17017. Savings Bank (Newport, RI)

Bank Information

Episode Type
Suspension โ†’ Closure
Bank Type
savings bank
Start Date
April 1, 1878*
Location
Newport, Rhode Island (41.490, -71.313)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini
Short Digest
09ce26f0d8cb02d1

Response Measures

None

Description

Newspaper reports describe a court injunction restraining the Savings Bank of Newport from doing business (Rhode Island supreme court). No article describes a depositor run on this bank; coverage implies suspension by legal action and no clear reopening. OCR is poor in places (e.g., 'Codding-' fragment). Dates inferred from articles: April 1878 report of injunction; a later piece (Feb 1879) references a suspension of the Newport Savings Bank in late 1878. I do not infer any reopening because none is reported.

Events (1)

1. April 1, 1878* Suspension
Cause
Government Action
Cause Details
Court injunction by Rhode Island (supreme court) restraining the Savings Bank of Newport from doing further business; legal action forced suspension.
Newspaper Excerpt
The supreme an court of Rhode Island ton Five Cent injunction, restraining the has doing further business. Savings Bank, of Newport, Codding- from been
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (2)

Article from The Lamoille News, April 24, 1878

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Article Text

NEWS SUMMARY. Eastern and Middle States. mitted An untisually in New York atrocious murder was comkilled his wife by Michael Fogarty, who At one time and then cut his own throat. was Fogarty owned a grocery store came prosperous; and but after A while and his debts unpaid, then he ran away to Canada, disasters leaving that his Returning secretly he own account wife had opened a grocery store on found herself and was earning & livelibood her interest and in children. Fogarty demanded for and his wife's Business. She an were thetteefor frequent the quarrels between refused. them brought and acrimonious. Fogarty was a civil suit against his wife, which had murder pending and on the day previous to rest in Mrs. Fogarty caused her husband's the her store, a police court because he had locked arcompelled taking away the keys. The up off muttering. him to That return night the keys, and he justice went admission to his wife's room Fegarty obtained pain asleep awoke and poured nitric acid into while her eye. she was pleted his fiendish her, when he seems to have com- The remainder of the crime by pouring the her with a knife acid in her ear and stabbing he terminated in the back of the neck. the knife across his his own existence by drawing Then three bright children, throat. The Fogartys had bright boy the oldest of aroused of thirteen. named William-was whom-a for policeman. by his mother's screams and ran out that he meant The father left a note saying and blaming the to disfigure his wife and son, man Five for the crime he police was about justice to and commit. another State hundred convicts in the Clinton (N. the State prison are to be sot at work making Y.) work. receiving $745a week for this convict hats, Ring William M. Tweed, the notorious New York 12th. He Boss, died in Ludlow street jail about two had been confined in this on the the United years- -ever since his deliverance prison his death States by Spain-and at the time to discases. WAS When suffering his from & complication of of called to bis doctor, end was drawing near he words from his lips who wrote down these good, if I have not had have tried to do some afraid to die. I good luck. am not will protect me." This believe the guardian angels by a stupor from utterance was followed perfect consciousness, which he never returned to the bell tower of Ludlow and just as the clock in to strike twelve street jail had begun head William M. Tweed out a back slightly and breathed his threw last with- his struggle. Only in the building at the a daughter was present wife and two sons time of his death, his which he died was being abroad. The room in Tweed was born in New sumptuously furnished and in early York on April 8d, 1823, public life was chairmaker. His Soon after appearance he served was as an alderman in 1852. first Then he becamea & term in Congress. and after holding supervisor other in New York city, was elected subordinate offices he was made a State Senator in 1867. In 1870 he of public works a commissioner of the department time began in hisnative city, and from consisting of the Tweed, thieving career of the Ring, that Hall. In 1871 the Sweeny, Connolly and gan the famous Committee of Seventy bewhich ended in its crusade against the Ring rested. downfall. Tweed twelve years tried, imprisonment found guilty and sentenced was ar- to $12,550. After and to pay a fine of he escaped from serving a portion of his time and fled to Spain. Ludlow That street jail in 1875 had to the been United States in 1876, country and since gave then him up offering to endeavoring to obtain his release he his numerous surrender accomplices bis property and betray by to regain in crime. His successful his liberty. however, had been efforts unup to the time of his death. House, E. F. Boston, Massurett, cashier of the Tremont the hotel funds embezzled about $5,000 from gambling, to cover losses incurred officer, to have and when him his employers sent for by an inflicting a fatal wound. arrested, he shot himself, injuries Francis received Borne died in New York city from six weeks while wrestling with a bear Borne was previous at a performance in was hurt internally. struck in the side by the animal Albany. and Rumors have about New York been for some time floating Tilton and Brooklyn that ciliation was visiting his wife and that Theodore two. These was about rumors to take place between a recon- the startling manner were confirmed in a most lowing letter, by the publication of the folWheeler, her written by Mrs. Tilton to Ira B. A few weeks since. legal counsel: My DEAR SIRtal anguish, I told, after long months of menwhom had bitterly as you know. few friends, brought by my husband, deceived, that the charge myself and the Rev. of adultery between 80 the well years true, last four and that the lie Henry I had Ward lived Beecher, was That statement had solemnly become intolerable to me. the truth with God, to reaffirm, and leave myself, my children, whom also I commit I know full well and all who must suffer. sought by the explanations that will desire to many return for to this acknowledgment be a malice, everything my husband, insanity, my save the true and what is quickened due to the conscience, and the only sense one of During all the complications cause of truth and justice. have I been my confidential of these years you address this friend, and therefore questing letter toyou, authorizing BETH R. you to secure its publication. and rein the TILTON. When this letter ELIZAwas on New York newspapers Mr. Beecher, appeared N. Y., and lecturing tour was found at who was in answer to the question Waverly, present, going to do, he answered: what he Mr. except to give it an Nothing at for Beecher also made the following explicit denial. fession publication: with "I confront Mrs. Tilton's statement testimony explicit and absolute denial. conwhich, for to her own innocence and to The dreds, four years, she has made mine, court, in in private and in public, before to huntrue. And writing the and orally, I declare to the be tradiction ing of her allegations uniform, solemn now made and in conI declare statements her hitherto made, I utterly unvarygression. HENRY to be WARD innocent BEECHER. of the great trans- deny. large Eleven firms business failures and suspensions other day. were announced in New York the of reduce The the Lowell mill agents have decided fifteen per cent. wages of operatives from five to to granted The supreme an court of Rhode Island ton Five Cent injunction, restraining the has doing further business. Savings Bank, of Newport, Codding- from been The similarly Emigrant enjoined. Savings Bank, of Boston, has Western The and Southern States. met in Illinois Democratic State E. L. Springfield and nominated a convention A small Cronkhite for State treasurer at ticket the with the Ohio river boat at containing Martin's six young men, head. on drowned, swamped, and three of those Ferry, in the Ohio, was The the rest reaching shore with boat were nominated Oregon ticket. Democrats met in Portland difficulty and place A fire at covering sixteen acres of and sixty of about took causing a loss over $500,000. nounced The Northwestern that it Bank, of Chicago, notes in gold, and would is the redeem its circulating an in the country that resumed first specie national payments bank the Forty-five Santa cars at Cottonwood, Kansas


Article from New-York Tribune, February 1, 1879

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Article Text

VIDENCE THAT JAMES W. BARRON, THE CASHIER, ROBBED THE BANK, FALSIFIED HIS ACCOUNTS, SWORE TO FALSE STATEMENTS, AND COMMITIED SUICIDE. BOSTON, Jan. 31.-For some time past Deective Dearborn, of this city, has been investigat11g the circumstances attending the mysterius death of James W. Barron, cashter of he Dexter, Me., Savings Bank, who was found n the outer vault of the bank about 8 o'clock in the vening of February 22, 1878, bound. gagged, and in a ying condition. Barron died in a few hours after, and t was believed by the bank officers and all others that e had been murdered by burglars for refusing to dislose the combination of the inner vault, which conained the bank's securities, and in consequence of this be affair attracted general attention throughout he country. Although several suspicious circumtances were developed after Barron's death. it was not until November 1. 1878, that a decided effort was made 0 clear up the mystery. About that date the new ashier of the bank discovered that Barrou's worn statement to the Bank Examiner had een tampered with, and the liabilities of the ank made $2,000 less than the actual amount Barron's last statement to the Bank Examiner was audited by two of the trustees. and the books agreeing with it, the statement was approved. By a more minute examination the astounding discovery was made that he figures 1 and 8 in Barron's original statement had been erased and the figures : and 6 substituted. It was further discovered hat in the sum charged to loans on collateral securities he figure 2 had been substituted for a eipher, making be sum loaned appear $12,789 50, instead of $10,89 30. These erasures and alterations had evidently been made after the statement had been audited. Examination has also been made of the cash books rom November 1,1877, up to February 22, 1878, the time of the supposed murder, and it was ascertained that f the entries on that book were correct there ought to ave been about $1,600 in the bank at that time. Sandwiched in among the regular entries on the ook between the two last named dates were ound items of various amounts, amounting o $1,600, which just equals the amount of money which should have been on hand at that ime. Barron was $3,600 short in all, and had perjured himself to cover the $2,000 defleit in the bank statenent. With these facts as a basis, an exhaustive inrestigation was made and a full statement of the result, howing that Barron committed suicide, will be pubished to-morrow. EVIDENCES OF SUICIDE. The statement shows that not a single dollar in the outer vault was taken or a paper disturbed : that the bank was in full view of the Post Office throughut the day, and not a suspicious person was een to leave it. nor was any known to have been seen in the town or to depart from it: that snow vas on the ground, and not a footstep was found in he rear of the building under the window which was found open. That the physicians who attended Barron t the time of his death agree that none of his slight outward wounds could have caused his death, and that its symptoms were those of morphine poisoning; that he did not die of heart disease, as some supposed, and not by suffocation in the vault that the room in which he was supposed to have been attacked y burglars, and where his false teeth. etc., were found, ad a thick coating of coal-dust upon it, and this bore no races of a scufile, nor was there any dirt upon Barron's lothing. A screw-driver and an old lamp were found in the vault on top of the safe after he discovery of Barron. The finding of the lamp and crew-driver proved the clew to the mystery. HOW THE ACT WAS COMMITTED. After one day's experimenting the officers demontrated that Barron could have locked himself in. On he outer door of the vault was a combination lock. this was held to the door on the inside by a cap astened by one screw. The cap being removed t was easy to pull the door to, shove he boltsinto place with the hand from the inside, and hen secure them by a tinger manipulating the bolt of he lock into its proper place. This done, 11 was easy to replace the cap. Then the door was locked, and could ot be opened except from the outside, and ben only by one who knew the combinaion. The officers claim that he did it on his occasion. working by the light of the kerosene amp above referred to, and also fastened the second or side door without the aid of his keys. This the ollicers id over and over again, and this they claim Barron id. It was then an easy matter to extinguish the light nd place the lamp and screw-driver where they were in Next safe. inner a small of on the top ound, rder probably came the swallowing of poison and the diustment of the rope and gag. To place manacles pon his wrists was a comparatively easy task. Every hing being then ready. all that remained was to lie own upon the floor and await the end. It was discovred that he had talked of suicide and had inquired bout various styles of handcuff's; that be ad discharged a mortgage on his house of $2,000 about January,1 and that as far back as then he had doctored' his books to cover discrepancies. In Baron's desk was found a copy of trial of Scott and Danlap. the Northampton Bank robbers. will be re. membered that when that bank was robbed the cashier as taken from his house, gagged. handenffed and parially choked by a rope around his neck. in order to ompel him to open the doors of the bank. The suppoition is that Barron imitated as closely as he could the odus operandi of those desperadoes. THE FALSIFIED ACCOUNTS. By his cash-book it appears that there ought to have een $320 in cash on hand, when in reality there was no honey in the bank, as has already been stated. In reerence to the $500 bond entered on the books, the bank as advertised very extensively for information as to ho any one sold such a bond to Barron on. or about that me, but has not been successful. The presumption ow 14 that no $500 bond was ever purchased by mm, nd that entry was made to account in part for $1.600 thich should have been on hand at that time. In add:on to the value of the bond, he charged off 567 to ** cash," which. together with the bond, is inaccounted for on the other books. It is supposed that e false statement made by Barron to the Bank Exminer in November, 1877, together with the suspension ( the Newport Savings Bank the week previous, and te knowledge in his possession that the Dexter Bank paid not stand a run, impelled him in the commission the deed.