The Sylvester Family of Plainview, Minnesota*

Edwin Sylvester grows somber as train approaches Wabasha

February 5, 1926

PAGE 199

home.
Yesterday when the party arrived in Chicago it was stormed at the depot by press photographers and reporters. Sylvester went through the ordeal without weakening. However, the interviews he have newspaper men who met him here had few new details that had not been disclosed on the long trip from the South.

Planned to Settle in South
"I had planned to settle in the south," he told the reporters, "if I had not been arrested and later have my family come to me."
Sylvester is still very bitter against Hoffstetter whom he believes betrayed him and caused his arrest. He declares him to be Judas.
The officers yesterday going through his belongings found several letters. County Attorney Foley however, refused to make their contents public. In the press interview at the Cook county jail where he was lodged for safe keeping last night, he talked about the Gulfport and Biloxi boom and about fishing on the gulf. He preferred not to go into details with the newspaper men about the affairs of the bank.
Jovial at Times
He was jovial at times yesterday as the train neared Chicago, but when Deputy Sheriff Ed Fitzgerald got handcuffs out, he objected to wearing them, but submitted without difficulty and his mood became much more sober.
He and Foley talked to past midnight Wednesday evening about the affairs of the bank, and the discussion was renewed again today as the train rolled on toward Minnesota.
In yesterday’s dispatch reference to White Brother’s was incorrect. It was apparently a mistake in telegraph transmission. His source of communication with his family was through White Bear, Minn.
February 5, 1926- Winona Republican-Herald
Plainview Friends May Furnish Bond for E. L. Sylvester
Rumor of Move to Raise Funds General There
Many to go to Wabasha to See Him When He Arrives
Plainview, Minn., Feb. 5 – Plainview still has an overwhelming confidence in Sylvester. If he needs men to go his bonds for bail when he is arraigned in Wabasha Monday he will find them in Plainview. In fact rumors of a movement to raise the money for his bail are already quite common about the streets of this village.
Sympathy talk about their "own E. L." who did so much for Plainview in the past, who helped to build up the town, and who has been their fellow citizen for nearly fifty years is heard on every corner.
The town will be out in force tonight when he arrives in Wabasha. Many more will make special trips over there tomorrow to "see E. L."
"The fact that he didn’t get any money himself," Senator James A. Carley said today, "has developed a strong favorable opinion towards Sylvester. The feeling here however is quite bitter against his wife and family."
A telephone survey of Plainview people made today by the Republican-Herald reveals the following as the opinion there.
"Plainview is sorry for E. L." one of the leading citizens expressed, "but they feel that he has done wrong and should be punished. The people are glad he has been arrested but they hope the punishment meted out to him will be light. They believe he has been punished quite a bit during the past year.

February 5, 1926- Rochester Daily Bulletin

Sylvester Reenacts Tragic Scene Before Bank Closed
Ed, George and Art Kennedy All "Wonder How Long Will Have to Serve in Jail"

Previous: Page 198.
Next: Page 200.
Initial: Table of Contents

* 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."