USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Northampton > The Northampton book; chapters from 300 years in the life of a New England town, 1654-1954 > Part 22
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As the town grew there also grew opportunity for another commercial bank, and in 1848 the Holyoke Bank was started by men whose names are built into the town: Hayden, Williston, and Clarke. However, they had their troubles and in 1864 the bank was reorganized under the new National Bank Act as a na- tional bank and changed its name to The First National Bank. It was first located on the southwest corner of King and Main Streets but soon moved to its present location where it shared a building with the Post Office, the Nonotuck Savings Bank, and the Northampton Commercial College.
The Bank Act encouraged in 1864 the opening of the Hamp- shire County National Bank which enjoyed a brief and apparently
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prosperous life conducting business in the same room with the Hampshire Savings Bank (started a few years later) under the same president, Lewis Warner. The arrangement was disastrous, however, as it developed when Mr. Warner suddenly left town in 1898. He had been taking cash and juggling accounts between the two banks for over 30 years but he had such a reputation for generosity that the townspeople found it hard to be angry. News- papers in other towns in the valley declared that all moral values in Northampton must be dead to judge from the reluctance shown by the Gazette to condemn the banker. It had, ironically, previously been said that the bank "enjoyed, as it deserves, the unbounded confidence of the community." The minute coverage of the case for months in the newspapers indicates what a paralyz- ing shock the whole affair was.
The commercial part of the banks was reorganized as the Hampshire County Trust Company, always known as the White Bank because of the color of the building. In 1930 an unscrupu- lous officer, following too closely in Mr. Warner's footsteps, was found to have taken large sums from the bank. This started a run by the depositors which forced it to close.
Shortly after the collapse of the Hampshire Savings Bank a group of its depositors met to discuss the possibility of organizing a new savings bank. This they eventually did and in 1899 the Nonotuck Savings Bank opened for business as a mutual savings bank.
The Florence Savings Bank, started in 1873, illustrates clearly the original philanthropic purpose of savings banks in that the pastor of the Methodist church, Rev. F. W. Bishop, was given credit for the bank's establishment. Men who led in the business life of the town petitioned for the incorporation of the "Work- ingmen's Savings Bank of Florence." Alfred T. Lilly, whose name is connected particularly with the educational activities to which he left his fortune, was the first president. From 1880 until 1918 the bank had three women serving successively as treasurer and the bank's own historical record graciously credits much of the institution's success to these "kindly, considerate, and courte- ous ladies."
The Cooperative Bank, chartered in 1899, opened at the office of its secretary, Herbert R. Graves, at 4 Bridge Street. Mr. Graves and the first president of the bank, Mr. E. C. Davis, were
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officers for over 50 years, a precedent faithfully followed by Mr. L. L. Campbell who served as president until his death, last year, in his nineties.
Even a banker realizes, sadly, that banks only make interesting news to the general public when something goes wrong. In this respect Northampton has really made news of national interest. The biggest bank robbery in the history of American banking took place here almost 75 years ago and, until the inside job done on the National City Bank of New York in 1950, there had been nothing comparable to the Northampton National Bank case.
Early on the morning of January 25, 1876, Northampton was startled and deeply shocked to learn that during the night the Old Bank, as the Northampton National Bank was commonly called, had been broken into. Whether or not it had been robbed no one knew, nor was to know all during a long day of agonizing suspense while experts were awaited to open the jammed vault door. As a contemporary account expressed it: "The bold attack upon the richest and most powerful institution in our valley was the theme upon every tongue." The affair was made additionally shocking by the news that the cashier of the bank, John Whittelsey, had been attacked in his bed at midnight and tortured until he yielded his key and the combination of the vault.
Late at night seven men wearing long dusters, masks, over- shoes, and gloves had entered Whittelsey's home on Elm Street, smashed down the doors to the bedrooms and tied up all seven members of the household. This was done by the narrowly di- rected light of dark lanterns. The ladies found the robbers courte- ous with the exception of the one who threatened the Irish maid with a pistol and frightened her almost to hysterics. Mrs. Whittel- sey, according to all reports, kept very cool, pleading with the robbers to treat her husband humanely, inquiring into the domes- tic situation and habits of the masked man who took charge of her and trying to arouse his better nature by stroking his wrist in a gentle, placating fashion. Court records show that he was not unappreciative of her efforts. Everyone was instructed to dress and the ladies were warned to put on extra stockings so that the ropes they were to be bound with wouldn't cut their legs. One robber obligingly searched bureau drawers for more stockings.
After everyone was dressed Mr. Whittelsey was taken down- stairs and two of the masked men told him he must give up the
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bank key and the combination of the vault. This he refused to do. He was threatened with a horse pistol and jabbed in the chest with a large, sharp lead pencil until he complied with a combination. It wasn't the right one as the burglars discovered when they asked him to repeat it and he couldn't. This went on with various threats until they got the right numbers. Mr. Whittelsey felt reasonably confident that, even with the right combination, they couldn't open the vault as it was necessary to use four different keys in order to get the dials to work. He told the men it was useless with- out the keys but they said they'd take care of that. Almost as an afterthought Mr. Whittelsey's gold watch and chain were taken, which upset him very much.
At 4 o'clock in the morning all but two or three of the men left the house leaving the others to guard the captives. Just before 6 o'clock, in time to catch the first train to Springfield, the re- maining men left the house with everyone in it securely bound and gagged and tied to the beds. Mrs. Whittelsey shortly worked her way free and screamed out the window for help.
Within a very few days it was known that all of the men had probably departed by way of Springfield as a livery stable there had rented out a team to go to Holyoke the evening of the 24th but the horses came back in such a condition that the owner knew they had been much farther. They just lay down, he said, and wouldn't get up all day. It was assumed that the men who actually carried out the robbery left with the horses before the morning train.
Although Mr. Whittelsey, Oscar Edwards, president of the bank, and James Warriner, vice-president, felt that there was a strong possibility that the vault had not been robbed, their opti- mism didn't make the day's wait any easier. It had been necessary to telegraph the firm of Herring and Co., makers of the vault in New York, for a man to open it and the firm had telegraphed their representative, William Edson, who was in Connecticut, also to proceed to Northampton in case he could be of assistance. They both arrived late in the evening and the vault was opened by midnight. Only then was the staggering truth made known, that the bank and its depositors had been robbed of about one and one quarter of a million dollars worth of cash, bonds, certificates, and other securities.
By a coincidence which would hardly be credible in a mystery
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story, a strange discovery had been made in the Bridge Street School, next to the cemetery, just the day before the robbery. A boy attending school there had been asked to go into the attic to fix the ventilator cord which had become unfastened. While doing this he had noticed, by the light of his lantern, two pieces of money. He was so pleased by this fortune that he asked permis- sion to return to the attic after school to see if he could find any more.
After school that afternoon he found a surprising lot of things and the Deputy Sheriff took over. There were provisions, blan- kets, clothing, rope, tools, whiskey bottles, a sandwich bag printed with the name of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Rail- road and a December copy of the New York Sun. From the day of the robbery on, it was assumed that this spot had been the hideout for the bank robbers. Judging by the aged appearance of some of the food it looked as though the robbery had been planned over a period of many weeks.
As a great deal of the stolen wealth was in the form of bonds and securities which the robbers could not convert into cash, but which the rightful owners could in no way duplicate, the bank was not unprepared for the opening of secret negotiations which started in February, a month after the robbery. All the letters to the bank suggesting terms of ransom for the securities were block printed on unidentifiable stationery and it was requested that answers be printed in the New York Herald personal column. By this time the bank had hired Pinkerton's Detective Agency ("We Never Sleep") to try to track down the criminals who, judging from the following letter, were confident of their own success and security.
To the Directors Northampton National Bank :- When you are satisfied with detective skill you can make a proposition to us, the holders, and if you are liberal we may be able to do business with you. If you entertain any such ideas please insert a personal in the New York Herald. Address to XXX, and sign "Rufus," to which due at- tention will be paid. To satisfy you that we do hold papers, we send you a couple of pieces.
Enclosed were two stock certificates owned by a private deposi- tor.
As the bank did not want to enter into such negotiations the matter was left to the detectives. In October, seven months later,
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the robbers again tried to persuade the bank to buy back its prop- erty and that of its depositors. A second letter arrived which opened with the statement that "doubtless you have been con- siderably annoyed by importunate brokers and others; so have we, and that this may cease we presume to address a few lines." Apparently many people had the idea that negotiating between the two parties would be a profitable business.
The bank answered this letter in the columns of the Herald and in response received information that the securities would be returned for $150,000. This price the bank refused to consider. From testimony given later at the trial of the robbers it was learned that, on receipt of the bank's refusal, the key man of the gang had said with complete lack of conscious irony, "These people want their property but they don't want to pay anything for it."
The town knew little or nothing of the investigations that were going on but the Pinkerton sleepless eye was busy and, in March of 1876, was given invaluable aid by a member of the robbers' gang. This man was angry at the treatment the gang was giving him; they distrusted him and accused him of giving away their game. He was influenced by the fact that one professional thief in New York had told him that "there isn't an old knuckmoll in New York who doesn't know all about the Northampton rob- bery." He was also influenced by the knowledge that he would not only go free himself but would probably get a substantial re- ward.
A young clerk of the bank was not alone in being puzzled over two related details of the robbery. The first was that he and one other man had had complementary knowledge of the vault's com- binations; both men had to be on hand to operate the dials. Shortly before the robbery the representative of Herring and Co., Wil- liam Edson, had suggested to the bank that the entire combina- tion should be in the safekeeping of an older man. This sugges- tion was carried out, to the clerk's pique, and Mr. Whittelsey was made solely responsible. The other detail was that the four keys thought necessary to engage the vault's mechanism with the com- bination dials had not been available to the robbers the night of the robbery. It was recalled that in November Mr. Edson had come to Northampton to see about vault doors for the First Na- tional Bank and had stopped in at the Old Bank to see how things
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were going. Mr. Warriner, vice-president, said that vault keys seemed a bit tight in the locks so Mr. Edson retired alone with the keys to the directors' room where he filed them down to an easier fitting size.
It was not until June, 1877, that the case was brought to trial here in Northampton before a packed court. The record states more than once, as if surprised, that attendance in court consisted of at least as many women as men. The state's case was based on the testimony of Mr. Edson, technical advisor of the bank rob- bers' gang and employee of Herring and Co. He had turned state's evidence more than a year before the trial. His damning informa- tion was backed by evidence procured by Pinkerton's from all over the country as well as local witnesses and the family of Mr. Whittelsey. That the family remembered sizes, shapes, voices, and characteristics was not surprising when it is recalled that the seven adult members of the house were for the most part intelligent people who had had a long and trying visit from the burglars. The prosecution argued that impressions made under circumstances of great nervous tension were clear and indelible; the defense argued that impressions gathered under strain were obviously quite unreliable.
It developed that the gang, headed by two ex-convicts, Scott and Dunlap, had participated in quite a number of large bank robberies in Kentucky, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. They had heard that the bank on Nantucket was a good prospect and conse- quently had persuaded an old sea captain whom they had met in New York to pilot them out to Nantucket and back in return for a share of the spoils. However, the trip up the Long Island Sound grew so painfully rough off Block Island that the only man in the party who wasn't "fearfully seasick" was the captain. No one else on board knew one rope from another. When they reached Greenport, Long Island, they all left the captain to "take care of himself and the vessel" and returned to New York.
Scott and Dunlap were intelligent, strong, healthy, and imagi- native men. Never, in their robberies, had they left sufficient evi- dence for the law to catch up with them. Getting Edson had been good business for them as he, in his position as representative of a vault company, had been able to spot "weak banks" and, as in the case of the Northampton Bank, make wax impressions of vital keys and give advice which weakened the security of the bank.
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He had been able to tell his colleagues about all kinds of locks and coach them in taking them apart. He had also supplied them with an air pump belonging to his employers which made it possible to blow up a vault from the inside. This Scott and Dunlap used with great success.
As the story unfolded in the courthouse the record occasionally mentions the response of the spectators in parentheses: (Sensa- tion) or, after the prosecuting attorney had announced that "Even Divinity makes the wrath of man to praise Him," (Profound Sen- sation).
The bulk of the bank's belongings had been taken in pillow- cases to the Bridge Street schoolhouse, via a vault, fittingly enough, in the Bridge Street burying ground. It was buried under a platform in the school and some months later removed to New York. Edson went free and Scott and Dunlap were found guilty and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor and one day of solitary confinement. They were taken, manacled, to Boston where they were "deprived of their luxuriant and fashionably cultivated mus- taches and whiskers" before being removed to Concord state prison. When they left Northampton and its jail thousands of people were on hand to see them go and at every station down the line eager crowds gathered. The prisoners had left handsome gifts with the local jailors and had also, apparently, left quite cheerful and friendly feelings among Northampton residents.
While in the city jail they had been very frank and open and, among other things, disclosed the fact that the original intention had been to rob the First National Bank by blowing up its vault. However, the officers of that bank had insisted that Edson have special rubber packing put around the vault doors. Edson as- sured them that this was not usual or necessary but the bank had had its way and, quite unwittingly, they made their vault secure against the burglars' air pump.
In the files of the Northampton National Bank are letters show- ing that three or four years after the sentence had been passed the remainder of the bank's securities had not yet been returned. Ne- gotiators for the bank turned out to be following the advice of false "fences" and Scott and Dunlap, interviewed in prison, would give no information other than that no one else had authority to speak for them. Finally they decided it might be to their advan- tage, and it couldn't be to their disadvantage, to return all of the
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property. The rest of the gang had been living comfortably on the negotiable parts of it for 5 years when Scott, by threatening exposure, made them return everything that was left.
Mr. Whittelsey's watch was miraculously found, very soon after its theft, wrapped in a silk cap under the freight platform of the Boston and Albany Railroad in Springfield.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Manufacturing in Northampton 1900-1952
By ESTHER LOWENTHAL
M ANUFACTURING in Northampton since 1900 con- cerns the working life of a small area in a prodigious half century. During these years industry everywhere was shaken by the two World Wars and the Great Depression which came between them. To these universal catastrophes Northampton added a spectacular change of its own in the rise and decline of its silk industry. Nevertheless at the end of 50 years which one may well call turbulent, Northampton has gained more than 10,000 in population (17.2 per cent in the decade end- ing in 1950), approximately $8,500,000 in the value of its products (latest figure 1947), and about 10 per cent in the number of its wage-earners. This must be called a good record and a satisfac- tory present state of affairs.
To those who have lived through these crises, the essential con- tinuity and adaptability of our economic life must seem remark- able. Yet this generally prosperous trend overlays a great amount of change, of individual ups and downs. Fifteen manufacturing corporations were listed in the Directory of 1900; in 1952 Six survived and this includes the Mt. Tom Sulphite plant. Three of the fifteen companies were incorporated as early as the 1860's: the Williams Manufacturing Company (1860), the Nonotuck Silk Company (1865), and the Florence Manufacturing Company, later called the Pro-Phy-Lac-Tic Brush Company (1866). Two of them, the Nonotuck Silk Company and Belding Brothers and Company (incorporated 1882) reported capitals of $1,000,000, the largest recorded; the smallest capitals were the $6000 of the Pyro-fibrine Company (incorporated 1891) and the $15,000 of the Birley Folding Box Company (incorporated 1896). These
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two small companies soon disappeared; the last Directory entry of the Birley Folding Box Company was in 1901, and the Pyro- fibrine Company in 1909.
The closing of two others of the nine defunct corporations, the Northampton Paper Box Company (incorporated 1893), and the Williams Manufacturing Company, liquidated in 1929, may be associated with competition from the large scale manufacturers of cartons which in relation, at least, to the Williams Manufac- turing Corporation involved a change in the material and process of making containers, introduced at a time when the local plant was not in a position to add new capital. The Norwood Engineer- ing Company (incorporated 1892) closed in 1933, a depression victim of the fall in demand for its main product, filters for the paper mills. The old Rogers Silver Company, bought by Oneida, Ltd., in 1929, was moved 10 years later to Sherrill, New York, the site of the main factories of that company. The Florence Machine Company which in the course of its history had made sewing machines and oil stoves failed in 1903; its property is now occu- pied by the International Silver Company. The Emery Wheel Company failed in 1913, 34 years after its incorporation.
By far the most serious loss to Northampton was the decline of the silk industry which at one time provided about 50 per cent of the total employment of the area. Both the rise and decline of this industry show the local impact of national or rather international forces. Like the weeds which we exterminate by over-stimulation, the silk industry became a victim of its own prosperity. The rise of the local mills to their point of greatest activity in 1920 was caused in large part by the first World War's demand for, among other things, silk powder bags. Exports nearly trebled in value between 1914 and 1917 and by 1920 the value of the region's silk products was almost 250 per cent greater than that of 1914. Miss Hannay in her Chronicle of Industry on the Mill River, describes the search for workers and the overtime such demand occasioned. It was a current saying at the time that a silk knitter was the best catch in town.
The reaction to such obvious prosperity was intense competi- tion. Four hundred new mills entered the industry and soon there began further pressure from the introduction of synthetic fibres. The drop in prices, the need for economy, resulted in a series of amalgamations and the eventual removal from the Northampton
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Manufacturing in Northampton: 1900-1952
area of all its silk mills except the throwing plant of the old Mc- Callum concern. The first of the amalgamations was that of the Nonotuck Silk Company with the Brainerd and Armstrong Com- pany to form the Corticelli Silk Company (incorporated in Con- necticut in 1921). It was followed five years later by the fusion of Belding Brothers and Company and the Hemingway Silk Com- pany also incorporated in Connecticut. In 1932 these two mergers were merged and the Corticelli's Northampton plants were closed. In 1930 the McCallum Company followed the same pattern and began a series of combinations with outside interests which re- sulted in the closing of its Northampton hosiery mill on West Street, in 1953. Thus the classical answer was given to the problem of over-expansion. The silk industry contracted, eliminated many plants, and emerged with fewer and larger units. One cannot help asking why Connecticut retained its mills when the industry was receding from Northampton. Miss Hannay points out that rather early in the 20th century, Northampton became dependent on outside capital; its silk mills were then regarded by the dominant owners as branches to be cut off when the need for pruning was realized.
It is cheerful now to turn to the survivors of the wars and the depression and to the newcomers to our city's industry. The 6 surviving corporations listed according to age are: the Pro-Phy- Lac-Tic Brush Corporation, the Florence Furniture Company (caskets), the Clement Manufacturing Company, the Mt. Tom Sulphite Company, the McCallum Division of the Claussner Ho- siery Corporation, and the International Silver Company. To this list of corporations must be added the Northampton Cutlery Company which, since 1871, has manufactured tableware, and whose history as a manufacturing site goes back to 1840. Among the newcomers are the Kollmorgen Optical Corporation (projec- tion lenses for telescopes, periscopes, and other precision instru- ments), and a large group of smaller concerns.
The cutlery industry, which may be called such since we have three plants, has survived here through management's alertness and search for efficiency. Miss Hannay reports that in the decade 1920-30, output was increased by one third, produced by one half the former number of workers.
The state of manufacturing in Northampton today may be
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seen in the statistics of employment compiled from figures sup- plied by the Chamber of Commerce. There are today:
7 concerns employing from 5 to Io workers
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