National Bank - Fishkill, NY

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: national
Bank ID: 971
Charter Number: 971
Start Date: January 5, 1879
Location: Fishkill, New York (41.536, -73.899)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: a82c11b4c116b1db

Response Measures

None

Receivership Details

Depositor recovery rate: 100.0%
Date receivership started: 1877-01-27
Date receivership terminated: 1884-08-11
OCC cause of failure: Fraud
Share of assets assessed as good: 38.2%
Share of assets assessed as doubtful: 51.7%
Share of assets assessed as worthless: 10.1%

Description

Article reports that the Fishkill National Bank was ruined by embezzlement by its cashier Alex Bartow (nearly $100,000) and that a receiver (Henry Bostwick) was involved in related litigation. No explicit mention of a depositor run is given; the bank appears to have failed and been placed in receivership/ruined by theft, so classification is a suspension leading to closure/receivership.

Events (5)

1. April 1, 1865 Chartered

Source: historical_nic

2. January 27, 1877 Receivership

Source: historical_nic

3. January 5, 1879 Other

Newspaper Excerpt: Alex Bartow, Cashier of the Fishkill National Bank, was convicted of grand larceny... Bartow was not only Cashier of the bank... The National Bank of Fishkill was ruined by the embezzlements
Source: newspapers

4. * Receivership

Newspaper Excerpt: that institution sued the National Bank to recover that amount, or rather sued the receiver, Henry Bostwick.
Source: newspapers

5. * Suspension

Cause: Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details: Large embezzlement by cashier Alex Bartow (nearly $100,000) led to the bank's ruin.
Newspaper Excerpt: The National Bank of Fishkill was ruined by the embezzlements
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (1)

1. January 6, 1879 The Sun New York, NY

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Article Text

THE FISHKILL SAVINGS INSTITUTE The Discovery of a Forged Resolution An. thorizing the Assignment or Bonds. POUGHKEEPSIE Jan. 5.-In October last, Alex Bartow. Cashier of the Fishkill National Bank, was convicted of grand larceny. in robbing that bank of a $1,000 bond, and sentenced to Ave years in the Albany Penitontiary. A stay of proceedings was granted. and a motion for a new trial will be argued at the General Term, in February next, in Brooklyn. In the mean time, Bartow is held a prisoner in the witnoss room of the jail in this city, where his wife and friends visit him daily. and where his food is brought to him from the outside world three times a day. The National Bank of Fishkill was ruined by the embezzlements, the stolen funds amounting to nearly $100,000. Bartow was not only Cashier of the bank. but also Cashier of the Fishkill Savings Institute, and thus handled the funds of both corporations. Nearly $70,000 of the stolen money belonged to the Fishkiii Savings Institute and 8 year ago that institution sued the National Bank to recover that amount, or rather sued the receiver, Henry Bostwick. After the evidence of the plaintiff was in. the defendant moved for a nonsuit. on the ground that the National Bank was not made A party to the suit. The Court. however, allowed plaintiff to amend the complaint, and then the case was sent before E. A. Brewster, Esq., of Newburgh. as referee. Sessions have been held in this city from time to time for nearly a year. more than one hundred folios of testimony having been taken. Some of it bore an important part in Bartow's trial. Evidence WAS given yesterday that startled not only lawyers and referee, but all who heard it. In substance it came out that the savings bank bonds, $65,000 or more, assigned by the President of the savings bank to Wilmerding & Co. of New York, were assigned by virtue of a power of attorney which. on investigation. proved to have no existence on the books of the savings bank. A copy of the resolution on which the bonds were assigned was sent from Washington from the Treasury Department. but on inspecting the savings bank books no such resolution could be found. It is said that if the bonds were assigned by the Govern. ment on a forged certificate, then they were not assigned at all. If the resolution WHA a forgery, the question as to who perpetrated it is yet to be settled. and if 8 forgery has been committed the bonds are stilltho property of the savings bank. and the year's time consumed in the present suit will amount to nothing but heavy costs.