This column from the Syracuse Sunday Herald is an amalgam. The top piece is a variant of the “DEEP MYSTERY SOLVED” story printed on the previous day in Newburgh and Mount Vernon. The local writer added a new paragraph at the top that touches on Homer’s previous crooked dealings in Weedsport and Cortland. The bottom piece, written in Weedsport, is new. It expands upon the Rheubottom family history and upon those crooked dealings.
Note the shift between the way the Atlanta articles present the revelation of Homer’s identity, and the way the local writer puts it. In Atlanta, no one seems to have known who Homer Rheubottom was. But here the words “there is no longer any doubt” imply that people in the Syracuse area assumed that the swindler imprisoned in Atlanta was the same Homer Rheubottom known to them, but that there was some doubt.
So again I arrive at a conclusion that still seems ludicrous. On December 12th, 1895, Homer Rheubottom was arrested and imprisoned in Atlanta. The next day, the Atlanta Constitution printed a long article about the scheme and the arrest, with no mention of Homer’s background. Presumably no one in New York State knew of the story for almost a month, because it didn’t appear in the Cortland County Sentinel until January 9th. And despite Homer’s notoriety, no one sent news of his identity back to Atlanta, so no one there knew who the man in their jail was for over a year.
Again, I know communication was more or less limited to telegraphy. Yet still, this doesn’t add up to me. Is my inability to grasp the situation merely an artifact of my technological milieu?
(see transcription below)
THE SUNDAY HERALD: SYRACUSE, SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 27, 1896IN ATLANTA JAILHomer E. Rheubottom, theCortland ManWHO WRECKED HIS FRIENDSCollapse of Cortland Corset Man-ufacturing Company Recalled.The Smooth Young Man, Through WhomCortland Investors Lost $70,000, Is Un-der Arrest For Swindling in theGeorgia Capital.Cortland, Dec. 26.—A press dispatch from Atlanta, Ga., to-day brings the information that there is no longer any doubt that Homer E. Rheubottom, who has been in jail there for more than a year, is the person of that name who brought financial ruin to many Cortland and Weedsport people a few years ago and also left town very suddenly.
The technical charge against Rheubottom in Georgia is cheating and swindling. It was made by H.A. Cassin, president of the Georgia Loan and Savings bank, who asserted that the prisoner was one of the principals in a big swindling game which was planned to defraud the bank of $15,000. The case has never come to trial, and Rheubottom has maintained silence about himself, merely saying he was well connected and did not care to bring his relatives into his troubles.
Rheubottom came to Cortland in February, 1891, from Weedsport, and represented himself as an expert and experienced manufacturer of corsets. He desired to get up a company in Corland, and induced Samuel E. Welch and Byron H. Bierce to form the Cortland Corset Manufacturing company. This was capitalized at $19,000, and Welch and Bierce took all the stock except $2,000, which was taken by Mrs. Rheubottom.
It was asserted later that Rheubottom did not dare to hold any property in his own name, as he was then under indictment for swindling in Weedsport. His father had been a manufacturer of corsets in Weedsport, and the son, it was charged, swamped the concern by swindling all the stockholders.
Rheubottom identified himself prominently with the Congregational church here, and took part in religious and social work. He became a member of all the social organizations in town and was highly popular. The company began operations March 1st, 1891. Rheubottom was superintendant and manager and had charge of the books.
The first year the company sold more than $40,000 worth of finished work, and seemed in a highly prosperous condition. Before the expiration of eighteen months it appeared that Rheubottom had disposed of all the money realized and he had borrowed largely in the company’s name. Creditors pressed hard and the concern was embarrassed. Rheubottom made a plausible statement and the other stockholders trusted him.
Then Rheubottom went to New York and formed a new company, incorporated under the laws of New Jersey, which was to buy all the goods of the Cortland company and sell them. For a few months the Cortland company sent goods to New York, hoping to get out of its difficulties in that way rather than to close up. But it is declared the New Jersey company was a fraud, and Rheubottom was only getting more goods in his possession to sell.
Rheubottom carried off nearly all the books of the Cortland company, and they were never found. The liabilities of the company exceeded $70,000 and the assets were trifling. Messrs. Welch and Bierce were almost ruined. Rheubottom never returned to Cortland.RHEUBOTTOM AT WEEDSPORT.
Tried to Continue His Father’s Business
and Failed For $90,000
Weedsport, Dec. 26.—James Rheubottom moved to the village about thirty years ago and, assisted by his wife, he conducted a notion store. He had two sons, Homer E. and James R., who at this time were young boys. Mr. Rheubottom commenced the manufacture of hoopskirts on a small scale a few years after his arrival, and by honest and earnest work steadily increased his business to probably one of the leading hoopskirt factories in the United States. During these thrifty days Frank Mack entered into partnership with him and they conducted what was known as the Weedsport Skirt and Dress company. In a few years Mr. Rheubottom died, after having accumulated quite a little wealth, and left all to his widow, who died a few years after.
Homer E., who had by this time completed his education, conducted the business for the firm and in a short time they failed. After this Homer conducted the concern known as the Rheubottom & Teall Manufacturing company, which lasted about two years, failing for about $90,000. James R. was interested in both of the concerns, and after the last failure both brothers went to Cortland and conducted a similar industry, which failed after a time, Cortland parties being losers.
Nothing much was heard of Homer in this village since his departure from Cortland until a little over a year ago, when it was rumored that he was under arrest in Atlanta, Ga., for assisting in a plot to swindle the Georgia Loan and Savings bank.
While in this village Homer married a widow, Mrs. Moore, but her whereabouts are not known by Weedsport people.
The statement regarding Rheubottom’s wealthy relatives is no doubt false, as it is generally believed here that neither his wife or brother have any wealth to speak of. The family were respected and were one of the foremost in this place until money troubles came. Homer E. at one time ran for Congress on the Prohibition ticket here.
What I wrote about the closing of Rheubottom & Teal applies to all these Rheubottom scandals, so I’m just going to keep copying and pasting it.
As we follow Homer’s unsavory exploits, keep in mind that he was the brother of James Rheubottom, the ex-business partner of Hugh‘s grand-uncle Robert Charles Yeman, and that Homer’s scandals unfolded about one year after James disappeared without warning. Robert and his family must have been scandalized by association.
But there’s one member of Robert’s family who would have been more than scandalized: Hugh’s grandfather William John Yeman. Out of a family composed of two parents and six children, John was the one Yeman who stayed in Oneida. I and all the other Oneida Yemans are descended from him. So, as an Oneida Yeman who grew up steeped in disdain for citified relatives, I guarantee that William must have taken a particularly scornful view. I can just picture him sneering and shaking his head at it all.
Thanks as always to Tom Tryniski of FultonHistory.com, without whose work I wouldn’t have found this article.
Hugh J. Yeman 