Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-01-24
HENRY ZURICH is
UNDER $4,000 BOND
Pending an Appeal From Chi.
Cag0 Court, he is Out on Heavy
Bail.-The Account in the RE-
PORTER Was True.

Some time ago the REPORTER pup
liShed an account of an solve farm"
deal of the so called wood County
Benefactor," in which an account of
his arrest and conviction was re-pub-
lished from the Chicago Record-Her-
aid. Later this was denied by Mr..
Ulrich in letter to Mr. Brown of
Nekoosa, and also by publica ton in
local paper.
We publish below an investigation,
conducted by Richard Wipperman,
while in Chicago recently, and which
substantiates the account published
in the Record-Herald and the Re-
PORTER.
GRAND RAPIDS, WIS.
Jan. -, 1907.
To the Editor Some weeks ago
you published in your paper an eX
cerpt clipped from the Chicago Her
aid which stated in effect that Henry
| Ulrich, real estate dealer in lands
in Wood County, with offices in the
Ashland Block in Chicago, was ar
rested, tried and convicted of an
alleged fraud practiced on a man
| from that city. 1t was stated that
Ulrich sold this party farm in Wood
county on the strength of a bottle of
olives representing that the olives
had been grown up here & etc. 1t was
stated also that Ulrich had been
found guilty and sentenced to eight
month'simpriSonment and S150000 fine
and that he made restitution to the
injured party of so much of the pro-
perty of which he is alledged to have
defrauded him as possible. lmmedia-
tely following the publication of this
news item, which interested many
4 of the people in this community
Brown at NekOosa, which were
printed by several papers in
this county. He attempted to create
the impression that he was not under
arrest and that he escaped the clut-
ches of the law.
During my visit in Chicago last
week | took the trouble to investi
gate because it was hardly possible
that so reputable paper as the Re-
cord-Herald could be mistaken in its
news item relating to this case. Ac-
cordingly | went to the Criminal
Court building and inquired of clerk
the status of the case of State of
Illinois against Ulrich. He looked up
his index and found several cases in
dexed there against Ulrich and asked
me which case | wanted and replied
the "Olive Case" We found this to
be case No. S1379 and that it had
been transferred to the Municipal
court. | went to the Municipal court
building and there found the case
and all the papers connected with it.
From a reading of the papers l found
it to be fact that Ulrich was tried
and found guilty of the crime charged
and sentenced to eight months i'm
priSonment, $4,000 fine and that he
make restitution as far as possible to
the injured party of the property Of
which he is illeged to have defrauded
him. Ulrich has appealed his case to
the higher court and given bond to
the court. This does not mean,
though, that he is free and not under
arrest but on the contrary he iSguilty
and cOnStructively under arrest until
the Judgment of the court finding him
guilty is reversed.
1t has been stated that your paper
and others here are not warranted in
stating facts which will injure Mr..
Ulricn because of the great benefit
that he has been to this county in
that he has brought many people
here to settle. | will state now that
it is my opinion from experiences
that / had while in Chicago last sum-
mer that Mr.. Ulrich has done this
county far more harm than he can
ever do it good. 1t is an undisput-
able fact that | could not get parties
to come up here and look at good
land, of which there is a large guam
tity, because they had already been
up with Mr.. Ulrich before and were
told that what he showed them was
the best to h had and with that
they were entirely dissatisfied because
of its sandy nature. We have some
of the finest clay land in the state
here but | could not induce such
people to come up.
In this connection | will ask why
Mr.. Ulrich persists in advertising
himself as trustee, executor, admins
TRAITOR. receiver q etc? | go over the
records in the several offices at the
court house frequently but never have
[ found on record or file anything to
show that Mr.. Ulrich had been made
trustee, etc. / have seen his adver-
tisement in the Chicago Tribune,
Record Herald and other papers in
which he stated that he had been
appointed administrator, ETC., and that
he was ordered by the court to sell
the land advertised for the benefit Of
the children and that he was selling
the land at a great sacrifice.
Is it any wonder that when such
tactics are resorted to that the land
buying people will side-step when a
real estate agent approaches them
and congratulate themselves that
they had another narrow escape.
have during my few years in the real
estate business, become aware of num-
berless and startling frauds and
abuses that are practiced daily by
real estate dealers in this country
and | cannot wonder that the pro-
fession as a whole is regarded by the
general public with little suspicion.
r. 0. WIPPERMAN.