In April 1905, it was reported that a gentleman named Clarence P. Davis had bought the newspaper
printing plant of the Campbell Visitor with the intent of shipping it to Ben Lomond where he would
“conduct a newspaper in conjunction with some other line of business.” Just one month later the
Santa Cruz Sentinel congratulated newcomer Mr. Davis on his first run of the Ben Lomond News, which
carried “a good quantity of advertising, which is complementary to the progressiveness of Ben
Lomond business men.”
Davis had secured a three-year lease on the Ben Lomond public hall and the Sterling Store and
opened a general merchandising store with a stock of $5000 in goods. By November, Davis was also
the head of a real estate agency, operated a wood yard, was treasurer of the local brass band, and was
president and manager of the Ben Lomond Savings Bank. Earlier that month, he had left Ben
Lomond secretly to marry, in Fresno, Miss Olive Hume, the society editor of the Fresno Democrat,
who was described as a charming girl and a talented writer, well known to the literary world. Miss
Hume also owned a 45 acre ranch in Ben Lomond.
But things were not as they seemed. On December 4, 1905, Davis disappeared while on a short trip
to San Francisco. Over the next few days he contacted his wife to say he had been called first to
Oregon, then Chicago, then El Paso, Texas. It turned out that a new resident of Ben Lomond had
recognized Davis on the train. Davis, it was revealed, was actually Dr. Arthur Clarence Probert,
whom the new resident had known in Dayton, Oregon, where Probert had recently managed a bank
that had failed. Davis did return briefly Monday December 18, only to disappear again.
But this was not all. Davis/Probert had once served as mayor of the Wisconsin city of Washburn
where he owned three banks which collapsed simultaneously and for which he spent time in a
Wisconsin penitentiary. In 1903, he had been arrested in Chicago for using the US mail to defraud
doctors who, for a good sized fee, he would put on the list of consulting physicians of a fake
sanitarium. Indeed, his own claim to the profession of doctor had been a one day attendance at a
Chicago college. The list of prior confidence tricks goes on and on.
The town of Ben Lomond was deeply disturbed by the true nature of “Certainly Promising Davis.”
His wife tried earnestly to continue the newspaper but was forced to sell when the extent of his
accrued debt was understood. His stock and goods at Ben Lomond were sold at an auction by the
sheriff to discharge some of his liabilities.
Meanwhile, Probert had moved to a little town in Colorado, called Molina, about the same size as
Ben Lomond. There, in 1906, he began to conduct similar operations and immediately became a
public man of importance in the community. However, the leading men of Molina were aware of his
past and were keeping a close eye on him. He even remarried, the Sentinel reports, one month prior
to the annulment of the marriage to Miss Hume.
Today the Washburn Area Historical Society is located on the second floor of his “majestic and
historic” brownstone Bank of Washburn. On their website they describe him as “charismatic and
controversial.”
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