16595. Stuyvesant Bank (New York, NY)

Bank Information

Episode Type
Suspension → Closure
Bank Type
state
Start Date
October 1, 1871*
Location
New York, New York (40.714, -74.006)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini
Short Digest
8c98cc39

Response Measures

None

Description

The Stuyvesant Bank suspended/payments and failed in October 1871 and was subsequently placed in receivership/bankruptcy; litigation dragged on for years and the bank did not resume operations. Article explicitly states it suspended business on Thursday, October 12, 1871 and later discusses appointment of receivers and an assignee in bankruptcy. Cause appears tied to correspondent/clearing-house redemption stoppage rather than a later depositor run. Later articles (1879–1880) describe assignee actions and dividend distributions.

Events (5)
1. October 1, 1871* Receivership
Newspaper Excerpt
Mr. O. H. P. Archer was appointed receiver by the Supreme Court of this State, and at once began winding up the affairs of the bank, taking up their collaterals and converting them into cash.
Source
newspapers
2. October 12, 1871 Suspension
Cause
Correspondent
Cause Details
Merchants and Manufacturers' Bank, which did Stuyvesant's clearing, stopped redeeming its checks when it suspected the Stuyvesant owed more than it could pay; this stoppage was followed by the bank's failure the next day.
Newspaper Excerpt
The Stuyvesant Bank ... suspended business on Thursday, October 12, 1871.
Source
newspapers
3. March 20, 1872 Other
Newspaper Excerpt
On March 20, 1872, Judge Blatchford decided that the bankruptcy proceedings superseded the appointment of State receiverships and confirmed Mr. Platt [as assignee].
Source
newspapers
4. July 12, 1879 Other
Newspaper Excerpt
By a recent decision in the United States Circuit Court Mr. John H. Platt was confirmed as assignee in bankruptcy of the defunct Stuyvesant Bank.
Source
newspapers
5. November 22, 1879 Other
Newspaper Excerpt
The report set forth that he had received $59,369.12 from all sources ... Register Dwight then announced his willingness to distribute a dividend of $15,000 ... about two and one-half per cent to the depositors.
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (5)
1. July 12, 1879 The New York Herald New York, NY
Article from The New York Herald, July 12, 1879

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Article Text

THE STUYVESANT BANK. A VEXED SUIT ENDED AND THE QUESTION OF RECEIVERSHIP SETTLED-EVILS OF PROTRACTED CONTESTS IN THE COURTS. By a recent decision in the United States Circuit Court Mr. John H. Platt was confirmed as assignee in bankruptcy of the defunct Stuyvesant Bank. The case has been in litigation ever since the bank failed, over seven years, and during that time the creditors have not received one cent of the deposits committed to the bank. Mr. Platt now promises that a meeting of creditors will soon be held and the remaining assets will be distributed, they having been already converted into cash. This delay is very discouraging to the poorer creditors and they have become clamorous to know its cause. The following letter recently received illustrates their feeling:To THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:Will you be kind enough to inform the members of the Co-operative Building Lot Association of Poor Men (upward of one hundred), who deposited their moneys in the Stuyvesant Bank (amounting to $3,000 and upward), why they have never heard of any divA SUFFERER? idends being made, and oblige Mr. John H. Platt. of No. 40 Wall street, the assignee of the Stuyvesant Bank, said yesterday that he did not know of any such association as that mentioned in the letter. He went on to inform the reporter that a final decree had been entered settling the question of the receivership of the bank in his favor, and that, as the funds had already been converted into cash, he would soon call a meeting of the creditors to distribute the assets. He could not state how much there was left or what the dividend would be. The Stuyvesant Bank, which formerly did business on the corner of Broadw and Astor place, suspended business on Thursday, October 12, 1871. It was a State bank and was not admitted to the Clearing House, the Merchants and Manufacturers' Bank doing all their Clearing House business for them. The bank redeemed the checks of the Stuyvesant until they became suspicious that it owed more money than it could pay, when they suddenly stopped this arrangement, and such stoppage was followed by the failure of the bank the next day. Mr. o H. P. Archer was appointed receiver by the Stipreme Court of this State, and at once began winding up the affairs of the bank, taking up their collaterals and converting them into cash. His appointment did not suit some of the depositors, and Mr. John Mack, one ot the creditors, entered a suit in the United States District Court for the appointment of Mr. John H. Platt as assignee in bankruptcy on December 28, 1871. As the bank had prior to this date been dissolved and a receiver appointed by the State Supreme Court before the return day of this proceeding no appearance was put in and the matter went by delauit. A perplexing question of law was thus raised between the State and United States courts. On March 20, 1872, Judge Blatchford decided that the bankruptcy proceedings superseded the appointment of State receiverships and confirmed Mr. Platt. At. appeal wa taken and the case has been dragging its slow length along the calendars of the United States Courts until a few weeks ago, when the decision was rendered allowing Mr. Piatt to proceed with the winding up of the bank's affairs. in 1972 there was all apparent balance of $160,220 27 in the bank and $16,455 94 cash on the hands of Mr. Archer. How much is left after the expenses of the long suit are paid and bad debts are deducted Mr. Platt could not say. The creditors will no doubt be agreeably surprised to get anything. Time may show how much it will be.

2. November 22, 1879 The New York Herald New York, NY
Article from The New York Herald, November 22, 1879

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Article Text

THE STUYVESANT BANK. A special meeting of the creditors of the Stuyvesant Bank, formerly located at the corner of Broadway and Astor place, was held yesterday in room 63, Post Office Building, Register Dwight presiding. There were about sixty of the old depositors of the bank present. Mr. John H. Platt, the assignee, reported that he had found the assets of the bank of every kind in the possession of the former receiver, Mr. O. H. P. Archer, whom he superseded. Archer would not recognize the authority of the Court and refused to deliver up the property. A suit was thereupon instituted to compel him to surrender the property, which was successful, and Mr. Platt thereafter acted as the assignee. The report set forth that he had received $59,369 12 from all sources; that a considerable amount had been expended by him in settling claims for which suits had been instituted against him as assignee of the bank; that besides the sum received he expected to realize on claims formerly held by the bank for which he would bring suit, if necessary, in his own name as assignee. Mr. N. B. Hoxey, a lawyer, said that he had a client who had a claim against the bank for $3,700, for the recovery of which he intended to institute a suit against the assignee. He explained that his reason for making this public declaration was that the assignee might retain a sufficient amount in his hands to liquidate this claim, which had a rather singular origin. He said it arose out of a draft for $3,700 left with the bank on the very day its failure was announced. This sum, he said, the bank never put into its coffers; but it nevertheless got into the hands of the receiver and in that way mingled with the funds of the bank. Register Dwight then announced his willingness to distribute a dividend of $15,000, which would be about two and one-half per cent to the depositors on the total indebtedness of the bank, of $567,000; this dividend he would make, possibly, within a week. Mr. Platt, in answer to a question of one of the depositors, said that there was a claim of $8,000 against a former teller of the bank, for which suit had been brought by the bank before its failure. In answer to a question as to the long delay in winding up the affairs of the bank, he said the suit he was compelled to institute against the former receiver, Archer, was the principal cause. The meeting then adjourned, it being understood that due notice would be given of the day on which the first dividend of two and one-half per cent would be paid to them.

3. February 4, 1880 Watertown Republican Watertown, WI
Article from Watertown Republican, February 4, 1880

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Article Text

THE BUSINESS REVIVAL. THE production of petroleum is about 60,000 barrels a day. THE United States consumes every year 30,000 bushels of canary seed. THE total home clip of wool last year amounted to 232,500,000 pounds. SIXTEEN million bushels of oysters are annually packed at Baltimore. CLEVELAND decreased her debt $693,000 during 1879, and has $8,591,000 left to pay. LEADVILLE, Col., has four banks of deposit, and the Democrat says they are overrun with deposits. A CALIFORNIA paper says that it is now considered a well settled point that the production of raisins in that state will be made profitable. THE west-bound Union Pacific train from Omaha onthe 14th ult. took out 480 sacks of Australian mail for the next steamer from San Francisco. THE shipments of mules and horses to the south is on the increase. The trade is now said to be better than since the panic of 1873. THERE are now nearly onè hundred lumber and shingle mills on the Saginaw river, with an estimated capacity of 810,500,000 feet, and giving employment to over thousand men. IOWA butter is carried from Davenport to Boston for sixty cents per hundred pounds, and frequently Vermont butter goes into the Hub with the same train at eighty cents per hundred pounds. THERE is a sudden cessation of prosperity at Virginia City, Nev. Mining stocks are down, work in the mine has stopped, and the poor are destitute in the midst of an uncommon cold winter. THE assignee of the Stuyvesant bank of New York, which failed 10 years ago, has just announced his readiness to pay the stockholders a first and final dividend of three cents on the dollar. THERE have been very large sales of hemp in New York, many of which were on account of Boston owners. The sales foot up nearly 20,000 bales " to arrive" in New York and Boston, ranging from cents. 16 of 6 A CHICAGO paper says that the culture of frogs is quite an important industry iu Illinois where one man has over an acre and a quarter of land, on which he is breeding 200,000 dozen of frogs of all ages for the Chicago and Cincinnati markets. ALTHOUGH glycerine was discovered by Scheele in 1779, it is only within the last few years that it has been manufactured commercially. Its value became known simultaneously with easy and cheap manufacture. France is now pre-eminent in its production. THE aggregate steam power in the world is ae present 3,500,000 horse power, employed in stationary engines, and 10,000,000 horse power in locomotive engines. The steam power is equal to the working force of 25,000,000 horses, and one horse consumes three times as much food as one man. The steam power, therefore, is equal to the savings of 75,000,000 human beings. THE sugar and India cargoes to Boston this year will be very large, as numbers of vessels are now loading or on the way from Calcutta, Manilla, Java, Singapore, etc. The West India trade on sugars reached last pear 162,000 hogsheads, or 500 cargoes. Probably this year from Cuba, Porto Rico, Barbadoes, Martinique, St. Croix and other ports 600 cargoes will be received. LAST year was a bad season for Pacific cost mining speculations, 278 companies having assessed their shareholders for a total of $14,887,500. The entire assessments in Nevada for deep mining on the Comstock have been $11,404,400, and the dividends only $4,417,800. In California the assessments exceed the dividends by nearly $1,500,000, and mining stooks have fallen all round. GERMAN telegraphic engineers have lately been experimenting with aluminium as a material for telegraph wires. This metal can easily be drawn out to much finer gauge than is possible with iron, and its conductibility is twice great as that of iron wire. Its excessive cost has hitherto prevented its use for the purpose indicated, but it is found that an alloy of aluminium and wire easily be made, which will produce wire both finer and stronger, and less susceptible to atmospheric change than iron wire, while it is much superior as conducting medium. AUGUSTA, Ga., has six cotton factories in operation, one is in course of building, and capital is being raised for still another, the last to have 24.000

4. February 11, 1880 Union County Courier Elk Point, SD
Article from Union County Courier, February 11, 1880

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Article Text

THE BUSINESS REVIVAL. THE production of petroleum is about 60,000 barrels a day. THE United States consumes every year 30,000 bushels of canary seed. THE total home clip of wool last year amounted to 232,500,000 pounds. SIXTEEN million bushels of oysters are annually packed at Baltimore, CLEVELAND decreased her debt $693, 000 during 1879, and has $8,591,000 left to pay. LEADVILLE, Col., has four banks of deposit, and the Democrat says they are overrun with deposits. A CALIFORNIA paper says that it is now considered a well settled point that the production of raisins in that state will be made profitable. THE west-bound Union Pacific train from Omaha onthe 14th ult. took out 480 sacks of Australian mail for the next steamer from San Francisco. THE shipments of mules and horses to the south is on the increase. The trade is now said to be better than since the panic of 1873. THERE are now nearly one hundred lumber and shingle mills on the Saginaw river, with an estimated capacity of 810,500,000 feet, and giving employment to over thousand men. IOWA butter is carried from Davenport to Boston for sixty cents per hundred pounds, and frequently Vermont butter goes into the Hub with the same train at eighty cents per hundred pounds. THERE is a sudden cessation of prosperity at Virginia City, Nev. Mining stocks are down, work in the mine has stopped, and the poor are destitute in the midst of an uncommon cold winter. THE assignee of the Stuyvesant bank of New York, which failed 10 years ago, has just announced his readiness to pay the stockholders a first and final dividend of three cents on the dollar. THERE have been very large sales of hemp in New York, many of which were on account of Boston owners. The sales foot up nearly 20,000 bales " to arrive" in New York and Boston, ranging from 9 to 91 cents. A CHICAGO paper says that the culture of froge is quite an important industry in Illinois where one man has over an acre and a quarter of land, on which he is breeding 200,000 dozen of frogs of all ages for the Chicago and Cincinnati markets. ALTHOUGH glycerine was discovered by Scheele in 1779, it is only within the last few years that it has been manufactured commercially. Its value became known simultaneously with easy and cheap manufacture. France is now pre-eminent in its production. THE aggregate steam power in the world is ae present 3,500,000 horse power, employed in stationary engines, and 10,000,000 horse power in locomotive engines. The steam power is equal to the working force of 25,000,000 horses, and one horse consumes three times as much food as one man. The steam power, therefore, is equal to the savings of 75,000,000 human beings. THE sugar and India cargoes to Boston this year will be very large, as numbers of vessels are now loading or on the way from Calcutta, Manilla. Java, Singa pore, etc. The West India trade on sugars reached last pear 162,000 hogsheads, or 500 cargoes. Probably this year from Cuba, Porto Rico, Barbadoes, Martinique, St. Croix and other ports cargoes will be received. GERMAN telegraphic engineers have lately been experimenting with aluminium as a material for telegraph wires. This metal can easily be drawn out to a much finer gauge than is possible with iron, and its conductibility is twice as great as that of iron wire, Its excessive cost has hitherto prevented its use for the purpose indicated, but it is found that an alloy of aluminium and wire can easily be made, which will produce a wire both finer and stronger, and less susceptible to atmospheric change than iron wire, while it is much superior as conducting medium. THE Pittsburg Commercial Gasette arrives at the conclusion that all the indications show that the business is in a healthy and prosperous condition, except where it is hampered and threatened by over-speculation. If any one had mid year ago," my the Gasette, that the American nation would within a twelve month show that forgotten the lesson of 1873, he would been laughed at as a pesimist. But, neverthalem our chief danger lies in the repetition of the expansion of over-speculation cause prices, which which produced the have to now

5. March 9, 1880 The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer Wheeling, WV
Article from The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, March 9, 1880

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ally pockets in fees nearly all that is left, and the lawyers get a good round sum. Some of the New York receivers, like he of the Clairmont Savings Bank, pocket what cash they can get hold of and disappear. In the case of the Yorkville Savings Bank the lawyers pocketed eighty per cent of the assets. Of the assets of the broken Stuyvesant Bank, amounting to $60,000, four-fifths was expended in litigation about the receivership. Only one of these wrecked banks has paid its depositors in full, after the cashier sloped with $10,000. This is only a small portion of the sickening record. It is no wonder that throughout the country, where the wrecking has been going on on a smaller scale than in New York, there is a general disgust with savings banks, which are generally coming to be regarded as robbers' roosts. They will continue to fall in public estimation until laws are passed making the stockholders individually liable to the extent of the entire losses. If men who organize savings banks are not willing to secure depositors, they should not be allowed to engage in the business.