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I just didn’t realize. "But then things kept getting worse and worse. Then I got into those land deals and things went bump there, and then I was back. Why, we just sort of got the bull by the tail and the bull stared to run and we couldn’t let go. That’s the way it was." Three things made Ed Sylvester realize the end was near last January. "In the first place," he said, "the examiners were getting awful hot on our trail and we were getting pretty scared. In the second place it came time fro me to give a bond for the county deposits, and I couldn’t do it. The boys wanted me to get a surety bond, but I didn’t have anything to back up that kind of a bond. Then one of the big citizens of Plainview who had been bondsman for me many times before was reluctant to go on a personal bond. He said he had heard from somebody else that the bank was pretty bad off. I knew then that the crash was coming. On Christmas – a year ago this last Christmas – the Sylvester family spent one of the saddest holidays in its history. It was just about Christmas time, Ed said, that he confessed to his family that he was short in the bank. "There was Nettie and Edwin and the Mrs. and me there," he said. "I told ‘em but I didn’t have the heart to tell them how big the shortage was, altho I knew it was pretty big. They took it hard, and there didn’t any of us sleep a wink for several nights. "Then Mrs. Sylvester went to Rochester to try and borrow some money – of course she didn’t tell what for. They told her there she could have the money if there was plenty of security to back it up. But of course, we didn’t have the security. "Well, February came and I made up my mind to go away. I talked it over with the family about two days before I left from Plainview. "My God, I didn’t sleep a wink for one-two nights. I was near crazy." And here Sylvester burst into violent sobs which he had difficulty in controlling. "At Winona," he continued, "I got on the Chicago train, but I had kind of a hard time getting to sleep. I did sleep a little though, because I was just about exhausted. "I got to thinking then, for the first time, what name I ought to take. I thought of John Smith and John Jones and all those names, and they didn’t seem right. Then I thought of turning my initials backward, and that’s the way I picked the name I used – Samuel L. Edwin." When he arrived in the South, Sylvester wrote a letter home and gave his address and the name he had assumed. After that correspondence went on fairly regularly. His wife was the only person who wrote, he said. Discussing the condition of the bank, Sylvester said that one thing that made it harder was the number of bank notes the bank had. "You know," he said, "I was too easy. I couldn’t say ‘no’ to my friends. That was the trouble with me, I guess. I wasn’t a banker. I guess I was a better thief than a banker. "And it was the same way with my family. I was too liberal there too. I didn’t have the heart to refuse them anything. I couldn’t say no there, either. While Sylvester was divulging all these details the train was pounding its way steadily towards Minnesota. And as mile after mile was reeled off his composure ebbed, and he burst into tears more frequently. But he was getting the whole terrible story off his chest, and he was glad, he said. "You know," he said, "when I went away from Plainview my family was afraid I
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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."
Howder; © 1995-2011 All Rights Reserved. Last Updated February 14, 2011.