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| Theodore Stevenson. Photo credit, Harris, Grip's Historical Souvenir. |
THEO. STEVENSON ASSIGNS.
The Assignment Filed last Monday Morning—The
Preferred Creditors.
Last Monday
morning Theodore Stevenson of this village executed an assignment of his
property for the benefit of his creditors which was filed in the County Clerk's
office at 9:35 o'clock. For the past twenty years, Mr. Stevenson has been
extensively engaged in the insurance and real estate business in this village
and was considered a pretty successful business man. He was very active and was
one of the hardest workers in town, and owned a large number of houses besides
several valuable vacant lots. He also owned a large number of shares of the
capital stock of the Cortland Top and Rail Company, the Howe Stove Company, the
Homer Wagon Co.,Limited and the Cortland Desk Company. He was president of the
first named company, vice-president of the Stove Company and a director in the
Homer Wagon Company. In fact he may be said to have been the founder of the
first named company. He favored all improvements to the village and always lent
a helping hand to further the interests of the town.
Last
winter he had a severe attack of the grip from which he suffered all summer, and
had only fairly recovered his usual health and vigor, when he was taken
seriously ill with a liver trouble about four weeks ago, and has since been
unable to leave his bed. Many of his houses have been empty for a year past
owing to his inability to give his personal attention to business. It is
believed that had he enjoyed his usual health the past year, he would have been
able to weather the storm which surrounds his business affairs.
Messrs. Phillip
Sugerman and Thos. F. Brayton of this village are the assignees. The assignment
covers all of his real and personal property.
In
addition to the wages of his employes he prefers the following creditors:
Westchester
Fire Insurance Co., $300.
Bowery
Fire Insurance Co., $50.
Commercial
Union Fire Insurance Co., $125.
The Grand
Fire Insurance Co., $70.
Firemen's
Fire Insurance Co., $60.
Orient
Fire Insurance Co., $40.
Peoples'
National Bank of Salem, $499.
Peoples'
National Bank of Salem, $397.
Peoples'
National Bank of Salem, $278.
Peoples'
National Bank of Salem, $310.
The
National Bank of Cortland, $2,064.
The
Second National Bank of Cortland, $581.
Pillip
Sugarman, $510.
The First
National Bank of Cortland, $1,000.
The
Chemung Valley Bank, Horseheads, $165.
R. B.
True & Co., Syracuse, $450.
Hannah
Rose, Cortland, $175.
The exact
liabilities are not yet known as the schedules are now in course of preparation
and the same may be said of the assets. If the property sells for anything like
its full value, it is thought that the assets will pay the liabilities and
possibly leave a surplus. His last inventory taken in January last showed his
real estate to be valued at $179,650 on which there were mortgages to the
amount of about $75,000. He considers that his outside real estate has shrunk
15 to 25 per cent within the past two years. The homestead belongs to Mrs.
Stevenson. Mr. Stevenson expects to be out in a few days and will then give his
undivided attention to his insurance business and will push it for all it is
worth.
Theodore Stevenson, Grip’s Historical Souvenir, page 164: http://tcpl.org/local-history/documents/county-history-CNY/Grips_of_Cortland/grips156-171.pdf
WAKEFARE PARKER.
A Story of Wrongs and Misfortunes—How a
Crippled Orphan Lost His Patrimony.
The
father of Wakefare Parker died while he was an infant leaving him property
valued at about $2500. Disease deformed him and rendered him decrepit at an
early age, and on attaining his majority all his little patrimony was lost
through the instrumentality of Jerome Squires, except $147, which he had to
resort to law to recover.
The
records of this county show that Dann C. Squires, the father of Jerome, was the
special guardian of Wakefare Parker, and before his death had invested a
portion of his ward's money in the Atwood mortgage. After his father's death Jerome became his administrator; he soon after
failed in business leaving his creditors in the lurch. His father's large
estate rapidly disappeared in his hands, together with the trust funds
belonging to Wakefare Parker, leaving the other heirs of his father's estate to
resort to a bitter and fruitless litigation to recover their shares and a deficiency
which his bondsmen were obliged to make up to creditors of the estate.
At this
juncture of affairs Jerome entered the law office of W. H. Warren, where a
wicked scheme appears to have been hatched to cover up the absorption of
Wakefare's little patrimony, which took form as follows, as was disclosed by
the accounting before an auditor appointed by the Surrogate of Cortland county
which Jerome was compelled to make. This accounting
showed that about $2,000 had been paid by Jerome to apply on the debts of
Wakefare's mother, though what right existed to pay a mother's debts from an infant
son's money was never made to appear and stands out as a bold and defiant violation
of law and justice.
Next as
administrator of the estate of Dann C. Squires, he assumed to assign and
transfer the Atwood mortgage, which represented the investment of this
unfortunate minor's money, made by his special guardian, to William H Warren,
who immediately re-assigned it to Jerome Squires, who then commenced an action in
his individual capacity to foreclose this mortgage with W. H. Warren, who was
at that time easily imposed upon, as his attorney. The property was sold upon
this foreclosure, Jerome received the money and claimed upon the accounting
that he had loaned it out upon notes which he produced, which were worthless.
He also claimed he should be allowed the money he had paid to apply on the
debts of Wakefare's mother as paid for Wakefare's support, which claim for some
inscrutable reason appears to have been accepted. The auditor points this out
in his report, but dismisses it by saying it was not contested. The auditor
further reported that Jerome Squires had no title to this Atwood mortgage, no
right to foreclose it and no right to loan out the money received from the sale
of the property which was held to be a trust fund in his hands and subject to
the control of the court having jurisdiction of infants' estates.
The man
responsible for this iniquity is the republican candidate for District
Attorney, who, if elected, would be required to act as Surrogate in the absence
or disqualification of the Surrogate as frequently happens.
Is he fit
for such a trust? No. Make your votes to record this no, with emphasis.
LAPEER.
[pen name]
A Chicken Pie Supper.
A chicken
pie supper will be served in the parlors of the Presbyterian church next Monday
evening, Nov. 2, from six until eight o'clock. All lovers of this good old dish
should be present, as the ladies have taken great pains to have the pies as
well as the rest of the supper unusually good. Supper 25 cents.
TOMPKINS—There
were 1,500 students registered last Friday.
There are
174 women registered in the various courses of Cornell University.
Extensive
repairs are to be made on the steamer Frontenac, which is now on the dry dock
near McKinney's.
A pumpkin
was grown in the garden of Mrs. B. Beardsley, at North Lansing, which weighed
53 pounds. The seed was sent from Washington, D. C.
A lighted
lamp became unmanageable in the Southworth Library in Dryden last Saturday
evening, and caused a little commotion through fear of an explosion or its setting
fire to something before it could be gotten out of doors.
A couple
of students being on the lake about 3 miles below the pier, on Wednesday
evening were capsized and would probably have been drowned but for the assistance
rendered by Mr. John N. Gee, who lives near the Estey cottage.
Mrs. Nancy
A. Owen was one hundred years old, Sunday, the 18th inst. Mrs. Owen was born near Tully. She came to Ithaca when
about thirty years old, and has resided here seventy years Her oldest son, if living,
would now be seventy years of age. Her son John, with whom she resides, is
sixty-one. The old lady is in quite good health and walks about with the aid of
a cane. Her memory is but little impaired and she talks interestingly of events
in her long career. Her sight is so well preserved that she reads ordinary print
by the aid of glasses.
Lottie
Brock, aged 17, who since last February has been employed at Mrs. [Tailby's]
boarding house in Ithaca, left the house while the family were at breakfast, and
was not seen again until she was discovered at the bottom of Cascadilla ravine,
just above the bridge, by H. G. Wolcott, a student of the class of '94, who was
attracted by hearing a moan from the unfortunate young lady. He secured assistance
and she was taken to the armory where it was found that her arm was fractured and
her spine injured, and her case was pronounced critical by the several
physicians. It is supposed that Miss Brock jumped from the bridge with suicidal
intent. Miss Brock came from Spencer, where her father resides; she had been
gloomy for some time. She is spoken of as a girl of excellent character. In the
afternoon she was removed to the house of her sister, Mrs. Butts on North Plain
street, where she died on Sunday.
JOHN A. NICHOLS, OUR NEXT SENATOR.
The candidacy
of John A. Nichols, for Senator of the Twenty-fifth district, gains strength
daily. The better Mr. Nichols becomes known throughout the district, the more
friends he has, and the larger will his vote be at the polls. The taxpayers of
Onondaga County, especially, are waking up to the vital importance to their interests
of having a Senator, for the next two years, from this County. They see in
Mr. Nichols a plain business man, largely interested
in the prosperity of the District, who, if elected, will truly represent the
District's business interests. Mr. Nichols' nomination was originally
recommended by the Convention of Farmers and Grangers. It appeals with equal
force to all classes of the business interests of the County and District. Let
every voter who has the interests of the District at heart be sure that his
ballot bears the name, FOR SENATOR, JOHN A. NICHOLS!
PAGE FOUR/EDITORIALS.
John A. Nichols, the Democratic candidate for
State Senator in this district, is a farmer by occupation and not a
professional politician. He did not buy his nomination and is not all things to
all men. His word is as good as his bond
and he does not swear off his taxes. He is an honest man and deserves the
support of all good citizens.
The Cortland Standard takes us to task
for publishing that "Peter D. Muller owns a few shares of stock in the
National Bank of Cortland and that is all" and then publishing the
bank's advertisement on another page containing a list of the directors of the
bank, Mr. Muller's name appearing in the list. Does the fact that Mr. Muller is
a director in the bank invest him with any more shares than he actually owns?
Five shares would make him eligible to be a director and he is no more a banker
by being a director than if he owned five times the amount of stock and was not
a director. We insist that there was no inconsistency as between the article and
the contents of the advertisement. In commenting upon the subject the Standard
is pleased to say "It is rarely that even a Democratic editor will play
the fool to such an extent as to publish a lie on one page and the proof that
it is a lie on another page of the same issue of his paper." Our neighbor
is entirely correct in this statement. Such pleasantries are usually indulged
in by Republican papers only and if we had been trespassing upon the particular
prerogative of the Standard in this regard we would tender an ample apology,
but we are not guilty of the charge. In this connection, we beg leave to
commend the editor of the Standard to a careful consideration of the 22nd
verse, 5th chapter of the gospel according to St. Matthew.
In November, 1888, the Republicans of the
good old town of Virgil held a celebration over the Republican victory. In the
procession which paraded the streets there was one banner that created
considerable merriment in the ranks of the spectators. The inscription alluded
to the fact that the Democrats had taken passage for Salt River. What caused
the hilarity with reference to that particular banner was the fact that the
word steamer was spelled "Stemer" and Steve Jones was the stemer that
was carrying the banner and he failed to appreciate the joke, because he did
not know his spelling was being criticised [sic].
The Homer Republican wakes up about
once a year and has something to say. This week it gets off its couch long enough
to take the DEMOCRAT to task on a grammatical blunder. It will return to its
slumbers at once, but we promise to awaken it again in November, 1892, if nothing
serious happens before then. We make no charge to its readers for this service.
Stephen K. Jones, Esq., the Republican candidate
for County Clerk, is a resident of the town of Virgil. In the spring of 1890 he
was elected town clerk of his town on the Republican ticket. He was
re-nominated in the spring of 1891 and was defeated by a majority of 40 votes, notwithstanding
the fact that the Re publican party have a majority of from 80 to 130 votes in
that town. If his own neighbors consider him incompetent to perform the duties
pertaining to the office of town clerk, what will their decision be when he asks
for the more responsible office of County Clerk?
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| Cortland Democrat,from "Battle Pieces" by Herman Melville. |
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