18061. Mechanics Bank (Memphis, TN)

Bank Information

Episode Type
Suspension โ†’ Closure
Bank Type
state
Start Date
September 15, 1854
Location
Memphis, Tennessee (35.150, -90.049)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini
Short Digest
c56d6d60071345f4

Response Measures

None

Description

Multiple contemporaneous newspapers (July 1855) report the Mechanics' Bank of Memphis 'suspended' (Memphis Whig of 11th). Coverage describes prior suspicions about solvency and that the bills were largely held by mechanics and small dealers. Later commentary (1857) groups this bank among banks that 'have failed', implying the suspension led to permanent failure/closure. No article reports a depositor run preceding suspension; cause appears to be bank-specific insolvency. Also an earlier 1854 notice reports theft of $10 notes from the bank (stolen from president's office), which is noted but not described as triggering the suspension.

Events (3)
1. September 15, 1854 Other
Newspaper Excerpt
LOOK OUT. Twenty-five thousand dollars of the ten dollar ($10) bills of the Mechanics' bank, Memphis, Tenn., were stolen from the president's office, on the 15th ult.
Source
newspapers
2. July 11, 1855 Suspension
Cause
Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details
Longstanding suspicion about solvency; notes mostly held by mechanics and small dealers; large dealers avoided the bank's bills prior to suspension.
Newspaper Excerpt
MECHANICS' BANK SUSPENDED.-There was considerable excitement upon the street yesterday, relative to the suspension of the Mechanics' Bank of this city. The report is generally credited...
Source
newspapers
3. February 17, 1857 Other
Newspaper Excerpt
Three of them the Mechanics Bank at Memphis ... have failed.
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (6)
1. October 25, 1854 The South-Western Shreveport, LA
Article from The South-Western, October 25, 1854

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Article Text

# BY TELEGRAPH. [DISPATCHED TO THE SOUTH-WESTERN.] # ARRIVAL OF THE AFRICA---THREE DAYS LATER. Sebastopol Not Captured! Cotton Unchanged! NEW YORK, Oัั‚. 20. Cunard's steamship Africa has arrived, bringing intelligence from Liverpool to the 7th inst., three days later than the advices by the Baltic. The London and Paris letters by-the Africa entirely invalidate the report brought by the Baltic, in respect to the destruction of Sebastopol. It is evident that the report was put in circulation by the London stock jobbers for the purpose of bolstering up the money market. The latest papers state that the report that the supposed official statement that Menschikoff had surrendered, and Sebastopol been captured, dispatched by the Baltic, had been discovered to be untrue. In like manner we have assurance that the reported destruction and capture of fert Constantine, at the entrance of the roadstead of Sebastopol, together with two other forts, is without foundation. We are also assured the statement of immense losses having been sustained by the Russians in an engagement with the allied army, in the neighborhood of Sebastopol, is utterly false. The fabrication and circulation of these reports is a disgrace to the British press. LIVERPOOL, OCT. 7--No change in the cotton market since the Baltic sailed. Sales of the week, 60,000 bales. Nothing doing in breadstuffs, except corn for which the demand is fair. NEW YORK, Oัั‚. 20-The hon. Abbot Lawrence is dangerously ill. His family has been sent for, as his recovery is considered doubtful. The rev. John Bodhetia, a catholic priest, having been tarred and feathered at Ellsworth, Maine, for participating in a controversy on the school question, has died of the injuries inflicted on him. NEW YORK, Oัั‚. 19-The city council has voted $500, for the purpose of procuring a suitable testimonial for capt. Luce, for his bravery and devoted conduct on the occasion of the loss of the steamship Arctic. Letters from China announce that a new revolution has broken out. The first teller of the Ocean bank, N. York, is a defaulter to the tune of $90,000, and has absconded. BOSTON, OCT. 19-The know nothings of Massachusetts have nominated Henry J. Gardiner as their candidate for governor. Twenty-five of the shipwrecked passengers of the steamship City of Philadelphia, reached here to-day. CINCINNATI, OCT. 19-The banking house of Outcault & Co. failed to-day, and the event has produced some excitement. A run has been commenced by depositors upon the banks of Ellis & Sturgess and Smead & Co. It is the general impression that these establishments will meet the run, and the excitement subside. LOUISVILLE, ะžัั‚. 21-The steamer Nominee to sunk on Wednesday, at Warren's landing, upper Mississippi. Cargo mostly saved. The wreck lies in 12 feet water. No insurance. PHILADELPHIA, Oัั‚. 20-Pennsylvania has rejected the prohibitory liquor law by a majority of 3000 votes. The attorney general of the United States is preparing to carry the Booth case (in which the circuit court in the democratic State of Wisconsin decided against the constitutionality of the fugitive slave law) up to the supreme court. Booth is editor of the Wisconsin Democrat, the organ of senator Dodge. The yellow fever has ceased to be an epidemic in New Orleans. The Howard association has closed its infirmaries and ceased operations for the season. We learn from the Advocate that there is a considerable rush to the land office from various portions of Claiborne parish embraced under the provisions of the late graduation bill. Large quantities of valuable lands situated in the parish are now procurable at from twenty-five cents to one dollar per acre, according to the different classifications of the bill. LOOK OUT. Twenty-five thousand dollars of the ten dollar ($10) bills of the Mechanics' bank, Memphis, Tenn., were stolen from the president's office, on the 15th ult. They are numbered from 1 to 1250 inclusive, and dated July 4, 1854, with a large blue X engraved on the lower side of the bill, between the vignettes. The president gives notice that none of the bills of the above date, mark and denomination have been put in circulation by the bank, and therefore will neither be recognised nor paid. Merchants and travelers should be on their guard against these bills. It would be well to refuse all $10 bills on the Mechanics' bank, of Memphis, Tennessee. We are requested to state, says the National Intelligencer, that a gentleman of the State of Delaware, who was at Mr. Clayton's residence on Monday last, authorises, of his own knowledge, a contradiction of a statement in certain newspapers that Mr. C. had joined the know nothings. He says Mr. Clayton entertains the same opinions expressed by him last session in the senate on the unconstitutionality of all laws allowing aliens to vote without naturalisation in the territories, and that these are the same opinions expressed by him, as well as by Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Clay, Mr. Southard, and all the whigs in the senate of the United States, during 1835-6; but that Mr. Clayton belongs to no secret order or society whatever. The Washington Star finds that the aggre-

2. November 9, 1854 Fayetteville Observer Fayetteville, TN
Article from Fayetteville Observer, November 9, 1854

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Article Text

Save ThisFor the convenience of our mercantile and other readers, says the Nashville True Whig, we have obtained from a reliable source the following list of Bank Notes of doubtful and bad repute. The list only comprehends such as are likely to come in circulation here. It is of the Obinterest to every reader of server-save it: GEORGIA. The following are all "Wild Cat" Banks, and are generally refused by Brokers here. Some take them, however, at 10 to 13 per cent. discount: Merchants' Bank of Macon. " " Manufacturers' Planters and Mechanics' Bank. Atlanta Bank. KENTUCKY. The two following Banks are suspended, and there is nomarket for their notes here: Kentucky Trust Company. Newport Safety Fund Bank. TENNESSEE. The first named Bank below is broke, and the notes of the second are no sale: Farmers and Mechanics' Bank of Memphis. Mechanics' Bank of Memphis. VIRGINIA. The following Banksare no sale: Bank of Kanawha. Trans-Alleghany Bank. INDIANA. All the Free Banks of Indiana are no sale. COUNTERFEIT QUARTER EAGLES. -Two counterfeit. quarter eagles have recently been taken at the New York Post office. Ther are thus described by the Journal of Commerce. "It is made from a genuine New Orleans mint die, stole some years since, and bears the "O" under the talons of the eagle, Prof. John Torry, assayer here, has analy zed the coin, and finds that it is made of a casing of pure gold, filled with silver, and probably with platina, to increase the weight. The = eight is 60 5-10 grains. It is therefore worth $1 17 in gold, and 8 cents in silver, or $1 25 in raw material, besides the labor of making. The maker and vender could not, therefore, realize more than $1 each, which would seem too small a profit, except that the counterfeit is SO well done that there is but little risk of detection."

3. July 14, 1855 The Daily Nashville True Whig Nashville, TN
Article from The Daily Nashville True Whig, July 14, 1855

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Article Text

MECHANICS' BANK OF MEMPHIS SUSPENDED. -The Memphis Whig of the 11th inst., contains the following:

4. July 14, 1855 The Daily Nashville True Whig Nashville, TN
Article from The Daily Nashville True Whig, July 14, 1855

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Article Text

MECHANIOS' BANK OF MEMPHIS SUSPENDED. -The Memphis Whig of the 11th inst., contains the following: MECHANICS' BANK SUSPENDED.-There was considerable excitement upon the street yesterday, relative to the suspension of the Mechanics' Bank of this city. The report is generally credited, yet we cannot say to what extent the suspension may affect the community, but it is generally thought that the amount of the bills in circulation hereabouts cannot be very large-probably a few thousand dollars. We went to the banking house for the purpose of obtaining more satisfactory information, but saw no one that could inform us as to the condition of its affairs or circulation. The greater portion of the bills we have seen in circulation are one two's, three's and five's, and the greater portion of that which is out is probably in the hands of mechanics and small dealers-a class of the community on whom the loss will fall the heaviest. For some time past there has been considerable suspicion about its solvency, and very few, if any, of the large dealers and brokers would keep any of the bills on hand, hence they have escaped pretty generally. We trust that this suspension will not create any suspicions or doubts as regards the other banking institutions of the city. EDWD. EVRETT.-The Boston Advertiser has published in an extra the great oration of the American Cicero-Edwd. Everett-delivered on the Fourth, in his native place, Dorchester, Mass. The following is the concluding paragraph; the whole address occupies nearly nine columns of the Advertiser: "Thus, my friends, in the neighborhood of the spot where in my early childhood, I acquired the first elements of learning, at one of those public schools which are the glory and strength of New England, I have spoken to you imperfectly of the appropriate topics of the day. Retired from public lite, without the expectation or the wish to return to it, but the contrary-grateful for the numerous marks of public confidence which I have received, and which I feel to be beyond my merits -respecting the convictions of those from whom I have at any time differed, and asking the same justice for my own-I own, fellow-citizens, that few things would better please me than to find a quiet retreat in my native town, where I might pass the rest of my humble career in the serious studies and tranquil pursuits which befit the de cline of life, till the same old bell should announce that the chequered scene is over and the weary is at rest."

5. July 19, 1855 Fayetteville Observer Fayetteville, TN
Article from Fayetteville Observer, July 19, 1855

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MECHANICS' BANK OF MEMPHIS SusPENDED.-The Memphis Whig of the 11th inst., contains the followingMechanics' Bank Suspended.--There was considerable excitement upon the street yosterday, relative to the suspension of the Mechanics' Bank of this city. The report is generally credited, yet we cannot say to what extent the suspension may affect the community, but it is generally thought that the amount of bills in circulation here-abouts cannot be very Inige--probably a few thousand dollars. We went to the bank house for the purpose of obtaining more satisfactory information, but saw no one that could inform us AS to the condition of its affairs or circulation. The greater portion of the bills we have seen in circulation are one's, two's,three's,and five's, and thegreater portion of that which is out is probably in the bands of mechanics and small dealers-a class of the community on whom the loss will fall the heaviest. For some time past there has been considerable suspicion about its solvency, and very few, if any, of the large dealers and brokers would keep any of the bills on hand, hence they have escaped pratty generally. We trust that this suspension will not create any suspicions or doubts AS regards the other banking institutions of the city.

6. February 17, 1857 Nashville Union and American Nashville, TN
Article from Nashville Union and American, February 17, 1857

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# BANKS AND BANKING. We have published several communications on the subject of Banks, in which the writers propose changes in the present system of Banking. We believe that Barks have done serious injury to the great mass of the people, and that the injury is in proportion to the number created. We refer back to the time when our legislature gave every body the previlege to bank, and soon thereafter the country was flooded with Kincannon tickets, Chaffin, Kirk & Co. shinplasters, and others of like material. All these, like the moras multicaulis, became worthless, except as fuel to kindle a morning fire. Subsequently the Fermers' and Merchants Bank of Memphis was chartered. Then came the Bank of East Tennessee. The next birth in the Bank family was named the "Lawrenceburg Bank." The legislature of 1851-2 chartered the Citizens' Bank, and passed a general law allowing any person banking privilezes who would deposite $50,000 in bonds with the Comptroller. If the legislature following had looked back to the condition of the banks chartered by their illustrious predecessors, and made an estimate of the loss sustained by the hard working people in consequence of bank failures, surely they would have waited a while to see what tax the people could stand before burthening them with any more banks. But there was not yet a stopping place. After the adjournment of the legislature of 1853-4, (the same body that made JOHN BELL Senator,) we find on the statutes charters for eight more new stock banks. Three of them the Mechanics Bauk at Memphis, the Central Bank at Nashville, and the Miners' and Manufacturers' Bank at Knoxville, have failed. Two others the Bank of West Tennessee, at Memphis, and the Agricultural Bank at Brownsville, are said to be shivering in the chilly breeze of adversity. There was yet no stopping place Although JOHN BELL had failed politically and the three banks above named had failed pecuniarily, yet with all these evils staring them in the face, the legislature of 1855-6 chartered the Bank of America, with the power to establish two branches and the privilege of incressing its capital to one million two hundred thousand dollars, and to issue two dollars for one of capital paid. This same legislature seemed, by their action, to be of the opinion that there had been rather a loose way of banking in Tennesseee, and they passed an act requiring all the banks and branches to make semi-annual reports to the Governor, and that the branch bark reports should be "separate and d stinct from the return of the mother bank." But not one single branch has complied with this act. (It may be proper here to remark that the act makes an exception as to the State Bank, and that the Bank of America, Union, Planters and Citizens' Banks, are all that have branches. Even the Bank of America, chartered at the same session which required branches to report to the Governor, has paid no attention to this act. The same act also prohibits any bank or branch bank from having a circulation which shall "exceed its discounts more than $2,000." If the branches had made reports as required by law, the people could see and understand the practice of dodging the payment of their debts by giving the people of Clarksville notes payable at Rogersville or Dresden, and by giving the people of Nashville notes payable at Athens, Pulaski, Jackson or Knoxville. Now we ask the reader to run over the list of baks named in this article and estimate if he can the heavy tax sustained by the people in consequence of the failure of banks ereated by our legislature from the days of Kincannon to the present time. On whom has this loss fallen? Even at the risk of wounding the feelings of what, in refined circles, are called "commercial men," we say that the great injury dote by the breaking of a bank is done to the farmer, the mechanic and the day laborer. You rarely see a "commercial man" with broken bank money on his hands. He is right at the door of some bank where he can deposite such funds as will not get him exchange to pay his Northern or Southern debt he can deposite every day, and the next day the meanest money he has deposited is paid out on his check to the farmer for his cotton, corn, or other articles of trade, and to the mechanic for labor done on his house or steamboat. But suppose the bank breaks where the "commercial man" keeps his account: don't he lose then? In nine cases out of ten, not a red, but oftener makes by the failure; for he generally has a note or bill in the bank and he checks for the deposite to be applied to the payment of the note or bill ard often has a chance to buy up the notes of the bank at a heavy discount to take up his own paper. If he has no note of his own, he knows of a friend who has, and he will work in his broken bank deposite. The only way these "commercial men" lose by bank failures is when they become too knowing and buy up tank notes when the bank is going down hill and are caught in their speculation. We think it clear that banks have greatly injured the people pecuniarily. We go further:- With the single exception of a hypocritical know-nothing clergy, we think banks and banking are far shead of any thing in injuring the morals of the community. They do every thing in their power to avoid paying their debts. For instance: A cotton speculator draws a bill on his New Orleans merchant for $10,000. The bank discounts the bill. On looking over the money he has received for his bill he finds that it is all payable at Jackson, or Pulaski, or Dresden. He goes to one of these points to make his purchases and finds that by paying gold he can purchase at a lower price; so he goes to the branch bank and gets the coin. The cashier is mad because he had to pay an honest debt, and he immediately writes to the parent bank, tells what notes he redeemed fand what sort of man presented them. When this letter reaches the parent bank, there is a whispering between the president, cashier, and teller and the identity of Mr. Cotton speculator is fixed. Do you suppose he could ever get a bill discounted in that bank again? Not a bit of it. Why? Was that bill he drew not paid? Oh yes, the cotton speculator's bill was met promptly; but the bank did not expect to pay their notes! And because the bank was not successful in avoiding the payment of its notes, it will have no dealings with the man that makes it pay. But again: Banks injure the morals of the people by giving character to the paper of other Banke which they believe to be unsound, and if banks can do this thing, the example is apt to be followed and the fraud becomes general. For instance: A new bank is started without capital- The first object is to get out a circulation. The