USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Past and present of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 46
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Mr. Wilson was for many years one of the most prominent figures in Lafayette business circles. Quick. impetuous, hotheaded, brave as a lion, ready to say the bitterest words in a sudden heat, and sorrow over them with the genuine grief of a really kind and generous nature, he was a factor always to be taken into account in every public movement.
The Merchants National Bank was organized by James Murdock and W. W. Smith and a coterie of associates in 1800. Mr. Murdock had just re- turned to the city, the adopted home of his young manhood. after a long and successful service as warden of the Northern Indiana Prison at Michigan City. Mr. Smith had just finished two terms as county treasurer. The wide acquaintance, personal popularity and influence of these gentlemen made the institution a success from the first. The memorable panic of 1893 came on so soon after. that any ordinary administration would have been swamped and ruined : but the Merchants' people weathered it bravely, and, in fact, by clever
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management turned the general disaster into substantial benefit to themselves, and by their courage in this time of stress laid the broad foundations of the great prosperity which came to them. James Murdock was made president ; W. W. Smith, vice-president : Charles Murdock, cashier, and John Wagner, Jr., assistant cashier. These gentlemen retained their respective positions with- out change until the death of Mr. Murdock, late in November, 1908, excepting that on the death of his father, John Wagner, Sr., in the autumn of 1904, Mr. Wagner withdrew to take personal management of the Thieme & Wagner Brewery's extensive plant and business, and was succeeded by William G. Gude, another member of the Wagner family connection. In the reorganization of the bank at the January meeting, 1909, Mr. Murdock's son, Charles Murdock, was shifted from cashier to president, W. G. Gude promoted to the vacancy as cashier thus made, and Deloss Smith, son of the vice-presi- dent, made assistant cashier.
The Merchants National Bank has been from its birth a very successful institution. Its success has been built perhaps about equally upon the wide personal acquaintance and tireless industry of Mr. Smith, and the sagacity and business acumen in planning and carrying through large things, of Mr. Murdock.
"Jim" Murdock. as nearly everybody affectionately called him, even after his elevated fortunes made the familiarity seem possible out of place (though it was never distasteful to Mr. Murdock himself ), was a strong and original character. prominent in all local affairs during what might be termed the mid- dle period of Lafayette. A native of Ireland, he came to this country in 1852, and in 1854 to Lafayette. His first business venture was a retail grocery, which was burned ont in 1869. Nothing daunted, he started again, this time in partnership with his brother, Thomas Murdock, and for years their store, southwest corner of Third and Columbia streets, now occupied for the same purpose by the Emsing Brothers, was the headquarters for the trade and the politics of our citizens of his nationality. Mr. Murdock was a born leader among men. Many has been the political council held, and plan laid and set afoot there. Besides merchandizing. Mr. Murdock engaged largely in street contracting and such work. He soon became a recognized power in the politics of the city and county not only, but of the state. He served as sheriff of the county from 1869 to 1871, and in 1877 was appointed warden of the Indiana prison north, which position he held for twelve years. Returning to Lafayette in 1890, he organized the Merchants National Bank, and about the same time became practically the head of the organization to bring natural gas to Lafayette. This was the turning point of his fortune.
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This connection put him in close touch with men of great wealth and large affairs, and the great and successful banking enterprise in which to the day of his death he felt as great pride and solicitude as though it had indeed been his child, was supplemented by connection with other and greater enterprises, in which he acquired a handsome fortune. In power and influence in city and county he soon became easily Lafayette's first citizen ; but he never forgot the day of small things, or came to look down upon the companions of his earlier years of struggle. Wise, sagacious, far-seeing, a rare judge of human nature and of men, he made few mistakes, and whatever he put his hand to seemed to succeed. He was more popular as a banker than Fowler or Peirce, whose place as a leader he took at a later day. yet not one whit less sound in his judg- ments or safe in his methods. He died, generally lamented. November 27, I908.
The City National Bank was organized in 1901 and commenced business in the room owned by Loeb & Hene and still occupied by the bank, about mid- way of the east side of the public square. S. Hene, of the Loeb & Hene dry goods firm, was elected president. W. T. Dobbins, vice-president and active manager, Leroy C. Slocum, formerly cashier of the Lafayette National, and afterwards with the Perrin National, cashier, and Jacob M. Oppenheimer as- sistant cashier. The members of the Loeb & Hene firm and Levi Oppenheimer were the moving spirits in the organization. The first board of directors were : Solomon Loeb, H. B. Lyman, W. S. Walker, A. Goslee, M. Consdorf, Levi Oppenheimer, W. P. Hanna, John B. Wagner. The official organization remained unchanged until the end of 1908, when Mr. Dobbins retired because of ill health, and was succeeded by Albert Goslee, formerly a banker at Chal- mers. and one of much experience. The present officers and directors are: S. Hene, president : A. Goslee, vice-president ; L. C. Slocum, cashier : M. B. Cas- sel. assistant cashier : Solomon Loeb. H. B. Lyman, John B. Wagner, Wm. R. Wood, J. E. Marshall. R. Goldsberry, John E. Chamberlain, directors.
The four institutions whose history we have briefly sketched comprise all the national banks of the city now in operation.
The Second National Bank was organized in May, 1864. succeeding to the private banking house of Barbee, Brown & Company, who then occupied the rooms southwest corner of Third and Columbia streets since for so long used for retail grocery purposes by James Murdock & Brother an Ithe Emsing brothers. They did not remain there long, however, for when Fowler's Na- tional State Bank vacated the room southwest of Main and Fourth streets, now the property of the Lafayette Loan and Trust Company, the Second National was removed into it. and there remained throughout its existence. Mr. Barbee,
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who had been for years a very prominent figure in Lafayette, had died. and Joseph Brown, his partner, was elected president, and Henry S. Mayo, a new- comer in Lafayette, from Troy, Ohio, a man of considerable means who had connected himself with the old organization after Mr. Barbee's death, was elected cashier. Mr. Brown retired a few years later, and the bank became practically a Mayo institution, Owen Ball, an old and influential citizen, being the only well known citizen aside from the family at all actively connected with the bank, and he only as a director. Henry S. Mayo was made president, and his eldest son, E. Hanson Mayo, cashier. The latter retired January 1, 1870, to go into business at Indianapolis, wisely regarding the policy of a family bank as wrong and narrow and believing in the policy of calling to take part in the management good men outside the family circle. He was succeeded by the younger son, Charles T. Mayo. The bank never did a large business, but was generally considered a safe and conservative institution until the crash came. About I p. m. of Wednesday, November 28. 1877, the day before Thanksgiving, the town was startled by a notice posted on the front door that the bank had suspended. The directors spent the Thanksgiving holiday in anything but a thankful frame of mind, for it was revealed to them that the cashier was a defaulter, and had lost over fifty-eight thousand dollars of the bank's money-in Chicago speculation, it was supposed. His father, the head of the bank, had died before this, on March 14, 1873. and been succeeded as president by Daniel Royse, former county clerk for two terms, and at one time one of the most popular and influential men in the county, under whose administration the collapse came. Mr. Royse was not in any way implicated in the defalcation, or blamable, except possibly for too great laxity in over- sight of the bank's affairs. The directors, after fully canvassing the matter, decided to put the bank in liquidation. The depositors were paid in full. The stockholders were the only losers. Some thought that with more courage the bank might have continued business and weathered the storm.
The Indiana National Bank was organized in April, 1872, with James J. Perrin as president, and John C. Brockenbrough, widely known from his long connection with the Fowler institutions, as cashier. Mr. Perrin was a native of Virginia, who had been for more than twenty years engaged in successful business at Rossville, Clinton county, and enjoyed a wide acquaintance and wielded great influence throughout the western part of Clinton county and eastern part of Tippecanoe adjoining. In February, 1870, he removed to Lafayette and opened a private bank under the National State (now Fowler ). southwest corner of Fourth and Columbia streets, in the room which has now for many years been occupied by the Western Union Telegraph office. In
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January, 1872, he removed to the Heath building, northwest corner Sixth and Main streets, where, in April following, the Indiana National began business. The inside history of the matter is, that there was a sharp competition just at that time between Mr. Perrin and John W. Heath, who built the building, each of whom was desirous of securing a charter for a National bank, in which Mr. Perrin, through the assistance of Hon. G. S. Orth, came out ahead, and Mr. Heath put aside his ambition temporarily, to be taken up later.
Mr. Perrin was a prominent figure in Lafayette for the next quarter of a century. He was elected a trustee and treasurer of the school board, and paid into a special fund interest on the public school funds in his hands, as a nucleus for a public library. Before this, the treasurer had always treated whatever interest he received on the funds from the banks in which deposited, as a per- sonal perquisite. During his administration the old "White house," the former home of Hon. Albert S. White while in public life, but for many years a fashionable boarding house, situated southeast corner Columbia and Sixth streets, was bought, fitted up for a public library, books bought to the limit of the fund accumulated, and a beginning made which has developed into our present well managed and popular public library. Later the old White house was torn down, and a handsome new high school and library building erected on the site. In 1901 the Reynolds heirs presented to the city for public libra- ry purposes the old James Spears residence, southeast corner Fifth and South streets, which in early days, when Mrs. Spears was alive, had been a notable center of hospitality and social gaiety, and the public library now occupies it. Mr. Perrin formed a syndicate and bought "Stockton's woods," lying just east of the Wabash railway tracks, platted the beautiful Perrin addition, built and sold houses, and by his energy made the enterprise "go." In short, he came soon to be ranked as one of the most enterprising and public-spirited of Lafay- ette's citizens, and maintained his reputation and leadership for many years, and until his health failed.
The Indiana National never grew to be the largest bank of Lafayette in the magnitude of its deposits, but was successful, and always regarded as safe and well managed. When the Second National went out of business. Mr. Perrin began to negotiate for. and finally bought. of Floyd Reynolds, the building in which the Second National had been quartered, and the Indiana National was removed into it. On the expiration of the charter. in 1892. the Indiana National was reorganized as the Perrin National. Mr. Brocken- brough retired: Mr. Perrin retained the presidency. his son John O. Perrin was elected vice-president, and another son. William H. Perrin, cashier. In the summer of 1900 John O. Perrin withdrew and went to Indianapolis to
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organize, and take the presidency of, the American National Bank, which has proved to be a wonderfully successful institution. Mr. Perrin's health had, at this time, almost entirely failed; and finally, July 1, 1902, a consolidation with the Merchants National Bank was brought about, the Perrin National being put into liquidation, and its stockholders absorbed by the Merchants National, which increased its capital stock for the purpose of making room for them. The consolidation included the two affiliated trust companies, the Indiana going into liquidation, and the Lafayette taking over its business.
John W. Heath was not a man to easily give up any project in which he had become seriously interested; and although Mr. Perrin had succeeded in outstripping him in the obtaining of a bank charter, that incident only tem- porarily deferred the consummation of his plan for establishing a bank; and in January, 1875. he launched the Lafayette National Bank, officered by him- self as president, and Leroy C. Slocum, at present filling that position with the City National, as cashier. The first board of directors had among its mem- bers some very strong and prominent men ; consisting, besides Mr. Heath, of William F. Reynolds, John Purdue, John Ewry, William P. Heath, E. C. White, John Bixler. Dr. Stephen Jones and Dr. John Simison. The bank opened first for business in an old two-story brick about mid-way of the west side of the public square, which has since been torn away to give place to Frank Gaylord's new block, in which the Hub Clothing store is now housed; but was removed soon after to the room southwest corner of Third and Main streets, which before had for many years been occupied as a bank by John L. Reynolds and the Union National Bank. The bank did a fairly successful business for a number of years. Mr. Heath was a man of wide influence, of tremendous force of character and fine mental equipment : and had he thrown his great energy and fertility of resource into the building up of his bank's business, would have made undoubtedly some stir in banking circles in Lafay- ette. But Mr. Ileath had a great many other irons in the fire. He became deeply embroiled in two particularly bitter and hard-fought contests in local affairs-the long-drawn-out struggle over the Lafayette, Muncie & Blooming- ton Railroad (new Lake Erie & Western). the possession and control of which rood, for a brief period, rested in his hands; and the "court house fight," in which he warmly and actively espoused the cause of County Com- missioner E. C. White, a member of his board of bank directors, whose pro- cedure with regard to building the present court house had been very bitterly assailed. These fierce contests absorbed so much of his time and energies. and I red so many animosities, as to seriously interfere with the success of the bank, which finally went into liquidation.
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For many years John W. Heath was a central figure in the local business and political affairs of Lafayette. Highly educated, a graduate of AAsbury (now DePauw) University, he was intellectually one of the brightest and most forceful men of the community, in any profession. He was, on occasion, and particularly when laboring under excitement, or in an emergency, a most brilliant and effective public speaker. Proud, impetuous, impulsive, brave, with indomitable energy, and a courage and will that no difficulty could dis- may, he had many of the brightest and rarest qualities of genius, and had he been less nervous and over-wrought in temperament, and possessed a little more of poise and self-control, he would have achieved anything he undertook, and attained to the highest honors and success in business or public life. As it was, he wore himself out, like an engine without a governor, and went to a premature and untimely grave at a time when he should have been only step- ping over the threshold of a brilliant career.
Last on the roll of national banks, though one of the earliest organized, we mention the Union National, which all the later years of its business existence was quartered in the building northeast corner of Fourth and Main streets, which has been so successfully remodeled, and is now occupied by the Baltimore Clothing Store. As early as 1848 the Key- nolds Bank was organized, under the name of J. L. Reynolds & Company, suc- ceeding the private bank of Guggenheim & Company, as to which latter only the name has been embalmed in history. The central figure of the bank was John L. Reynolds, in ante-war times one of the leading men of Lafayette. William F. Reynolds. an older. and James M. Reynolds, a younger brother, were also interested in the bank, but the latter caught the "gold fever" which swept over the country in the early fifties, and went to California. where he re- mained several years. The bank was strong and successful. They began business on the north side of the public square. removing later to the south- west corner of Third and Main streets, the room in which, many years after- wards, the Lafayette National Bank was quartered. From here they removed, in 1865. to the new building which Mr. Reynolds had just completed, built es- pecially for banking purposes, northeast corner of Main and Fourth streets. The Union National Bank was organized in April, 1865, with John L. Rey- nolds as president and Cyrus Ball cashier, and the Reynolds Bank was merged into it. Ten years later the Union National sold its government bonds to John W. Heath for his newly-chartered Lafayette National Bank, and put the Union National into liquidation. resuming private banking as J. L. Reynolds & Company, with Mr. Reynolds as president. James B. Earheart as cashier, and Floyd Reynolds, son of the president. as assistant cashier. This business
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continued only a short time, when it was closed out and Mr. Reynolds and all his family took a final leave of Lafayette. Mr. Earheart died soon after the closing of the business. He was a man of strict integrity, trusted by all, and for twenty-five years one of our best known bank cashiers. Mr. Reynolds came here from Kentucky in 1837. only about eleven years after the founding of Lafayette, and for nearly forty years was a conspicuous figure in the town. He carried with him to his death many of the characteristics, and quite a little of the personal appearance, of a Kentucky gentleman of the old school. Mr. Ball also was an old citizen of Lafayette. Hle came here from Ohio in 1827. and had a long banking career as president of the old Branch of the State Bank, which has already been referred to. He continued as cashier of the Union National until its wind-up.
Lafayette has never had many state banks. the only one of note until recent years having been the old Branch of the State Bank. now by regular descent the National Fowler. On May 1. 1901. however, the spell was broken. by the incorporation of the Farmers and Traders' Bank, under state charter. The most conspicuous, or at least the most widely known, of the moving spirits in the enterprise, was George A. Jamison. the cashier. An old citizen, long engaged in the agricultural implement business and kindred lines, which brought him into personal contact with a very large circle of acquaintance among the farming community, and quite a smooth politician, withal, he was elected county auditor, and during his last year of service as such embarked in the Farmers and Traders' enterprise. Scarcely less widely known was the president, Duane D. Jacobs, an energetic business man long engaged in mercantile pursuits in our city, and who, if he did not know every man in the county, was not long in striking up an acquaintance and asking him to open up an account. The bank has been a prosperous and successful enterprise, and though only eight years old. has touched the million-dollar mark in the aggre- gate of its business. It has occupied from the first the building southeast cor- ner of Third and Columbia streets built by Thomas Coleman for his Farmers' Bank. The first officers and directors were: Duane D. Jacobs. president ; John Emsing, vice-president : George A. Jamison, cashier : Walter Snider, as- sistant cashier. The directors were A. C. Baker. Samuel C. Moore. A. R. Jamison, John F. Judy. Absalom Miller, John W. Skinner. W. S. Campbell, John Emsing and Duane D. Jacobs. The present organization is the same, except that on the resignation of Mr. Snider. January 1, 1904. Samuel Souders was elected assistant cashier in his stead and Messrs. Judy and Campbell retired from the board of directors. On the death of Absalom M. Miller his son, Addison E. Miller, was elected to his place. Mr. Addison Miller met with a
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tragic death by accident. The two vacancies first mentioned were filled by the election thereto of Harry Glick and Jasper Stidham. Charles E. Thompson. an active attorney of the younger set, has just been elected to Mr. Miller's place.
Owing to a falling out among themselves as to the management of the City National Bank, Levi Oppenheimer, who had been largely interested there- in, withdrew, and on March 1. 1904. organized the State Bank of Lafayette, opening out for business in April in the room on the east side of the public square, just three doors south of the corner of Main street, belonging to De- Witt C. Wilson. Levi Oppenheimer was elected president, Ferdinand Dryfus vice-president, and Mr. Oppenheimer's son, Jacob Oppenheimer, cashier ; these three constituting, also, the board of directors. The bank continued business for about two years, when, owing to the failing health of the younger Oppen- heimer, the bank was discontinued and its assets taken over by the Merchants National Bank.
Of private banks there have been quite a number in Lafayette. The his- tory of some of these has been sketched in connection with that of existing in- stitutions of which they were the progenitors. But there were also a few "lights that failed," and as to these a word. Also there were some whose career was successful, but which, for various reasons, have gone out of existence, and left no posterity.
The Gramercy Bank was started about 1853 by strangers and sojourners, and has numerous note holders who are still waiting for the coming of the re- deemer of its promises to make good. It was a typical bank of the "wild cat banking" period. described in the opening of this chapter. T. Jeff. Levering, of the Savings Bank. is still holding a precious memento in the shape of a five-dollar bill of the Gramercy Bank. It bears the signatures of Charles M. Wheelock as president, and Ed. F. Nixsen as cashier. Both were eastern men, hailing from New York city, who came with a grand flourish and opened for business in a room just north of the old Lafayette House ( the site of the present Earl & Hatcher block ), where now stands the building belong- ing to the Earl estate which was long occupied by Spring & Robertson as a printing office and bindery. They accumulated quite a little deposit, and of course began to issue notes at once, which for a time "passed" readily. They were smooth, plausible fellows, and assumed the air of solid. substantial men of business, in a very taking manner. But one day the bank closed. and the proprietors departed : and have left no trace behind by which the precise date of opening and closing of the institution can be more definitely fixed.
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In 1877. Edgar H. Andress and Thomas Wood, under the firm name of Andress & Wood, were conducting a private bank in the east room of the Coleman Bank building, but it never grew to be a large institution and only continued a short time.
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Thomas Coleman was another of the familiar figures in Lafayette bank- ing circles in the sixties and seventies. Mr. Coleman was also an Ohio man. He came to Lafayette in 1850, and engaged actively in the business of farm- ing, handling stock, and loaning money; in the art of doing all of which to the best possible advantage he was a "past master." In 1867 Mr. Coleman organized the "Farmers' Bank," associating with him Thomas G. Rainey, and five years later erected for its accommodation the handsome Coleman block, southeast corner of Third and Columbia streets. Mr. Rainey has had a long career in connection with Lafayette banks, which deserves more than a passing mention. A native of Pennsylvania, he came to Lafayette in 1850, a mere youth, barely past his majority, and entered the counting-house of the Lafayette Insurance Company, which also did a banking business. on the north side of the public square. From 1852 to 1858 he was cashier of the Commercial Bank (the progenitor of the First National), was then with Mr. Fowler in the branch of the Bank of the State and its successor, the National State ( now National Fowler ) Bank, as paying teller. until he resigned to enter into partnership with Mr. Coleman. But the ways of the Colemans were too erratic and unique to suit the steady-going Rainey, and the partner- ship was dissolved, Mr. Coleman continuing, and for a short time Mr. Rainey with him as an employe. Soon after, however. Mr. Rainey went into the Lafayette Savings Bank as teller, and there he has for more than thirty years done faithful duty. The Farmers' Bank business was closed finally about 1880. Mr. Coleman was a rough diamond. Under a brusque and to some forbidding exterior, he carried a kind heart ; never very generous to delinquent debtors, perhaps, but very generous to his family, and in spots to his near friends and any public entreprise or charity that happened to strkie his fancy. He was a keen. shrewd, level-headed man of business, and a pronounced suc- cess both as a farmer and a banker.
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