Off the Record August 25, 1949

Aug. 25, 1949
The recent release in a Chicago Tribune, Sunday edition of the old story of Cassie Chadwick, the female financier who fleeced Northern Ohio bankers out of millions between 1902 and 1904, was brought again into the limelight, the names of L. P. Ohliger and J. R. Zimmerman to an article first connected the Wooster National Bank with other institutions that were milked by the notorious Cassie. Wooster oldsters with long memories back into the days when Ohliger and Zimmerman fled, do not recollect any connection between Cassie and the Wooster Bank. All of them who have been asked, recall that to the best of their knowledge the Ohliger-Zimmerman defalcations were due to speculations in wheat. Wheat went down instead of up. As I remember the story, and I covered the most of it in person. The expose came when the examiners appeared at the bank and Ohliger and Zimmerman gathered together what loose cash was on hand and fled. They were finally rounded up in Vancouver and brought back to Cleveland where they received bail and returned to their families in Wooster. It was one of the hottest as well as one of the hardest stories and one of the sadist this writer ever handled. Mr. Ohliger had been a congressman. He was a trustee of the College of Wooster. Mr. Zimmerman, in addition to being director of the bank, operated Zimmerman Drugstore and both were prominent leaders in Democratic politics in this section. Mr. Ohliger’s arch enemy was John S Adair, also a democratic politician and brother of Robert L Adair, probate judge and he was not entirely displeased when things turned out as they did. Over that particular week, it began to be rumored that the bank might not be open for business on Monday and sure enough, Monday morning there was a paper on the front door stating the Wooster National Bank was temporarily closed.

Down at our newspaper office, the question was what to do about it and it was finally decided that I was to call up the Ohliger residence by telephone. The residence still stands and is the handsome home of Mrs. A. L. Zook on North Market Street. Willard Ohliger answered the telephone. When I stated who it was, I could hear him tell parties back in the room that the newspaper had called up and there was a perfect babble of voices. Finally, I was able to remind him of the notice on the bank’s front door. More talking back in the room. Finally Willard said, “I will do the talking for the family. We do not know where father is at the moment. When he left here, he said he had to go to Cleveland and Chicago and we have every confidence he will return in a day or so.” Not so much satisfaction came from the Zimmerman house, where it was simply stated Mr. Zimmerman is out of town on business. It developed later that Mr. Ohliger had visited banker friends some days before and had been doing everything in his power to obtain funds and to keep the bank from failing. The story dragged out over many months. L. R. Ohliger was given eight years in prison and was paroled at the earliest possible time, and J. R. Zimmerman given two years with parole in about a year. Both were broken financially and both were adjudged bankrupt and their property confiscated in the court of W. F. Kean, who was then referee in bankruptcy and before whom were many hearing, trying to dig up some property belonging to either of the two which did not exist. Both were stripped aside from amounts here and there that were possessed by relative. Before the crash, Mr. Ohliger had been building a pretty home on N Market Street for his son, Charles Ohliger. This house was never finished and went in with the rest to satisfy the creditors. The home was afterwards purchased by E. W. Thompson, who was the first cashier of the Citizens National Bank, The and the home is now owned and occupied by Wm. A Lott, who has been the owner for many years. Mr. Thompson paid 5,000 for the home. The failure was a crushing blow to Willard Ohliger for he and his father were great pals. Willard went to Detroit and through the years, worked up to the top as one of America’s largest manufactures of drugs, passing away a few years ago worth a large sum of money. But he never felt the same about the attitude of Wooster folks towards his father and in the few visits back to his old home town, he always refused to come downtown. There have been so called hard times in Wooster, but they have never been tougher than they were for a few months following the failure of the Wooster National Bank. There was a double liability on owners of bank stock at the time. This meant that an owner of a share of stock would be required to put up the par value of that share. This meant that quite a number of local folks not only had to lose their stock in the bank which had been productive of incomes but had to put up an equal amount in addition. With all this and the recovery of loans, the bank paid pretty well. I do not have at hand the exact figures and there are probably those still living who have, but I recollect the payments were very substantial. In this work, the late Ad Metz, who had been attorney for the bank, was the attorney for the receiver, and it was acknowledge in local banking circles that much of the recovery of payments on notes, some of which took a lot of work, was due to the efforts of Mr. Metz.

L. P. Ohliger was one of the approachable men in Wooster and was always eager to do a favor for a friend, not long before the bank failure. This writer had sought to obtain from the late Jesse McClellen some figures concerning the college he thought would be of interest to the paper’s readers. It was one of Jesse McClellan’s off days. He hadn’t time to bother. ‘’I will get them for you,” volunteered George Kettler. He went to L. P. Ohliger at the bank, who called up Jesse McClellan, which he could do as a trustee and got the figures. A few days before his departure, Mr. Ohliger was guest at a party which the writer also attended, and he was one of the gayest men at the party, seemingly without a care in the world. Neither Ohliger or Zimmerman were dishonest at heart. They were over ambitious so much so that they took long chances with money that was not their own.

Back in the grass cutting days, officer Raymond Smith was cutting the grass in the plot of the square that contains the cannon and cannon balls and the soldiers monument. “We think it would be a proper thing if the monument and the entire little park were moved to the city park,” said Officer Smith “I have been away a couple of weeks and the grass has grown pretty tall. Up at the park there are folks who take care of everything and that is the proper place for monuments and displays such as this,” he continued. The monument was presented to the city many years ago by Mr. And Mrs. Jacob Frick, when Mr. Frick was president of the Wayne County National Bank, The, and when the bank did not extend to the corner. It was turned out by the Alcock Granite Works and was dedicated to posterity with appropriate ceremonies. It was complete in every way and even had a little fountain for dogs to drink from, which accessory has fallen into disuse with the passing years. The departure of the horse and buggy days and the need of parking space makes it advisable to have all the space on the square possible. That makes Officer Smith’s idea a good one. It is absolutely necessary that the little park on the square have some attention, and there is no appropriation for anyone to give it any attention on as the matter now stands. The monument and the artillery could be placed in a most prominent place at the city park and the entire problem would be solved. There absolutely is need for parking space on the square. Also for driving space and anything that will accelerate that necessity will be a good thing for all.