The Ogden Lumber Company’s Paper Trail
A suspected forgery scheme involving Washington lumber interests and Utah banking.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
C. L. Blasier, President of the Wasach Lumber Company and the Ogden Lumber Mining Co. of Utah, was arrested on the 10th for forging the firm name of Hanson Co. (Tacoma Mill Co.) to $50,000 notes. They were cashed at Brigham City by O. G. Snow, a banker, at a discount of 18 per cent. The Ogden Lumber Mining Co. has bought a fine shingle mill plant to be erected at Montesano, Wash., which has been shipped, but will hardly be turned over to the purchasers. The discounting of Hanson Co.'s notes at 18 per cent is pretty good evidence of fraud, as any San Francisco bank would be glad to take the paper of this company at face value.
“The discounting of Hanson Co.'s notes, 18 per cent., is pretty good evidence of fraud.”
Corporate fraud and the misuse of reputable names to secure financing were as common in the speculative lumber boom of the 1890s as they are in today's venture-capital-heavy industrial landscape. This incident highlights how quickly the local economy in Montesano could be tangled up in remote financial schemes.
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