The Sylvester Family of Plainview, Minnesota*

Edwin Sylvester is reluctant to discuss bank affairs

February 3, 1926 - February 4, 1926

PAGE 188

Then the cotton crop harvest came, Sylvester went out under the boiling sun with the Negroes in the cotton fields and picked cotton. He worked at this for two months, helping to reap the big cotton crop of Mississippi. He told the officers that he averaged a dollar a day at this work and thought he had done "pretty good."
At the close of the cotton harvest Sylvester went to work in a cement block factory shoveling sand and carrying the heavy blocks.
When this work was completed he again went back to Mr. Hoffstetter and secured a job grubbing a piece of ground and doing other common labor about the farm.
Then came the job at the Hotel Avon, which was the best he had held since coming to the south. Here he was a fireman at a dollar a day, living and eating with the Colored help in the hotel kitchen and here it was where Sheriff Duckworth found him, when he was instructed by a telegram from County Attorney Foley to arrest the man known as Edwin who worked at the Avon Hotel. Sylvester had been employed there for two weeks.

Dislikes Jail Life
"Sylvester dislikes jail life exceedingly," County Attorney Foley said today, "and begged to be permitted to stay at a hotel last night but we locked him up in a parish jail here." He is much thinner and older in appearance than when he left Plainview. His clothes are shabby and his baggage consists of the little brown bag that aided authorities in Winona to trace him to Chicago and a bundle of work clothes tied in a khaki cloth like the Negroes tie theirs when they move from place to place.
The Wabasha county authorities, according to County Attorney Foley, encountered some difficulties in getting Sylvester from Sheriff Duckworth at Gulfport.
"The sheriff hesitated to release him," Foley said, "claiming a share of the reward and threatening to question the extradition papers we had. When told we had nothing to do with the payment of the reward he consulted an attorney and reluctantly let Sylvester go. We departed at once from Gulfport" Foley added with a smile, "for fear the sheriff might change his mind."
Reluctant on Bank Affairs
"I don’t know what Sylvester’s plea will be. He is very reluctant when it comes to discussing bank affairs. In fact it was difficult to get any details out of him. The facts about his travels came piece meal."
He inquired about prison conditions, Mr. Foley and Deputy Sheriff Fitzgerald stated, asking about Stillwater several times on the trip from Gulfport to here.
"He likes to talk about fishing on the gulf," Foley added, "and told us about the land situation at Gulfport and Biloxi, stating that he could have made considerable money in land there."
The Wabasha authorities with their prisoner will leave New Orleans today at 12:30 PM on the Illinois Central for Chicago where they are due to arrive Thursday night. They will leave Chicago over the Milwaukee road Friday morning and reach Wabasha that evening.

February 4, 1926- Winona Republican Herald

Wife and Son Help to Plan Flight
Claim Took $443 When He Left, Little Booklet Shows
Admits Irregularities go Back 25 Years
Received 12 Letter from Family, Wrote 8
Sylvester Party in Chicago Today
On board train with Sylvester party enroute to Chicago Thursday noon – The mystery surrounding Edwin L. Sylvester’s letters to his family, his method of communication with them and some of the puzzling details in connection with the closing of the bank were cleared up today.

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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."