Klinck Arrests Counterfeiters

On 24Aug1860, Officer Hayne Klinck arrested Dr. H.D. Farmer on a charge of counterfeiting. Although the article says Farmer was working with “noted counterfeiter” Forrest, I was unable to find anything about Forrest’s exploits. Likewise, a search of the Shelby County police blotters, criminal court minutes, and city court dockets turned up empty for both men. However, I was able to find a lot of information on counterfeiting in the United States before the Civil War. I had no idea it was so rampant! Because paper notes were issued from states, banks, insurance companies, and more, the market was flooded with hundreds of different bills that almost no one could keep up with. It was an environment ripe for counterfeit. According to Stephen Mihm, In the 1880s, “observers believed that counterfeits and other kinds of fraudulent bills accounted for as much as half of the paper money in circulation.” “Though only a few banks issued notes in the 1790s, close to 200 did by 1815, and by 1830 the number had climbed to 321. Ten years later, the number of banks jumped again, to 711, and after dipping in the early 1840s, skyrocketed upward. To complicate matters further, other state-chartered corporations – insurance companies, railroads, import and export firms, and canal companies – also issued notes at this time, as did numerous unchartered bankers and merchants operation in defiance of the law. By the 1850s, with so many entities commissioning bank notes of their own design (and in denominations, sizes, and colors of their choosing), the money supply became and great confluence of more than ten thousand different kinds of paper that continually changed hands, baffled and uninitiated, and fluctuated in value according to the whims of the market.” Stephen Mihm,  A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States Copyright 2007 Language Note: Did you know that the term “queer” has been used to describe counterfeit money since the seventeenth century?! It’s use as a term for “funny money” persisted well into the mid 19th century, as in our article. “{Farmer’s} house was a regular rendezvous for a number of dealers in the “queer.” This usage also explains the phrase, “Queer as a three dollar bill.”(Queer Money / Will Fisher / ELH / Vol. 66, No. 1, 1999)	Memphis Daily Appeal, 24August1860
	Transcription: Another Haul of Counterfeit Money Evening before last, officer H.I.Klinck arrested a counterfeiter named Dr. H.D. Farmer, at his residence on the line of the Memphis and Ohio railroad, about one mile from the city. Several weeks since, Mr. Klinck received information that Farmer was dealing largely in counterfeit money, and that his house was a regular rendezvous for a number of dealers in the "queer." Keeping a close watch on Farmer's operations, the arresting officer has gather proof of his guest sufficient to warrant him in making the arrest. Yesterday two letters addressed to Farmer were taken out of the post office, one of them dated Wheeling, Va., August 10, and containing $50 in counterfeit money, mostly fives on the Lafayette bank, Bloomington, Illinois. The other purported to have been written on board the St. Louis and Vicksburg packet Skylar, and was dated August 18. The letter bears the post mark of this city, and in it was included one hundred dollars of curious money, consisting of tens on the Canal Bank of New Orleans. A circumstance connected with the arrest of Farmer and which in addition to the testimony to be brought against him when put on trial, is the fact of his entertaining Forrest, a noted counterfeiter, arrested through the instrumentality of office Klinck, a few evenings since, and in whose possession at the time was found over $400 in bogus money. Forrest has been boarding at Farmer's house for some time past, and has no doubt been furnished with the counterfeit money by him. The accused will have an examination to-day, when the facts in the case will be brought to light.
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