Scandal at Kansas Normal School: The Case Against E. P. Bancroft
by: Rick Brainard Date: 08/24/04 Part 2
The Saline lands granted by the Kansas Legislature to the
Normal School are located west of Emporia in Cloud, Mitchell, Republic and Saline counties of Kansas. In all toll, the whole grant was 60 sections of prime farming land. The Kansas Legislature granted these lands to the Normal School on March 7, 1863. The purpose of the land grants was to derive income from the sale, lease or rent of these lands. The board then invested in stocks of the United States, the State of Kansas, or some other reliable stock. The investment was to be a perpetual fund, used by the Normal School for support and maintenance.
E.P. Bancroft, before the scandal had an unblemished reputation in the community. He was a real estate broker and one-time secretary for the Normal school board of regents. He may have been mayor of Emporia but this cannot be determined or verified due to the lack of evidence. We do know that he was the county of Breckinridge’s, now Lyon County, first state Senator in the Kansas Legislature. He also served in the ninth Kansas infantry Regiment during the Civil War from 1861 to 1862. He had obtained a rank of Major before he resigned from the service.
As early as 1873, the minutes of the Regents board meeting show that the Board authorized the executive committee to hire Major E.P. Bancroft as the land agent for sale of the Normal School lands provided his fees were reasonable. During the next four years, the board did not discuss the lands because there seemed to be no market for the lands. The previous action of the board was forgotten because the membership had changed considerably.
Then during the 16 November 1876 board meeting, the new board discussed putting up for sale the school lands. They appointed Bancroft as agent. He told them that he held the commission as agent from 1872. The board meeting minutes of that year (1872) show no such appointment. However, the 6 May 1873 minute’s show that Bancroft appointed as said agent. Bancroft was the secretary of the board of Regents himself at the time and the records of the period are not in an entirely satisfactory condition. The board members understood that before 21 March
1877, there were no land sales. One regent member in consulting the state auditors office, discovered the sale of a tract of land by Bancroft. The owner received the patent illegally from Bancroft. At the same time, knowledge of Bancroft’s irregularities came to the board’s attention for the first time from parties living on lands near Salina, Kansas. They were holding a contract given to and signed by Bancroft. They became alarmed about the legality of this contract because different parties having recent prices direct from the board had come to view the lands
for purpose of purchase.
Bancroft had sold several tracts of land and appropriated the money to his own use. On demand of settlement by the board, he made a certified report and turned over $2,828.68 to the Board of Regents. Upon further investigation, it came out that he made a fraudulent report and that he continued to receive money to transact business when parties did not know about his suspension from his office of agent. (5)
On 8 March 1878, the scandal broke in the newspapers. The headline in the Emporia News read, “Agent in Trouble, E.P. Bancroft discovered embezzling Normal school funds.” The newspaper reported that the school lost about ten thousand dollars. The sheriff arrested Bancroft on 3 March 1878. The arrest caused much surprise and excitement among his neighbors and friends. The newspaper then gave a quick rundown of the trouble. The Board of Regents appointed Bancroft as their land agent in 1872. Under the law, he was supposed to provide security for
his services but there is no record of him doing so. The board believed at the time that the lands were of little value and previous attempts to sell them failed. They discovered that in March of 1877 that Bancroft had sold a quarter section of land in February of 1876 for $1,280. Bancroft sold the land on a certificate of his own, when by law only the secretary and the treasurer of the Board of Regents could give certificates of ownership. This is how he kept the sale of the land secret from the officers. The board appointed Senator Crichton, a member of the board, to investigate the matter. He took two weeks investigating the case in Saline County by interviewing the occupants of the land that Bancroft sold. Crichton discovered that Bancroft sold all but two quarters in the county. There were ten sections in the county that belonged to the
State Normal School.
In April of 1877, the board ordered Bancroft to stop selling the lands owned by the School because they wanted to reappraise them. At the same time, the committee demanded a report from Bancroft. His report said that 1293 acres were sold and $2,828.68, principle and interest, received from said sales. At the next meeting, Van R. Holmes replaced Bancroft as agent for the Normal school. However, Bancroft continued to sell school owned lands up until January 1878.
When Crichton returned from Saline County, The Board members ordered Bancroft to appear at the next board meeting. The findings of the investigation were as follows: amount collected for lands sold by Bancroft including interest, $15,816.10. Amount paid over by him at various times, $3,943.46, leaving the amount embezzled or misappropriated $9,872.55. Caught, Bancroft virtually confessed the whole thing, stating he had nothing to reserve. Bancroft said that his business was in trouble because of the hard times and he used the money expecting to return it.
The board decided to act against him since he could not give security. The Sheriff arrested Bancroft on Sunday afternoon but he allowed Bancroft to stay at home overnight. On Monday at 3:00 p.m., he went before justice Bacheller, who set bail at $10,000. Bancroft could only raise half of this amount so, he had no choice but go to jail. (6) The 22 March 1878 edition of the Emporia News reported that the Winfield Courier had accused that the members on the Board of Regents knew about the embezzlement and that the entire board save one opposed criminal
prosecution. The editor of the
Emporia News said in order to do the Regents justice, that Bancroft had concealed his crime from 1872 until he was finally exposed by purchasers applying for patents in 1877. No member of the board knew about Bancroft’s dealings except the few sales that he reported. Bancroft made no statements until found out by Senator Crichton’s investigation. The Emporia News editor continued to say that it was absurd to think that Bancroft’s arrest was political in nature. No blame goes to the Courier because they were misled into making such a
statement, continued the editor. He also wrote that the statement was an attempt to bring down the board with Bancroft. The editor prejudged Bancroft guilty and that Bancroft was the only person involved in the scandal. (7) The 29 March issue of that same year reinstated that the board had no part in the scandal. The editor wrote that the old Board of Regents and Bancroft shared the blame for the scandal. Because this was the board, in which Bancroft was a member and the records of this old board do not show Bancroft as the appointed land agent for the school.
(8)
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