Outgoing Town of Pelham Supervisor Embroiled in Dispute Over Town Accounts in 1906

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More than 100 years ago, the outgoing Supervisor of the Town of Pelham was embroiled in a nasty dispute that eventually led to litigation. Questions arose over the Town accounts during his tenure. An early news article described experts' reports prepared as part of competing analyses of the Town's bookkeeping records. The text of that article appears immediately below.

"HONEST JOHN'S ACCOUNTS.

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Report of the Experts Employed by the Town Board of Pelham.

When Lord & Co., accountants for the Town Board of Pelham, Westchester county, handed in a report last May calling on John M. Shinn, the outgoing Supervisor of the town of Pelham, to account for a deficit of about $17,000 Mr. Shinn proposed to vindicate his appellation of Honest John by a counter report. He employed J. W. Marsh & Co., 150 Nassau street, to make the investigation, and the report just made public gives vouchers and affidavits purporting to show that the town owes Shinn over $1,000.

Lord & Co. charged to Shinn the collection of taxes on land not assessable and other amounts not collected. The difference of about $18,000 in the reports is declared to be more of an impeachment of Shinn's bookkeeping than of his honesty.

The two reports will be submitted to the Town Board of Westchester county at the next meeting in January."

Source: Honest John's Accounts, The Sun, Dec. 15, 1906, p. 7, col. 3.

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