10. Fairbanks Banking Company (Fairbanks, AK)

Bank Information

Episode Type
Suspension → Closure
Bank Type
state
Start Date
January 29, 1914
Location
Fairbanks, Alaska (64.838, -147.716)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini
Short Digest
d045b8a5a2ad2f15

Response Measures

None

Description

The corpus discusses the Fairbanks Banking Company as a failed institution under a receiver (Fred G. Noyes mentioned as receiver). Articles recount alleged illegal consolidation, poor management, suits by the receiver, and receiver account balances. There is no clear article describing a depositor run prior to suspension; instead the coverage centers on insolvency, illegal stock transfers, and litigation. Therefore this is a suspension/closure with receivership. Dates of initial suspension/failure are not explicitly stated in these excerpts; receiver activity is documented by 1914 and continuing litigation through 1917. I corrected minor OCR oddities (e.g., 'Fairbanks-Alaska bank' / 'Washington-Alaska' references) and interpreted references as U.S. Alaska institutions.

Events (4)
1. January 29, 1914 Receivership
Newspaper Excerpt
The report of the receiver of the Fairbanks Banking company, Capt. Barnette's bank, showed a balance on hand of $51,084.33. Much of this sum, however, is held to pay dividends already allowed by the court ... (Alaska Daily Empire, 1914-01-29).
Source
newspapers
2. April 26, 1915 Other
Newspaper Excerpt
That the pretended sale of the stock of the Washington-Alaska bank to the Fairbanks Banking company was ultra vires and void... it will be necessary to appoint a receiver to take charge of the assets of the Washington-Alaska bank of Washington and to bring suit against the former directors and stockholders, in the name of the depositors. (Alaska Citizen, 1915-04-26).
Source
newspapers
3. September 4, 1917 Other
Newspaper Excerpt
The United States circuit court of appeals today denied the appeal of F. G. Noyes, receiver of the Washington-Alaska Bank of Fairbanks, Alaska, for a million eight hundred and sixty-eight thousand dollars... The suit was aimed against the directors and stockholders of the Fairbanks Banking company... (Alaska Citizen, 1917-09-10 referencing Sept. 4).
Source
newspapers
4. * Suspension
Cause
Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details
Alleged insolvency, poor management, illegal/void consolidation and use of depositors' funds to cover purchase; wrongdoing/financial mismanagement led to failure.
Newspaper Excerpt
The liabilities of the Fairbanks Banking company at the time of the sale exceeded the assets by $535,000... the institution was insolvent and obligated itself to meet the purchase price out of the depositors' money instead of from the usual reserve fund.
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (11)
1. January 29, 1914 The Alaska Daily Empire Juneau, AK
Article from The Alaska Daily Empire, January 29, 1914

Click image to open full size in new tab

Article Text

# GLEANINGS OF GREAT # NORTHERN EMPIRE The report of the receiver of the Fairbanks Banking company, Capt. Barnette's bank, showed a balance on hand of $51,084.33. Much of this sum, however, is held to pay dividends already allowed by the court to persons where the money has been garnished or where there is dispute as to whom it should be paid. M. E. Lane, the Myers Chuck, Ketchikan district, salmon salter, has sold his saltery at Myers Chuck, and will build a salting station at Kendrick Arm. Nome has an indoor baseball league, and the contest for the pennant is becoming one of absorbing interest in the Seward peninsula metropolis. There are 115 pupils enrolled in the Nome public school. Late reports received at Fairbanks indicate that the Tanana Crossing country will develop into a good placer camp. It is said that the results obtained by those doing assessment work last fall were very favorable. There are 25 new cabins in the district, and a good deal of work is planned for next year.

2. February 6, 1914 The Ketchikan Miner Ketchikan, AK
Article from The Ketchikan Miner, February 6, 1914

Click image to open full size in new tab

Article Text

principal is now being con- structed at Nome. While it will have in operation a somewhat similar idea to that which is utilized in the cassion dredge, this machine is to work on the ice during the winter time, and its promoters are confident that it will be the machine that will succeed. The ice an Atlin Lake is in a bad condition for teaming work A team and two tons of grub belonging to J. M. Ruffner, the mine owner and operator in that locality, went through the ice and were lost. Charles Vansomers lost a load of wood by going through the ice on Lake Bennett a few days ago, he managed to save his team The ice is about seven inches in thickness.-Whitehorse Star. Wood sells for $7.00 a cord at Cordova. It is rumored that Deputy Marshal Wood, of Chitina, is a candidate for the marshel-ship of the First division, The report of the receiver of The Fairbanks Banking company, Capt. Barnette's bank, showed a balance on hand of $51,084.33. Much of this sum however, is held to pay dividends already allowed by the court to persons where the money has been garnished or here there is dispute as to hom should be paid. Women are not wanted in the Bushana according to Grace Bostwick. She wrote that there fifteen women in the camp, but there is however business opening for women any sort whatever.

3. March 4, 1914 Douglas Island News Douglas, AK
Article from Douglas Island News, March 4, 1914

Click image to open full size in new tab

Article Text

So far as we know Cordova boasts of being the only town in Alaska which harbors a woman juror. Mrs. Sophia Scott is the lady who has the unique distinction, for she was duly summoned on a panel while in the states, but owing to having to leave for Alaska she failed to qualify.-Ex. A buoy lost overboard from the steamship Empress of Russia near Yokokama, Japan, was picked up recently off the west coast of Prince of Wales island, Southeastern Alaska. The speed of the Japan current is estimated from the rate at which the buoy traveled at forty miles a day. It was reported at Kake not long ago that the Killisnoo natives still followed their old custom of hunting deer with their dogs on Admiralty island. It is claimed that they start their dogs at one end of the island while some of the natives at the other end await the arrival of the deer and shoot them. The report of the receiver of the Fairbanks Banking company, Capt. Barnette's bank, showed a balance on hand of $51,084.33. Much of this sum, however, is held to pay dividends already allowed by the court to persons where the money has been garnished or where there is a dispute as to whom it should be paid. Delegate Wickersham, of Alaska, made the longest continuous speech on record in congress while speaking on the Alaska railroad bill. He remained on his feet for five and three quarter hours, and ably answered the interruptions of Representative Davenport, of Oklahoma, one of the leaders of the opposition to the measure. W.H. McNair, better known in Alaska as "Hal" McNair, for many years chief deputy United States marshal for Alaska and afterwards for the First division, serving through the administrations of both L. L. Williams and James M. Shoup at Sitka and Juneau, has been made cashier of the First National bank of Ashland, Oregon, of which institution he has been a director for several years. That the trial marriages among the natives of Alaska under the ancient tribal customs works out better than the modern system is the opinion of Commander Ballinger of the revenue cutter Bear, and in his annual report to the department he recommends that either proper facilities for obtaining divorces in Alasks should be provided or greater precaution should be taken in marrying the native under the Alaska code. Alaska, the Yukon and other British Columbia points where the narrow 36-inch wide dog and sledge trails predominate offer a new field for the light weight, narrow tread, air cooled cycle car. An Indiana firm reports the sale of ten of these cars for immediate shipment to Nome, Alaska, in the Arctic circle. In addition to the regular equipment these ten cycle cars will have spiked rear wheels and runners in front for winter use. This Alaskan order shows that the field of the cycle car and its possibilities know no geographical limit.

4. July 4, 1914 The Socialist Press Fairbanks, AK
Article from The Socialist Press, July 4, 1914

Click image to open full size in new tab

Article Text

Lugubrious wail of An Exploiter Ex-Operator In From The Outside Says Unions Are Hurting BUSINESS. "Throughout the States at writer during the strike in part of men who have money the present time there is invested, or have it to invest, this district, several years aa general business depresand to ask the question what go by another operator who denounced labor unions asun sion, attributable to many are they going to do about canses, and it is difficult to it? Hardly a day goes by but necessary, unfair, unAmerisay where it will end" said can, ruinous to business, to we hear something of the E. R. Jesson, upon arriving investments ele., etc. This hazards that beset capital be man stated that he would in town after having spent cause of the "pernicious acthe winter Outside. "In the shut down his works, throwtivity" of labor unions. West business is very quiet, Wherever poor, oppressed, ing twenty-five men out of and especially in San Francis harassed capital seeks lodgeemployment, and would nevco," he continued ''where er invest another cent in the ment and attempts to multiply itseIf for the benefit of labor unions are perniciously country; that he would take active." its owners by swearing divihis money Outside and put it "While I was in San Frandends out of the hide of the into some enterprise wherein ci-co, representatives of sevworkers, it finds an ever-inhe would be assured of peace cral large manufacturing creasing determination aand prosperity. We may replants came there to look over mong the workers to stand mark parenthetically that the ground, but before they up for their rights and dethis man, so far as closing mand better conditions unhad even decided to build, down and throwing men out the unions made all sorts of a der which to work and of work is concerned, adhergrea'er share in the product demands as to the help and ed to his program, also that of their toil. Up in this isolathe I egulations they should he kept his word in failing to follow. As a result none of ted corner of the earth, alinvest another cent in the most within the Arc ic circle, them would consider settling country, even in wages, for where it could be least exin San Francisco." he failed to pay his men, and pected, this determination The above is the lamentahis name is conspicuous on was encountered. Here in an tion of a gentleman in an in the list of worthless securiunfavorable environment, terview published in the ties that the receiver of the with little experience in conTimes, who is just in from Fairbanks Banking Company ducting industrial warfare, the outside, and who used is advertising for sale. the miners dealt those who to be an operator on Ester But the point we are getwere playing the part of cap Creek. It brings to mind a ting at is the universality italists a blow that many of of such dolorous cries on the similar plaint made to the

5. April 26, 1915 The Alaska Citizen Fairbanks, AK
Article from The Alaska Citizen, April 26, 1915

Click image to open full size in new tab

Article Text

sent or request of the holders 01 of the stock with the secretary filed poration. three-fourths which shall be of evidenced corporate the thereof. corby certificate under the the consolidating corporasigned by the secretary seal tions. a of reciting the and act president of each, sought to be accomplished and the to property sought to be conveyed, gether with the name of the receivwhich of be filed in the cate ing corporation, must said of office certifi- which the secretary of state, none was done. That he the said de Journel. had been informed by Honorable Brodigan. secretary of the State of had Nevada, that no other documents been filed in his office except the original articles of incorporation and the certificate of amendment changing its name. the latter filed on October 8th. 1910. and that therefore there had been no consolidation in law or in fact and no attempt made to comply with the statute in any respect and there was not thereunder. even an ostensible consolidation STOCK SALE VOID. That he, the said de Journel, of believed 8. that the pretended sale the stock of the Washington-Alaska Fairbank of Washington to the banks Banking company was ultra vires and void. for the reason that the minute books of the two corporashow that such a sale was made tions knowingly by the stockhold of the Washington-Alaska bank ers of Washington. directly to the Fair that banks Banking company. and Section 43 of Chapter 191 of the General Laws of Nevada, approved and effective March 24, 1909 provid ed that no bank or trust company. etc., shall invest any of its funds in the stock of another bank or trust company. nor be the purchaset or holder of any shares therein, and the said pretended sale so made on the 12th day of September after 1909. four and one-half months was the said statute had come into effect. and that the statutes of like the State of Washington have a forbidding clause de Journel also stated to he believed that at9 that Said void the and tempted me sale was further of no force and effect, on the furth vio grounds that it was a plain lation er of Section 3. of the Federal 26 Anti-trust Law of July 2. 1890. statute at large. 209. and that therefore Parsons, Schram. Webster, and the Washington Securities company who were seemingly the stockholders who received $250,000. taken Fair- out of the depositors money of the banks Banking company, were the accountable to the receiver of for Fairbanks Banking company and that same could be resame. if suit be brought prior to covered the extinguishment of the remedy by force of the statute of limitations that is to say in September, 1915 That interest could also be recovered upon the said moneys from the of at the usual rate interest, said parties, from the 12th day of Sep- for tember. 1909. that is to say. five and one-half years. MAY REGAIN FUND. 10. That upon the grounds said that there was no valid sale of the Parstock by the owners thereof, sons, Schram, et al., to the Fairbanks said Banking company, and that the thereparties were still the owners Par of. it followed that the said sons, Schram, et al., were liable of to Washington-Alaska bank the Washington and its creditors for for the superadded liability provided in the statutes of Washington of in Article 12, Section 11. wherein constitution of that state, adopt- each the in 1889. it is provided that stockholder ed of any banking corpora- of shall be liable for all debts of such tion corporation to the extent amount of their stock therein addi the the par value thereof. in tion at to the amount invested in such the shares. which said provision of the constitution is repeated in Act of Washington (Rem Banking & Ballinger's Amended Code, ington Section 3698) and that the constitutional and statutory provisions trans- were in force at the time of the action 11.-That alleged. 1 have never before apprised by any attorneys employed, that sums from might be recovered heretofore of been money such Websaid Parsons, Schram, the and the Washington Securities ster or at all. I then looked company. the matter as much as it was be into power so to do. and upon there in my further informed that where were ing only a few months left brought. such action could' be the in and after having read myself provisions of the statutes being hereinbe- no mentioned. and there the left to correspond time fore with entering back and forth as court action necessitated the publica- and tion such of summons in this district the State the entering of actions in and the condition 1 the trail being of my mind about remaining de changed of Washington, threatening. said and brought t e this to Fairbanks and matcourt to present same honorable Outside Journel before have the ters to the said court and passed upon. ATTORNEY NEEDED. NEW -That there were heretofore in the this 12 case, six attorneys three successively judges of appointed by judicial division, and that all successively of was due as to the their the them Fourth resignation resigned: uncomfortable I verily in which they were the influence3 and the opposed ated situation believe. by by first. interests factions placed in sec- cre- the matter of these bank failures;

6. May 15, 1915 The Seward Gateway Seward, AK
Article from The Seward Gateway, May 15, 1915

Click image to open full size in new tab

Article Text

FAMOUS FAIRBANKS BANKING CASE (Continued from Page 1) Banking company was not legal, and for that reason the former stockholders of the Washington corporation are liable for the sum of $150,000, as provided by the constitution of the state, and are also liable for the$250,000 paid out of the deposits of the Fairbanks Banking company. Owing to the fact that the consolidation of the banks was not legal, according to the contention of the receiver, it will be necessary to appoint a receiver to take charge of the assets of the Washington-Alaska bank of Washington and to bring suit against the former directors and stockholders, in the name of the depositors. Mr. de Journel, whom Mr. Noyes wishes to employ as attorney, was the one who first advised the receiver as to the contemplated action. It was he who "dug up" the law applicable, and it was he, assisted by his son Robert, who prepared the brief which was submitted to the court After preparing the brief, he submitted it to one of the foremost firms ofattorneys in the city of San Francisco, and after careful consideration of the matter, he was advised that he was perfectly correct in his contentions."

7. September 10, 1917 The Alaska Citizen Fairbanks, AK
Article from The Alaska Citizen, September 10, 1917

Click image to open full size in new tab

Article Text

APPEAL OF RECEIVER IN ONE OF THE BANK CASES DENIED The consideration is declared to have SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 4. (Spe been $250,000. eial wire of The Associated Press) The United States circuit court of The lower court held that the Fairappeals today denied the appeal of banks Banking company failed be F. G. Noyes, receiver of the Washcause of poor management and that ington-Alaska Bank of Fairbanks, Althe plaintiff corporation, or the Washaska, for a million eight hundred ington-Alaska bank through its reand sixty-eight thousand dollars exceiver. being part of the alleged ilemplary and compensatory damages legal combine, could not sue under as the result of the alleged combi the Sherman anti-trust act. The denation of the Washington-Alaska murrer of the defense stating these Bank, the First National Bank of facts was sustained, but Noyes claimFairbanks and the Fairbanks Bank ed that it was in error. ing company. According to Noyes, the liabilities of the Fairbanks Banking company The suit was aimed against the diat the time of the sale exceeded the rectors and stockholders of the Fairassets by $535,000. The original banks Banking company and was in complaint outlined secret agreements stituted in the Northern Federal Jubetween the directors of the three dicial district of the State of Washbanks to market all the gold output, ington. Noyes contended in the preexchange and regular banking busi liminary sult that the three banks ness in an undefined region extendoriginally controlled all of the bank ing for hundreds of miles around ing business in the vast district Fairbanks. around Fairbanks and in the TanThe defendants in the original suit ana Valley through a non-competitive were W. H. Parsons, Falcon Joslin, agreement. The complaint in the John Schram, E. L. Webster, J. W. proceedings further alleged that the Clise, F. E. Barbour and their reWashington-Alaska bank and the spective wives and Washington se Fairbanks Banking company subsecurities. quently took over the interests of the First National bank and, at a Interviewed last night concerning later period, the Fairbanks Bank the foregoing dispatch, which is printing company took over the interests ed practically verbatim, Mr. Noyes of the Washington-Alaska concern. stated that it refers to a demurrer This was done, the complaint alto his complaint sustained by the leged, in the pursuance of a conjudge of the court in Seattle, on spiracy in restraint of trade. statute of limitation grounds, and it The complaint further alleged that means that the decision of the lower at the time that the Fairbanks Bank court in regard to the demurrer has ing company purchased the Washbeen sustained by the court of apington-Alaska bank, the former instipeals. It has but little bearing on tution was insolvent and that it obthe main Washington-Alaska bank ligated itself to meet the purchase case, as far as can be ascertained. price out of the depositors' money inScratch pads for sale at The Citi stead of from the usual reserve fund demanded by law for such purposes. zen office.

8. November 26, 1917 The Weekly Alaska Citizen Fairbanks, AK
Article from The Weekly Alaska Citizen, November 26, 1917

Click image to open full size in new tab

Article Text

NOYES WINS BIG VICTORY The news that Receiver Noyes, for the old Washington-Alaska bank, has been awarded a verdict in the appellate court in an appealed case against former stockholders in the above bank, and the old Fairbanks Banking company, is splendid news for the creditors of the defunct bank, and the receiver is deserving of proper credit for his perseverance in instituting and following up these cases as he has done. Many people, including a large number of the creditors, were skeptical over the wisdom and advisability of the receiver's action, and he was not given much encouragement in these suits. His victory for this reason is all the more to his credit. It is true that the cases are not finally settled yet, but the decision of the appellate court brings with it a hope that some day the depositors will get every cent of their money. It is a distinct victory over the individuals who made up the stockholders in the corporations responsible for the loss. The bringing out of these cases into the limelight serve as a reminder that with the present banking institutions no more such failures can be possible. Fairbanks is indeed to be congratulated upon having two institutions which are known to be in unassailable positions. The decision rendered by the appellate court, while it affects one stockholder in one of the local institutions, cannot in any way affect the bank itself. To allow any other impression to become prevalent would be doing the bank an injustice which must be avoided. The bank is in no way connected with any of the suits, and no decision either adverse or favorable can have any bearing upon it. DOLLAR silver has been the dream of Nevada miners and prospectors for years, just as dollar wheat has been the dream of the farmers in the States of the middle west. Nevada is preparing to celebrate the return of dollar silver at a state-wide jubilee, but the farmers in some parts of the middle west appear dissatisfied because the government does not obtain for them $2.20 a bushel for wheat, at Minneapolis and other terminal points. To paraphrase a famous saying, it seems that, up to the present hour, "You can't please all the people all of the time."-Exchange. GERMANY seems to have taken a leaf&from Faust and sold its soul to the devil, judging from her use of poison gas, her submarine atrocities, her hellish attacks on the women of invaded lands, and her reckless bombarding of defenseless non-combatants by aircraft. THE stock argument of pro-German agitators that this is a "rich man's war" asks us to believe that rich men have wilfully brought on a war that may rob them of their sons, along with thousands of other gallant Americans, and that will in any event take a heavy toll of their wealth. Anyone who believes SO foolish a lie as that is strangely stupid or perversely disloyal.

9. August 12, 1918 The Cordova Daily Times Cordova, AK
Article from The Cordova Daily Times, August 12, 1918

Click image to open full size in new tab

Article Text

Mr. and Mrs. Fred G. Noyes of Fairbanks reached Cordova on yesterday's train, having come as far as Chitina in their own automobile. Mr. Noyes is the receiver of the famous Fairbanks-Alaska bank. and he and his wife are on their way to California, where they will spend the win-

10. August 12, 1918 The Cordova Daily Times Cordova, AK
Article from The Cordova Daily Times, August 12, 1918

Click image to open full size in new tab

Article Text

Mrs. J. J. Murray and family and the former's sister, Mrs. T. D. Sharp, will leave for the States on the next south-bound steamer. Nathanael Greene left yesterday for the westward, and will visit Valdez, Seward and Anchorage on his annual inspection of the banks at those places. Ethel Barrymore in a five-act drama, "The Lifted Veil," and a Max Sennett two-reel comedy, "A Royal Rogue," is the offering at the Empress theater tonight. Herbert Cooper, John Pierson, Magnus Johnson, Edward B. Hunn and Jim Davis came down from Kennecott yesterday, and are on their way to Fort Liscum to enlist. On Saturday evening John Mennoples and William Coroles, section men employed on the Copper River railway, were badly cut and bruised by falling between moving cars. John Randall Dunn, Christian Science lecturer from St. Louis, is in Fairbanks, and will return to the States over the government trail, stopping over in Cordova for a few days. Deputy Marshal J. H. Miller and Guard A. Hanot arrived from Fairbanks with two prisoners Carl Nigl, an interned German, who is being taken to Seattle, and Dan Perisich, an insane man, for the Morningside asylum. F. E. Kilbourne, for the past two years foreman of the Daily Dispatch office, Juneau, was an arrival in town to accept a similar position on the Daily Times. Mr. Kilbourne is accompanied by his wife, and they expect to make Cordova their future home. If the weather is favorable the launch Waif will leave for Katalla tomorrow. George C. Hazelet and F. W. Van Campen will book passage for the Bering river coal fields and a barge will be towed over with four horses to be used in their develop-ment work at the mines. About three hundred persons took advantage of the excursion to the glaciers yesterday. The weather was ideal until after the excursionists had feasted their eyes on the wonders and beauties of the great ice fields. Rain commenced too late to spoil the pleasures of the picnickers. Mr. and Mrs. Fred G. Noyes of Fairbanks reached Cordova on yesterday's train, having come as far as Chitina in their own automobile. Mr. Noyes is the receiver of the famous Fairbanks-Alaska bank, and he and his wife are on their way to California, where they will spend the win-

11. October 7, 1927 The Daily Alaska Empire Juneau, AK
Article from The Daily Alaska Empire, October 7, 1927

Click image to open full size in new tab

Article Text

dated for the purpose of the trial. The charge against the former legislator was that he had converted to his own use funds that had come into his possession as receiver of the Fairbanks Banking Company.