16994. Merchants & Mechanics Bank (Troy, NY)

Bank Information

Episode Type
Suspension → Closure
Bank Type
state
Start Date
January 1, 1878*
Location
Troy, New York (42.728, -73.692)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini
Short Digest
7a910e7a

Response Measures

None

Description

Sources state the bank 'failed in 1878' and a receiver brought suit in 1882; no mention of a depositor run or a later reopening. Thus this is a suspension/failure with receivership (permanent closure). Bank type inferred as a state bank (no 'National' or 'Trust' in name).

Events (4)
1. January 1, 1878* Receivership
Newspaper Excerpt
the Merchants' and Mechanics' bank, of this city, which failed in 1878, ... Action is brought by the receiver of the Merchants' and Mechanics' bank
Source
newspapers
2. October 2, 1882 Other
Newspaper Excerpt
A trial of a bank suit, involving $450,000 is in progress. Action is brought by the receiver of the Merchants' and Mechanics' bank, of this city, which failed in 1878, against L. Thomas Vail, Charles R. Church, James E. Perkham, Daniel Robertson and Francis Sims.
Source
newspapers
3. October 14, 1882 Other
Newspaper Excerpt
A suit to recover $450,000 is brought by the receiver of Merchants' and Mechanics' bank of Troy, N. Y. against certain wealthy gentlemen who are charged with having conspired to ruin the institution.
Source
newspapers
4. January 20, 1883 Other
Newspaper Excerpt
Judge Boardman has dismissed with costs the complaint in the action brought by Charles Patterson, as receiver of the Merchants and Mechanics' Bank of Troy, against the officers of that institution to recover $450,000.
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (3)
1. October 5, 1882 The Dallas Weekly Herald Dallas, TX
Article from The Dallas Weekly Herald, October 5, 1882

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Article Text

A Baptist Preacher HAS TO RESIGN. TROY, N. Y., October 2. - George B. Simons, the Baptist minister at Greenbush, charged with writing love letters to a young lady of his congregation, resigned, and the resignation was accepted. During the farewell serinon many women in the congregation wept. The trial of a bank suit, involving $450,000 is in progeess. Action is brought by the receiver of the Merchants' and Mechanics' bank, of this city, which failed in 1878, against L. Thomas Vail, Charles R. Church, James E. Perkham, Daniel Robertson and Francis Sims. The complainant charges defendants. who are alleged to have been largely interested in both the Merchant's and Mechanic's bank, and the Schagagticoke woolen mills with having connived to defraud the bank out of about $450,000, and thus caused the failure. The bank handled large amounts of the woolen mill's paper. Most of the defendants are wealthy and occupy high social positions.

2. October 14, 1882 Northern Tribune Cheboygan, MI
Article from Northern Tribune, October 14, 1882

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Article Text

# NORTHERN TRIBUNE. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1882. Twenty-one towns in the United States bear the name of Garfield. Judge Folger accepts the Republican nomination for governor of New York. A single steamer took 30,000 barrels of apples from New York to London last week. Eight more bodies of victims of the Asia disaster have been recovered and taken to Owen Sound by the tug Ann Long. A leather belt has just been made in Hartford, Conn. which is an inch thick, 38 inches wide, and 125 feet long and weighs 1,834 pounds. Secretary Lincoln has awarded contracts for levee work on the lower Mississippi, the total amount contracted for being 4,636,200 cubic yards, at a cost of $1,153,824. At Charlottesville, Virginia, a mob of forty men broke into the jail, dragged out Jim Rhodes the confessed murderer of the Massie family, and lynched him in short metre. Ninety-nine locomotives and 11,627 car wheels were exported from the United States last year. During the same period there were exported 2,164,648 pounds of iron rails. A suit to recover $450,000 is brought by the receiver of Merchants' and Mechanics' bank of Troy, N. Y. against certain wealthy gentlemen who are charged with having conspired to ruin the institution. Since the tariff commission left Long Branch six weeks ago it has traveled 5,200 miles, has passed through 20 states visited 22 cities, and taken the statements of 150 persons. The testimony will fill at least 1,000 printed pages.

3. January 21, 1883 New-York Tribune New York, NY
Article from New-York Tribune, January 21, 1883

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Article Text

A CHARGE OF CONSPIRACY DISMISSED. TROY, N. Y., Jan. 20.-Judge Boardman has dismissed with costs the complaint in the action brought by Charles Patterson, as receiver of the Merchants and Mechanics' Bank of Troy, against the officers of that institution to recover $450,000. The complaint charged that the defendants conspired to defraud the bank of that amount. Judge Boardman finds that there was no conspiracy.