The Sylvester Family of Plainview, Minnesota*

Hettie Sylvester learns the details of her husband's capture

January 30, 1926

PAGE 181

jubilant.
"I hope they don’t give him any bail," said one townsman. "I hope they slap him into prison and keep him there."
When the news of what had happened to the Plainview bank was first published last March, the citizens of Plainview were stunned. They could not believe that the man who had loomed so tall among them could do anything wrong. Sylvester had a hand in everything. He was the most trusted man in town. He was executor and administrator for scores of estates. Widows came to him to have him take charge of their meager property and his friends appointed him guardian over their children’s estates. No on in the village was more honored and looked up to.

Sylvester’s Work Revealed
Then came revelation after revelation. As the bank examiners delved into the tangled affairs of the institution they unearthed an odorous mess – the work of Edwin L. Sylvester.
It was weeks and months before the citizens really began to believe that Sylvester was a thief and a crook – that he had stolen money from his best friends, and from the widow and children of men who had placed their trust in him.
The climax came at the trial of A. G. Stoltz, assistant cashier, when all the facts that had been unearthed by the bank examiners were laid before the jury at Wabasha.
Details of transactions so enormously fraudulent as to be almost unbelievable were laid bare. The exact method Sylvester used in robbing his friends was described step by step.
The citizens of Plainview read of these transactions and the sorrow they had felt at first, which had subsequently merged into suspicion and anger, became blind, mad hatred.
Rumor Says Sylvester Wired Asking for Delay in Hearing
Wife Bears News of Arrest Bravely
Mrs. Sylvester Refuses to see Press – Gets Wire from Husband
Shocked and badly shaken, Mrs. E. L. Sylvester, wife of the former president of the defunct Plainview State bank, learned the details of her husband’s capture at Gulfport, Mississippi when she arrived in Winona this morning from Minneapolis to be present at the bankruptcy hearing, scheduled for this afternoon before Herbert M. Bierce, referee in bankruptcy.
A telegram which arrived sometime during the night awaited Mrs. Sylvester at Winona. The telegram from her husband to Mrs. Sylvester read: "Am under arrest. Postpone bankruptcy hearing."
The wife of the Plainview banker who was to seek this afternoon to have sustained her petition to set aside the bankruptcy proceedings involving the homestead and furniture normally exempt, bore upon bravely under the blow, shocked as she must have been.
Postponement Seen
There were indications at noon that the bankruptcy hearing might be postponed, partly at the request of Senator James Carley, attorney for the bank depositors, and partly at the request of E. L. Sylvester himself.
According to reports, Sylvester telegraphed County Attorney John R. Foley asking that the hearing be postponed until he arrives to testify himself. And Mr. Carley was not only willing to agree to such a postponement, but virtually demanded it.
"I was to get Sylvester where I can examine him," he declared. "I want to ask him several things."
Murdoch Undecided
J. W. Murdock of the Wabasha law firm of Murdoch and Lothrop, representing

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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."