USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume I > Part 43
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Samuel M. Nickerson, Benjamin P. Hutchinson, Samuel W. Al- lerton, John B. Sherman, James C. Fargo, Byron Rice and other well known figures in Chicago finance were among the original directors of the First National. S. M. Nickerson was president, succeeding Mr. Aiken, twenty-seven years, for more than half the bank's ex- istence. He was a distiller at the time of the organization of the bank.
S. M. A native of Massachusetts, he had spent his youth in NICKERSON. indigent circumstances, had clerked in a store, had sailed before the mast, had once lost all his invested capital by fire, and at the age of twenty-eight had begun at the bottom in Chicago and in five years reached a position where he was one of
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4
the influential business men whose co-operation proved so valuable in the establishment of the First National Bank. In 1864 he became president of the Chicago City Horse Railroad Company, and about the time he became president of the First National he headed the
RUINS OF FIRST NATIONAL BUILDING.
group of men who organized the old Union Stock Yards National Bank. During his presidency, the First National passed the crises of the fire and the panic of 1873. In the year after he became presi- dent the location of the bank was moved from the Exchange block, at the southwest corner of Lake and Clark, to the first building erected for the bank's home, on the southwest corner of State and Washing- ton. The five-story stone building, with its principal entrance on the corner, reached by a flight of steps, was swept by the fire and only the walls and interior vaults spared, but it was restored for business by the first of the year, and during the decade of the seventies was
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considered one of the best business structures of Chicago, ranking with the Palmer, Tremont, Field and other structures. The site of the present bank building was, before the fire, the location of the post- office building, and later the Haverly Theatre, and the ground is school property. When the old building at State and Washington was out- grown a new site was sought. The northwest corner of Dearborn and Monroe was leased for ninety-nine years, and on it the building so familiarly known until recent years was erected, being occupied by the bank on November 27, 1882. With the expiration of the second bank charter, in 1902, the present bank and office building was planned. To give frontage on Monroe street, the ten-story Montauk block, one of the early Chicago skyscrapers, was removed.
During most of these changes Mr. Nickerson remained president, and was directing the growing activities and prosperity of the bank. He served until 1891, and then in 1897 was again called to the office for three years. He has been a resident of New York since 1900.
C. R. Field resigned the position as cashier of the First National in 1868, and Lyman J. Gage was chosen his successor. Two years later Mr. Gage had become a director, and for nearly thirty years he was the pivot of the bank's affairs. He was cashier from 1868 to 1882, vice president until 1891, and succeeded Mr. Nickerson as presi- dent in 1891. He was aggressive in upholding sound-money stand- ards, and through his position and as a public speaker dominated a large section of public opinion on financial matters. His active inter- est in behalf of sound money during the campaign of 1896 resulted in President Mckinley offering him the treasury portfolio, for which Mr. Gage was so well qualified. He resigned his position as president of the First National in February, 1897, and remained a member of President McKinley's cabinet until after the assassination, his resig- nation becoming effective in February, 1902. For several years he was president of the United States Trust Company of New York, and since 1906 has lived retired at San Diego, California. In the work of organization and pledging of financial support which pre- ceded the Chicago Columbian Exposition, Mr. Gage was so prominent that his name will always be identified with the success of that fair. He was president of the board of directors until his election as presi- dent of the First National Bank necessitated his withdrawing from the executive post, though he remained on the board of directors and
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was constantly at work in behalf of the great enterprise. He was also at one time president of the Chicago Civic Federation, and while a resident of Chicago was one of the strongest supporters not only of movements for the material and commercial development of the city, but of undertakings that promoted the æsthetic and intellectual progress.
January, 1900, the directors of the First National Bank by unani - mous vote chose James B. Forgan to succeed Mr. Nickerson as presi --
JAMES B. dent. In strength of personality, in thorough knowl .
FORGAN. edge and ability as a financier, and in the extent to which his opinions are quoted and his influence car- ries weight, Mr. Forgan is one of the most eminent bankers of Amer- ica. By birth a Scotchman, and trained for his career in the banks of the British Empire, he came to Chicago in 1892 from Min- neapolis, where he had been cashier of the Northwestern National, and after eight years' service as second and then first vice president of the First National Bank, he was elevated to his present position in 1900.
Under the presidency of Mr. Forgan the Union National Bank and the Metropolitan National Bank have been merged in the First Na- tional Bank, the capital has been increased from $3,000,000 to $8,000,- 000, with $7,000,000 surplus; while the deposits have increased from $35,000,000 to $100,000,000. In December, 1903, under the Illinois laws, Mr. Forgan organized the First Trust and Savings Bank, with a capital of $1,000,000, the stock being paid for by an extra dividend of $1,000,000 from the First National Bank. The stockholders and directors in both institutions are identical, the First Trust and Savings Bank now having deposits of over $35,000,000. The National Safe Deposit Company, of which Mr. Forgan is president, and which is controlled by the bank, is the subsidiary corporation which completed the eighteen-story building on Monroe and Dearborn in 1905. The general office of this bank is the largest single banking room in the country, and the grand court of the building is one of the finest in the city.
Of the national banks that have had a continuous existence since the issue of their first charters, the Commercial National is the second oldest in Chicago, having been organized in December, 1864, and be- ginning business in the January following, about a year after the First National Bank. Henry F. Eames was president of this bank for thirty
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years, and the length of his service and his ability as a financier lend prominence to his name among the bankers of the past century. He succeeded P. R. Westfall, the first president, in 1867. At that time the bank was in a comparatively prosperous condition, having deposits of over half a million. When Mr. Eames resigned in 1897, deposits were over nine million. During the following ten years the institution continued its growth to rank among the largest of Chicago banks, a condition largely due to the management and ability of President James H. Eckels, who as comptroller of the currency during President Cleveland's second administration had won the admiration of finan- ciers by his adroit handling of the problems presented during the crisis of 1893. When Mr. Eckels died in 1907, the Commercial National Bank was in a most prosperous condition, with deposits over forty million dollars. At that time a bank home had been built for this in- stitution at the corner of Clark and Adams, and has since been occu- pied, which is one of the finest and largest business structures in the down-town district. George E. Roberts, for about ten years director of the United States mint, succeeded Mr. Eckels as president.
The Corn Exchange National Bank, now located in a sixteen- story modern bank and office block on LaSalle street, is the successor,
BENJAMIN P. HUTCHINSON. by consolidation, of two noted banks that were founded before the fire of 1871, and their history in- volves two of the great men of Chicago finance. Of the Merchants National Bank and its founder, Chauncey B. Blair, an account is found elsewhere. Under Mr. Blair and his son Chaun- cey J. this bank had a continuous individual existence from 1865 until 1903, when it was consolidated with the Corn Exchange Bank. The latter institution was founded as a national bank in 1870, by Benjamin P. Hutchinson, who during his active connection with Chicago's com- mercial history was the most familiar figure on the Board of Trade, and one of the shrewdest operators in the trading activities that make up the history of that institution. He came to Chicago in 1859, hav- ing failed in the shoe business at Lynn, Massachusetts. He was then thirty-one years of age. For five dollars he is said to have bought a membership in the Chicago Board of Trade, and in the next four years through his operations on the grain market had paid all his Lynn debts and had a comfortable fortune. He became a pork packer, his establishment forty years ago being one of the largest in the yards.
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Though a promoter and one of the first stockholders in the First Na- tional Bank, he soon afterward helped to found the Corn Exchange National Bank. Benjamin P. Hutchinson died in 1900, having been for more than forty years a resident of Chicago. His son, Charles L. Hutchinson, though for over thirty years identified with banking and now one of the vice presidents of the reorganized Corn Exchange National Bank, has given much of his time to the development of the æsthetic side of Chicago's life, especially as president of the Chicago Art Institute, for the founding of which on a permanent basis and its subsequent progress he has been largely responsible. The Corn Exchange National Bank, on its present basis, has a capital of $3,- 000,000, surplus $3,000,000, and deposits of over fifty million. Er- nest A. Hamill is president, with Chauncey J. Blair, Charles L. Hutch- inson and D. A. Moulton as vice presidents. The old Corn Exchange National Bank surrendered its national bank charter in 1881, at which time the Hutchinsons and S. A. Kent organized the state bank, which continued to bear the original name until the founding of the new Corn Exchange National in 1903.
Of the banks that have lost their identity through consolidation, one of the most substantial until within the last decade was the Mer- chants National. This bank had a character of solid-
CHAUNCEY B. BLAIR. ity apart from its strength in capital and deposits. Among bankers and in the financial world generally it was known as the bank of Chauncey B. Blair, whose name was a power in Chicago banking circles until his death in 1891. He is ac- corded the unanimous credit of having twice saved the financial sit- uation in Chicago, restored public confidence and averted a general disaster to its banks and a far-spreading financial calamity. Conserva- tive while treading the safe paths of prosperity, he always met the threats of commercial and financial disaster with a confident and brave bearing and was most bold when he seemed to be leading a forlorn hope. In his early years Mr. Blair was identified with banking and business in northern Indiana, especially at Michigan City, and for some years conducted the LaPorte branch of the famous Indiana State Bank. Like some other prominent bankers of Chicago, he conducted a private bank for a time after locating in this city in 1861. The Mer- chants National, which he organized in 1865 and of which he was president continuously until 1888, when he was succeeded by his son
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Chauncey J. Before the fire of 1871 this bank was one of the strongest then in the city, having over a million dollars in deposits, and capital and surplus of nearly a million. In the crisis that followed the fire, when only one of the nineteen banks in the city had a home, Mr. Blair firmly dissented from the majority opinion of his fellow bankers that the institutions suspend payment. He announced his intention of keeping his doors wide open and paying dollar for dollar, and, follow- ing his example, the banks commenced to pay out small sums for im- mediate use.
Until a little more than ten years ago, the bank architecture of Chicago had little to commend it from an artistic point of view, though some of the earlier buildings were considered, in their time, splendid in proportion and design. The improvement in bank architecture was subject to the same influences that caused an advance in other types of building construction during the years following the Colum- bian Exposition. In 1894 only three banks had invested their capital in bank buildings, the others being tenants. Not one of these three buildings is now considered among the fine structures of the business district, while one of them was torn down a few years ago to make room for the sixteen story bank and office building of the First Na- tional Bank. The Illinois Trust and Savings, the Chicago National. the First National, the American Trust and Savings, the Northern Trust Company, the Commercial National, and the Corn Exchange have, one after another, within the past twelve years erected homes that are among the conspicuous landmarks of the modern down-town district. The Illinois Trust and Savings and the Chicago National were the pioneers, after which came the First National, completed in May, 1905; the American Trust and Savings, in 1906; the Northern Trust, also in 1906; the Commercial National, in 1907, and the Corn Exchange National, in 1908.
The Illinois Trust and Savings Bank building was completed in the spring of 1897. At the time it was far in advance in architectural symmetry and beauty of any buildings in Chicago devoted wholly to business purposes. Much of the credit for this departure from the
old models belongs to the man whose personality
JOHN J. and character during the past twenty-five years have
MITCHELL. become a part of the institution which he has guided as president. The Mitchells, father and son, have been identified with
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Chicago banking since the year of the panic in 1873, the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank having been organized on May 7th of that year, William H. Mitchell being one of the promoters, and for many years has served as its first vice president. John J. Mitchell became presi- dent in 1880, his predecessors having been L. B. . Sidway and H. G. Powers. The extraordinary growth of the bank is sound reason for Mr. Mitchell's eminence among western bankers.
The Comptrollers of the Currency during three successive presi- dential administrations, after resigning their positions as government
managers of the national banking system, came to
.EDWARD S. LACEY. Chicago and became heads of leading banks in the city. The confidence of the nation in western finan- ciers was illustrated in the selection of these men, and their subsequent careers are proof that this confidence was well bestowed. Edward S. Lacey, who since 1892 has been president of the Bankers National Bank, was the first of these men. The Bankers National, which began business on August I Ith of that year, has enjoyed a prosperous growth. A year after its opening its deposits were less than a million dollars, which since that time have increased to upwards of twenty millions. In his early business career Mr. Lacey was identified with banking in Michigan, served in Congress from that state, and was President Har- rison's selection for the office of Comptroller in 1889.
When Grover Cleveland became president in 1893, his choice for Comptroller of the Currency rested on a lawyer of Ottawa, Illinois,
who up to that time was unknown in the world of fi-
JAMES H. ECKELS. nance. The financial panic that followed and the ex- treme difficulties which beset the treasury depart- ment were an extraordinary test of the capacity of the Comptroller in handling the complicated machinery of national finance. It is said that during the first year of James H. Eckels' term of office, there were more national bank failures than during all the twenty years pre- ceding. Mr. Eckels' tact and skill in the management of his office gave him a broad reputation, and towards the close of the presidential term he resigned his office to accept the presidency of the Commercial National Bank. He continued at the head of this institution until his brilliant career was cut short by death, only a short time before the bank was moved to its new home.
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Charles G. Dawes, who followed Mr. Eckels as Comptroller, was also a citizen of Illinois, and at the time of his appointment was a
CHARLES G. resident of Evanston. He was the youngest man
who ever held that office, but his conduct of the busi-
DAWES. ness of the office was not only successful but showed unusual ability.
At the end of four years' service as Comptroller, Mr. Dawes re- signed and organized the Central Trust Company of Illinois, of which he is now president. This company purchased and occupies the building erected for the Chicago National Bank. The main banking room in this building is pronounced by many to be superior to any in existence.
After the resignation of Mr. Dawes, the president again came to Illinois for a Comptroller of the Currency and William B. Ridgely, a Chicago business man, was appointed, who showed the same quality of ability as his predecessors. Mr. Ridgely held the position about four years, when he resigned to accept the presidency of the National Bank of Commerce, of Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Ridgely's successor is Lawrence O. Murray, who was also for a time a resident of Chicago.
Three of Chicago's bankers have been called to the position of president of the American Bankers' Association. Lyman J. Gage filled this place in the year 1883, being the fourth to be elected to that position. In 1894 John J. P. Odell was elected. Mr. Odell was then president of the Union National Bank. George M. Reynolds is filling the position at this writing, having been elected October I, 1908, at Denver. Mr. Reynolds, though yet comparatively young in years, has become prominent in the financial world. He is president of the Continental National Bank, of Chicago, which institution has shown rapid growth, having now deposits of about seventy million dol- lars, with capital $4,000,000 and surplus $2,000,000.
One who was familiar with Chicago's banks twenty-five years ago would look in vain for many of the institutions of that time. As a result of failure, consolidation or voluntary liquidation, the bank directory of Chicago has recorded many changes.
A list of the national banks that have been discontinued, with the year of establishment and of closing, would contain the following :
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Second National, 1864, failed September, 1873.
Third National, 1864, closed November, 1877.
Fourth National, 1864, failed September, 1875.
Fifth National, 1864, voluntary liquidation December, 1882.
National Bank of America, 1883, succeeding the Fifth National and later consolidated. (See below.)
Mechanics National, 1864, went into voluntary liquidation December, 1874. The late E. B. McCagg was its last president.
Northwestern National, 1864, merged in Corn Exchange National September, 1900.
Manufacturers National, 1864, suspended September, 1873.
Union National, 1865, absorbed by First National, September, 1900. Merchants National, 1865, merged with Corn Exchange National, 1902.
City National, 1865, voluntary liquidation April, 1876.
Traders National, 1865, surrendered charter in 1878, and the Traders Bank suspended in 1888.
Union Stockyards National, 1867, in 1887 changed to National Live Stock Bank, and in 1907 to Live Stock Exchange National.
National Bank of Commerce, 1870, went into voluntary liquidation December, 1876. P. C. Maynard was president.
German National, November, 1870, receiver appointed December. 1878.
Cook County National, 1871, failed January, 1875.
National Bank of Illinois, 1871, failed December, 1896.
Central National, 1872, failed in 1877.
Scandinavian National, organized May, 1872, and receiver appointed December, 1872.
Hide and Leather National, 1880, purchased by Union National, 1897. Chicago National, 1881, liquidated 1906.
Home National, 1882, voluntary liquidation January, 1898. Metropolitan National, 1884, absorbed by First National, May, 1902. Park National, 1886, receiver appointed June, 1890.
American Exchange National, consolidated in 1898 with National
Bank of America, under name of America National, which was merged in the Corn Exchange National, September, 1900.
Atlas National, 1887, in voluntary liquidation, 1897.
Lincoln National, merged in the Bankers National, July, 1900.
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Prairie State National, became Prairie State Bank, 1897.
Globe National, 1890, purchased by Continental National, November, 1898.
Chemical Trust, 1890, changed from a state to a national bank in December, 1891, and receiver appointed in 1893.
Columbia National, 1887, failed in 1893.
The deposits of the Chicago National Bank were by agreement paid by the other banks of Chicago, each bank included advancing amount proportionate with its capital, the banks as a whole being se- cured by a pledge of sundry collaterals. This plan was reached after an all night conference between William B. Ridgely, Comptroller of the Currency ; Capt. W. H. Eubanks, deputy state auditor of Illinois ; John R. Walsh and F. M. Blount, president and vice president respectively of the Chicago National, and representatives of the Chicago banks furnishing the money. Like agreement was entered into at the same time to liquidate the Equitable Trust Company and the Home Sav- ings Bank, which were located in the Chicago National building, and practically under the same management, John R. Walsh being presi- dent of each of them.
Of the notable failures among the national banks of Chicago, sev- eral had points of distinction that make them unique in the history of finance. The Cook County National, which collapsed in 1875 as a result of the operations of its former president, D. D. Spencer, has been regarded as the most complete failure under the national banking system. The liabilities of the institution aggregated nearly two mil- lion dollars, and a considerable portion of the assets did not bring two cents on the dollar. After a receivership of eight years the creditors had to be satisfied with fifteen per cent of their claims. Besides hav- ing the most complete failure, Chicago was also the home of the bank which was reckoned as the biggest national bank failure. The National Bank of Illinois, when it suspended in December, 1896, had liabilities of about twenty million. The suddenness of this unexpected failure caused a severe though temporary crisis in financial and busi- ness circles.
One of the interesting matters of record of former banks concerns the old Third National, of which J. Irving Pierce was president. At the time the bank suspended, in 1877, it was in a solvent condition, and
Vol. 1-29
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under the receivership the creditors were paid. Among the assets was some South Side real estate, near the World's Fair district. The real estate enhanced in value until at one time, though the bank was in the hands of a receiver, the stock was worth $150 a share. The real estate was held too long, and the value of the stock afterward was seriously reduced.
Of other national banks now enjoying substantial growth and hav- ing a capital of one million dollars and over, is the Fort Dearborn National, which was chartered in May, 1887. H. N. Hibbard was its first president. William A. Tilden is now its president, Nelson N. Lampert vice president, and Henry R. Kent cashier.
The National Bank of the Republic was chartered in 1891, its first president being John B. Mallers, who was succeeded by John A. Lynch, the present official. W. T. Fenton, now vice president, was one of its organizers.
The National City Bank was organized in January, 1907, by David R. Forgan, its president, who for this purpose, resigned as vice president of the First National Bank.
The first report of the auditor, under the new state banking laws, showed the state banks in Chicago in November, 1889, to be the fol- lowing :
American Trust and Savings.
Bank of Illinois.
Chicago Trust and Savings.
Corn Exchange Bank.
Dime Savings.
Hibernian Savings Association.
Home Savings Bank.
Illinois Trust and Savings.
International Bank.
Merchants Loan and Trust Company.
Northern Trust Company.
Northwestern Bond and Trust Company.
Prairie State Loan and Trust Company.
Union Trust Company.
Western Investment Bank (discontinued next year).
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