DANIEL S WARD

Alias: CAPTAIN WARD, MILLER, MORGAN, PAPE

Specialties: SWINDLER BY WORTHLESS CHECKS

No: 57 Last Displayed: 5/17/2023

Description:

Forty-nine years old in 1886. Slim build. Born In Indiana. Planter. Height 6 feet 2 inches. Weight, 136 pounds. A very tall, slim man. Single. Dark brown hair, gray eyes, sallow complexion. Has several front teeth out.

Record:

COL. DANIEL S. WARD was one of the six men arrested in New York City on November 28, 1864; for being concerned in a plot to burn the hotels. He was confined at police headquarters for four months by order of Gen. Dix. The plan was to burn Lovejoy's, French's, the Astor House, the Albemarle, the Fifth Avenue, and the La Farge House, now the Grand Central Hotel. Captain Kennedy, one of the conspirators, was hung in Fort Lafayette, and Captain Bedle, another, was hung on Bedloe's Island, in New York Harbor. Ward was sent to Fort Lafayette; and after being confined there several months was sent South and permitted to go. It was also suspected that he was concerned in the burning of Barnum's Museum, in July, 1865. In 1875 Ward went to Woodville, Miss., and represented himself as N. W. Page, of Baton Rouge, La., and obtained on a forged check $1,100. For this he was arrested, and after remaining in jail a year was discharged. He then came to New York as. H. W. Keller, of Woodville, Miss., and secured from W. C. Browning & Co., of Broome Street, a suit of clothes and $100 in cash, change for a worthless check. In August of 1884, he was in New York City, representing himself as Wm. H. Morgan, of Woodville, Miss., and handed in a letter of introduction to Bates, Reed & Cooley, merchants on Broadway, who in turn gave him a letter to Naumberg, Krauss & Co., of Broadway, who sold him a long list of goods. They were asked to send one outfit down to the Cosmopolitan Hotel, where Ward, alias Morgan, was in waiting, and received them. In one day he secured goods from half a dozen firms. On October 9, 1884, Ward went to James M. Shaw, the china dealer, on Duane Street, New York City, and said he was the captain of the steamer Eclipse, running between New Orleans and New York. He ordered $462 worth of goods, displayed a draft for $3,000 on the Park Bank of New York, and when he drew up a check of $500, the difference, $38, was handed him and he departed. He visited Collender's billiard salesrooms on Broadway, New York, saying that he was about fitting up a large place in New Orleans, talked about prices, was invited out to dinner by the cashier, who introduced him to Pettus & Curtis, tailors, corner Seventeenth Street and Broadway. The last named was promptly swindled out of a suit of clothes and $150 in cash. At the Meriden Britannia Co.'s, on Fourteenth Street, New York, he ordered $965 worth of goods, drew a check for $150 more, and walked off with the difference. On October I I, 1884, he went to Chickering & Sons and selected two pianos, took a fancy "by the way." to the manager, took him to lunch, and from the restaurateur, to whom he was introduced, borrowed $20 for change, as he had accidentally run short. F. F. Kramer, a piano cover maker on East Fourteenth Street, New York, was sent for, came, and sold a piano cover for $150, which Ward took with him in a coupe, together with $100 cash, the change of a $250 worthless check. He drove down to Lord & Taylor's, on Broadway, displayed the receipted bills of Shaw, Kramer, and the Meriden Britannia Company, and selected $875 worth of linen for the steamer Eclipse. He drew a check for $1,000, and having received $125, told Lord & Taylor not to send the goods until his check was certified. The goods of course never went. As he was passing out of the store his eye caught a lot of silk underwear, and $100 worth of this was placed in his coupe, as he "thought his wife might want to look at it." Boston, Providence, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, and Philadelphia were all visited and victimized in the same manner, under the careless and guileless fashion of undue trusting common among business men. Ward was arrested in New York City in connection with these swindling transactions on July 20, 1885, and tried on two complaints, one made by the Meriden Britannia Company, and another by Pettus & Curtis. He was convicted and sentenced to three years in State prison, in the Court of General Sessions, on July 20, 1885. His sentence will expire on February 19, 1888. Ward was also known as A. C. Wood, and as Col. Sellers. His right name is Albert C. Ward, and he was born and brought up in Indianapolis, Ind., where his relations are highly respected. Ward's picture is a good one, taken in 1885.