The Keystone Wreck
In three short years, Elizabeth Lucas went from daughter of the most respected man in Philadelphia and wife of the owner of: the Monmouth Hotel, “Lucas block” of commercial property in Spring Lake Beach, owner of the Sea Girt Farm, Beach House, Keystone Bank President, and President of the Land Improvement companies, to the widow of an embezzler, and daughter of an honest politician financially ruined by his brother’s fraud. All she wanted to do at this point was to clear her name.
Swayze cartoon of 1893 testimony of Elizabeth Lucas
“It appears that Mr. Lucas, during his presidency of the bank, had, with the connivance of Cashier Marsh, now the President of the bank, carried out, by adroit for a series of years, a scheme for systematic abstraction from the bank of large sums to assist his speculations in real estate at Spring Lake and Sea Girt”
Illustrated America’s coverage of the case. By then it was called the Keystone Wreck
There were several runs on the Keystone Bank. Then it failed, then the Spring Garden Bank went with it. When the examiners went to look at the books, Gideon Marsh and Henry Yard’s account pages were missing, torn out of the ledger. Yard had loans from the bank for as much as $275,000. He claimed to be owed money from the bank, but any record of his deposits were missing.
It was revealed that the City of Philadelphia had placed several hundred thousand at the bank, at risk, which was against the law. Public money was lost. Tax receiver John Bardsley was arrested for placing the money with the corrupt banks. A banking committee took testimony. Spring Garden was trading piles of cash with the Keystone to help each other fool the examiners.
Presidents of both banks and their cashiers were arrested.
Then John Wanamaker, department store millionaire serving as US Postmaster General was accused of wrongdoing by Bardsley. (The bank owed him money from a stock swap). Wanamaker testified that John Lucas, before he died, pressured him to purchase the Land Company property at the Shore. The story became a national sensation.
John Wanamaker was lampooned as two-faced. Both Poius and a business swindler in Puck Magazine in 1891. The cartoon says “till the Philadelphia trouble blows over!” Kepler Cartoon
The front page of the Philadelphia Times showed a cartoon of Marsh on a donkey racing out of the broken banking building with bags of money, Bardsley and Kennedy picking up the rest on the ground and Drew the bank examiner walking by blind.
Spring Lake Museum has an old Wanamaker Catalogue on display. He revolutionized shopping with fixed prices and comfortable surroundings
In the meantime, with the true nature of his involvement in the bank’s collapse on the verge of being revealed by witnesses, and several committees gathering to interview the principal figures, Gideon Marsh vanished, jumping bail.
The papers called it "The crowning sensation in the history of a crime".
The all-points-bulletin went out for Marsh with a $5,000 reward:
“When last seen on May 27, 1891 he wore a brown derby hat, flat brim, brown or snuff colored overcoat, plaid checked pantaloons patent leather shoes with over-gaiters, and carried a small alligator satchel and umbrella.”
“He is about forty-five years old, weighs 180-200 pounds, 5 feet 10 in height, broad shoulders, well built, has careworn look, blue eyes, dark brown mustache, brown face, fair skin, good teeth, middle finger on his right hand injured by being struck on the finger with a baseball bat, which leaves an inverted nail forming a ridge of flesh at the base. He can raise full whiskers and may let them grow.”
Gideon Marsh’s ‘mug shot’
He would be gone for years. There were sightings all over, and shots were exchanged at a house of Henry Yard’s in Como, and a Secret Service agent was paralyzed. But Marsh had vanished.
Wanamaker showed proof that he simply parked stock, and that the bank owed him money. Bardsley was shown as a liar.
Henry Yard was arrested and released on bond. He stood trial and was acquitted. His character witnesses were a line-up of Philadelphia elite: James Sullivan, Robert Wistar, former Trenton Mayor D.G.W. Vroom, and Lincoln Passamore the president of the Commercial Exchange. These prominent men swore to Yard’s honesty and square dealings.
The coup de gras was Judge Samuel Thompson who was Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court . He had a summer home in Yard’s development of Como, which became the northernmost part of Spring Lake in 1903. He did not know Yard well, but spoke positively about his reputation in the seashore communities. Out of respect, every lawyer on both sides of the courtroom stood when Judge Thompson rose from the witness chair to leave the courtroom and he heartily shook every outstretched hand. “It was like a ray of sunshine from behind a dark cloud”, noted a reporter. That was all the jury needed to see.
The witness Thompson had acquitted Yard by his very presence. The prosecution’s chief witnesses against him were dead, proven liars or had fled. Mrs. Lucas was the only significant witness, and she had been intentionally kept in the dark about her husband’s business dealings.
Yard had brilliantly gutted the Land Improvement companies of their best assets in a perfectly legal transaction, wound up smelling like a rose. He flashed his diamonds and tongue-tied the prosecution, walking out of court like a hero.
The Vigilanica was likely the boat James Hunter returned on. It made regular runs between South America and NY (Library of Congress)
Amid the controversy, James Hunter, Elizabeth’s uncle, returned from hiding in South America. He was senile and died a few months later. It was a reminder of the connection of this financial mess with the Shore properties.
The view northwest from Avocado (619 Ocean). Note the trees extend all the way to Wreck Pond other than the cluster along First Ave. and the ocean. Sea Girt was still empty in the early 1890s
Spring Lake had sold most of its lots. The new Sea Girt and Spring Lake Company held most of its land in Sea Girt, and the stink of controversy would limit sales for the next 20 years. Elizabeth Lucas did pay off her husband’s personal debts. It took most of her land, the farm, hotels the bank building and other assets, but she canceled all the debts against her husband.