OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 70 ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 November 15, 2005 ************************************************************************** +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio Tid Bits - Part 70 by Darlene E. Kelley notes by S.Kelly ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid Bits - Part 70 Cleveland's Most Famous Con - Artist She was born Oct 10, 1859 at Stathroy/ Eastwood, Ontario, Canada, a daughter of a Ontario railway worker and named Elizabeth Bigley. Nothing was known about her early years. In 1881, at 22 years old, she was arrested in Woodstock, Ontario for forgery, but was released on the grounds of insanity. The next year, she married Dr. Wallace S. Springsteen in Cleveland, Ohio, but he threw her out in 11 days later when he found out about her past. Soon after, she changed her name to Lydia Scott and became a fortune-teller; only to change her name again to Madam Lydia de Vere,as it sounded better for a clairvoyant. Some accounts say this happened in 1886 and 1887, respectively. One account says she was in San Francisco bilking unsuspecting people with her clairvoyance, and then retuned to Cleveland in 1886. Most accounts state she was sentenced in 1889 to nine and a half years in the state penetentiary for forgery in Toledo. After serving four years, she was paroled by the then - governor William Mc Kinley, and returned to Cleveland changing her name yet again to ' Mrs. Hoover' and working as a prostitute. Apparently, in 1887, she had a son, whom she named Emil Hoover. Nothing is mentioned in any account as to who took care of the son. In 1887, she met and married Dr. Leroy S. Chadwick, a well respected physician, who knew nothing about her past criminal activities. It is said she met him in a borello on Euclid Ave, where she assured him she was merely an etiquette instructor for the girls. It was apparent that around this time she again changed her name to Cassie L. Chadwick. Nothing is mentioned as to what the L. stood for or when she came up with this name. In 1897, Cassie set up her biggest scam, On a trip to New York City, in the posh lobby of the Holland House Hotel, she was introduced to her husband's acquaintance, Dillion, who was an Ohio banker. She told Dillion she was an illegitimate daughter of the wealtiest batchelor in America, Andrew Carnegie.. To prove it, she and Dillion took a carriage ride to Carnegie's Fifth Avenue mansion.( Other accounts state she merely asked Dillion to take her there. ) While Dillion waited in the carriage, Cassie went to the door and was admitted in, where she stayed for about 30 minutes. Upon returning to the carriage, she waved to a well dressed man in the front window, ten tripped while entered the carriage, surreptitiously dropping a piece of paper. Dillion retrived the paper for her and noticed it was a promissory note for $ 2 million signed by Carnegie, whom Cassie said was the man waving from the window. Dillion wanted details, which Cassie supplied, after swearing Dillion to secrecy. She said that Carnegie, out of shame for her illegitimacy, had given her a promissory note worth 7 million, but her own shame she had not drawn on them. She said she would inherit $400 million when Carnegie died. In truth, the man in the window was the butler, whom Cassie had occupied by purporting to need creditionals on a maid she intended to hire. Upon returning to Ohio, Dillion set up a safe deposit box for Cassie's promissory notes and then shared her secret with almost every lender in Northeast Ohio. Eager bankers began offering her loans up to $1 million, with interest rates of 25 percent, believing millions were available to be gleaned. Instead of demanding repayment, they let Cassie's loans compound annually, figuring Carnegie would vouch for ay debts and they would get their financial rewards after probate. According to one source, her husband was with her when she placed the promissory notes into the safe-deposit box at Wade Park National Bank in Cleveland. Nothing else is mentioned about her husband in any of the accounts. Casse then became known as the queen of Ohio. She bought diamond necklaces, clothes to fill 30 closets, and a gold organ for her living room. She entertained lavishly even frittering $100,000 on a dinner party. For several years she lived the high life, amassing loan debts totaling over $20 million. Again, accounts differ as to whether apparently exactly how much she had incurred in her expenditures. An Ashtabula newspaper account of her death stated " the extent of these transactions will never be fully known, but they ran up into millions. They involved men of high standing in the financial world and caused heavy losses to many bankers." Banks were not the only ones to loan her money, millionaires did, too. And one of them was to be her downfall. Herbert B. Newton, a Boston, Massachusets Banker or entrepreneur, loaned her $190,800 and had the gall to request repayment. Cassie was indignant. She explained her securities were in the Wade Park bank. Newton went to the police and brought suit against her on November 2, 1904. Upon inspection, Cassie's promissory notes were found to be obvious forgeries. News of the forgeries caused trouble for several Ohio banks. Citizen's National Bank of Oberlin, had loaned Cassie $200,000, had a run that forced it into bankruptcy. When Carnegie was asked about his daughter, he issued a press release: " Mr. Carnegie does not know Mrs. Chadwick of Cleveland. Mr. Carnegie has not signed a note for more than thirty years.!" Cassie was arrested on December 7, 1904, at her suite in Cleveland's Hotel Breslin, lying in bed with her money belt, containing $100,000. She escaped from her arresting agents and fled to New York to the Holland House hotel, where she was soon arrested and returned to Cleveland. Cassie stood trial in Cleveland, and March 10th 1905, was convicted on seven counts of conspiracy against the government and conspiracy to wreck the Citizen's National Bank of Oberlin. She was sentenced to 14 years and fined $70,000. On January 12,1906, she began her prison term, only to die less than two years later on her birthday October 10, 1907. According to newspaper accounts, Cassie's health was already declining during her trial. It said: " She fretted incessively over her confinement until it became almost impossible to sleep. At times she was so peevish the patience of the prison officials was sorely tried." While fairly robust when she entered prison, Cassie lost 30 pounds by the time of her death. Three weeks before, while visiting with her son ( who was 20 years old ), she suddenly collapsed and was confined to the prison hospital. She remained there until she died. At times she was delirious and, for some hours before she passed away, she was in a comatose state. Her son was summoned from Cleveland, but he arrived just 15 minutes after she died. Cassie L. Chadwick was 48 years old. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid Bits - Continued in part 71.