USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume I > Part 53
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In the act incorporating the Franklin Bank of Columbus Samuel Parsons, Lucas Sullivant, John Cutler, John Kerr, Alexander Morrison, James Kilbourn, Javis Pike, and Henry Brown were authorized to receive subscriptions of stock. The bank was organized on the first Monday in September, with Lucas Sullivant as president and A. J. Williams as cashier. Mr. Sullivant was succeeded as presi- dent in 1823 by Doctor Samuel Parsons, who served until the expiration of the charter. Mr. Williams was succeeded as cashier by William Neil, who served until January 18, 1827, when James P. Espy was elected. The bank did a successful and honorable business. In 1836 it reported 8696,691 of loans and discounts, and 8132,662 specie in its vaults. A writer in the Bankers' Magazine stated that in
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
1843-4, when resumption was effected, but eight of all the banks in Ohio remained solvent, and among those reported as failing was the Franklin, which was an erroneous statement.
In March, 1834, the Franklin Bank took possession of its new banking bouse which is thus referred to in the Ohio State Journal of the eighth : "This is a hand- some structure, presenting a front of cut freestone, with a portico to match, sup- ported by four Doric columns. The whole of the building is completely fireproof and affords a creditable specimen of the skill and good taste of the artisans of our rising city."
At the expiration of its charter in 1843 the bank was closed, but on the establishment of the State Bank of Ohio another bank with the same name was organized as a branch of the State Bank. It began business on January 1, 1845, at the southwest corner of High and Town Streets, with Gustavus Swan as president, who served until the sale of the stock of the bank to D. W. Deshler, W. S. Sullivant, Orange Johnson, and others, when Mr. Deshler was elected president and served until the close of the bank, August 23, 1854. Mr. Espy resigned and formed a partnership with Eli Kinney, of Portsmouth, as Kinney, Espy & Co., bankers at Cincinnati. Joseph Hutcheson succeeded him as cashier, but he too resigned to form the firm of Hayden, Hutcheson & Co., and was succeeded by David Overdier. The bank did a large and successful business, its discounts averaging from four to five hundred thousand dollars per annum. On closing its books it had but two thousand dollars pastdue paper and nothing in litigation except one collection of one hundred and twentyfive dollars, which was not in dispute. It turned over to the Franklin National Bank, which succeeded it, four hundred thousand dollars of de- posits. It paid liberal dividends to its stockholders and divided a large surplus among them. In March, 1868, there were seventeen thousand dollars of its notes still outstanding.
Upon the establishment of the National Banks the Franklin National Bank was organized with D. W. Desbler, William G. Deshler, John G. Deshler, Walstein Failing, P. W. Huntington and James L. Bates as directors. It commenced busi- ness in January, 1865, with D. W. Deshler president and Joseph Hutcheson cashier, and a capital of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, with authority to increase it to five hundred thousand. D. W. Deshler died August 2, 1869, when John G. Deshler was elected president. He served until his death in January, 1887, when the hank was closed. Mr. Hutcheson resigned as cashier, and was succeeded by C. B. Stewart, who served until the close of the bank.
In the year 1889 another bank was established by the name of the Franklin Savings Bank, with a capital of sixty thousand dollars, Albert Goldstein being presi- dent, and S. A. Frank cashier. This bank was in existence but a few months.
The Clinton Bank of Columbus was incorporated July 3, 1834, with a capital of three hundred thousand dollars. The books for subscription to the stock were to be opened at the store of Olmsted & St. Clair on the eleventh of August, according to a notice by Jesse Stone, Ralph Osborn, N. H. Swayne, William Neil, J. Patter- SOD P. H. Olmsted and William Miner, published in the Ohio State Journal of July 19, 1834. The first directors were William Neil, Christopher Neiswander, D.
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W. Deshler, Demas Adams, John Patterson, Jesse Stone, Noah HI. Swayne, Joseph Ridgway, Bela Latham, William S. Sullivant, William Miner, O. W. Sherwood and Nathaniel Medbery. William Neil was the first president and John Delafield, Junior, the cashier. Mr. Neil served as president until 1846, when William S. Sullivan was elected and served until the expiration of the charter in 1854. John E. Jeffords was elected casbier in January, 1838, and served until his death in 1842, when D. W. Deshler took his place, and served until the close of the bank. The Clinton Bank did a large business outside of the State. It was for a long time af. ter the destruction of the United States Bank the only United States depository west of the Ohio River. Payments on government works, the National Road, the mails and military posts and other government service were made by it, and the re- ceipts of the land office at the village of Chicago, as it then was, were deposited in it, being hauled thence to this place in wagons, under guard. The bank is said to have had an average circulation of six hundred thousand dollars. In 1836 it re- ported its loans and discounts at 8557,139, and the specie in its vaults at $124,879. Many of the directors of the Clinton Bank will be recognized as men who were prom- inent in the subsequent history of the city, as for instance, William Neil, D. W. Deshler, Demas Adams, John Patterson, Noah H. Swayne, Joseph Ridgway, Bela Latham, William S. Sullivant, William Miner, and S. Medbery.
In May, 1835, a successful forgery was practiced on the Clinton Bank On the first of that month a man giving the name of Lyman, who was stopping at the National Hotel, presented at the bank a draft purporting to be drawn by the Decatur Branch Bank of Alabama on the Union Bank of New York for three thousand dollars payable to David Leight or order, and endorsed by Leight and made payable to bearer. Lyman pretended to be traveling for his health. The draft was promptly cashed by giving one thousand dollars Clinton Bank notes and a draft for two thousand dollars on the Phoenix Bank, New York. Lyman's draft was forwarded to the Phoenix Bank for collection and returned on the twelfth of May as a forgery. Mr. Delafield, the cashier, and William Miner, a director, went to Cincinnati in pursuit of Lyman, having traced him in that direction. They ascertained that a Cincinnati broker had cashed the Phoenix Bank draft for two thousand dollars ten days before for a man calling himself James Wilson. They secured evidence that Lyman had gone to Louisville. Upon going to that city, in company with the Cincinnati broker, they discovered that a broker of that city had lately changed three fifty dollar notes for a gentleman of the nameof Ludlow, of the most respectable character, for some time a resident of Louisville. Upon going to Ludlow's dwelling they identified him as Lyman, alias Wilson. He had represented himself as the son of a rich South Carolina planter, and had engaged in marriage the daughter of a respectable citizen of Louisville. A newspaper account of the case said : " Thursday last was to have been the wedding day. Preparatory to his intended marriage, he (Lyman) had leased a house for three years at six hundred dollars per annum, and was fitting it up with rich carpeting and costly furniture, and had purchased a splendid pianoforte for his intended bride." He had a large number of valuable articles in his possession, presumably stolen, there being among other things a seal of Bishop Mellvaine. One of his
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
trunks contained sixteen hundred dollars in money. He was arrested and brought to Columbus.
The Clinton Bank was authorized by its charter to draw and issue post notes and bills of exchange on individuals, companies, or corporations, payable to order, and at such places and at such time or day as the directors for the time being should deem expedient. These post notes were violently opposed by the Democratie party. The Clinton Bank commenced business at the southwest corner of High and State Streets, from whence it removed to near the northwest corner of High and Broad streets, where it remained until it was closed. An act to recharter the Bank was passed March 12, 1850, the original charter expiring in 1854. A rumor was started in 1853 that this Bank had failed, or was about to do so, but the report seems to have had no foundation.
In September, 1861, William G. Deshler, cashier of the Clinton Bank, was appointed by S. P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, an agent to receive subscrip- tions to the National loan just issued. On the twentyfifth of the month he issued notice that subscriptions to said loan would be received at the Clinton Bank, and that the treasury .notes would be issued in sums of fifty, one hundred, five hundred, one thousand and five thousand dollars, and bear interest at the rate of seven and three tenths per cent., which would be two cents per day on every one hundred dollars, the notes being dated August 19, 1861, and payable in three years. On October 11, seventeen days after notice, it was announced that the amount sub- scribed was $49,270, and by the following persons :
Mrs. Ann Eliza Deshler, $1,000; John G. Deshler, $100; Miss Kate Deshler, $50; Miss Mary E. Deshler, $50; William G. Deshler, $5,000; S. Burchard, $10; George W. Sinks, $1,000 ; James F. Dyer, $700; George McDonald, $1,000; James M. Westwater, $1,000; D. W. Deshler, $10,000: Jacob M. Desellem, $50; Samuel E. Ogden, $1,000; G. Q. McColm, $500; Allen G. Thurman, $1,000; Jacob T. Conine, $1,500; Frederick J. Fay, $250 ; David L. Wood, $500; Mrs. Susan E. Smith. $150; Jesse Jones, $50; William S. Sullivant, $1,500; Conrad Greiner, $150; Joseph A. Montgomery, $100; William T. Bascom, $600; Frederick Fieser, $500; Mrs. Louisa Fieser, $1,000; Benjamin Talbot, $200; L. Donaldson, $100; William B. Hubbard, $5.000; Mrs. A. A. Ogden, $100; Francis A. Marble, $100; Stanton Sholes, $300; Roswell H. Kinney, $100; Mrs. Harriet Randall, $500; Sherman M. Bronson, $500; Asa D. Lord, $150; Harlowe Allen, $100; Ralph R. Anderson, $200; Mrs. Lydia A. Hershiser, $50; William A. Hershiser, $50; Jesse W. Dann, $500; Mrs. Ruth C. Bartlit, $100; Joseph McCampbell, $1,000; James G. Bull, $400; Mrs. A. Claypoole, $750; Adam B. Crist, $100; Mrs. Mary Bigelow, $100; William B. Hawkes, $3,000; Mrs. Mary M. Coggeshall, $100; Mrs. Ruth Austin, $200; Richard Miller & Co., $500; John A: Lazell, $250; Mrs. Jeannette S. Ridgway, $2,000; Mrs. Jeannette J. Ridgway, $700; Miss Esther A. Ridgway, $700 ; Alfred P. Stone, $1,000 ; Mrs. E. G. R. Hills, $100 ; Mrs. Selina Andrews, $550; Enoch S. McIntosh, $400 ; William A. Platt, $500; total, $49,270.
January 3, 1887, the Clinton National Bank was established with a capital of two hundred thousand dollars, and M. M. Greene, M. A. Daugherty, W. M. Greene, H. A. Lanman, and R. S. Warner, directors. M. M. Greene was president, and F. W. Prentiss, cashier. M. M. Greene died January 26, 1887, when D. S. Gray was elected president. The bank commenced business at the northeast corner of High and Chestnut streets.
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The first bank to issue notes for circulation in Ohio was the Miami Exporting Company, which was incorporated in April, 1803. It was a trading company merely, and its charter contained no reference to a bank or bank notes. Its author- ized capital was five hundred thousand dollars in shares of one hundred dollars each, payable at the rate of five dollars in cash and fortyfive dollars in produce and manufactures during the first year, the remaining fifty dollars to be paid in pro- duce and manufactures from July to March in the ensuing year if called for by the president and directors. The company commeneed business as a commercial coin- pany, but there was a clause in the charter by virtue of which the directors claimed the power to issue notes for circulation. Notes were accordingly issued, but, as always happens in such cases, the time soon came when the notes became uncur- rent, and nothing better being at command to redeem them a collapse followed. This is a fair sample of the kind of bank notes which constituted the currency of Ohio during the first thirty or forty years of its existence.
To remedy this grievous publie burden, the legislatures of several of the then Western States established State banks. Ilinois created one in 1834 which was in existence but about twelve years. Indiana chartered a similar institution in the same year which had a creditable history; and in 1845 the legislature of Ohio passed an act to incorporate the State Bank of Ohio and other banks. This law differed from any that had preceded it, inasmuch as it did not establish a State bank proper, but the State Bank of Ohio was formed of branches located in all parts of the State. These branches severally elected a member of the Board of Control, which board formed a legislature for, and had supreme control of, all the branches. This board met semiannually in May and November. Its first meeting was held July 15, 1845, at which nine branches were represented. On the next day the board organized by electing Gustavus Swan president, and James T. Claypoole secretary. It was the duty of the president to sign the notes, which were then turned over to the secretary to be by him issued to the branches, as provided by the charter.
In 1852 the board established a clearing bureau at its office in Columbus, to which all " mutilated" notes unfit for circulation were returned and burned, and for which new ones were issued in their place. The express business then only reaching the large towns, many of these notes were remitted by mail in packages containing as much as fifteen hundred dollars, yet in an experience of several years, but two packages were lost, one being sent from Steubenville and one from Ripley, together amounting to less than four hundred dollars. A package of twelve hundred dollars from Bridgeport had a narrow escape. The accompany- ing sack containing the letter of advice was stolen, but the sack with the money in it escaped.
As an evidence of the amount of notes which it was necessary for the secretary to have on hand in order to be able to supply all the demands of the branches, it may be stated that he had, on the thirteenth of May, 1862, of signed and unsigned notes 82,734,749, which was considerably below the average amount. In May, 1870, there were still outstanding 8360,021.
The Obio Life Insurance and Trust Company failed in August, 1857. This being an Ohio company, and one in which the banks of Ohio had confidence, its
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
New York office was used by them very generally as a depository for their eastern funds. At the time of its failure many of the branches of the State Bank had nearly as much as, and one of them had more than the whole amount, of their capital so deposited. Fortunately two leading members of the Board of Control - Daniel Applegate, of Zanesville, and Noah L. Wilson, of Marietta - were in New York and were successful in making an arrangement with the cashier of the Trust Com- pany by which the deposits of the branches of the State Bank were secured. A special session of the Board of Control was called, and so intense was the excitement that Doctor Andrews, the president, who was suffering from asthma, hesitated in his speech while addressing the Board, and after uttering a few incoherent words fainted and fell to the floor. He recovered in a few minutes, and finished his remarks. At the last meeting of the Board, arrangements were made by which the redemption of all outstanding notes was secured, it being the wish of the Board that no notes issued by a branch should ever fall below par.
During the twenty years of its existence the Board of Control occupied the rooms now used by the Capital City Bank, and so unpretentious was its style that there was never even a sign at the door to tell where the office of the State Bank of Ohio might be found. Judge Swan served as president-until November 21, 1854, when he asked to be relieved, and Doctor John Andrews, who had been vicepresident, and was at the time president of the Jefferson Branch at Steuben- ville, was elected president. He served until November, 1866, when he was suc- ceeded by Joseph IIutcheson, who served until the final meeting of the Board May 17, 1870, when the Board was finally dissolved. James F. Claypoole was elected secretary of the Board at its first meeting, and served until January, 1847, when he accepted the appointment as cashier of the Mad River Valley Branch, at Spring- field, and James Gillet was elected in his place, and served until March, 1850, when John J. Janney was elected. Mr. Janney served until May, 1865, when R. C. Hull was chosen as his successor. Mr. Hull served until the final adjournment of the Board.
In 1862 the legislature authorized the banks of Ohio to suspend specie pay- ments. The brokers of the country were more thoroughly organized than the banks. A broker in Cleveland would select all the notes he could get in the neighborhood of Cincinnati, and send them to a correspondent in that city and receive in return all in his own vicinity. The circulation in the country was being rapidly returned to the banks with no benefit to anybody except the broker.
On February 26, 1839, the Mechanics' Savings Institution was opened for busi- ness in what was known as the Russell Building, on or near the spot now occu- pied by the Johnson Building. The following notice was published by this con- cern : " Deposits will be received until further notice on the following terms and rates of interest : six per cent. per annum, with one year's notice of withdrawal, five per cent. with nine months' notice; four per cent. with six months' notice; three per cent. with four months' notice. Weekly deposits of five dollars and upward will be allowed four per cent. per annum. On business deposits, to be withdrawn at will interest would be allowed." This is the first socalled Savings Institution 1
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established in the city. The Mechanics' Savings Institution was succeeded by the City Bank in 1845.
At the first of the meeting of the Board of Control of the State Bank, the Exchange Branch of the State Bank was admitted as a branch. It had com- menced business on the twentyfourth of May preceding, with a capital of one hun- dred and twentyfive thousand dollars. W. B. Hubbard, D. T. Woodbury, J. Edwards Pierrepont, Oren Follett, Peter Hayden and Lincoln Goodale were directors, with W. B. Hubbard president, and H. M. Hubbard cashier. On January 7, 1856, M. L. Neville, who succeeded Il. M. Hubbard as cashier, resigned, and C. J. Hardy was elected cashier, and P. W. Huntington teller. D. W. Deshler was then elected president. The bank did business in the building erected by The Franklin Bank, where the First National Bank now stands, and in 1856 removed to the northwest corner of High and Broad streets. At the expira- tion of the charter of the Exchange Branch, the National Exchange Bank was organized with William Dennison, D. W. Deshler, William A. Platt, W. B. Hawkes, James S. Abbott, and William G. Deshler as directors; D. W. Deshler being president, and C. J. Hardy cashier." The capital stock was one hundred thousand dollars. At the death of David W. Deshler, July 30, 1869, William G. Deshler was elected president. The National Exchange Bank has been since its organization a United States Depository, in which are deposited collections from customs and other funds of the government, from which payments for pen- sions, mail service and other public claims are paid. Just after the organization of the National Exchange Bank it found itself burdened with the bonds of an insolvent railway company, but it boldly shoulddered the load and sunk it out of sight in the profit and loss account, and has had a remarkably prosperous existence.
As an illustration of the knowledge and watchfulness required on the part of bank officers, the following " Cashier's Christmas Story," for which the writer is indebted to Mr. C. J. Hardy, cashier of the National Exchange Bank, is interest- ing :
On the twentysecond day of December, 1856, a man purporting to be engaged in buying produce in the country around Columbus, presented at the counter of the Exchange Branch Bank, located in the old Deshler Building at the northwest corner of High and Broad streets, three hundred and eighty dollars in the new twenty-dollar notes of the Troy City Bank of New York, and requested therefor the same amount in " red backs," as the circulation of the State Branch Banks was called by reason of the red design printed on the backs of the notes. Accordingly a package of five hundred dollars in new bills was taken from the teller's drawer and the sum of one hundred and twenty dollars taken out and passed over to the stranger. About noon of the twentysixth H. K. Greble, teller of Harshman & Gorman's Bank, at Day- ton, Ohio, sat reading in the Cincinnati Gazette a description of a very dangeroustwentydeHar note on the Troy City Bank of New York, said description having been written by Mr. George Jones, a member of Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Co., who hal engraved a part of the gennine plate. While reading, Mr. Greble was interrupted by a stranger who presented for exchange three of the very counterfeits of which he had just read the description. Calling to his side connter one of the clerks, he sent him quietly but quickly for an officer, and in we some excuse for delay to the stranger, who after waiting a few moments, became suspicious, snatched his three notes from the conuter, and started for the door but there encountered
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the officer and clerk as they came in, and was arrested. On searching him the three notes could not be found, and the question arose as to how he could be held, but this was solved by discovery of the Exchange Branch notes, and by answer to a telegram received the same afternoon from Harshman & Gorman enquiring : " Did you exchange $380 of your circulation for twentydollar Troy Notes ? If so, come first train ; have caught the counterfeiter." I answered : "Yes; will come first train in the morning." The early Christmas morning train carried me to Dayton, where I was met by a city officer, and was informed that they were waiting for me to identify the suspected party at the Mayor's office. Business being closed, the Mayor's court was filled with people. I was taken into the crowd and requested to find my man. This was a new business for me, but I went to work on the crowd with my eyes, and after a minute or two discovered the rascal standing just at my right. I turned and putting my finger up to his face said : "You are the man." After he was committed to jail I was requested by the Mayor to describe the money I had paid to the suspected man, which I did by giving the numbers and denominations of the bills. I was permitted to take the money back to Columbus. On arriving at the bank I sat down to see if I could get back one of our counterfeit Troy twenties which had been expressed to Atwood & Co., bankers, New York, for our credit, as was our custom in making New York Exchange of all eastern money. I wrote to Atwood & Company requesting them to send me one of those "dangerous Troy notes," and in due course of mail received the reply that they had been very fortunate and had not taken any. To close the story we got credit for $380 with Atwood & Company, and got back the same amount of circulation that was given in exchange, making a neat Christ- mas gift to the Branch Bank, which was credited to the account of profit and loss. About three thousand dollars of these counterfeits were destroyed at the clearing honse at Albany', New York, without being recognized as counterfeit.
The act incorporating the State Bank of Ohio provided for the establishment of independent banks. In relation to the branches of the State Bank, the only security that their notes would be redeemed in case of failure was the responsi- bility of the other branches, each branch being responsible for the redemption of the notes of all the rest. The independent banks deposited with the Treasurer of State bonds on which they received ninety per cent. of circulation. The result demonstrated that the State Bank system was equally as safe as the other, for while out of fortyone branches established six failed, their notes circulated just as well as before, were received by all the branches and all other parties in the State at par with those of the solvent branches, and were returned to the office in Columbus, redeemed from a fund provided for the purpose, and burned.
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