Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1907-10-25
FIVE YEARS FOR
THOMAS COGSHILL
SEYMOUR BANK CASHIER WHO Be
CAME DEFAULTER IS PUN
ISHED.
WIFE FAlNTS IN COURT.
Took Money to Recoup Loss and Is
Dragged HopeleSsly Into
Mire.

MILWAUKEE. Wis. Oct. IA
scene of sorrow, unusually painful.
even to court attaches Injured to distress,
ing occurrences, was enacted in the Unit
ed States district court this morning
when Thomas {. CogShil. drfaultinr
cashier of the bank of Seymour. Wis.
was sentenced to five years in the govern
ment prison at Fort Lcavenworth. by
Judge Joseph V QuarIcs.
CoEShllIS wife, who came from their
home nj Seymour i'll the summer to be
near her husband during his confinement
III The county Jail. was i'll the courtroom.
ana. alter her husband stepped forward
to the bar to plead guilty, her feelings
oVercamc her and she was carried from
the room III n faint.ng condition. CugS-
hlll whose life, until the iudiScrCtiouS Tor
which he is now suffering had been
DlameleSS, made a brief statement 10 the
court concerning his crime and the events
which led up to it and which was So
SIMPLY told and SO Convincingly that even
the Judge was moved almost to tears
while imposing the sentence.
Arrested in June.
Cogshill was arrested June II. 1907.
and brought to Milwaukee, after a heavy
shortage Ill his accounts had been dis
covered by the directors of the bank
The grand jury which reported Saturday
indicted him ON three counts charging
the embeZZlemcnt i'll December 1906,
aud January and February of 1907 of
$229S.
Other counts in the indictment charged
the cashier with the miSapplcation of
$4,000 on March II, 1907, $1,000 on
March %. 1907, and $4,000 on April
20. The remaining counts charged him
with nnl1 NN-fnlly lI,,l irrr e
change, one of them for $1,000 coming
to the National Exchange bank. The en-
tire amount aggregated about $4,000.
"A year ago l noticed a shortage of
$1,000 i'll the bills receivable account"
said Cogshill when he was asked to
plead. II was unable to trace the
source of this shortage. but ! tried in
many ways. | then took other funds in
the bank and specialized in wheat on
the board of trade i'll Chicago, hoping to
recOup the loss. | can inform the court
that not one cent of the money l took
went into my own personal account
Every bit of it went in to make up the
original shortage"
Plea for Mercy.
A plea of lenicncy was made by Cog
shilrS attorney who said that the cashier
had always borne an excellent reputation
among the business men of Seymour
declaring that they were unable to ac-
count for his actions, They. too asked
for leniency. The cashiers counsel ex-
planned that after the shortage was made
known. Cogshill had 81 and $50 was
given to his wife, all the rest of their
savings and property being turned over
to the bank in the effort to make up the
loss.
Mrs. COgshill listened to the plea of her
husbands attorney, and a moment after
he had concluded, she became uncon-
scious. Her little son, about 10 years
old, was with her, and she was taken
from the room after she had recovered
from the faint. In pronouncing sen
tence. Judge Quarlcs said:
This is one of those incxprcSsabIy
sad cases. In this ease the court must
administer the law the same as i'll any
other similar one. All of the sad wrecks
that lie in the pathway of the human
race have the same source. | cannot I'M
derstand why a man cannot face the di-
rectors Of his institution and make a
clean breast of everything instead of be
coming involved in Il game which is
worse than lottery. | realize that you
are not like the professional wrong-doer.
and the sentence of this court is that you
be committed to the Fort Lcavcnworth
prison for term of five years com
mencing at noon today"