Merchants & Farmers Bank

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: state
Start Date: *
Location: Newton, Mississippi (32.321, -89.163)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: 1c892782

Response Measures

None

Description

Article (May 13, 1914) describes the bank as defunct and refers to receivers and criminal charges against officers for actions when the bank failed. No article text describes a depositor run; failure/receivership appears due to insolvency. Bank type not stated in text, so set to unknown.

Events (2)

1. * Receivership

Newspaper Excerpt: after Mrs. Sivley paid over to the receivers about $60,000 of the bank's collateral, which it was claimed belonged to her as a preferred creditor.
Source: newspapers

2. * Suspension

Cause: Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details: Bank was insolvent and closed; indictments of cashier and directors; insolvency cited in court opinion as basis for reversal of conviction and discussion of deposits accepted when bank failed.
Newspaper Excerpt: the defunct Merchants & Farmers Bank at Newton
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (1)

1. May 13, 1914 The Semi-Weekly Leader Brookhaven, MS

Article from The Semi-Weekly Leader, May 13, 1914

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Article Text

Cashier Sivley Goes Free. The case of H. F. Sivley, charged with receiving deposits of the defunct Merchants & Farmers Bank at Newton, when it was insolvent, has been reversed Sivley was cashier and had been, sentenced to three years in the penitentiary. Three opinions were read. Justice Cook delivered the finding of the court, Justice Reed concurred, and Chief Justice Smith dissented. The reversal was based chiefly on that feature of the evidence alleging that Sivley accepted deposits on the day .the bank failed, but kept this money separate from the bank's cash, with the. intenton of returning it to depositors in event a closing of the doors could not be avoided. In his dissenting opinion Chief Justice Smith declared that the money was received by the bank in the usual and ordinary way, and became immediately the property of the bank; that the presence or absence of intent to defraud is immaterial, since it is evident that the cashier had reason to believe that the bank was insolvent." Sivley is a son of Mr. and Mrs. W. Baker Sivley, of Jackson, and was born and reared there. His father, who was also vice-president of the bank, was indicted, together with other members of the Board of directors, but these indictments were nolle prossed after Mrs. Sivley paid over to the receivers about $60,000 of the bank's collateral, which it was claimed belonged to her as a preferred creditor.