100 years ago in The Record
Saturday, March 3, 1917
The Sunday Budget reports this weekend that Captain John J. Livingstone of Company D of Troy’s National Guard regiment has been granted a thirty-day leave to take a trip south with local baseball hero Johnny Evers. According to The Record, however, Livingstone has been relieved from command amid controversy over his proposed use of the company’s insurance payouts.
Company D is better known as the Tibbitts Cadets. The company recently received a large insurance check for losses sustained in the Troy Armory fire earlier this winter. Additional donations have left the Cadets with about $7,000 on deposit at the National City Bank.
“That fund, it is claimed, is distinctly a corporate fund, to be used only for the benefit of the company, and may not legally be otherwise used,” our reporter explains.
At a special company meeting at Bolton Hall in Lansingburgh last Thursday, Livingstone requested a personal loan of $5,000 from the fund in order to purchase stock in the Louisiana Consolidated Oil company. Promising that “the transaction would ultimately result to the benefit of the company,” the captain put up his car, his life insurance policy and “other property” as security.
The Cadets approve the loan over “strenuous” opposition by the narrowest of margins. The vote goes 2120 in Livingstone’s favor, but Lt. Joseph Pitts’ vote for the loan is challenged because Pitts had recently tendered his resignation from the company.
Opponents of the loan moved quickly to deny Livingstone the money. Their attorney, Chester G. Wager, instructed the bank that no money is to be withdrawn without the consent of the company treasurer, Sgt. William F. Marshall, who voted against the loan.
When Livingstone asked Marshall to write a check for the $5,000, the treasurer refused. The captain ordered Marshall to resign and named Joseph P. Dwyer acting treasurer. The bank, however, still recognizes Marshall as company treasurer and has not released the money to Livingstone.
Sources in the company tell our paper that Livingstone is waging a vendetta against the opposition. Since Thursday night, he has demoted several officers who voted against the loan. The demotions are subject to review by Col. James M. Andrews, the regimental commander.
Local papers give two very different accounts of what happens next. According to the Budget, Livingstone requested a leave, which was granted by Andrews. According to The Record, Andrews relieved Livingstone of command on his own initiative.
Andrews tells our paper that the order “is the culmination of a series of acts and conditions, and there will be further action.” First Lieutenant S. Morris Pike has taken temporary command of the Cadets.