17147. Canton State Bank (Canton, OH)

Bank Information

Episode Type
Run → Suspension → Closure
Bank Type
state
Start Date
September 23, 1841
Location
Canton, Ohio (40.799, -81.378)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini
Short Digest
98b954df

Response Measures

Accommodated withdrawals, Full suspension

Description

September 1841: a severe run occurred but bank initially withstood it. In early 1842 the bank 'exploded'/failed after large specie was allegedly shipped east and announcements of failure; by 1842-03-24 receivers were appointed. Sequence indicates a run preceded a suspension/failure and ultimate receivership (closure). Dates are taken from newspaper publication dates; exact suspension day is unclear in text.

Events (3)

1. September 23, 1841 Run
Cause
Rumor Or Misinformation
Cause Details
Newspapers report various rumors that the bank would fail; panic-driven heavy withdrawals, though the bank initially withstood them.
Measures
Bank withstood the pressure; public statements that it was able to redeem notes and would not suspend.
Newspaper Excerpt
A severe run has been made on it, but the Bank has we are informed, withstood the pressure.
Source
newspapers
2. February 1, 1842* Suspension
Cause
Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details
Allegations that $10,000 in specie was removed/shipped east just before the 'explosion' and that officers/insiders conducted premeditated actions leading to failure; announcements of suspension/failure followed.
Newspaper Excerpt
it was announced that the Canton Bank had failed, leaving the people with its lying promises, to whistle for their confidence.
Source
newspapers
3. March 24, 1842 Receivership
Newspaper Excerpt
J.D Brown, E. P. Grant, and O. T. Browning. have been appointed Receivers for the Canton Bank by Judge Belden
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (4)

Article from The Ohio Democrat, September 23, 1841

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Article Text

CANTON BANK. Various rumors have been afloat that this Bank would soon go the way of all flesh. A severe run has been made on it, but the Bank has we are informed, withstood the pressure. A gentleman from Canton yesterday, says.-"It is able and will redeem all its notes in circulation. There need be no fear of it suspending." Weare: glad to hear it inaamuch as there are a great many of its notes in this county. We make this statement to caution the noteholders from suffering themselves to be shaved, by selling the paper at a discount.


Article from The Ohio Democrat, February 3, 1842

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Article Text

Now, for the benefit of this man, Griswold, we will state the fact to the public, that the explosion of this in. stitution of robber was premeditated and done by a systematic in vement. FACT- On a day or so before the explosion of the Bank was announced at Canton, TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS CF ITS SPECIE was taken out of its vaults and shipped east, leaving but a few dollars behind. Men to guard it were sent along, and we have it from a citizen of Steubenville, that the money and its guard remained there one night, and communicated the fact to the Farmer's Bank of Steubenville one night in advance of others. Next morning after the guard and the $10,000 in specie had left Steubenville, it was announced that the Canton Bank had failed, leaving the people with its lying promises, to whistle for their confidence. What made the matter worse was, that the Farmer's and Mechanics Bank of Steubenville, up to that time, had given currency and credit to the Canton Bank paper, and a vas! deal of it was left unredeemed, not in the hands of the Bank at Steubenville, but in those of the hard laboring people. But this is not all. The Statesman contains a letter from J. A. Saxton, dated Canton Jan 10, to a friend in Lancaster,stating that the Bank would suspend "redeem ing its notes even in currency when it opens this morning,' and advising the said friend if he had any notes to get them off. Such bulletins were no doubt sent to all the friends of the Bank in advance, that they might not be sucked. "And yet these impudent robbers, worse than the highwayman who meets you in the road, have the impudence to demand of us who it was that informed us of their crimes and enormities. But these plunderers of the hard earnings of the people -these chartered pirates upon the industry of the country, have got the wrong person to deal with. It was from this den of iniquity that a certain oath emanated in 1838, to the Ohio Legislature, that it "would resume when the specie circular was repealed!" We know nothing about this Mr Griswold, or who he is, but we just inform him that he has got his head into the wrong noose, and if the spring should fly, and he should find himself dangling in the air, between heaven and earth, he must charge it to a want of discre tion, a thing quite as necessary in highwaymen as cours age and impudence." DJ We can inform the editor of the Statesman some. thing "about this Mr. Griswold' who now puts 'Esqr.' to your name He is the same Griswold who stumped it through Tuscarawas county in 1840, peddling Ogle's speeches, and denouncing Martin Van Buren as a lyrant, a usurper, and a robber of the peoples money. And he is the same Griswold, who in a speech in the Courthouse in Newphiladelphia, smacked his hands, on the desk three times, and each time pronounced "Sam Medary a Thief!' The swindled community can now judge who is the 'Thief!' How is it the commitiee appointed to examine the Bank said nothing about the $10,000 of specie shipped east? Was there no entry made on the books-no mem oranda of it to be found? There is something wrong here, and the swindled note holders should know where the blame lies.


Article from The Ohio Democrat, February 10, 1842

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Article Text

COMMUNICATION. For the Democrat. To George W. Belden, D. A. Starkweather, and J, D. Brown. GENTS: -I have read your report on the affairs of the Canton Bank, and also Mr. President Griswold's letter to the editors of the Massillon Gazette, dated Jan. 29th, 1842. 1 solicit a public answer to the following questions, not from idle curiosity or any desire to make matters worse but to satisfyithe public so far as practicable as to the solvency of that institution, that its dealings have been fair and its final failure unavoidable. Among the bills discounted amounting in the whole to $89,443 09 did you count and report those "against a few stockholders who live in or near Massillon" which Mr. President Griswold more than intimates are not safel 2d How large a proportion of this amount of "bills dis-counted' is against the Directors or stockholders? 3d were these "stock bonds counted by you or have they heen heretofore counted by the officers of the bank as stock paid in? 4th who are the signers of these 'stock bonde,' and is there any security to them other the names of the stockholders?' 5th Are these stockholders or any of them indebted to the bank otherwise than by those "stock bonds," and have they or any of them ever paid any money on account of their stock? 6th. Please explain the transaction of the $10,000 in specie said to be shipped to the east just before the explosion? Is there any entry of it on the trooks of the bank? 7th. Did or did not the officers pay off all or a greater portion of deposites in par or other good funds just before the bank stopped. How much and in what funds did they pay to depositors-say within a month previous to stopping payments Who were the depositors of the $22,575.78! Was not this the amount due on that day to the treasurer of Stark County? Why were not the following items applied in payment of recurring liabilities, and had they been so applied would they not have been sufficient to have prevented the suspension, viz: "Stock bonds 7361,58 "Bihs of Exchange 3500,00 "Notes of other banks 12,190,00 "Checks 94,00 "Specie 894,12


Article from The Ohio Democrat, March 24, 1842

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Article Text

J.D Brown, E. P. Grant, and O. T. Browning. have been appointed Receivers for the Canton Bank by Judge Belden The two last named are officers of the Bank,