Article Text
FARMERS START A RUN ON A BANK Middletown, N. Y., Dec. 12.-The First National Bank of this city successfully encountered a run this morning. By noon everything was quiet, and when the hour for closing arrived the deposits exceeded the
13528. First National Bank (Middletown, NY)
Bank Information
- Episode Type
- Run Only
- Bank Type
- national
- Bank ID
- 523
- Charter Number
- 523
- Start Date
- December 12, 1890
- Location
- Middletown, New York (41.445, -74.424)
Metadata
- Model
- gpt-5-mini
- Short Digest
42b87a07e373799f
Response Measures
Accommodated withdrawals, Public signal of financial health, Capital injected, Books examined
Other: Local leading citizens formed a committee and signed a public pledge guaranteeing payment of depositors (a public guarantee rather than a formal capital infusion).
Description
Newspapers report a run on First National Bank of Middletown on Dec 12, 1890 driven by a general 'tightness of money' scare and circulating rumors about solvency. The bank remained open, deposits exceeded withdrawals by closing, and confidence was restored after local leaders publicly vouched for solvency.
Events (3)
1.
September 29, 1864
Chartered
- Source
- historical_nic
2.
December 12, 1890
Run
- Cause
- Macro News
- Cause Details
- Run occurred 'on account of the scare over the present tightness of money' and circulating rumors about the bank's solvency among local farmers/dairymen.
- Measures
- Bank officers assembled prominent local men who examined the bank and signed a pledge attesting to solvency; issued a public announcement of solvency to calm depositors.
- Newspaper Excerpt
- The First National Bank of this city successfully encountered a run this morning. By noon everything was quiet...; about $10,000 was drawn out. The bank is said to be solvent with $28,000 surplus, and confidence is believed to have been restored.
- Source
- newspapers
3.
June 4, 1931
Voluntary Liquidation
- Source
- historical_nic
Newspaper Articles (3)
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Article Text
Run on a Bank at Middietown, N. Y MIDDLETOWN, Dec. 12-There - was a run on the First National bank today on account of the scare over the present tightness of money and about $10,000 was drawn out. The bank is said to be solvent with $28,000 surplus, and confidence is believed to have been restored.
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Article Text
How to Avert a Panic. Brooklyn Eagle. When the officers of the First National bank of Middletown discovered that rumors affecting their solvency were in circulation and that the farmers and dairymen of Orange county were likely to withdraw their deposits in a hurry, they did a very sensible thing. They called together the solid men of Middletown and asked these to appoint a committee to examine the financial condition of the bank. The result was a specific announcement of the solvency of the bank and a pledge signed by the wealthiest men in the county that the depositorwould be paid in full. The announces ment did not altogether prevent a run on the bank, but it reduced it to very small proportions. If similar action was taken whenever a bank is threatened with a run the number and amount of financial disasters due to causeless panic would be largely reduced. There are hundreds of country banks, normally solvent and holding gilt-edged securities far in excess of their liabilities that could be easily. embarrassed and forced into temporary suspension by the spread of a panio among their depositors resulting in the immediate withdrawal of deposits. When such a panic is threatened the plan adopted by the First National bank of Middletown might be profitably copied. Get the local magnates whose names are synonyms for wealth and probity to guarantee the solvency of the bank, and there will seldom be any danger of a disastrous run.