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ORRIN HENRY INGRAM7
He told me of the syndicate formed here, who comprised it, and
said he was afraid they were planning to get the road; said he
knew from what I had said I did not want the road, and that
he would put up all the stock he controlled; said he knew he
could get what he had already put up for borrowed money, and
would give me the notes of his wife's mother and sister, secur-
ed by the stock, for the $25,000, and said he could get that
stock, which was in some bank, and would have his wife's
sister and mother and the sister's husband come here and exe-
cute the notes, and then turn the stock over to me as collateral,
if I would take it. I was about to leave home the next day with
Mr. Weyerhauser and his son and my sonldi"tikr the Pa-
eiflc coast in a private car furnished us by James J. Hill. I told
Mr. Appleyard that my son Charlie, then in my office, would
give him a check for the money whenever he brought in the
stock and the notes, which he did soon after, and got the
money. I was absent nearly three weeks, and when I returned
Mr. Appleyard told me he was in just as bad a fix as he was
when he got the $25,000 and wanted me to take the property,
and made what seemed to me a low price for it; and after
talking with C. T. Bundy and George B. Wheeler, who had
been managing the business for Appleyard, I decided it would
be a good property for me to take over. I was then obliged to
put up some $85,000 or $90,000, together with the $25,000, to
get it. We then reorganized, and Messrs. Bundy & Wilcox and
Mr. Wheeler took certain amounts of stock and John S. Owen
and B. A. Buffington each put $10,000 in it. Bundy & Wilcox
and Wheeler had very little money to put in it, hence I was
obliged to carry their stock. After acquiring the property I
saw at once the necessity for more power. In the transactions
connected with the Dells dam Mr. Appleyard had secured 650
horsepower of the Dells Improvement Company and had put up
a building a mile or so from the city, towards Chippewa Falls,
with a large engine, boilers and a storage battery, to get pow-
er for the interurban road in connection with the city railway.
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