Financial Tragedy

by Barbara Rimkunas

This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, March 25, 2022.

In early March of 1882, George E. Lane, a businessman in Exeter was riding high. A native of Stratham, he’d opened a prosperous book and stationary store on Water Street in Exeter in 1866. Throughout the 1870s, Lane gained overwhelming trust from the public. On the board of the Union Five Cents Savings bank, he was elected as treasurer in 1872, a position he kept until 1881, when he resigned to become the bank president. The voters of Rockingham County elected him as county treasurer in 1875, and in 1881, the NH State legislature elected him “Commissary General of the State, with the rank of Brigadier General on Governor Bell’s Staff.” He was so well trusted that the Exeter News-Letter wrote, “In 1879, at the request of several of his friends he started in a private banking business, and through the universal confidence he enjoyed his deposits have always been large.”

It was a surprise to everyone when, on a Thursday evening, rumor began to spread that his business and financial dealings were in terrible trouble. “The story gained strength by investigation and it soon became known that Mr. Lane was involved beyond the possibility of recovery,” reported the News-Letter. “The first intimation that there was trouble reached here at about six o’clock, when Col. W. N. Dow placed an attachment to the amount of $10,000 on Mr. Lane’s store. The street was immediately full of rumors, and everyone who had deposits with Lane sat about devising plans for escaping the general wreck.” Lane had spent the day in Boston unsuccessfully trying to get a bank loan to cover his investment losses. His personal banking company, unknown to the depositors, had been in trouble for a few years. The News-Letter explained, “In 1879, he purchased largely, and on one Monday in November of that year, he went to Boston, taking with him every share of stock he owned, with the full determination to sell all, and cancel all orders to buy. Accidentally hearing a prominent broker say that stocks were going higher he determined to hold on a while longer. That change in his plans was the fatal step that led to the result of today. Then he could have sold out and had several thousand dollars profit. The next Friday was the day every broker will recollect as the dark day of that year, on which many fortunes were wiped out. Since that time he has been vainly struggling to recover, until at last he had to succumb, having been obliged to dispose of all his investments of stock at a great sacrifice to meet his depositors’ drafts upon him.”  While Lane was in Boston, one of his depositors, Col. Dow, who was also in Boston, tried to cash a check and was denied, uncovering the deceit.

Lane, meanwhile, realized that he could no longer continue shifting funds from one place to another. He had to come clean. He telegraphed Sheriff Kent to meet him at the depot in Portsmouth. The County Commissioners were meeting there and he asked to make a statement. On arrival, he was taken into custody and arraigned on the charge of embezzling $20,000 of county funds. He spent the weekend in lockup before his friends paid the $10,000 bail.

The bookstore was sold at auction, netting $9,000.00. When Lane was brought to trial on April 10th, the Boston Globe reported: “The trial of George E. Lane of Exeter, the county treasurer of Rockingham, took place this morning. The complaint charged him with embezzlement. Several witnesses were examined, and from the evidence it appears that he had paid the county the balance due it before it had been demanded of him. He was discharged, there being no one to prosecute.” So, he paid the County back, no harm done. He was dismissed from all of his elected and appointed posts. Dishonored and shamed, his bookstore friends offered to help him get back on his feet.

He moved to St. Albans, Vermont. Here, he would have a new start. His only child, a son named Albert, had just completed his undergraduate education at Harvard and enrolled in Harvard Law School. In St. Alban’s, Lane purchased a bookstore and settled into his new life. His reputation followed him – these were modern times. St. Alban’s rival, St. Johnsbury, published this notice: “It is said that Gen. George E. Lane, the defaulting county treasurer at Exeter, N.H., has bought Whiting’s book store at St. Albans. A good place for Mr. Lane; they do not care much what a man does over there.” He lived quietly with his wife, Amanda. In a crushing blow, their son Albert was lured away from the legal profession for which he’d trained and into the lumber business. He joined a large firm in West Virginia and Ohio. The firm failed in 1893 and Albert spent the next year trying to settle the affairs of the company. He died of influenza in 1895.

Ten years after Albert’s death, Lane’s bookstore failed. Hoping a new location might help his prospects, he and Amanda moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, where he tried to find work. After being turned away from even factory jobs, the 69-year-old penciled a note to his wife, “I am going away. You will never see me again.” He left their rented apartment and drowned himself in Birch Brook Pond in Saugus. News reached Exeter several days later. There was an outpouring of sympathy from Exeter’s residents. His crimes, it was felt, were unintentional. “Of genial disposition,” wrote the News-Letter, “Mr. Lane was possessed of many fine qualities, which endeared him to all intimate acquaintances. He recently spent a summer in Exeter and vicinity, and the renewal of old friendships was mutually pleasant to himself and many of his former townsmen.” It was a sad goodbye.

Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org

Image: George E. Lane, a prosperous and trusted businessman, treasurer of Rockingham County and Commissary General of the State of New Hampshire. His personal banking business brought down his affairs in 1882. His bookstore was sold at auction to James Batchelder.