Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-07-14

tICIlC6 VI k4l8A AAA&SLANSs LIZ
was homeopathic practitioner. Sc
Fduced by the prospect Of larger profits,
! ne deserted the healing art and en-
tered the field Of the real estate specs
& ulator.
Years and years ago two enterprisins
fellows plated q city In Sheridan
township, this county. They bought
I and paid for $40 acresaat a cost OF $500.
L They then drew sketch OF the city,
J not as it really was, q stretch OF unin-
terrupted grass, rosin weed and golden
rod, but as it was to be. A beautiful
river ran thru the city on paper. On
this river and close to splendid dam.
were two towering -four mills The
main street contained splendid BUSH
ness blocks, and the smoke stacks of
factories doomed up in various places.
This was Autographed and by means
81 these things lots sold in New Eng
land like hot cakes, at 5000 to 5000
apiece. Today the river no longer
runs, the mills are silent, and the
smoke stacks have given way to a go
OF waving corn. The good peons
New England still have their -
deeds, but others own the land.
Spencer & Brumbach were fam4l-
liar with this story. They bought q
large farm south Of Beatrice, Neb.,
and across the river. They spanned
the river with q splendid bridge and
built q street car line across the river
and around the Spencer & Brum-
bach addition They bonded the
I street car line and sold the bonds:
they plated their lands, laid out broad
avenues, planted shade trees, and
bought $500 advertisements in Harper's
Weekly But the lots wouldn't sell.
Spencer built fine house. So did
Brumbach. Several other good hous-
els were built and still the people were
unwilling to buy residence lots two
miles from the town.
s. They had to have money. They
hired q man by the name Of Talbot.
To this fellow they conveyed the lots,
three in bunch. and he In turn gave
Spencer & Brumbach MORTGAGES Tor
the purchase price. about 800 lot.
Each lot was worth about SO. With
Autographed papers, an application and
the certificate Of their examiner they
sold the mortgages and when sales fell
OF. they got Charles n. Spencer, the
father. then cashier Of the First Ma
tional bank, to add his guarantee to
theirs. In this way something like
e3So. 900 OF these mortgages were sold
N Grinnell to the oldest and best
friends Of the Spencer family. Charles
IA. Spencer all the time keeping stttr
upper LID and representing to his clos
est friends that he was worth 100000.
Sales got dull, Spencer's victims be-
gan to feel as II they had enough OF
his paper, but the mill kept grinding
and calling for more. Then Charles Il.
Spencer lent L. e. Spencer more mon
ey from the First National bank, an
ticipating the sale Of more straw
mortgages that were never sold, ana
when his tragic death occurred In Col-
nrado the bank held about $4,000 OF
L e. Spencer's paper, endorsed by
Charles II. Spencer. These notes were
never filed against the fathers estate
r. never became fully known to the
public. Henry c.. Spencer, the son and
hrnther and administrator. pretended
ana led the creditors to believe that
his fathers bank stock, lSo snares.
were pledged to the bank as collateral
10 secure his fathers liability With
mt INQUIRY the creditors accepted this
nlausfble story as true. ~ "os al q
lie. Il. G. Spencer simply appropriated
his father's stock and substituted forg-
..S notes for those on which his faith
.er was liable. .,
The fathers estate paid 16 2-3 cents
- the dollar. on claims filed and
moved. Old DR.. Cochran got all his
,noney. $500. by bringing SUIT
asainst the bank direct The drafts
hed been so manipulated az to make
the bank liable.
The story has all been told In the
T,mes- Republican,a"The True story OF
the First National Bank OF Grinnell'
which appeared in 1904.
u e. Spencer left Beatrice and turn
Cd nm in Des Moines as an agent OF
the New York Life. Later he drifted
to Chicago and must have become con-
nected with the Northwestern. OF Min
neapolis. as they appear to be $4,000
creditor. No one will mourn over this.
This is the company that bought out
one OF those gold bond companies at
Des Moines and then tried to recover
the assets, and was restrained by
Auditor Carroll Later. the Minneapo-
~ Offices were removed by the COVER