He is not Henry M. Cornelius, the we'll to-do and highly respected merchandise dealer of Walnut Grove, Etowah county, whose business rating Is first-class in every particular and whose credit runs up into the thousands of dollars. | The receipt of so much jewelry aroused suspicious on the part of the express agent, H. Meacham at Altoona, and he sent a telegram out giving some intima- l ton of his suspicious. This suspicion on the part of the express agent appar- ently aroused suspicious of MT. Corne- Illus. for he left Altoona.
 A number of packages with jewelry | therein from various parts of the country have arrived at the express office in AL ! IOOnd, anu IGioBEd0S nave UCCu LOIWdE0~ ed by the agent there to the concerns about the suspicious, and orders to ship back the valuables are now being com piled with.
 Henry M. Cornelius arrived in the viz | cinity of Altoona, some time in October. He had the appearance of business man | and made friends, among them Henry M Cornelius, the merchandise dealer of Walnut Grove.
 Among other things that Cornelius who said he was interested in the firm of Cornelius & Brown" of Boston, did,
 was to sign a bill of sale with M. H. Amerine of Montgomery. purchasing from him 1250O acres of coal, oil and gas lands in Etowah county. The said Corne- Illus was to pay for this property the sum of $95, ,0OO one-half of which was to be deposited in the Queen City Bank of Gadsden and the other half in the other bank in Gadsden, the deeds to the prop erty to be drawn Up and passed on by the firm of Hood, Murphy & Burnett, of Etowah county, attorneys, before Jan. 1. 1904. MT. Amerine sent surveyors and ab- stract people to Etowah county in pure suit of proper deeds and spent something | like $I.OOO in the preparation of the deeds, it is said.
 Mir. Amerine suggested at one time that small sum of money be placed in the banks as signs of good faith. when Mir. Cornelius offered to put up $25.O0O If MT. Amerine would put up a like amount. The latter did not think this was abso- Iutely necessary when assured by Mir. Cornelius that he was ready to deposit the $25.OOO.
 MT. Cornelius was extended all kinds of courtesies both by Mir. Amerine and by the citizens of Walnut Grove. Altoona and other places There was started a rumor to the effect that Mir. Cornelius, in addition to the Amerine property. in- tended purchasing the properties of the Underwood Coal Company, near Altoona, and Mir. Cornelius even paid Mir. Under wood a visit, MT. Underwood did not ex- actly appreciate the talk of Mir Cornelius and made application through the Bir- mingham banks as to the firm in Boston and was a little startled to receive a re- ply that there was no such firm as that given. However. MT. Underwood went 70
 Tate Spring and let the matter go by.