Orleans County National Bank

Bank Information

Episode Type: Run Only
Bank Type: national
Bank ID: 1509
Charter Number: 1509
Start Date: March 5, 1885
Location: Albion, New York (43.246, -78.194)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: 37d82786

Response Measures

Books examined

Other: Accounts examined and found correct; uneasiness allayed.

Description

A slight run followed the suicide of the paying teller/acting cashier (Charles A. King) on or about 1885-03-05; the article says uneasiness was allayed and there was no suspension or closure reported.

Events (3)

1. August 9, 1865 Chartered

Source: historical_nic

2. March 5, 1885 Run

Cause: Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details: Public alarm after the paying teller/acting cashier shot himself; his suicide prompted depositors' nervousness and a slight run.
Newspaper Excerpt: A slight run on the bank followed the news of the suicide, but all uneasiness is now allayed.
Source: newspapers

3. October 2, 1920 Voluntary Liquidation

Source: historical_nic

Newspaper Articles (1)

1. March 7, 1885 Evening Star Washington, DC

Article from Evening Star, March 7, 1885

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Article Text

Suicide of a Bank Teller. SHOOTING HIMSELF BECAUSE, AS HE SAID, "NO MAN COULD DO BUSINESS AND DO RIGHT." A telegram from Albion, N. Y., March 5, says: Charles A. King, paying teller and acting cashier of the Orleans County National bank, committed suicide to-day. King had been connected with this bank since boyhood, and practically had the control of the institution, which, since the suspension of the First National bank, has absorbed all the destrable business of this county. Mr. King left the bank a few minutes past 10 this morning and went to the office of Dr. W. C. Bailey, his family physician. After a few minutes' conversation, the doctor, summoned by another patient, left King in his private office nervously pacing the floor. Soon afterward the doctor was startled by the sound of a pistol shot, and hastening to his inner room was shocked to see King, with a smoking revolver in his hand, slowly staggering back to a couch, upon which he fell apparently dead. Dr. Bailey hastened to the bank and returned with President Cornell and Cashier Hart. King had then regained consciousness. On being questioned as to the motive, he gasped: "Nothing the matter with the bank," and repeated what he had said to the doctor on entering. I'm tired of life, and have lived long enough." King was taken to the house of his father, where he lies in a semi-conscious condition. The physicians pronounce the case a hopeless one. The bullet passed entirely through the brain. from the temple to the base of the skull. A probe has been introduced repeatedly without finding the ball. The surgeons say that for a man to live with such a wound is remarkable, and meets with few parallels in medical annals. The impulse which led to King's self-destruction was a morbid sense of the obligation which, as a Christain, he owed to his fellow-men. He was wont to say, "No man can do business and do right." His accounts have been examined and all found to be correct. That no other motive than that above stated influenced him is positively known. King will leave an invalid wife and two children. A slight run on the bank followed the news of the suicide, but all uneasiness is now allayed.