The Sylvester Family of Plainview, Minnesota*

Continuing coverage of Stoltz trial

December 18, 1925

PAGE 173

broke when it was found that E. L. Sylvester, president of the Plainview State bank, and the town’s leading citizen, had disappeared and the bank had crashed, carrying with it the funds and savings of many residents of the surrounding countryside.
Mr. Murdoch pointed to the situation as indicating that Stoltz, a minor officer of the bank, and not in the confidence of any of the others, could not be expected to know that Sylvester was a crook and had ruined the bank, when no one else in the village of Plainview or in the state of Minnesota, including highly trained bank examiners, were aware of the fact.
Mr. Foley, on the other hand declared that Stoltz had shown, by the I.O.U statement which he made of Sylvester’s dealings, that he had access to information which was available to but few others and that his special knowledge of conditions in the bank made it impossible for him not to have known that Sylvester had depleted the bank’s assets to the point of insolvency, when he received a deposit two days after the president had disappeared. By remaining silent, he asserted, Stoltz had criminally neglected his duty and had been responsible to a great extent for the sorrow and loss to the depositors, and Sylvester’s successful escape.

Stoltz Not Faultless
"Stoltz does not come in here with clean hands," Mr. Foley declared. "He signed bonds as a freeholder of land and possessed of property in excess of $5,000 at a time when he did not own a foot of land in Minnesota and was practically broke. He had nothing to worry about in signing the bonds – they couldn’t collect anything from him when he didn’t have anything.
"He was the one of whom the responsibility of the bank rested by his own declaration, and yet he tries to tell you he did not know what was going on. He saw money taken out of an estate and put in Sylvester’s checking account, and yet he says he thought he money obtained in that way was ‘borrowings.’ His IOU explanation is ridiculous. How could he be the manager of a creamery, keeping its books and keep all those bank records, if he is so dumb and ignorant as he would have you believe, of course he knew what was going on – he is not telling you the whole story of the plots and intrigues that went on behind the doors of that bank.
"If Stoltz never got a cent out of the bank that is no defense. Like Pilate, he wants to wash his hands of the whole mess. On the day the bank closed, he said, ‘I’m going home,’ and he went home to read, when he knew that in a few hours the whole countryside would be sorrow-stricken realizing that their faith and trust had been violated.
"Stoltz tells you it was all the fault of the other officers and none of his. We can’t get these other men in here. Ed Sylvester has departed for parts unknown. Frank Sylvester has gone down to his grave, and Kennedy is gone. Mrs. Carley, the bookkeeper, is the only one who can come here and look everyone in the face with a clear conscience.
Failed to Protect Relatives
"This man stood idly by and let his own relatives put their money in danger, but he couldn’t have cared much for his relatives or he would not have given them worthless security for his notes. As soon as he heard that Ed. Sylvester had gone he knew his hour had struck, that it was the end of his sorry, sickening mess that had enmeshed the whole countryside. No wonder he got nervous. He knew what had transpired in the bank for years, and that with Ed. Sylvester’s going went the funds of widows and orphans.
"Had he lost all sense of duty for the sake of a few paltry dollars every month, that he could let his friends and neighbors bring their money into a bank that was rotten to the core? If he had done his duty the head of that concern would long since have been behind prison bars. Is it worse to have the brand of criminal stamped across this

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* SOURCE: Manzow, Ron (compiler), "The Sylvester Family of Plainview, Minnesota - a collection of information taken from the Plainview News, other newspapers, letters, and diaries beginning in 1884": Plainview Area History Center, 40 4th St. S.W., Plainview, MN 55964. Compiled in 2001.

NOTE: from Ron Manzow, December 2001: "Feel free to reproduce the pages for anyone who wants a copy. It was compiled to be shared... All I ask is that they consider sending a check to the [Plainview Area] History Center to help us out. That should be enough."