1925 Liquidation of William Galloway Company

By Staff
Published on March 1, 1996
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Liquidating and Trading Certificate, with several trading coupons attached.
Liquidating and Trading Certificate, with several trading coupons attached.
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New' Galloway Company letterhead.
New' Galloway Company letterhead.
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R.R.2. Box508A. Yarmouth. Maine 04096

I have been a gas engine collector and hobbyist for over 25
years, and many times have wondered whatever became of some of the
large and well-known engine manufacturers of the past. One of these
was the William Galloway Company of Waterloo, Iowa.

In my continuous searches for literature and ephemera about gas
engine manufacturers, I purchased some very informative papers
about the William Galloway Company and its successor: ‘The
Galloway Company.’ The liquidation of the original company, and
exchange program to stock and bondholders of both the old and new
companies, was a very complicated and interesting arrangement, to
say the least. In order to share this information with GEM readers,
I have provided the letter and liquidating and trading certificate,
as sent September 21,1925 to Amos F. Braman, Central Bridge, New
York.

Mr. Braman was a stockholder in William Galloway Company and
recipient of the offering for the new company. Apparently he chose
not to respond, as none of the various coupons were ever detached
and the return envelope to the Galloway Company was never used.

The letter Braman received reads as follows:

‘Dear Friend:

We have at last worked out the Liquidating and Trading Plan for
the share holders of the old company, which can also be used by the
share holders of the new Company in case they wish to retire their
stock, and we are enclosing herewith Liquidating Trading
Certificate.

Now in case you prefer not to trade out your stock, if you have
stock in the new company, please return this certificate and we
will send you the 5% Profit Sharing Certificates similar to those
furnished stockholders in the old Company, but if you wish to
liquidate your old or new stock by purchasing merchandise, this is
your opportunity.

We are enclosing herewith $200.00 worth of coupons, a certain
percent of which can be used as part of the purchase price of
anything you may select, according to the schedule on the reverse
side of the certificate. You will notice on some of our lines you
can send in a larger percent in coupons than on others, for the
simple reason that some of our lines are like sugarthey are handled
on the basis of very little profit. Take tillage tools for example.
The labor and cost on this line of machinery has gone up so much in
the past eight years that there is very little margin to go on. The
same is also true of manure spreaders. They are handled on an
extremely close basis. You will notice we give an extra good
allowance on Cream Separators, Radios and some other special
lines.

Because of the contingent liability of these outstanding
certificates we necessarily must have a definite and fixed date for
their expiration, which we have set at two years, but any who are
unable to trade out the full amount of their holdings in two years
time, it is the plan and intention to renew the Liquidating and
Trading Certificates. Also, in case you own more shares than the
amount of trading certificates we have mailed you, as soon as you
have used these we will mail some more to you.

Now you can sell these trading coupons to your neighbors or
friends if you wish. In other words; if you have a good friend who
wants to buy a radio you can explain that you were a former stock
holder in the William Galloway Company, or are a stock holder in
the reorganized Galloway Company, and that through these coupons
you have special privilege that goes only to stock holders, and you
want them to help you get your money out of your investment by
buying these coupons and turning them in as part of the purchase
price of anything that they may need. In this way by a little
visiting with your friends and neighbors it would work out to the
mutual interest of both you and your neighbor or friend.

Hoping you will start right in and use these trading
certificates for your benefit, and assuring you that this is done
in the spirit of cooperation and of past appreciation, and thanking
you for past favors, I beg to remain

Very sincerely,

Wm. Galloway

P.S. If you have not already gone into the reorganization plan,
as has been described to you in various letters and correspondence,
you can still do so, but of course you can understand how this plan
cannot be left open indefinitely. If you have already made the
exchange just disregard this paragraph.

Under the reorganization plan designed by the Junior Bond
holders reorganization committee, if you subscribe for one third of
your holdings in the old company in First Mortgage 7% Gold Bonds of
the new reorganized Galloway Company, according to the plan you
would receive three times that amount par value 7% Prior Preference
stock plus common stock on the basis of two shares for every $
100.00 par value of Prior Preference stock. For example if you
would take $100.00 worth of 7% First Mortgage Gold Bonds, you would
receive $300.00 par value 7% Prior Preference stock plus 6 shares
of Common.

In case you cannot go in under the reorganization plan as
previously explained, you can make the straight exchange of your
old Common and Preferred for new Common, which new Common can be
exchanged and traded out through the enclosed Liquidating Trading
Certificates. The reorganization plan, naturally, is the best if
you are in a position to go into it. It is fair, liberal and
equitable, and while the Junior Bond holders legally came ahead of
the share holders, yet the share holders were finally given exactly
the same basis of participation. If you wish to go in under the
reorganization plan I would suggest that you do so at your earliest
possible convenience.

In case you do not have our latest current catalog let us hear
from you and we will gladly mail one to you.’

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