16050. Knickerbocker (New York, NY)

Bank Information

Episode Type: Run → Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: private
Start Date: October 23, 1907
Location: New York, New York (40.714, -74.006)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: 3081185a

Response Measures

Accommodated withdrawals, Full suspension

Other: Receivership/liquidation followed suspension; clearing house and financiers (Morgan) organized assistance for other trusts.

Description

Articles describe a run on the Knickerbocker in late October 1907 (paid out large sums and closed), discussion of receivership/liquidation shortly after, and later listings of Knickerbocker among suspended trust companies. Cause is bank-specific (speculative/stock gambling losses). Dates chosen from article publication dates and in-article references (Oct 23–26, 1907).

Events (3)

1. October 23, 1907 Run

Cause: Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details: Run followed reports of heavy gambling/speculative losses by the bank (Morgan blamed stock gambling by the bank itself).
Measures: Closed after paying out about eight million dollars to depositors; line of depositors maintained all night; police prevented demonstrations.
Newspaper Excerpt: The Knickerbocker bank which was subjected to run yesterday, and closed after paying out eight million dollars
Source: newspapers

2. October 24, 1907 Suspension

Cause: Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details: Suspension/closure tied to the run and the bank's own speculative/stock gambling problems; clearing house and financiers discussed receivership and liquidation of the Knickerbocker.
Newspaper Excerpt: KNICKERBOCKER DOES NOT OPEN Run is Started on Trust Company of America--All Other Institutions Are Regarded as Safe.
Source: newspapers

3. October 26, 1907 Receivership

Newspaper Excerpt: They will ... apply this morning for the appointment of a receiver for the Knickerbocker and put it into liquidation. ... The line of depositors anxious to draw their money was maintained all night in front of the Knickerbocker, and the police had great difficulty ... when the rumors of receivership reached the crowded street.
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (7)

1. October 24, 1907 Omaha Daily Bee Omaha, NE

Article from Omaha Daily Bee, October 24, 1907

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Article Text

OF ORD R OUT HAOS ntrol Ag Men with Money Organ Wall Street Situs ( J. P. MORGAN TAKES H Trust Companies Organize a Clearing House. GOVERNMENT MAKES DEPOSITS Action Has Effect of Increasing Confidence in Outlook. KNICKERBOCKER DOES NOT OPEN Run is Started on Trust Company of America--All Other Institutions Are Regarded as Safe. NEW YORK, Oct. 23.-Presidents of New York trust companies at a meeting held at J. Pierpont Morgan's office, and which continued until 5:30 this afternoon, appointed a committee of five presidents of trust companies, similar in character to the clearing house committee of banks, which is empowered to inquire into the conditions and needs of such trust companies as may apply for assistance at subsequent meetings of the presidents. Mr. Morgan will actively co-operate with the committee.

2. October 26, 1907 The Ketchikan Miner Ketchikan, AK

Article from The Ketchikan Miner, October 26, 1907

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TELEGRAPHIC TIPS Seattle, Oct. 21.-Hoses Bull, postmaster on Valdez island, British Columbia, who arrived here with his family, enroute to Australia, Saturday, was arrested this morning at the Ranier Grand hotel on 3 charge of the emberzlement of three thousand dollars. The details of the case has not yes been made public. San Francisco, Oct. 22-A freighter. the Queen Christina, today struck on the north side of seal rocks and wss completely wrecked. All of the crew was saved. The vessel was in ballast and was on her way to Portland, Oregon, where 3 charter was awaiting her. Seattle, Oct. 23.-Capt. Weaver of the steamship President arrived here today from Nome seriously ill with S typhoid fever. He was taken to hospital and the case was pronuenced dangerous by the attending physicians. The President arrived in s badly battered condition her cabin doors and windows having been broken in during s series of terrific storms encountered along the northern coast. The steamer Mackinaw also arrived from Nome today in even worse condition than the President. Her life boats had been smashed and the davits badby bent. All the glass in her staterooms had been broken. The Saratoga has arrived, and reports having The rescued eight sailors at Katalla. men had been working 00 lighters in an effort to get supplies ashore, when a: terrific storm came up. When discovered the men were clinging to ropes to avoid being blown or washed overboard. The steamer Santa Anna lay at or near Katalla for two weeks waiting for an opportunity to discharge 2 cargo, the owners finally ordering her to unload at Cordova. New York, Oct. 23.-The Knicker3 bocker bank which was subjected to run yesterday, and closed after paying out eight million dollars, expected to resume this morning, but it is doubtful if it C&D do so, as the bankers at last night decided to refuse and on the assistance, meeting orders of the clearing house to clean out every gambier and speculator connected with New York banks. They will spfor the appointment of 3 ply the this morning receiver for the Knickerbocker and put it into liquidation. Secretary of the Treasury Cortelyou, who held conference with Pierpont Morgan, Vanderlip and other financiers last night, announces this morning that he will protect all legitimate banks, and has ordered deposits of twenty millions to be made in certain banks today, and more if the emergency demands is The line of depositors anxious to draw their money was maintained all night in front of the Knickerbocker, and the police had great difficulty in preventing s violent demonstration 3 this morning when the rumors of receivership reached the crowded street. The Knickerbocker deposits are reported a: seventy one millions. The Knickerbocker officials blame President Roosevelt and say the trouble is the result of his policy through which the public confidence has been destroyed. Morgan asserts, of on the other hand, that instead that being the case, the prevailing conditions are wholly and entirely due to stock gambling on the part of the bank itself. President Roosevelt is reported as saying at Knoxville, Tenn., where be was yesterday, that be if his policy pinches the gamblers can't help it. He purposes continuing the same policy sixteen months longer. He 5378.31 medicine is bad until the patient recovers. He will continue his policy of protecting honest wealth and punishing that which is dishonest or illegally acquired, and says that only the latter class have anything to fear. Seattle, Oct. 23.-The Seward Peninsula delegation to the Republican district convention to be held at Juneau, & part of which has arrived here, are reported to be solid for Cale either to succeed himself, or as the Alaska member of the National Com. mittee, with Wickersham for second

3. October 30, 1907 The Sun New York, NY

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A Somewhat Cynical Defense. To THE EDITOR OF THE SUN-Sir: Yet us give the devil his due: he is not to blame for everything. "Business" in his letter in to-day's SUN expresses, I have small doubt, pretty generally the view held by many of your readers. But. really. is he entirely right? Mr. Roosevelt has been, let us admit, intemperate in reiteration, but is it not relteration. and that only, after all? It is quite true that continual dropping of water will wear away a stone, and repetition "soaks in"; nevertheless mere repetition by one sworn to enforce the law, of a determination to enforce it-though It be uttered with malice even and much noise-surely did not produce or even tend to produce the condition that has prevailed in New York during the last week. Are New York nerves so much more sensitive than those of the rest of the country? Do New Yorkers alone read the President's speeches and alone have intuition to feel their awful portent? The rest of the country seems to be weathering the raging storm that has followed the thundering of Theodore. With the exception of Pittsburg and an outpost here and there, this tyrant ridden land of ours seems to have paid but slight attention to the direful results likely to follow after a talkingbear-shooting trip of the Exalted One-other than to look on at the performance in New York and wonder. For months past all who read must know that such a thing as has happened has been foretold. And the strange thing is that It really did happen. In England and Canada we hear that money is "tight." Why? Is it. beause of incendiary speeches from the White House? Well, a run came upon the Knickerbocker. Why? A careful reading of the newspapers has failed to disclose the reason. Was it because of the President's speeches that the astute bankers of New York refused to come to the rescue of that institution? If so, and the President did really scare those estimable gentlemen, was it for the same reason that they did come to the rescue of the Trust Company of America? Surely not; surely an institution that boasts deposits of sixty orseventy millions and cannot stand almost any kind of an inflammatory speech is really not much of a concern after all. is it? Let us be bonest at least with ourselves. The Big Noise is really not so bad after all: some may be frightened for a time, but not always. The railroads have not stopped running and are really earning more than before "My Policies" began to claim the centre of the stage. T happen to be one of the "Innooent bondholders and shareholders" about whose welfare "Business" in so much concerned. On my own behalf, and in behalf also of my brother and sister innocents. I thank him for his interest: but really I fail to see where the wheels have stopped turning. As before said, let's be honest with ourselves. Where is the sane business man. woman or child who took seriously the President's remarks about the wisdom of preventing the accumulation of a fortune-if such a construction can be given that rather Ill considered utterance? Where is the sane man who did not deplore the President's oriticism of our judiciary? And where, ob, where is this "completed ... practical paralysis of the railways"? And he set himself up a man of straw. And be pasted him then for fair. True. the President probably talks too much. Re reminds me of a dear, voluble old lady I met this past summer who excused herself by saying. "I do so love to talk!" But the dear Peepul are not being fooled much. As a nation we love to talk and to hear others spout, particularly if they are a bit "higher up." Let us all cheer up a bit and be not afraid of the bogey man. The sun is rising on time rightalong. A.C. WASHINGTON, D. C., October 25.

4. January 5, 1908 New-York Tribune New York, NY

Article from New-York Tribune, January 5, 1908

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ATISTICS OF FLURRY. Clearing House Returns Give Sidelights on Recent Financial Crisis. The New York Clearing House yesterday completed its compilation of the returns of the fortyeight trust companies in greater New York which filed statements with the State Banking Department under the call of December 19. The figures given out by the Clearing House show the effect of the recent flurry on the condition of the trust companies, there being a marked decrease in all the important items since the returns of August 22 were filed with the State Superintendent of Banks. The number of trust companies reporting on August 22 was fifty-one, but this was reduced to forty-eight in the December return by the suspension of the Knickerbocker, Williamsburg and Jenkins companies. Some of the most striking changes since the preceding report, as shown by the Clearing House's compliation. were a decrease of $215,572,400 in loans on collateral; a reduction of $33,339,000 in the amount of deposits placed with other trust companies, banks. brokers, etc., by the reporting companies and a cash loss of $12,901,700. An interesting feature of the return was the item of $3,695,300 reported by the Guaranty Trust Company under the head of "other resources," with the explanation that $3,560,400 foreign gold in transit was included. The following table shows the decrease in the more important items in the December report as compared with the return of August 22:

5. January 31, 1908 The Havre Herald Havre, MT

Article from The Havre Herald, January 31, 1908

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SOME REAL MONEY PANICS. Episodes Which Make Recent Inconveniences Look Trifling. A community which has been confronted with closing of institutions where it kept its money balances always considers its case one of unparalleled misfortune, says the New York Post. Yet there have been "panics," even in recent times, when circumstances were more heart-breaking eveu than that of depositors in the Knickerbocker and of the dozen other smaller banks which went down with it. The case of 1857, almost forgotten, was one In which not only bank deposits, but the money in the pocket of every individual, turned out useless for private wants. The mood of the man who learned of the closing of a string of note-issuing banks under the older system and who searched his pocket book anxiously to see if his means of paying petty bills was suddenly cut off, had a different aspect even than to-day's. Five months after our panic of 1893, the two banks in the colony of Newfoundland, whose circulating notes made up the whole currency of the Island, closed their doors, and both were completely insolvent. The community was literally left without any circulating medium until gold arrived from England; a state of barter existed and where personal credit did not survive the tinsmith took his pans to the baker to buy bread. A full year after that extraordinary event-the colonial government having in the meantime guaranteed up to 40 per cent the notes of one of the two defaulting banks-a man would get, in his daily currency at St. John's, bills for $10 stamped in red ink, "guaranteed for $4," and they hought just $4 worth of goods.

6. June 3, 1908 New-York Tribune New York, NY

Article from New-York Tribune, June 3, 1908

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BIG CUT IN BANK FEES New Law Has Done Away with Fat Pickings. effected in the liquidation of state law, making the State SuperBanks the official liquidator of failed institutions, as compared with the receiverships, is startlingly shown in Home Bank of Brooklyn, which is come under the operation of the which will reopen for business toafter having been in charge of Banking Department forty-two days, at of only $1,200. This includes the Special Deputy Superintendent, cleriand miscellaneous expenses, such as etc. advertising. receiverships, under Compared the the saving with law to the is stock- little cost depositors new sensational, and proves the new method state banking institutions, which resembles the federal system, to be a most of Brooklyn is a small institucapital of $100,000 and total deposits but as the state receivers are paid redo not and services their for of the money they handle, as in receivers, the cost of liquidating institutions would be at the same rate, the expense depending upon the duration of the Under the new system the cost of Williamsburg Trust Company would $4,200, as compared with $40,000 receivers of the institution and their Justice Kelly last Monday. This $40,000 include the expenses of administering the represents only the fees of the receivers counsel-who, by the way, asked $200,000 services It is said that the saving to the company would have been even greater than above if the work had been done by the examiners, from the fact that they accomplished it more expeditiously. Clark, of the Supreme Court, allowed Rives. Ernst Thalmann and Henry C. for their work in connection with the Trust Company. This amount has been paid, however, as the Attorney Genobtained an injunction preventing the paythe case is now pending in the courts, however, that the receivers in this get. ultimately, not less than $200,000. the cost of the receivership for Knickerbocker would have been about $4,200. following table shows the cost of some rereceiverships compared with that of the Home

7. April 21, 1933 The World-News Roanoke, VA

Article from The World-News, April 21, 1933

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OBSERVANT CITIZEN. (Continued From Page dozen, become one of the greatest institutions the country, with resources of 1922. Causes of 1907 Although had been many danger the money panic of 1907 storm the as whole unprepared Demagogues been to the whole trouble to the of crafty men working their own interests. But the casual study of world history, through the few preceding the collapse, will show the gradual piling up There had been considerable exhaustion capital much disturbance in the world's money markets of the costly the settlement satisfactory neither party Then, dire effect, the Francisco earthquake and fire April, 1906. The caused by the fire upon many insurance companies then the community perceptibly tightened the money market. The storm itself precipitated by what seemed unimportant occurrence But just as the legendary kicked the lamp and caused the great Chicago fire of 1871. seemingly minor started series of troubles. the depositors of uptown Knickerbocker) concerned and started their deposits Before community woke up. there run on the People thoroughly alarmed. and deposit banks all the country At the system of the old Bank its The had no tral to and tightened up, pulled in purse strings and refused to pay freely This polIcy added fuel to the flames and the found in the of currency for all purposes