10659. Union National Bank (Springfield, MO)

Bank Information

Episode Type
Run Only
Bank Type
national
Bank ID
5209
Charter Number
5209
Start Date
May 10, 1924
Location
Springfield, Missouri (37.215, -93.298)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini
Short Digest
c225b72b

Response Measures

Accommodated withdrawals, Borrowed from banks or large institutions, Public signal of financial health, Capital injected

Description

Multiple contemporaneous newspaper accounts (May 12-17, 1924) describe a run that began on Saturday (May 10, 1924) on the Union National Bank of Springfield, MO. The run was stopped by large cash shipments (Federal Reserve, correspondent banks, theaters, restaurants, armored cars, special trains and an airplane). The bank remained open (extended hours) and there is no mention of suspension, receivership, or permanent closure.

Events (2)

1. July 18, 1899 Chartered
Source
historical_nic
2. May 10, 1924 Run
Cause
Rumor Or Misinformation
Cause Details
Run began after reports that the bank was unstable; depositors panic withdrew funds. No bank-specific insolvency or correspondent failure cited — accounts emphasize reports/rumors of instability.
Measures
Bank broadcast call for help; Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City advanced $250,000; other banks sent funds; large cash shipments by airplane, armored car, special train, registered mail and express; local businesses (theaters, restaurant, Union Station) furnished currency; bank extended hours to accommodate withdrawals.
Newspaper Excerpt
One million dollars rushed to Springfield from all sections of Missouri Monday stopped a run on the Union National bank here... The run began Saturday, following reports the bank was unstable.
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (7)

Article from The Seattle Star, May 12, 1924

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Article Text

MILLION HALTS RUN ON BANK Funds Rushed to Missouri House After S. O.S. SPRINGFIELD, Mo., May 12.One million dollars rushed to Springfield from all sections of Missouri Monday stopped a run on the Union National bank here, one of the state's strongest financial institutions. The run began Saturday, following reports the bank was unstable. Paniostricken depositors withdrew thousands of dollars. With its cashrunning low, the bank broadcast 1 call for help. The Federal Reserve bank. ,Kansas City, responded with $250,000, other banks added to this amount and, in exchange for certified checks, two Kansas City theaters and a restaurant rushed their week-end recelpts to the institution.


Article from Imperial Valley Press, May 12, 1924

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Article Text

WHOLE STATE RUSHES AID TO FAILING BANK SPRINGFIELD, Mo., May 12.--One million dollars rushed to Springfield from all sections of Missouri today stopped a run on the Union National bank here, one of the state's strongest financial institutions. The run began Saturday following reports the bank was unstable. Panic stricken depositors withdrew thousands of dollars. With its cash running low, the bank broadcast a call for help. The Federal Reserve Bank, Kansas City, responded with $250,000, other banks added to this amount, and, in exchange for certified checks two Kansas City theaters and a restaurant rushed their week-end receipts to the institution.


Article from The Birmingham Age-Herald, May 13, 1924

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Article Text

MONEY IS RUSHED TO STOP BANK RUN Depositors Appeased As Plane Brings In $400,000 Cash SPRINGFIELD, Mo., May 12.-Reports that $400,000 in currency was enroute ere from St. Louis by airplane and $100,000 from Kansas City today put an end to the run on the Union National bank. The run started Saturday, and the bank remained open until 1 Oo'clock that night to accommodate anxious depositors. The money from Kansas City was nearly all the loose currency that could be found Saturday right as time locks on most of the bank vaults were set for Monday morning. Of the amount sent two theatres furnisher $12,000, the Union Station, $30,000, a large restaurant $7,500, and savings banks, $30,500.


Article from Imperial Valley Press, May 13, 1924

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Article Text

Bank Run Over, Money Pours In By United Press Leased Wire SPRINGFIELD, Mo., May 13,All traces of the run on the Union National bank, disappeared today, after money to meet withdrawal demands had poured into town by armored car, special train and airplane. Huge bags of cash gathered in St. Louis, Kansas City and other towns were rushed into Springfield.


Article from The Colorado Statesman, May 17, 1924

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Article Text

e GENERAL 3 John Dietz, 63 years old, famous in S Wisconsin as the "defender of Cameron dam," died in a Milwaukee hospital after a long illness. Peter Posapney, 21 years old, of Two Rivers, Wis., a student at the e University of Wisconsin, was shot and killed by Patrick P. Powers, a Madison policeman. $ Frank T. Johns, 35 years old, a car: penter of Portland, Ore., was nominath ed for President of the United States at the national convention of the So: cialist-Labor party. I Safe blowers blasted the outer and two inner doors of the vault in the AlI ton (III.) postoffice, took packages of postage stamps estimated as amounti ing to $35,000 or $38,000 and escaped without being observed. Dallas, Texas, was awarded the 1925 national convention of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers at a meeting of the board of managers of the organization at St. Paul. Denver, Colo., was chosen for the national meeting of the board Sept. 29 to Oct. 4. Judge A. M. J. Gochran in Federal Court at Covington, Ky., sentenced Congressman John W. Langley, Kentucky, convicted of conspiracy in connection with a whisky transaction in 1921, to two years in federal prison at Atlanta, Ga. Arrangements for the establishment of a $10,000,000 Boy Scout endowment fund, the income of which is to be used for the promotion of all phases of the Boy Scout program in every section of the United States will be made at once scout executives of the Boy Scouts of America announced. All traces of the run on the Union National Bank of Springfield, Mo., disappeared after money to meet withdrawal demands had poured into town by armored car, special train and airplane. Huge bags of cash gathered in St. Louis, Kansas City and other towns were rushed into Springfield. Motion pictures of whatever sort were held to be theatrical performances by the Ohio State Supreme Court and therefore are barred from being exhibited on Sundays. The decision, sweeping in its scope, is belleved to include the exhibition of motion pictures t in churches on Sunday. Governor Flynn of Rhode Island die rected High Sheriff Jonathan Andrews of Providence county to order every available deputy sheriff to the Senate chamber at the state house at Providence, where Democrats and Republicans are threatening each other in the bitterest political fight in the his0 tory of the state. The governor told Sheriff Andrews that failure to comply with his orders would result in dismissal of the sheriff's force and the calling of the National Guard to take its place.


Article from Vilas County News, May 21, 1924

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Article Text

CASH BY AIRPLANE STOPS BANK 'RUN' Springfield (Mo.) Depositors Frightened, but Money Allays Their Fears. Springfield, Mo.-With more than one million dollars received by airplane, registered mail and express, the Union National bank has overcome a "run" which started late Saturday afternoon and continued at night, but which dwindled and died before increasing confidence Monday. There was a good-sized crowd in front of the bank when it opened an hour before time Monday morning. It slowly dispersed when it was learned that an airplane from St. Louis carrying $400,000 in currency from the First National bank of St. Loui: had reached the city. The bank also sent $100,000 currency by registered mail in addition to $75,000 sent last Friday. Kansas City to Rescue. Kansas City banks sent $250,000 to the bank, to be used in case of an emergency. The money from Kansas City was nearly all the currency that could be found Saturday night, as time locks on most of the bank vaults were set for Monday morning. Of the amount sent, two theaters furnished $12,000, the Union station $30,000, a.large restaurant $7,500, and savings banks $30,500. Bank Keeps Open. Although the bank's regular closing hour is 4 o'clock, the doors remained open until after 6 o'clock Monday night to give any depositor a chance to withdraw. Bank officials announced that there had been only scattering withdrawals during the day; in fact, no greater than any Monday morning, while the deposits were heavier than any day in history. One corporation deposited $50,000, brought from another city, to show its confidence in the institution.


Article from The Monmouth Inquirer, May 22, 1924

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Article Text

University Club to debate tennis player-writer question. Secretary of State Hughes says cultivation of good will weeds out wars. Communists out to capture control of Farmer-Labor convention in St. Paul June 17. Woman, near death from cancer, cured after radium and X-ray treatment at Montefiore Hospital, New York. Justice Panken, incensed by cases of rat-bitten children, scores New York Health and Tenement departments. Legion officers charge Veterans' Bureau and General Hines with delaying care and compensation of disabled veterans. An airplane carrying $400,000 in cash from St. Louis helped stop a run on the Union National Bank of Springfield, Mo. Seven bandits held up two messengers of the First and Merchants' National Bank of Middletown, O., and robbed them of $17,000. Motion pictures were held to be theatrical performances by the Ohio supreme court and are barred from being exhibited on Sundays. Edward D. Harris, forty-two, vica president of the Life Insurance Com pany of Virginia, cut his throat with a razor at a Richmond hospital and died almost immediately. Heavier stocks of pulpwood on hand in New England, but lower stocks than at this came time in 1923 in New York and the Middle Atlantic states, are shown by the quarterly pulpwood report.