The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1916-11-30
CREDITORS GET SMALL sum
Less Than Sixteen Percent of General
Creditors and Remaining Assets Bring
Only Receivers and Trustees
Bill Is Allowed by Referee.

They wrote "Finis' at the end of
Ehe story Of the United Refrigerator
and Ice Machine Company at the office
of Referee in Bankruptcy Knoblock in
Racine this morning and the final dis
fribution of the assets was made to the
creditors. This was dividend Of nine
and a half per cent and it brought the
total paid to the general creditors up to
fifteen and a half per cent. There is
no more money to be divided, there will
be nothing for the stockholders of the
company in this and other cities and all
that remains now Of the big plant is a
memory. For months the trustee had
been busy disposing of odd lots of per-
sonal property Of various kinds and
when the creditors gathered for the last
meeting this morning all that remained
was a big bunch Of unsolicited accounts.
Evidently Peter B. Nelson who had pro-
NOTED the company and who had piloted
II through a rather stormy existence be-
fore it struck the reef of the bankruptcy
court still had little sentiment in the
matter and he was represented by, his
attorney, Wallace ingalls,, who sought to
buy in the bunch of unsolicited ac
counts He only offered four hundred
dollars for them and B. Lovejoy of Chi
cago offered fifty dollars more and he
got them. The bill Of the trustee was
allowed at little over $4,000 and that
of the attorneys who had been pretty
I,,a,r Ii+;cro 4inu oxynr ciuoa +ba hu11Iy
ruptcv proceedings were inaugurated
were awarded $4,000 for their services.
This made big hole in the amount of
thu visible assets in the hands of the
tr zee.
1o United Refrigerator and Ice Ma
81 CcuDan9 was promoted by Peter
= Nelson The narent company had
be- the Racine Refrigerator and Ice
M ahino Company and after the plant
of the company was destroyed in Ra-
Giro Nelson and his associates came to
Konosha and purchased the old Miesel-
bach Tvpewriter plant on Pleasant
street. The company appeared to have
rosy future before it, Scores of Ke-
nosha men and women invested in the
stock of the company and it is declared
that more than $4,000 of the worthless
stock is now held by Kenosha people.
According to the claims of the attor-
neys the company never paid real divid
ends. The crash came with the failure
of the Commercial and Savings bank in
Racine. This bank carried large
amount of the collateral of the Kenosha
company and when it became Impossible
to have more loans made to it the credi-
kors Of the company forced bankruptcy.
Repeated attempts were made to re-
Organize the company before the assets
were sold at trustees sale. The real
estate and buildings were sold to the
WISCONSIN Macaroni company and the
personal property of the company to
wrecking company in Chicago Many
suits were filed against the company
after the failure by men who alleged
that they had contracts calling for con-
siderable sums of money These con-
tracts were disposed of in the courts and
many Of them paid much to the chagrin
of the general creditors. The total
claims filed against the company in the
bankruptcy proceedings totaled $66s,o00
and the total realized from the assets
was less than $4,000.
Peter B. Nelson who had been the
moving spirit of the company is now
employed in Detroit Some time ago
he made settlement with his creditors.
Many of the men who were employed by
the company found places in other Ke-
nosha factories after long terms of en-
forced idleness while others left Ke-
nosha and went to other cities.
The failure of the United Refrigera-
Tor Company was the largest industrial
failure ever recorded in Kenosha's in
dustrial history.
Many of the general creditors against
the company were Kenosha people and
the small checks representing their final
dividend win reach them within the
next few days.