Bank of Cincinnati - Cincinnati, OH

Bank Information

Episode Type: Run → Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: state
Start Date: June 1, 1887*
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio (39.103, -84.515)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: e6e38d63

Response Measures

Full suspension

Other: Bank ultimately failed and was associated with the Harper wheat corner; receivership implied by failure and judgments held by government.

Description

Contemporary accounts link a run on the Bank of Cincinnati to the June 1887 wheat corner/panic. Newspaper copy (1887) reports a run on the bank of Cincinnati on June 14 linked to the grain-market panic; later reporting (1905 retrospective) states the bank failed and its manager E.L. Harper was prosecuted. Dates are taken from the June 14, 1887 market panic references. Bank charter type not specified in the sources, so set to unknown.

Events (3)

1. June 1, 1887* Other

Newspaper Excerpt: When the panic came and his bank failed Harper was tried for looting the institution. He was convicted and sent to prison for ten years. ... The government holds $3,000,000 of these judgments in behalf of depositors, who lost their money in the failure of the bank of Cincinnati.
Source: newspapers

2. June 1, 1887* Receivership

Newspaper Excerpt: The government holds $3,000,000 of these judgments in behalf of depositors, who lost their money in the failure of the bank of Cincinnati.
Source: newspapers

3. June 14, 1887 Run

Cause: Macro News
Cause Details: Panic triggered by the Chicago/Chicago Board of Trade wheat corner and the collapse of related trading houses during the June 1887 grain-market crash.
Newspaper Excerpt: Then came the rumor that there was a ran on the bank of Cincinnati, the headquarters of the clique, and the Chicago banks refused to advance any more money.
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (2)

1. June 15, 1887 Daily Republican Wilmington, DE

Article from Daily Republican, June 15, 1887

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Article Text

A BIG CRASH IN WHEAT. The Western Corner Broken by the Anti-Clique Dealore-Three Failuresin Milwaukee and One in Chicago. CHICAGO, June 14 -This has been a red letter day in the history of the grain business in this city. Immediately after the'opening of the market the un steady feeling which had characterized Saturday's proceedings again made its appearance and in a little while swept everything before it. Iastead of keep ing July wheat up to 85c., as the clique brokers had bussted they would, it was again allowed to fall from 83343. to 82c in the early session, and after 11 dropped to 75c. June also fell from 921/20. to 87c., then to 741/2c., amid the wiidest confusion, and shortly afterward the failure of one of the leading olique houses, Moritz Rosenfeld & Co., was announced. 4 A REGULAR PANIC. Panicky news kept coming in from all quarters and it soon became appat. ent that the clique had lost its hold As prices dropped the uproar became something frightful. The anti-clique dealers abouted themselves hoarse over every fall, while the ring brokers vain ly tried to steady their tumbling cause. Then came the rumor that there was a ran on the bank of Cincinnati, the headquarters of the clique, and the Chicago banks refused to advance any more money. Later in the session it was stated that the checks of some of the parties interested in the corner had been refused, and this intens.fied the uproar. PLENTY OF MARGINS PROMISED. At 20 o'clock it was officially an nounced that E. W. Bailey & Co. and Hamili & Brine requested all parties having trades with toem to close them out at once. Theinstant this announce 8 ment was made July wheat dropped to 8 721/1c, but soon recovered and went back to 74c. A communication from y Kershaw & Co., the cliques' leading P B broker. was read, stating that plenty of margins would be 00 hand to-morrow, and was received with mingled cheers and groans. It had a revivifying effect, n however, as July soon rallied and sold at 751/cc. June wheat sold with the o wildest fluctuations, from 92c down to 90o., upto91c, and then by jumps down to 73c. THE DAY IN NEW YORK NEW YORK. June 14.-As the reault of the heavy decline at Chicago the lo cal wheat market suffered a bad break The speculative dealings are centred ID July, August and September deliver les and the changes in these created the wildest excitement. THREE FAILURES IN MILWAUKEE MILWAUKEE, June 14 -The endden drop in wheat at all the great grain cen tres caused intense excitement OD Change to day. Three failures were annoueced, viz : Frank Wilson Joseph Wilde & Hill, Fleitzheim & Co., the latter being the Milwaukee branch of O. J. Kershaw & Co., of Chicago Hooker, Crittenden & Co. closed out all their trades. Their railure depends on the ability of the Kershaw crowd to mest their obligations. BALTIMORE SHORTS CATCH UP. BALTIMORE, June 14.-There was e more business to-day on the floor of the 8 Corn and Flour Exchange than for B some time past. The sales aggregated p more than a million bushels of wheat, h which dropped three cents from the closing prices at the noon call yester 11 day and afforded an opportunity for all h the shorts to fill. Before the closethere p was a better feeling and prices advanced.

2. March 23, 1905 Los Angeles Herald Los Angeles, CA

Article from Los Angeles Herald, March 23, 1905

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Article Text

PLUNDER WENT TO OIL TRUST REVELATIONS ON THE FAMOUS HARPER WHEAT DEAL Evidence in Bankruptcy Proceedings Indicate That Ten Million Dollars Profits Went to Ceterie of Standard Men Special to The Herald. CHICAGO, March 22.-A sensational sequel to the Harper wheat corner of 1887 is promised in the near future when the bankruptcy proceedings of E. L. Harper are aired in court at Bristol, Va. Evidence is now being gathered in Chicago to show the astounding operations of a number of financiers connected with the Standard Oil company and how these operations led to the greatest wheat panic in the history of the country. These developments will show, it is said, that the greater part of the $10,000,000 lost on the Chicago board of trade during that memorable occasion went into the pockets of this coterie. It is alleged that these Standard Oil men were ostensibly backers of Harper, then a Cincinnati banker. but that through treachery they sold him out and engulfed him in disgrace and ruin-ending in the Ohio penitentiary. Many Chicago board of trade men and former wheat operators are interested in the Harper proceedings. Judgments against Harper are held in Chicago to the extent of several million dollars. Many of the creditors are dead and others are scattered about the world. C. J. Kershaw, of the firm bearing his name, is living on the Pacific coast. Twenty-three firms failed on the board of trade on June 14, 1887, and at least fifty other firms lost all they had. Thousands of families were utterly ruined, and the disaster extended in various ways into the. lives of countless other persons. Harper is now attempting to have himself declared bankrupt, although he is vice president and manager of the Union Iron and Steel company of New York, a concern with a capital of $6.000,000. When the panic came and his bank failed Harper was tried for looting the institution. He was convicted and sent to prison for ten years. He served six years and was pardoned. When released Harper went to New York and organized the Steel company, of which he is now the head. Out of the wheat corner arose numberless lawsuits resulting in judgments aggregating between $5,000,000 and $10,000,000. The government holds $3,000,000 of these judgments in behalf of depositors, who lost their money in the failure of the bank of Cincinnati.