Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1912-01-19
WIN. H. KENNARD A FUGITIVE
FROM JUSTICE

Leaving a Long List of Victims
Who Purchased His Forged
Mortgages, Signed His Person
al Notes and Gave Him Credit.
w. H. Kennerd, proprietor of the
Forest County Abstract Co., money
loaner, dealer in real estate, insurance
agent, justice of the peace, reformer,
temperance agitator, Sunday school
teacher, law and order league member,
and general meddler in the affairs of
his neighbors, has absconded, defaulted,
re-nigged, and vanished with the old
year.
Since Willie's departure it has been
learned that in addition to his other ac-
complishments can be added that of
forger and embezzler. Forged mort
cages and abstracts are turning up on
every hand, and insurance companies
and others are frantically seeking for
the money that Kennerd has collected
for them.
Kennerd swindled his neighbors in
many ways, but his main graft was
selling "phony" mortgages. He drew
up mortgages on Forest county farms,
forged names of principals and witness
es, and turned them over to money
loaners in the southern part of the state,
retaining the money himself. A num-
Der of prosperous farmerOus about Gran
don had tidy nttle encumbrance on
their farm and did not know it until
Willie had spent the money and de-
camped Before leaving Crandon Ken
nerd destroyed records of business done
in his office and left everything in as
muddled a condition as possible. AS
treasurer of the Crandon Improvement
Co., the concern that purchased the
Shaw farm, he c"llected in the neigh
borhood of So, 900 and never turned any
of 1t over to his company Insurance
companies are out considerable money
but how much no one knows at present.
The whole amount of his stealings will
not be known for some time, but every
hour something new turns up. He
showed great impartiality, doing his
friends as often as anyone else.
Many Crandon people signed notes
with him which are left unpaid; one
man being on his paper for $4, 500.
Nearly every merchant is stuck for a
bill of goods and various workmen he
owes for labor. Many Crandonites are
on his bonds to insurance companies and
others and they are being notified of his
shortages.
The abstract business he has been
handling, it is said, he never paid for,
it being property of the first National
Bank of this city, or of certain stock
holders in the Bauk, and they have
taken possession of all the Abstract
Company's property and moved it into
rooms in the back part of the Bank
building.
AS a reformer Willie was there
with the bells on. He was great foe
of graft and grafters. 1t was hard for
him to find people who were honest
enough to deserve his society and
friendship. He played detective in the
Mars disbarment proceedings and was
loud in his denunciation of the lawyer,
but recent history paints Mars as a
cheap skate in crookedness in compari-
son to Willie, and Mars stayed and
fought it out, while Kennerd runs away,
leaving a wife and two babies to very
lnhospitable atmosphere.
AS a peace officer Kennerd's motto
was ''soak 'em" He abhorred any
infraction of the law, and no extenuat-
ing circumstances figured in case in
his court, unless of course, it might
concern some one of the cliques who
supported him. His views on enforce
ment of the criminal law may be some
what modified at present.
The prevailing opinion is that Ken
mead took large sum of money away
with him, but nothing definite will be
known until the returns are all in.
So far as we have been able to learn
no complaint or warrant for his arrest
have been issued, and as the heaviest
losers among Crandon people are his
former co-workers in reform, it is ru-
mored there may not be, as he might
tell things that would be embarrassing.
After leaving Crandon he was seen in