Article Text
A DEPOSED BUTTER KING. HE FAILS TO PAY HIS TRIBUTE TO EMPEROR CASH, And His Failure Cuts a Wide Swathe in the Cheese and Butter DominionsFarmers and Business Men to the Number of Hundreds Interested in the Smash. MARENGO, Ills, June 11.-Marengo and the towns and country around it are all excitement Wednesday over the failure of W. A. Boies and the consequent closing of the Farmers' and Drovers' bank of Marengo It was ma public Wednesday morning by the posting of a notice in the window of the bank saying that it would be closed until a statement could be made. Mr. Boies was rrobably the largest manufacturer and dealer in butter and cheese in the United States, and was often called the "Butter King." He controlled the production of over twenty creameries in this vicinity and his pay-roll amounted to nearly $500,000 every year. Besides this his speculative transactions were enormous. These speculations were undoubtedly the cause of his failure. The failure was precipitated by the action of Charles Baltz of Chicago. Boies and Baltz have recently been very intimately connected in their business transactions and heavy drafts from one on the other were of almost daily occurrence. Tuesday, however, Baltz allowed a large draft to be protested and Wednesday he is said to have transferred his business to Charles E. Mauran of Keith, Benham & Dezendorf, of Chicago. This Chicago protest evidently gave the alarm, and before night large amounts were protested at Chicago, Elgin, Marengo, and Belvidere, and the following judgments were entered up at Woodstock; Metropolitan National Bank, Chicago, $12,815; B. S. Parker, Marengo, $21,600; B. S. Parker, Marengo, $20,025; Home National Bank of Elgin, $1,004. Also the following mortagages; B. S. Parker, Marengo, $20,000; Charles Griggs, Chicago, $30,000; Charles Griggs, Chicago, $16,000; Charles Griggs, Chicago, $10,000. Charles Griggs is Charles Baitz's lawyer. It will thus be seen that the judgements: and mortgages recorded Tuesday evening amount to $131,444. In addition to this he owes the farmers, pa trons of his factories, probably-not less than $40,000, the merchants of Marengo and Elgin large sums, besides an unknown quantity of speculative debts, the whole aggregating not less than $250,000 It is difficult lo estimate the liabilities of the Farmers' & Drovers' bank, but they are placed at from $40,000 to $60,000. The bank is itself a small concern, but Mr. Boies' business has been handled through it for a long time, and it had become thoroughly involved in his affairs. For some time it had been offering special rates of interest to attract deposits, and recently had opened a savingsbank department, giving good rates of interest on very small balances. A run on the First National bank was anticipated by some, but the bank was manifestly in such strong condition and so well prepared for it that confidence was not at all shaken. The business men of Marengo and Elgin are caught severely in these failures, several losing from $1,000 to $2,000 each, while almost all in Marengo are caught for a quarter or less amount It is quite probable that other failures will follow, particularly among some of the Elgin board of trade speculators. The loss among the farmers is quite widely distributed, yet it will be severely felt. The renters will be burt the most, yet all will suffer. Not less than 600 or 700 patrons of