USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Fall River > Centennial history of Fall River, Mass. : comprising a record of its corporate progress from 1656 to 1876, with sketches of its manufacturing industries, local and general characteristics, valuable statistical tables, etc. > Part 20
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On May 28th, 1828, the bank was opened for business, and $65 was deposited on that day by four depositors. During the first year, there was $3224 received from 58 depositors, but of this amount $518 was withdrawn. The first dividend was made in October, 1828, amounting to the sum of $13.04. From 1828 to 1837, $181,276 was received and $85,764 was withdrawn, leaving less than $100,000 on deposit. The dividends for the same period were at the rate of from 5 to 53 per cent per annum. From 1836 to 1842, the semi-annual dividends ranged from 3 to 3} per cent, and as they increased so also did the deposits, which in 1842 amounted to $350,000. The next ten years the increase was much more rapid, so that, in less than twenty-five years succeeding the organization, the deposits exceeded a million of dollars, a very large amount for those days.
NSS BANK
Fall River Savings Bank
171
THE FALL RIVER SAVINGS BANK.
Since the opening of the institution, with the exception of the years ending with March, 1849, '58, and '62, there has been an annual increase. For four or five years succeeding the latter date, the increase was over $100,000 annually. The dividends from April, 1837, to October, 1866, amounted to $1,819,162.31 ; and of this sum, $1,255,483.63 was accredited to depositors and the balance paid out as stock dividends. During these thirty years, $8,006,834.63 was credited to deposits and $6,322,881.69 paid out on deposit or dividends account. While these amounts would not, perhaps, attract special attention at a day when moneyed transactions are reckoned in millions and even billions, in the period mentioned they were regarded with both surprise and curiosity. Since 1867, the business of the institution has advanced even more rapidly, for several years gaining from half to three quarters of a million annually, and in one year (1870) showing a total increase for six months of $500,000, a sum almost incon- ceivably large, taking into consideration the size of the city and the character of its population. There is little cause for wonder that, with such an exhibit, the name and credit of the bank should spread abroad, and its reputation for careful management and sound investment bring to it deposits from every one of the New England and some of the Middle States.
A careful comparison of the several savings banks in Massachusetts shows that this bank has paid more interest on the same amount of deposits for a term of years than any other in the State. It can also be said, without fear of contradiction, that no savings bank in the State has been conducted with so little expense. For the first fourteen years of its existence, the whole amount paid to the several treasurers for services, office-rent, fuel, lights, and stationery, which in those days were required of the treasurers, was but $3762.52, or an average of but little more than $250 per year, while the average amount of deposits for the same time was more than $100,000,
The practice of rigid economy in the expenses of the bank, instituted at the very beginning of the enterprise, is illustrated by the following minute of record, under date of April 2d, 1829 : " Voted, That the treasurer be allowed fifteen dollars for his services for office-rent, etc., for the year past." And again, under date of April 7th, 1834, we find : " Voted, That sixty-two and a half dollars be appropriated to the treasurer for his serv- ices, office-rent, and stationery for the past year."
As the bank commenced so has it continued, and it is doubtful if another institution of the kind can be found whose percentage of expense account will average so small as compared with the amount of business transacted.
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FALL RIVER AND ITS INDUSTRIES.
Another feature-perhaps not peculiar to this bank alone, but ac- counting in some measure for its remarkable and long-continued pros- pcrity-is the fact that cvcry loan is required to be guaranteed by two sureties, even though the principal may have given a mortgage or col- latcral to secure the final payment of the loan. As a result of this doubly secure method of conducting its business, the bank, with onc or two minor exceptions where the amount paid plus the interest has more than equalled the principal, has never lost a dollar of its loans in the long half-century of its existence, during which its operations have amounted to thousands of millions of dollars.
The first act of incorporation of the Fall River Institution for Savings provided for its continuance for a term of twenty years. In April, 1847, by special vote of the Legislature, the act was continued without limitation. In April, 1855, the name of the bank was changed to "The Fall River Savings Bank."
The bank has had but three presidents, viz .: Micah H. Ruggles, from 1828 to 1857; Nathaniel B. Borden, from 1857 to 1865 ; and Job B. French, from 1865 to the present time. Its original place of business was in the office of James Ford, the first treasurer. In 1830 it was removed to the store of Hawkins & Fish, south-east corner of Main and Bedford streets, Mr. Wm. H. Hawkins having succeeded Mr. Ford in the office of treas- urer. In July, 1833, Mr. Hawkins was succeeded by Mr. Henry H. Fish, who was in turn succeeded in 1836 by Mr. Joseph F. Lindsey. Mr. Lindsey devoted the best years of his life to the interests of the bank; and upon his retirement in 1877, after forty years' service in an office which he had conducted with marked honesty, ability, and courtesy, was complimented with the appointment of vice-president of the corporation. His successor as treasurer was Mr. Charles A. Bassett.
The bank continued in Mr. Fish's store till some time in 1841, when an increase of business demanded more room, and a small building in the rear of the old Post Office on Pocasset Street was procured. It remained here about a year and was then removed to the basement of a house on North Main Street, owned and occupied by Dr. Nathan Durfee. This house was de- stroyed in the great fire of July, '43, and a private dwelling was occupied by the bank until the next January, when the Mount Hope House Block was completed on the site of the former office. The bank was then moved into the office in the south-west corner of this block, where it re- mained until the completion of its own banking house on North Main Street, opposite the head of Elm Street, in March, 1869.
Thus for forty years the bank carried on its business with no special con-
I73
THE FALL RIVER SAVINGS BANK.
veniences for office work,-sometimes quite otherwise. On several occasions committees were appointed to take the matter into consideration, but with- out definite result. In 1867, however, the urgent necessities of the bank compelled the appointment of a committee, the result of whose efforts is apparent in the present symmetrical and elegant building.
The building is rectangular in form, its dimensions being 43 feet by 66 feet in the main walls, exclusive of belts or projections. Its height is 40 fect at the front and 39 feet at the rear. The walls are of faced brick, 20 inches thick, while the steps, buttresses, and underpinning are of fine, hammered granite. The banking room, upon the lower floor, is airy, spacious, and provided with everything that can render it convenient. The entire inside finish, including shutters and sheathing, is of butternut, with black-walnut bases and mouldings. The banking room is entered through a vestibule having two sets of fly-doors with black-walnut frames, and sashes glazed with the finest quality of plate glass. The counter, semi-circular in form, sweeps well out into the centre of the banking room, and has convenient openings, plainly marked, for the different branches of business. During the building of the banking house, the vault was con- structed in the best and most approved manner which knowledge or experi- ence could suggest, being as strong as granite, iron, and brick combined could possibly make it. The different locks on the vaults and chests are burglar proof and of high cost. As new and later improvements have been devised they have been added, and no expense has been spared to insure the greatest safety and security to the books, funds, and other representatives of value deposited. Adjoining and connected with the banking room are two ante- rooms for the use of the trustees and treasurer, carpeted and neatly fur- nished. Gas is carried throughout the building, and both the upper and lower halls are perfectly adapted for the purposes for which they are designed. The upper hall is occupied by the Mount Hope and King Philip lodges of Free and Accepted Masons, being arranged and finished in an elegant and convenient manner. Between the upper and lower stories there is no con- nection. The building taken as a whole is complete in all its parts, and is a credit to the architect and builders, the institution itself, and the city which contains it.
The bank has fully realized the hopes of its founders, proving a blessing to thousands of the moderately conditioned citizens, men, women, and chil- dren of Fall River. The policy of the bank has always been liberal, as becomes the conservator of the savings of the people; the surplus of good times has been treasured up for the wants of hard times ; the earnings of health placed in security against the necessities of sicknesss ; the accumulations from self-denial added to by loan, for the purchase of a house and home for the
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FALL RIVER AND ITS INDUSTRIES.
family. The bank has also been a conservator of the business interests of the placc, its board of investment consistently aiming to strengthen the hands of industry at home, to make loans among the constituents of the bank, rather than to invest their funds in public stocks and national enterprises. Especially has the wisdom of this policy been exemplified in sudden cmergencies result- ing in monetary crises, when distrust and alarm have spread throughout busi- ness circles. The consciousness of the substantial basis of their loans and the visible evidences of property have inspired a mutual trust and confidence which has proved a source of strength to the bank and indirectly given steadiness to the whole community. Some of the strongest enterprises of to-day have been tided over difficulties and helped to their present secure stand- ing at home and abroad by this conservative management of the trustees.
Hence, as a result, in the half-century of existence of this institution, it has steadily risen in local esteem as a model of careful management and judi- cious investment ; it has been a training-school for the officers of some of the banks of this and other cities, and by its age and character has commanded the respect and interest of similar institutions throughout the country.
THE NATIONAL UNION BANK. Charter-Original, 1823; National, 1865.
Reckoning by years, " The National Union Bank" is the oldest bank in the city, having been chartered as " The Bristol Union Bank," of Bristol, R. I., in 1823. Its authorized capital was $50,000, with the privilege of increasing the same to $200,000 The shares were placed at $100 each. It began business in January, 1824, with a paid-in capital of $10,000, which was increased within the next two years to $40,000. The bank has undergone many changes in its various departments during the half century of its existence, as indicated by the following table :
NAME.
CAPITAL.
PRESIDENT.
CASHIER.
LOCATION.
1823 ..
Bristol Union Bank
$10,000
Bristol, R. I.
1824 ..
30,000
ยง Barnabas Bates { Parker Borden
1825 ..
40,000
1826 ..
1830 ..
....
Tiverton, R. I.
183I ..
Fall River Union Bank
. ..
1834 ..
100,000
1838 ..
1846 ..
. . ...
200,000
1856 ..
1860. .
.....
Daniel A. Chapin
Fall River, R. I. Fall River, Mass.
I862 .. I865 .. 1866 ..
National Union Bank
Jesse Eddy
300,000
1874 . .
.....
Cook Borden
Nath'l Wardwell Josiah Gooding Wm. Coggeshall
.....
David Durfee Nath'l B. Borden
....
THE NATIONAL UNION BANK-MASSASOIT NATIONAL BANK. 175
In 1830, Fall River, Mass., affording a more promising field for banking operations, the bank was removed from Bristol and located in Tiverton, just over the line from Fall River, and its name changed to the Fall River Union Bank. Its office was on South Main Street, opposite the head of Columbia Street. In 1837 the bank erected for its accommodation the brick building corner of South Main and Rodman streets, and removed its office to the lower floor, where it continued its business until 1862. In that year, by the change of boundary line, Fall River, Rhode Island, became Fall River, Mas- sachusetts, and the bank was removed to the office in the south-west corner of the market building, now City Hall.
In June, 1865, the bank became a national banking association, under the name of " The National Union Bank," No. 1288. In 1872 the office of the bank was removed to No. 3 Main Street, opposite the Granite Block, where it has a well-lighted and easily-accessible banking room for the trans- action of its business.
THE MASSASOIT NATIONAL BANK. Charter-Original, 1846 ; National, 1864.
The Massasoit Bank was organized June 2d, 1846, with an authorized capital of $100,000. Jason H. Archer was elected president, Leander Borden cashier, and Jason H. Archer, Oliver S. Hawes, Azariah Shove, Nathan Durfee, Henry Willard, Iram Smith, and Benjamin Wardwell a board of directors. The bank commenced business in December, 1846, with a paid-up capital of $50,000, which was increased in the following March to $100,000. In January, 1854, the capital stock was again increased to $200,000.
In October, 1852, Dr. J. H. Archer, having removed from the town, re- signed his office as president, and Israel Buffinton was chosen his successor. In October, 1864, Charles P. Stickney was elected president, vice Israel Buf- finton, resigned. No change of cashier has been made since the original ap- pointment of Leander Borden.
In December, 1864, the bank was converted into a national banking association, under the name of "The Massasoit National Bank," No. 612. It was also made a depository and financial agent of the United States. Regular semi-annual dividends have been made uninterruptedly since its organization in 1846. Sixty dividends have been paid, as follows : 15 of 3%, 8 of 33%, 13 of 4%, 1 of 43%, 13 of 5%, and 10 of 6%. In addition to dividends paid, municipal taxes assessed to shareholders during the last three years have also been paid to the amount of $14,446.
The bank when first established occupied rooms in the north end of the
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FALL RIVER AND ITS INDUSTRIES.
Mount Hope Block, corner of Main and Franklin streets. It continued here for thirty years, or until 1876, when it was removed to its more commo dious and convenient banking house at the Four Corners, the north-east corner of Main and Bedford streets.
CITIZENS' SAVINGS BANK.
Incorporated in 1851.
In 1851 the October session of the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island passed an act incorporating " The Savings Bank" to be located in Tiverton. Oliver Chace, Jr., Cook Borden, Thomas Borden, Clark S. Manchester, and their associates and successors were created a body politic under the name and style of "The Savings Bank," with perpetual succession. The amount of deposits to be received was limited to $400,000.
The bank was organized November 15th, 1851, by the election of Joseph Osborn president, Charles F. Searle secretary, Wm. H. Brackett treasurer, and a board of fifteen trustees. Cook Borden, Oliver Chace, Jr., Weaver Osborn, William C. Chapin, and Samuel Hathaway were chosen a board of investment. The bank was opened for business December Ist, 1851, at the office of the Fall River Union Bank, and on that day the first deposit was made.
In June, 1854, the bank was removed to the office in the south-west corner of the Fall River Union Bank building on South Main Street, corner of Rodman Street, and continued there until the change in the boundary line between Rhode Island and Massachusetts, March 15th, 1862, when it became a Massachusetts institution under the name of the Citizens' Savings Bank, and was removed with the Pocasset Bank to the north-west corner of the market building, now City Hall. In January, 1873, the bank was again removed to the office prepared for it, in connection with the Pocasset Na- tional Bank, in the latter's new building, erected for a banking house and other purposes, on the corner of Main and Bedford streets.
In December, 1862, Wm. H. Brackett resigned the office of treasurer on account of removal to another city, and Edward E. Hathaway was elected to fill the vacancy.
The first dividend was declared June 4th, 1852, viz. : three per cent for the preceding six months. There have been fifty semi-annual dividends de- clared, up to the first of December, 1876, and the average annual per cent paid has been 6.68 per cent.
-
177
THE METACOMET NATIONAL BANK.
THE METACOMET NATIONAL BANK.
Charter-Original, 1853: National, 1865.
The Metacomet Bank was incorporated by the Legislature of 1852-3 with a capital stock of $400,000. It was organized in the summer following, by the choice of Jefferson Borden as president, Azariah S. Tripp cashier, and a board of nine directors, viz. : Jefferson Borden, Nathan Durfee, William Lindsey, Philip D. Borden, Thomas J. Borden, Daniel Brown, William Carr, William Marvel, and Joseph Crandall. The bank was located in the brick building opposite the American Print Works, corner of Water and Pocasset streets, and commenced business in December, 1853.
A few months' operations were sufficient not only to vindicate the judg- ment of its founders, that another banking institution was needed in the town, but to demonstrate that still further bank accommodation was required to quicken local industries and develop business resources, which the more discerning felt had been only partially employed. By these clear results of their short experience, the managers of the bank were assured that it could profitably use a larger capital. Application was accordingly made to the Legislature, at its next session, for authority to increase the capital stock to $600,000, which was granted. The new capital was mostly subscribed by the old stockholders, and all paid in the same year, 1854. The capital was then as large as that of any bank in the commonwealth outside of Boston.
In 1865 the institution was converted into a national banking associa- tion, under the name of " The Metacomet National Bank of Fall River," No. 924. After having been located twenty-three years on the boundary of the " Border City," it removed in 1876 to the commodious apartments and eligible situation for banking purposes now occupied by it in the Borden Block, cor- ner of South Main and Pleasant streets.
The operations of well-managed banks furnish very little material for local annals. They are not instituted to pioneer business enterprises or to stimulate new adventures, but are subsidiary in their scope and object. When kept within their "true sphere," they erect few visible monuments to indicate the part they have taken in building up and developing the resources of a manufacturing and commercial city. The history of the Metacomet Bank, covering the period of the greatest business development and growth of Fall River, is no exception to this recognized view of the province of a bank. For nearly a quarter of a century it has quietly and sucessfully prose- cuted legitimate banking unvexed by dissensions within, undisturbed by mis- fortunes without.
178
FALL RIVER AND ITS INDUSTRIES.
Few changes have taken place in its management, and in this particular, at least, the bank has been most fortunate, perhaps,-a rare exception. Since only the experience and established character which mature age alone can give is thought eligible to official position in moneyed institutions, it is quite remarkable that the same president and cashier and a majority of its nine directors respectively hold, in the twenty-fifth year of its organization, the positions to which they were chosen when the bank first commenced bus- iness. The records also show that in fifteen consecutive annual elections of officers, the board of directors chosen consisted of the same nine individuals. Such a record is specially interesting and noteworthy in view of the fact that at the beginning of this period the average age of the nine was nearly fifty years, and is an unusual instance of exemption from the visitation of Him who waits on all and only passes by the most favored for a few short vears. The first death occurring in the board of directors was that of the late Dr. Nathan Durfee, after twenty-three years of official service.
THE POCASSET NATIONAL BANK. Charter-Original, 1854 ; National, 1865.
The Pocasset Bank was incorporated by the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island in May, 1854, Moses Baker, Oliver Chace, and Joseph Osborn being named in the charter. The bank was organized June 3d, 1854, by the choice of Oliver Chace, Samuel Hathaway, Weaver Osborn, Gideon H. Durfee, and Moses Baker of Tiverton, and John C. Milne and Wm. H. Taylor of Fall River, Mass., as directors. Oliver Chace was elected president and Wm. H. Brackett cashier.
The bank was located in the Fall River Union Bank building, corner of South Main and Rodman streets, then in Tiverton, R. I. In 1856 the town of Tiverton was divided, and that part wherein the bank was located became Fall River, R. I. In 1862 the boundary line between Rhode Island and Massachusetts was changed, Fall River, R. I., being set off to Massachusetts, and the bank, by authority of the Legislature, became a Massachusetts insti- tution and was removed to the office in the north-west corner of the market building, now City Hall, on Main Street.
February Ist, 1865, the bank was organized as a national bank under the title of " The Pocasset National Bank," No. 679. In 1872 the bank purchased the lot on the south-east corner of Main and Bedford streets, and erected on this elegible site (it being one of the Four Corners, so called) a fine building of dressed granite, three stories high, with a Mansard roof. In
179
THE FALL RIVER FIVE-CENT SAVINGS BANK.
January, 1873, the office of the bank was removed to the convenient and well-arranged banking rooms provided on the lower floor of this building.
January 7th, 1862, Oliver Chace resigned the presidency, and Samuel Hathaway was elected to fill the vacancy. December 9th, 1862, Wm. H. Brackett resigned as cashier, and Edward E. Hathaway was elected in his place. April 15th, 1873, Weaver Osborn was elected president to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Samuel Hathaway.
The bank has been a success from the first, as indicated by the fact that it has never passed a dividend and has a growing surplus account.
THE FALL RIVER FIVE-CENT SAVINGS BANK.
Incorporated in 1855.
This institution was the development of a desire to encourage the indi- vidual commencement of saving. Its promoters recognized the fact that a large part of the population attracted to the city by its industrial occupations, un- taught in New England thrift but used to living from hand to mouth and spend- ing at once the earnings of the week, whatever their amount, might be induced to save little by little, if the sanctuary for small offerings were established in their midst. Other banks, already many years in existence, would take care of the dollars ; one that would receive and cherish the pennies was the desideratum. The excellent results of the dime and half-dime savings institutions of other and larger communities were noted with delighted approval, and the conclu- sion was soon reached that a bank for such humble deposits must be started in Fall River. During the winter of 1855, a positive move was made towards the realization of this essentially benevolent design. In an act of incor- poration dated April roth of that year, Messrs. S. Angier Chace, Hale Rem- ington, Walter C. Durfee, James Buffinton, E. P. Buffinton, B. H. Davis, Asa P. French, and Alvan S. Ballard were named as incorporators. The in- stitution was organized on the 25th of the succeeding October, its officers being S. Angier Chace, president, Hale Remington, secretary, Charles J. Holmes, Jr., treasurer, and S. Angier Chace, Asa Eames, E. P. Buffinton, Abner L. Westgate, and Robert K. Remington, a board of investment. A board of trustees of twenty-six members was likewise chosen. A very earnest interest in the success of the new enterprise was entertained by the promoters, and few public objects have elicited a larger or more practical sympathy. At the outset, one gentleman offered the use of a convenient banking room, rent free for a year, while three others supplied all the furniture of the institution, including a safe and account-books.
180
FALL RIVER AND ITS INDUSTRIES.
The bank was opened for the transaction of business January Ist, 1856, and its first dividend was paid in June of the same year, at the rate of six per cent per annum. The dividends of the bank have been as follows, viz .: 3 at the rate of 5 per cent per annum (i.e., during the war, 1862-'3), 12 at the rate of 6 per cent, 19 at the rate of 7 per cent, and 7 at the rate of 8 per cent. The operations of the bank have been eminently successful and satisfactory to its projectors and present managers.
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