Guardian Savings Bank - Brooklyn, NY

Bank Information

Episode Type: Run → Suspension → Reopening
Bank Type: savings bank
Start Date: October 26, 1907
Location: Brooklyn, New York (40.660, -73.951)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: 7f1680d7

Response Measures

Partial suspension

Description

Articles report runs on several savings banks (including Guardian Savings), the Guardian invoked the 60-day notice (suspended payments) on 1907-10-26 because it could not get funds from the Borough Bank; receivers later paid Guardian's deposit back and Guardian resumed payments (reported 1907-12-10). Cause attributed to distress/suspensions of other local banks limiting access to ready funds.

Events (3)

1. October 26, 1907 Run

Cause: Local Banks
Cause Details: Withdrawals triggered by runs and suspensions at other Brooklyn banks (Borough Bank, Williamsburg Trust, Jenkins Trust etc.), causing lack of ready funds and depositor nervousness.
Measures: Officers invoked the legal notice requirement / sixty-day clause for withdrawals (delayed payment; refused cash payouts except small amounts).
Newspaper Excerpt: Runs had been started on these institutions, and although they had ample funds to meet all demands the officers decided that under present conditions it would be best to delay payment... the Guardian Savings Bank, of Brooklyn.
Source: newspapers

2. October 26, 1907 Suspension

Cause: Local Banks
Cause Details: Could not obtain $30,000 deposited with the Borough Bank when needed because Borough Bank had suspended; inability to get ready funds due to local bank suspensions forced Guardian to stop payments under the 60-day rule.
Newspaper Excerpt: the Guardian Savings Bank ... found it necessary to resort to the sixty day clause, which gives savings banks the right to demand sixty days' notice of withdrawal on the part of their depositors. Payment was stopped at once.
Source: newspapers

3. December 10, 1907 Reopening

Newspaper Excerpt: The receivers of the Borough Bank gave yesterday ... a check for $63,623. representing the deposit of that institution in the Borough. The Guardian Savings Bank, which was obliged to take advantage of the sixty-day clause and suspend payment when the Borough suspended, will resume payments to-day.
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (6)

1. October 26, 1907 New-York Tribune New York, NY

Article from New-York Tribune, October 26, 1907

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Big Trust Companies Continue to Pay in Full-Importation of Gold Probable. SAVINGS BANKS TO REQUIRE NOTICE. Receivers Named for Knickerbocker Trust-Issuing of Clearing House Certificates May Be Considered To-day-Two Small Financial Institutions in Manhattan and Six in Brooklyn Suspend Payment for Want of Currency. The stock market responded to the renewal of confidence by a sharp rally in prices, many issues closing with net advances. The Trust Company of America and the Lincoln Trust Company continued to meet all demands of depositors, and it was believed that the worst of the runs on those institutions was over. Leading financiers, co-operating, considered principally two plans of relief, either the immediate importation of large sums of gold or, that failing, the issuing of Clearing House loan certificates. Representatives of the savings banks of Manhattan and Brooklyn decided to require that all depositors give the legal notice upon withdrawing their deposits. Ernst Thalmann, Otto T. Bannard and Henry C. Ide were appointed temporary receivers of the Knickerbocker Trust Company and its branches on the application of Attorney General Jackson. Eight banks suspended payment for lack of currency- - the International Trust Company and the United States Exchange Bank, in Manhattan, and the First National Bank, Williamsburg Trust Company, Jenkins Trust Company, Borough Bank, Brooklyn Bank and the Guardian Savings, of Brooklyn.

2. October 26, 1907 New-York Tribune New York, NY

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SAVINGS BANKS 'ACT. Depositors Must Give Legal Notice Before Withdrawal. Following a run on several savings banks, the presidents of sixteen of the thirty-two savings institutions in this city met yesterday at the office of Andrew Mills, president of the Dry Dock Savings Institution, and decided to require all depositors to give the usual legal notice before withdrawing their deposits. This action was taken, it was explained, to prevent the withdrawal of large amounts from the savings banks in this time of acute money stringency. After the meeting Mr. Mills gave out the following statement: "At a meeting of savings bank officers, held to consider the present existing financial conditions, it was deemed wise to require the usual legal notice for the withdrawal of deposits. This action was taken in the conviction that it will best conserve the interests of all depositors." Mr. Mills added that all the savings banks in the city would be governed by the action of the meeting and that the rule would go into effect this morning. The banks represented at the meeting were the Bank for Savings, the Bowery, the Bronx, the Dry Dock, the East River, the Emigrant Industrial, the Excelsior, the German, the Irving, the Manhattan, Metropolitan, the New York, the North River, the Seamen's, the Union Dime and the Union Square. Among the savings banks which took advantage of this law yesterday were the Harlem Savings Bank, 124th street and Third avenue; the Union Dime Savings Bank, at 33d street and Broadway, and the Guardian Savings Bank, of Brooklyn. Runs had been started on these institutions, and although they had ample funds to meet all demands the officers decided that under present conditions it would be best to delay payment. Notice was given, however, that the time clause would be waived in the case of depositors requiring amounts up to $100 for current expenses. The run on the Bank for Savings, at 22d street and Fourth avenue, which began on Thursday, continued yesterday, and about $250,000 was withdrawn during the day. On Thursday $345,000 was withdrawn and $86,000 deposited. There were said to have been heavy deposits yesterday, but the amount was not made public. Walter Trimble, president of the bank, said: "This bank is absolutely sound. The run is the result of local conditions. We are paying off depositors as rapidly as possible, and will continue to do so until Christmas, or beyond, if necessary." Later in the day. after the meeting of the bank presidents already noted, Mr. Trimble stated that the bank might decide to enforce the notice required by law. William B. Aitken, president of the Bronx Savings Bank, said his institution would take

3. October 26, 1907 New-York Tribune New York, NY

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SUSPEND IN BROOKLYN. NOTICE FROM SIX BANKS. Officials, However, Declare Institutions Solvent. Six banks, with their branches, suspended payments in Brooklyn yesterday. There were withdrawals from several other banks, the savings a to know said were position especially heavy the banks, would Brooklyn be but bankers banks actual fail- in solvent and that there no ures. The International Trust Company of Manhattan, organized by persons interested in two of the Brooklyn banks, also suspended. The banks that suspended, according to the reports of last August, are as follows: First National Bank, Kent avenue and Broadway, John G. Jenkins, president; surplus, $701,345: deposits, $4,285,774. Williamsburg Trust Company. Broadway and Kent avenue; Frank Jenkins, president (branches at No. 301 Fulton street and at Broadway and Myrtle avenue): surplus, $368,828; deposits, $8,360,250. Jenkins Trust Company, Gates and Nostrand avenues. J. G. Jenkins, jr., president (branches at Surf avenue and West 12th street, Coney Island: at Bay 20th street and Bath avenue, Bath Beach; at Broadway and Myrtle avenue and at No. 1745 Broadway): surplus, $356,185; deposits, $4,344,882. Borough Bank, No. 20 Court street; Howard Maxwell, president (branches, old Eighth Ward Bank at Third avenue and 51st street; at New Utrecht avenue, Borough Park): surplus, $179,379: deposits, $4,040,438. Brooklyn Bank, Fulton and Clinton streets (branch of the International Trust Company, H. El Hutchinson, vice-president, in charge); surplus, $112,160; deposits, $2,469,828. Guardian Savings Bank, Third avenue and 89th street. READY FUNDS LACKING. The Brooklyn Bank, which is a branch of the International Trust Company of Manhattan, and the Borough Bank, posted notices of suspension due to lack of ready funds before the opening of banking hours. Soon after it opened the Guardian Savings Bank, which is a small institution, of which Controller Herman A. Metz was formerly president, found it necessary to resort to the "sixty day clause," which gives savings banks the right to demand sixty days' notice of withdrawal on the part of their depositors. Payment was stopped at once. It was said that the Guardian deposited $30,000 with the Borough Bank on Thursday. When it wanted to get the money yesterday it could not do so on account of the suspension of the Borough Bank. The Williamsburg Trust Company suspended payment about 12:30 o'clock. Soon after notice of suspension was posted in the main office and branches of the Jenkins Trust Company. The officers of both institutions declared them to be perfectly solvent, but unable to meet the heavy demands of depositors for cash. The suspension of the First National Bank, which was the only Brooklyn member of the New York Clearing House, was directly due, it was said, to the suspension of the Williamsburg and the Jenkins Trust companies, for which the First National of Brooklyn acted as clearing agent. The directors of the latter, knowing that they would be responsible for the paper of the trust companies that might come in to-day if they did not suspend, decided that suspension would be the best way of protecting their own depositors. Controller Ridgely placed George T. Cutts, a national bank examiner, in charge. The latest reports from the First National of Brooklyn received by the Controller of the Currency showed deposits of $3,220,706, surplus funds and undivided profits of $701,345. and loans and discounts of $2,677,484. SOME BANK HISTORY. The First National Bank was organized in 1852. Early last September Americus J. Leonard, formerly of the Fourth National Bank of Manhattan, was elected vice-president, and it was announced he would take over much of the management of the bank, as John G. Jenkins, sr., the president, was an old man. Mr. Jenkins was taken sick at the bank last night and was taken to his home in Sea Cliff. Marshall S. Driggs, president of the Williamsburg City Fire Insurance Company, who had been allied with the various Jenkins enterprises, withdrew from the First National Bank several months ago. It was said there had been some misunderstanding between him and Mr. Jenkins. With Mr. Driggs went a number of his friends. It was declared yesterday that the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company had recently withdrawn much of its money from the First National. The Williamsburg Trust Company was organized in 1899. John G. Jenkins, sr., was its president for many years, but last November he resigned in favor of his son Frank. The Jenkins Trust Company was organized in 1905, with John G. Jenkins, jr., as president. Soon afterward it absorbed a number of small banks and organized several branches. It was learned that the Williamsburg Trust Company was short of cash when before noon it refused to cash a check for $10,000, but offered a check on another bank. A director who had tried to raise $250,000 on $400,000 of collateral early in the morning in Manhattan reported his failure. The depositors kept coming in such large numbers that suspension was the only course to pursue. Fernando Folanger, counsel

4. October 26, 1907 New-York Tribune New York, NY

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THE NEWS THIS MORNING. FOREIGN.-China has begun a grain rate war directed against the Japanese lines in Manchuria, has cancelled the foreign concessions on the Imperial railways and has sent Chinese troops into the disputed boundary zone. Leading English weekly newspapers say that opportunities for successful dishonesty and apathy of the respectable classes regarding politics are responsible for the financial situation in America. The Registrar in the Bankruptcy Court at the examination of the firms of Arbuthnot & Co., bankers of Madras and London, said that the liabilities exceeded the assets The loss of life in by nearly $9,000,000. the earth shocks in Calabria is estimated at six Advices from Madrid say that hundred. King Alfonso will go to London under strict incognito to be examined by a specialist in Riddell, at Toronto, a fine of $25,000 on the imposed tuberculosis. Justice, Michigan dynamite Centrai for the explosion of a car of listed as powder. The crew of the British steamer Tampico and five men of the Dutch schooner Anna, abandoned at sea, were landed Testimony in the libel action in England. of General Count Kuno von Moltke against Herr Harden was closed at Berlin. DOMESTIC.-Naval matters took up much of the time at the first formal meeting of the Cabinet in Washington since June; either two or three new battleships probably will be asked for Among at the coming session of Congress. the White House visitors were Senator Long, of Kansas, and Representative Kennedy, of Ohio, who boomed Mr. Taft for President, and Senator Hemenway and Representative Watson, of Indiana, who did likewise for Mr. Fairbanks. Senator Elkins, of West Virginia, said in Washington that the present money troubles would have been avoided if the currency law had been more elastic. Franklin K. Lane, Interstate Commerce Commissioner, told the President that, while car shortage existed in the Northwest, there was no fear of an immediate crisis. The National Civic Federation ended its trust conference at Chicago with a recommendation for immediate general regulation by Congress to give the federal government full power to reguIn a statelate trusts and corporations. ment given out at the Executive Chamber at Albany it was said that Governor Hughes believed that there was a decided improvement in the financial situation and that he looked for an After an early restoration of confidence. eventful day banking circles in Providence, R. I., believed that the crisis had been met. Judges Edward T. Bartlett and Willard Bartlett were informed of their nomination by the Democrats at Albany. The annual autumn ball was held at Tuxedo Park, N. Y. CITY.-Stocks advanced rapidly toward the close. The savings banks of this city decided to require of depositors the usual legal notice of from thirty to ninety days before making withdrawals. Ernst Thalmann, Otto T. Bannard and Henry C. Ide, all of New York City, were appointed temporary receivers of the Knickerbocker Trust Company and its branches, by Justice Clark, in the Supreme Court, at St. George, Staten Island, on the application of Attorney General Jackson. Bank suspensions in Brooklyn included the First National, Williamsburg Trust Company, Jenkins Trust Company, Borough Bank, Brooklyn Bank and the Guardian Savings Bank. The United States Exchange Bank, of Harlem, The Consolidated suspended payment. Steamship Lines were partially reorganized. Further reductions in the city's budget for 1908 were made. Captain Weigand was deposed from the Tenderloin command; he was succeeded by Lieutenant Kelleher. The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse reported that her rudder had broken at sea, and that she was steaming slowly and using her propellers to steer with. Vain attempts to run Yonkers streetcars were attended by rioting. THE WEATHER.4Indications for to-day: Fair and colder. The temperature yesterday: Highest, 58 degrees; lowest, 39.

5. November 18, 1907 The News-Democrat Providence, RI

Article from The News-Democrat, November 18, 1907

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BROOKLYN JURY PROBING INTO FAILED BANKS New York, Nov. 18.-The affairs of the cluding those of Senator Patrick H. McCarren, former Sheriff Buttling, Senator Brooklyn institutions which were put inReynolds and others of the McCarren folto the hands of receivers by the action lowing. of Attorney General Jackson on Saturday Mr. Elder was asked if any of these after he had stated that in two of the institutions there would be an investigamen would be summoned before the grand jury in the immediate future. tion with a view to criminal prosecution, "There are certain public officials who will come before the grand jury in Brookwill be on hand" he replied. "They will lyn today. not be subpoenaed, however, as it is The chief witness before the grand jury probable that they know that they will will be Superintendent Clark Williams. It be wanted and will not wait to be subis expected that the Borough Bank of poenaed." Brooklyn and the Jenkins Trust company That many of Brooklyn's politicians will be investigated first and that the will be before the grand jury is well Brooklyn Bank, the Guardian Savings known. It was stated by an official conBank and the Williamsburg Trust comnected with the district attorney's office pany will be probed later. that two men who are entirely familiar Assistant District Attorney Robert H. with the inside dealings had been to Mr. Elder, who is in charge of the investigaElder and had laid information before tion until District Attorney Clark's rehim which connects the name of Senator turn on Thursday, said yesterday that he Reynolds with certain loans made with would bring the matter before the grand the Borough Bank in connection with jury at once. He will be assisted by AsWilliam Gow. sistant District Attorney Peter Smith. George F. Dobson of Brooklyn is an"I don't know everything that Superinother who will appear before the grand tendent Williams does at present," Mr. jury, it is said, to tell of certain loans. Elder said, "but I do know that all the One loan which is said to be under invesinformation which I lack and which I tigation was made to a Hearst man well need is in his possession." known in the Williamsburg section and In his statement of Saturday Attorney reputed to be wealthy. This man went to General Jackson spoke of certain forgerthe Borough Bank for a loan and offered ies which had been found in the affairs of as security some vacant lots in Williamsone of the banks. The Borough Bank, burg. The bank found the security insuffiknown in Brooklyn as the "politicians' cient, but gave the man the money on his bank," was the bank referred to. Mr. Elnotes, unsecured, on his promise to bring der refused to discuss the forgery matter. certain other depositors into the bank. The names of a number of prominent This the man did, but the loan was never Brooklyn politicians have been mentioned paid. in connection with the bank's affairs, in-

6. December 10, 1907 New-York Tribune New York, NY

Article from New-York Tribune, December 10, 1907

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SAY NOTES ARE FORGED, Borough Bank Receivers Discover Two More of Them. Receivers of the Borough Bank, Brooklyn, diacovered yesterday two more notes which are declared to be forgeries. One is signed L. H. Smith. It is for $1,000. and as it was due the receivers sent a notice to Mr. Smith asking him to pay it. He promptly declared the note a forgery. The only transaction of the kind he ever had with the bank, he said, was the making of a note for $500, which had been paid four years ago. In going over the books at the request of F. W. Sparks, counsel for the depositors' committee, to see what notes were credited to him the receivers found a record of a note for $2,500. alleged to have been made on November 16, 1906, by Russell Randolph and indorsed by F. W. Sparks. The books showed the note had been discounted and the money placed to the credit of Mr. Sparks. The latter protested that he had never heard of the note and had never received the proceeds, although they were entered in his account. On March 26, 1907, there is an entry to show that Arthur D. Campbell had given a cashier's check for the note, which meant it had been purchased by the bank. Further investigation of the Sparks account showed a note for $2,500 made by him on July 26, 1906. and indorsed by Agnes Sparks, his mother. This was discounted and renewed several times until March 27, 1907, when apparently it was split up into two notes, one for $1,306.25 and another for $1,200. On May 28 the latter note was taken up. but the latter remains in the bank, coming due on January 9. It also appears on September 25, 1906, Mr. Sparks made a note for $2,500. It was renewed once and apparently was paid on January 25. 1906. as no further record of it appears. The records also show a note for $500 made by P. J. Van Note on May 17, 1907. This ran to August 4, when it was paid. Mr. Sparks explained yesterday that the note for $2,500 which he indorsed for P. H. Mulqueen, an office associate, was to enable the latter to make a payment on a house. Mr. Sparks did not know, he said, that the note had been discounted in the Borough Bank. The receivers of the Borough Bank gave yesterday to Davaid F. Manning, counsel for the Guardian Savings Bank. a check for $63,623. representing the deposit of that institution in the Borough. The Guardian Savings Bank, which was obliged to take advantage of the sixty-day clause and suspend payment when the Borough suspended, will resume payments to-day. The grand jury yesterday was busy with the affairs of the Brooklyn Bank District Attorney Clarke will not have the indietments handed up until all the ends have been gathered. Martin W. Littleton, counsel for William Gow. under indictment on two charges of grand larceny and three charges of misdemeanor, argued before Judge Dike yesterday for permission to inspect the minutes of the grand jury. He said he was unable to prepare a defence until he saw the minutes. Assist= ant District Attorney Elder opposed the motion. The depositors of the Borough Bank will meet in the Columbia Theatre at 10:30 o'clock this morning to hear a report from the committee that is trying to arrange for the resumption of the bank and to elect eight directors. The depositors of the Brooklyn Bank will meet in Historical Hall tonight to hear plans for resumption.