Part 11:
While the crash of the Citizens' National Bank in Oberlin and its effect on its president, Charles T. Beckwith, made for the biggest human interest story of the Cassie Chadwick banking scandal, it was the suit filed by Herbert E. Newton, the Brookline, Massachusetts, financier that sounded the alert there was something fishy about the free-spending woman from Cleveland.

And as soon as Newton's suit became widely known, so did a rumor that had been circulating in northern Ohio for years — that Mrs. Cassie L. Chadwick, in a previous life, had been Lydia Devere, the clairvoyant forger who'd spent time in the Ohio Penitentiary. Well, this was more than a rumor to several people, but their warnings about the woman were ignored until Mrs. Chadwick ran into legal problems.

You may recall that on the marriage license it was stated Cassie L. Hoover was born in New York State. That was an attempt to separate herself from Lydia Devere, whose Canadian birth and real name (Elizabeth Bigley) were well known to authorities.

Also, Andrew Carnegie finally became aware that his signature appeared on notes held by Mrs. Cassie Chadwick of Cleveland, who'd told people she was his illegitimate daughter. Carnegie said he didn't know the woman and certainly had not signed any documents on her behalf. However, he was flattered that his signature — even when forged — was worth more than a million dollars.

Mrs. Chadwick had help from God
While Mrs. Chadwick hadn't had luck in being accepted by the right people in Cleveland, she knew how to take advantage of her location. A little more than a mile from her home was Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, attended by John D. Rockefeller, whose home also was about a mile from the Chadwicks.

Mrs. Chadwick wasn't a churchgoer, but that didn't stop her from visiting Euclid Avenue Baptist Church to talk to the pastor, the Rev. Charles A. Eaton, telling him she was seeking financial advice, specifically, where she could raise money. She showed him an attest signed by Iri Reynolds of the Wade Park Bank, saying he held $5,000,000 worth of her securities.

The Rev. Eaton must have been taken aback, but he gave her the obvious reply: She should seek a loan from Cleveland bankers. She managed to convince him she had a good reason not to do that. She didn't want bankers in her hometown to be aware of her temporary financial embarrassment. I'm sure she didn't admit she already knew the Rev. Eaton had a well-connected brother who was a Boston lawyer.

Long story short, the pastor agreed to contact his brother, John E. Eaton, who soon received a phony note for $500,000 bearing Andrew Carnegie's signature, plus a list of securities. As a favor to his brother, lawyer Eaton set out to connect Mrs. Chadwick with a banker. She wanted to borrow $200,000, but was turned down.

Next, lawyer Eaton turned to one of his clients:

Somewhere beyond the sea
So where was Cassie Chadwick's husband while she was under suspicion, squirreled away in a New York City hotel suite, being watched by Secret Service men? Dr. Chadwick and his daughter were in Europe, and would remain there for weeks even after his wife was arrested. Those investigating his wife's financial dealings had plenty of questions for Dr. Chadwick, but none of them concerned that $2,500,000 he supposedly received from his wife. Everyone knew it didn't exist, because if it did, Dr. Chadwick's two $25,000 checks to Herbert B. Newton, the troublesome Brookline, Massachusetts financier, wouldn't have bounced. (The doctor's excuse: His wife was supposed to cover them. Truth was, Dr. Chadwick was broke.)

There was much dispute over the actual amount of money Newton had loaned Mrs. Chadwick. Her lawyer, Edmund Powers said Newton arrived at $190,800 by adding in a bonus and the interest on the loan. Newton claimed he'd actually given the woman $190,800.

Karen Abbott, in "The High Priestess of Fraudulent Finance," wrote that Newton loaned Mrs. Chadwick $79,000 from his business, and wrote her a personal check for $25,000 — $104,000. In return, she signed a promissory note for $190,800 without questioning the outrageous interest, which is understandable if she had no intention of paying him anything.

Mrs. Chadwick would claim during a bankruptcy hearing in March, 1905, that she had received $78,000 from Newton, and what he was suing for included $112,800 in interest and a bonus.

Once Newton took action to force the woman to pay, several other creditors jumped into the act, though the other suits filed were by merchants owed much smaller amounts of money. This aroused much public interest, and for several days after Mrs. Chadwick arrived in New York City in late November, she was a virtual prisoner at the Holland House Hotel, which attracted reporters and other curious people, much to the dismay of hotel management, as well as Mrs. Chadwick.

On November 30, Newton's attorneys announced a settlement had been reached with Mrs. Chadwick, and the next day newspapers indicated she had resolved one of her problems, but, of course, she hadn't. What she told Newton's lawyers was her version of, "The check is in the mail." Like Beckwith, Newton and his lawyers finally realized the woman had no intention of making good on her promises. Her arrest was inevitable, and she already was behind bars when this news broke in Ohio:

Mrs. Chadwick also was indicted by a federal grand jury, and United States Attorney John J. Sullivan, who would prosecute the case against her, was certain some prominent persons had shared in the proceeds of Mrs. Chadwick’s enormous loans.

One person closely watched was lawyer Edmund W. Powers, though, as far as I know, he was never arrested. Not that it would have done much good, even if Powers were Mrs. Chadwick's secret partner. Though only 49 when the Chadwick case broke, Powers' health soon failed, and within two years he retired from the law, blind and an invalid in the care of his wife at the home in Putnam County, near Oscawana Lake, New York. In 1908, Edmund Powers died.

Speculation over the identities of others who might be arrested for their involvement in Mrs. Chadwick's scam was interrupted in mid-December by the news Herbert Newton and Charles Beckwith weren't the biggest contributors to the woman's gofundme scheme. That title belonged to a Pittsburgh business man who was quite a schemer himself.