USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. I > Part 46
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1 " The Allied Banks in Boston have commenced hostilities against the Fairfield County Bank at Norwalk and its branch at Danbury. An agent from the East appeared and de- manded $33,000. He was offered notes of the Boston banks, which he refused. Such conduct on the part of the moneyed institutions of Boston is little calculated to create friendly feelings or strengthen regard for Boston. That City and State have long held the rest of New England in leading-strings in commercial, political, and other transactions ; but the Boston aristocracy and Essex Junto will find that this conduct is not likely to conciliate public feeling in other States." - Hartford Times, July 16, 1827.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
them of Mr. James Dodd as president,1 and the bank was ready for business at a season which its friends could not but consider op- portune.
In the summer of 1833 an agent was appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury to visit different cities of the Union to inquire "upon what terms and in what manner the State Banks would render to the Government the service now rendered by the United States Banks." This appointment and inquiry was approved in extravagant terms by such of the press as were loyal to the policy of the President. The United States Bank was decried as an institution of a very dangerous character, -a rotten and corrupt one. It was demanded that "this monster should be discarded and all aid from the Government with- drawn."
The result of the Treasury agent's inquiry was soon made public ; the State banks in the Northern cities came forward, ready to receive the Government deposits. September 20th, announcement of the withdrawal of the deposits appeared in the "Globe," the transfers to be effected gradually ; and in our local newspapers of November 9 it was published that the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank had, by the Secretary of the Treasury, been selected for the Government Depository in lieu of the branch bank at Hartford.
All the ready capital of our vicinity was not absorbed by the organi- zation of this new bank. The wants of the community were not yet, it was feared, fully to be supplied, and preparation was made for pro- curing another charter at the coming session of 1834. Among the representative names affixed to this application were those of Messrs. Joseph Church, Allyn S. Stillman, George Putnam, William T. Lee, Charles H. Northam, Henry Oaks, A. W. Butler, Griffin N. Stedman, Enoch C. Stanton, J. B. Shultas, A. S. Beckwith, and those of other of our citizens as well remembered as they, which made out a numerous and influential list. Their showing was -
" That by reason of the pecuniary pressure which had been thrown upon the Mercantile and Manufacturing interests of the community by the removal of the Government deposits from the Bank of the United States and the consequent derangement of the currency of the country and destruction of public and indi- vidual confidence, these branches of individual and national industry and wealth are languishing, to the great detriment of the community ; that the want of a free circulation and a deranged currency have necessarily compelled merchants and manufacturers to curtail and in many instances to abandon their opera- tions ; that already thousands of persons have been thrown out of employment and left destitute and without any means to support themselves and families, and must in a short time be supported by private charities ; that in order to continue their business, merchants and manufacturers must resort to bank accommodations beyond the power and ability of present banks at this time to extend ; and that in the opinion of the petitioners an increased amount of banking capital in the City
1 The presidents of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank have been: James Dodd, elected May, 1834; General Samuel L. Pitkin, May 2, 1837; A. H. Pomroy, May 5, 1840; Horace Goodwin, 21, May 7, 1844; Charles Boswell, May, 1850; John C. Tracy, Aug. 11, 1858 ; Alva Oatman, April 2, 1877 : John G. Root, 1884. The first board of directors consisted of James Dodd, Joseph Pratt, Luther Loomis, James T. Pratt, Albert Day, Jeremiah Brown, Thomas Belden, Eliphalet Averill, W. S. Holabird, Job Allyn, Jesse Savage, Miles C. Burt, Horace Goodwin, 2d.
.
N
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COMMERCE AND BANKING.
and County of Hartford is absolutely indispensable to the manufacturing inter- ests of the County and State at large."
They prayed for a bank of five hundred thousand dollars capital, to be established at Hartford of course, and to be called the Manufacturers' Bank ; or that the Assembly would in some other way " grant to the merchants and manufacturers of the county adequate relief."
The committee of the legislature to whom this petition was referred reported that it was in evidence before them that the banking capital already located in Hartford far exceeded in amount three million dol- lars ; " all of which is constantly and profitably employed ; and that a further increase of banking capital would not in any degree curtail the business of the present banks, but would extend to your petitioners and others very great facilities," and recommended the passage of a bill in form incorporating the Exchange Bank, with an authorized capital of five hundred thousand dollars, to be divided into shares of fifty dollars each.
It apparently occurred to our provident legislators that a profitable opportunity was neglected the year before, when the charter of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank issued free of bonus. In the present instance fifteen thousand dollars was to be paid to the State for the Connecticut Silk Manufacturing Company, a large part of which, in case the company was organized, was to be paid to Gamaliel Gay and Joseph Bottom as a remuneration for their expenses and labor for inventing and constructing machinery for the manufacture of silk, on their giving bond that said machinery might be used by any person in this State without additional charge. Of the remainder, the said com- pany was to pay fifteen hundred dollars to the Mansfield Silk Company.
Eight thousand dollars further was to be paid to erect an iron rail- ing around the State House, under the direction of the Court of Common Council of Hartford, and suitable walks well flagged, setting up stone posts and paving gutters about said railing. Two thousand dollars, moreover, was to be paid into the treasury of the State, making in all a bonus of five per cent on the capital of the bank. On Tuesday, July 29th, at ten o'clock in the morning, the books for subscription to the stock were opened at Union Hall, and by noon of the 31st the full amount of the capital, or more, was secured and the subscription closed. Upon the succeeding day the first Board of Directors was chosen, and of their number Mr. Roderick Terry 1 was elected to be their president, and by the 25th of August it was announced that Mr. Elisha Colt was to be their cashier ; and so their organization for business was complete.
The years of our history embraced in the administrations of Presi- dents Jackson and Van Buren will long be remembered for the bitter- ness of their financial experiences and the acrimony of the discussions and controversies attendant upon them. The dominant political party represented a responsible and aggressive policy in these matters, which
1 The presidents of the Exchange Bank have been: Roderick Terry, 1834; Elisha Colt, Feb. 21, 1849; A. G. Hammond, July 1, 1859; James M. Niles, Nov. 27, 1865; E. G. Howe, Jan. 9, 1866 ; F. B. Cooley, May 6, 1872 ; John R. Redfield, Jan. 13, 1886. Its first board of directors consisted of James M. Bunce, H. Huntington, Jr., Loren P. Waldo, Edward P. Cooke, Daniel Burgess, Philemon Canfield, Roderick Terry, William T. Lee, A. S. Beckwith, E. W. Bull, L. B. Hanks, A. W. Roberts, L. Kennedy, Jr.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
prepared a crisis for the year 1837. The removal of the deposits ; the importation of gold, partly, as appeared, on account of foreign claims and partly as a matter of outright purchase and trade by the agents of the Executive : the clumsy if not wilfully harassing execution of the Surplus Distribution Act, and the well-known Treasury Order, by which all payments for the public lands were to be made in gold and silver - were among the chief measures which were noted as the precursors of the Sub-Treasury System, promoting expansions and contractions among the banks, and, of course, mercantile distresses and pecuniary pressures which were simultaneously apparent along the whole course of these events.1 Bankruptcies involving immense amounts of capital were recorded in the larger cities of the Union, South and North. Great numbers of the oldest and wealthiest houses were successively overwhelmed. These represented every trade and industry, and the contagion of disaster spread rapidly and fiercely on, until in April and the beginning of May in this year affairs in the metropolis had become desperate, and the culmination was signalized by the suspension of specie payments by the New York banks, May 10. In this they were followed by the institutions of this city on the next day, as the accompanying circular will signify : -
TO THE PUBLIC.
The New York Banks have suspended specie payments. The question now arises, Shall the Hartford Banks suspend also ?
If they continue to pay specie, two consequences must follow : 1. The Banks must refuse all further accommodations and discounts, at whatever sacrifice to indi- viduals who have looked to the Banks for aid. 2. The greater part of the large quantity of Specie now in the Banks will be demanded and carried into other States.
The undersigned pledge their character that the Banks to which they respec- tively belong are SAFE AND SOUND beyond contingency. In further proof of this they annex an extract from the report just made to the General Assembly, founded on a recent and most careful scrutiny by their committee. With extreme reluc- tance the Banks have decided on a temporary suspension of specie payments, and when the critical situation of even the sound portion of the business community is considered, and also the sweeping ruin which must fall on them if the Banks take the strict measures indispensable to go through with specie payments, they ask for the confidence and support of the entire public to bear with them for a time in a measure which is not adopted without deep regret. Each Bank in Hartford will receive the bills of all the other Banks in Hartford on deposit and in payment of notes. These Banks have more than four dollars due them for every dollar of their bills in circulation.
JOSEPH TRUMBULL,
A. H. POMEROY,
DAVID WATKINSON,
JESSE SAVAGE,
CALVIN DAY,
ALB'T DAY,
Committee for Hartford Bank.
Committee for Farmers' & Mech. Bank.
CHARLES SIGOURNEY,
RODERICK TERRY,
S. TUDOR,
WM. W. ELLSWORTH,
THOMAS DAY,
S. W. GOODRICH, Committee for Exchange Bank.
DENISON MORGAN,
Committee for Phoenix Bank.
DAN'L BUCK,
Committee for Conn. River
ALFRED SMITH, WM. H. IMLAY,
S. B. GRANT, Banking Co.
HARTFORD, May 11th, 1837.
1 See calls for mass meetings, County of Hartford, 1837 ; also speech of R. C. Winthrop, House of Representatives, March 26, 1838.
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COMMERCE AND BANKING.
[Extract from the Report of the Committee of the General Assembly, presented May 9, 1837.]
It may, however, be proper for us to say in the outset, before entering into any details, that the soundness and solvency of all the banks examined by us is, in our judgement, unquestionable. We believe that the public may place entire confidence in their ability to meet all engagements ; and inasmuch as the present is a time of suspicion and distrust in pecuniary concerns, we feel bound to express ourselves fully on this point. (Signed)
JEREMIAH BROWN, - Committee.
SETH P. BEERS, WM. FIELD,
A general prostration and paralysis of business succeeded upon this startling event, and the year was one of wretched uncertainty and dis- couragement. Not until four or five years had passed were the signs of recovery very hopefully assured, although in just twelve months to a day the banks of New York and Boston, as also those of Hartford and other places, resumed specie payments together. However, from 1840 some gradual improvement was thought to be noticeable. The complete over- throw of the old political régime, enjoyed in this community as much as anywhere, seemed to give something like relief to the public mind, and with the accession of a Whig administration new hope and enterprise were inaugurated. If we partially except the year 1847, the decade may fairly be called one of growing prosperity in our city and county.
The State Bank at Hartford, organized in 1849, and the City Bank in 1851, were the only ones added to the circle here until the adoption by our legislature of the Free Banking Act of 1852. This measure, copied after that of the State of New York in most particulars, made the business of banking free to all who chose to engage in it ; the radi- cal peculiarity of its provisions being a requirement of securities (exclu- sive of bonds and mortgages upon real estate, which were allowed by the New York law) to be deposited with the Treasurer of the State against the circulating notes of the banks organizing under the act; the currency to be registered and issued by the treasurer to them.
These securities, for obvious reasons, were not limited to the bonds of the United States Government, but the new system in some other respects was not unlike that in after years authorized by the National Currency Act. Under this plan the Bank of Hartford County (now the American National) was organized at Hartford in 1852, the Charter Oak Bank in 1853, and the Mercantile Bank in 1854. The new system did not, with all its recommendations, secure an abiding favor. In 1855 the statute was repealed. The institutions that had organized under it were allowed to take charters in the old form by paying a bonus of two per cent upon their capitals to the State.
The increased employment of currency was the notable endeavor of bank managers in these times. The growing West sought it for use in the development of multiplying and almost endless schemes. Railroad building required fabulous amounts of money, and the bills of New Eng- land banks, especially those dated at Hartford, bore a high credit against the varying and unreliable issues from the banks of the new States. Local bankers and promoters of new and extending railways (many of them finally established as indispensable and trunk lines) pledged their all for loans of currency at the East, - a most liberal proportion of which
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
were negotiated at Hartford. The volume of bank issues from here was, in the course of events, greatly augmented.
The borrowers of the currency in many cases, moreover, undertook to protect the banks from the inconvenience of its redemption by a care- ful disposition of it for remote circulation, and by remittance of funds to reimburse them when notified that it had been presented at home for redemption. The bills were specially marked to identify them with each loan, and the care and manipulation of "protected circulation " was conducted with considerable precaution by both parties to the contract ; the borrower ofttimes, to secure them against return to the East, hy- pothecating them for secondary loans, or locking them in his safe to be retained as his reserve in his banking business, where they would not see the light of the outer world during the whole term of the loan, and upon satisfactory negotiations might be so retained during periods of renewal. The freedom of such transactions, although apparently so long considered as safe and conservative as they were profitable, at length awakened adverse criticism, and the legislature in 1855 prohibited any agreement on the part of the banks for such protection of their circula- tion, and limited their loans out of the State to one quarter of their capital, deposits, and notes issued.
In the summer of 1857 charters were granted to the Ætna and to the Merchants' and Manufacturers' (now First National) Banks of Hart- ford. Their organization, although favored by popular and eager contri- bution to their capitals, and followed by extensive and wealthy patronage, seemed at first appointed for an inauspicious time. The condition of finances in the country at large had become oppressively embarrassing. The long season of expansion and speculation had for months been de- veloping uncomfortable symptoms. Values had declined in merchan- dise and realties. Faith in the securities of railroads and other ventures that had absorbed hundreds of millions also declined, and they were slaughtered in the markets. Exchanges with the West and South were impeded. Specie seemed to disappear. Money was scarce. Mercantile credits were severely tried. Failures multiplied, and bank currency re- turned home from its longer or shorter flights more rapidly than ever. The reduction of the bank circulation of the State in the last half of the year was from ten millions outstanding to six millions.
Upon the 24th of August the failure of the Ohio Life and Trust Company at New York startled and well-nigh stampeded the entire business community. Panic and disaster followed, until after days of wild onset and pressure most of the New York banks - and all but one by the 14th and 15th of October - had suspended specie payments. On the 16th the institutions of this State which had not already done so together and formally suspended.
Before this united action in Hartford the Bank Commissioners, under the direction of the courts, had interposed, first in the case of the Bank of Hartford County, then in regard to the Charter Oak, Mercantile, and Exchange Banks, and held them under receiverships until, with a careful examination and adjustment of their affairs, they were enabled safely and vigorously to resume their business, the Bank of Hartford County reducing its capital to three hundred thousand dollars, amply covering every possible loss and securing a safe and progressive career
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COMMERCE AND BANKING.
for the future. The resumption of specie payments followed here almost without notice, upon the action of the New York banks on the 14th of December, and was thereafter uninterrupted until again it became gen- eral throughout the North, necessitated by the outbreak of the Civil War.1 This event found banking and general business here in a fairly prosperous condition, although numerous trade connections with the South were abruptly discontinued, and upon costly terms too; but with the demands of the Government for war supplies and the enlarged wants and the interchanging traffic of the whole loyal section of the country, all our varied means of production were soon actively em- ployed, and during the eventful decade that followed, the supplies from our manufactories were readily marketable and added largely by their returns to our local wealth.
The first appeals of the Government for financial aid in 1861 met with a loyal response from Hartford. Our banks took their share of the national bonds through the medium of their New York correspond- ents, and when the " Sixes of '81 " matured and were paid, considera- ble amounts of them were paid to holders who had retained them through the entire term of twenty years. These institutions, to the extent of their utmost ability, gave their co-operation at every issue upon the national credit thereafter ; and the same may be said of their ready help in every similar emergency of our own State.
The number of banks in our county was increased by one organ- ized at New Britain under charter granted by the legislature of May, 1860, and reorganized as a National Bank in April, 1865. Upon the enactment of the National Currency Act the Merchants' and Manufactur- ers' Bank reorganized and became the First National of Hartford. The provisions of this act found pretty general acceptance here ; before the close of 1865 all the other banks of the city, except the State Bank and the Connecticut River Banking Company, had become national bank- ing associations ; the Bank of Hartford County, with its capital restored to six hundred thousand dollars, taking the name of the American Na- tional Bank of Hartford. After twenty years all, including the New Britain National and the Suffield National, the latter organized at Suffield, July 12, 1864, have renewed their charters for a like term, except the City Bank at Hartford, which resumed its franchise under State law. The Southington National Bank was organized in 1883.
In 1819 the first savings bank of our State was incorporated. The project was to receive small sums of money to be placed at compound interest and to be returned on demand. The idea was one of assured practicability. Such institutions had been in operation successfully ; one in Hamburg for forty years. To a woman, Priscilla Wakefield, is accorded the honor of establishing the first bank of this kind in Great Britain, at Tottenham, near London, where she planted the "Child's Bank" in 1798, and followed the experiment with one for adults in 1804.
At Boston in the United States was planted in 1816 the Provident Institution for Savings, the first on this continent, which had success
1 General suspension, Dec. 30, 1861 ; resumption, Jan. 1, 1879.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
from the outset, and commended to observers the real beneficence and economy to be found in the use of such a depository for the smallest savings.
The Society for Savings, of Hartford, consisted of forty-one persons who received corporate privileges at the May session of the legislature, 1819; and when they completed their organization they recorded their primary object to be "to aid the industrious, economical, and worthy, to protect them from the extravagance of the profligate, the snares of the vicious, and to bless them with competency and happiness."
Their first president, Daniel Wadsworth, was chosen June 9. Elisha Colt was their first treasurer, and James M. Goodwin their first secre- tary. Messrs. Ward Woodbridge, James H. Wells, Michael Olcott, John T. Peters, David Porter, Michael Bull, Charles Sigourney, John Russ, Jeremiah Brown, Isaac Perkins, David Watkinson, and William Ely were chosen vice-presidents ; and Messrs. Cyprian Nichols, Mason F. Coggswell, Henry Hudson, Samuel Tudor, Jr., Russell Bunce, James B. Hosmer, Charles Hosmer, Thomas Day, George Goodwin, Jr., Lorenzo Bull, James M. Goodwin, James R. Woodbridge, Joseph B. Gilbert, John Butler, Henry Kilbourn, Christopher Colt, Theodore Pease, Bar- zillai Hudson, Jr., Roderick Terry, Horace Burr, George Beach, Nor- man Smith, Thomas K. Brace, and Jesse Savage are recorded as the first trustees. The deposits received in the first six months of their existence amounted to $4,352.77. From that beginning their business increased until, Oct. 1, 1885, the bank had 29,123 depositors, with $10,105,086 of deposits.
The other savings banks in the city (established since 1850) are the State, Mechanics, and Dime. The aggregate deposits of the twelve sav- ings banks in the county are $19,632,998, due to 60,000 depositors. Hartford has three trust companies -the Hartford, the Connecticut Trust and Safe Deposit, and the Security - besides the United States Bank, which began as a trust company.
These are associated with the national and State banks of our city in the Hartford Clearing House Association. The aggregate capital of the thirteen national banks in the city and county of Hartford, July 1, 1885, was $7,085,000; their surplus and undivided profits, $2,518,205.90 ; their deposits, $9,372,128.13. The State banks and trust companies aggregate, at same date, of capital, $2,100,000 ; surplus and earnings, $367,520.06 ; of deposits, $4,468,948.37. Manufacturing corporations represented by offices and management at Hartford alone include capi- tals of nearly $20,000,000, and other interests of much larger aggre- gates, as they appear in detail, indicate a notably large wealth in proportion to the population of the county. Perhaps the few amounts given above are as justly significant as any that are available for an illustration of the material prosperity of the neighborhood where the Plymouth Company first began to trade upon the Connecticut.
349
DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL LIFE IN COLONIAL TIMES.
SECTION VI.
DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL LIFE IN COLONIAL TIMES.
BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER.
THE student of the social life in early New England is in danger of being misled by the laws and the records of courts and churches. Un- fortunately the vices of a people are more apt to be recorded than their virtues. It is the law-breakers and the litigious whose names appear oftenest in the court records, and the immoral portions of the congrega- tion claim most space in the church minutes. We are apt also to infer that, because the conditions of life were harder and very different from ours, in the early days, there was much less enjoyment of life than now ; and that a sort of gloom, resulting from an austere creed and severe laws, overspread the community, forgetting how readily human nature adapts itself to circumstances, and how much cheerfulness it extracts out of hardships and limitations. The reader is expected to bear this in mind in this brief sketch of colonial social life.
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