18765. Farmers Bank (Lancaster, PA)

Bank Information

Episode Type
Run → Suspension → Unsure
Bank Type
state
Start Date
September 25, 1857
Location
Lancaster, Pennsylvania (40.038, -76.306)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini
Short Digest
17d2e88e

Response Measures

Full suspension

Description

Newspapers describe a run on the Farmers Bank of Lancaster in the panic of 1857 which was halted when the banks in Lancaster suspended payments. Sources show the run began in late September 1857 and the suspension followed immediately; later articles (Oct–Nov 1857) list the bank among suspended/non-accepting banks but do not clearly report a reopening or final failure, so outcome is uncertain.

Events (2)
1. September 25, 1857 Run
Cause
Macro News
Cause Details
Run began during the wider 1857 monetary panic and panic-driven withdrawals spurred by news of other suspensions and a general money panic.
Measures
The run was halted when banks in Lancaster suspended payments (collective suspension).
Newspaper Excerpt
On Friday last, a run was commenced on the Farmers' Bank, of Laneaster, Pa., and was only stopped on Saturday by the suspension of all the banks there.
Source
newspapers
2. September 26, 1857 Suspension
Cause
Macro News
Cause Details
Banks in Lancaster suspended payments amid the 1857 financial panic; Farmers Bank listed among non-bankable/suspended institutions in subsequent reports and currency lists (Oct 1857).
Newspaper Excerpt
was only stopped on Saturday by the suspension of all the banks there.
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (4)
1. November 27, 1856 Lewistown Gazette Lewistown, PA
Article from Lewistown Gazette, November 27, 1856

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Article Text

Foreign News. Gone-The man with forty grammars. Weather-Variable as the Fashions. Missing-Porter's Spirit of the 15th inst. IN Rev. John J. Pearce is out in a card denying that he voted for A. White for Congress. Reports from Kansas intimate that Gov. Geary is getting into trouble with the Missourians. The run on the Farmers Bank of Lancaster county and Lancaster County Bank has in a measure ceased. IS There is said to be a township in Louisiana, colonized by free negroes, who all voted for Buchanan. The only white man in it voted for Fillmore. The Democrat puts up the name of Ephraim Banks, Esq., for Governor, on the principle we suppose of rotation-i. e. rotating from one office into another. Tickets were issued for a ball at the Lewistown on Tuesday evening, but bad weather and perhaps a want of "hoops" prevented it from coming off. Drugged and Robbed.-David Daughenbaugh, who had just sold his farm for $800, was drugged and robbed of the whole sum, in Pittsburg, Pa., last Thursday. Dandridge C. Williams of Eutaw, Alabama, killed seven grown turkeys and wounded the eighth one at one shot-all on the wing at that. Extensive Sale.-The Sheriff of Centre county advertises about 18,000 acres of land, in forty-two tracts, situate in Taylor township, to be sold at Bellefonte on the 1st December, as the property of James Wilson, deceased. Burglary and Robbery. -The store of Peter Baldy, Jr., in Danville, Pa,, was entered by a back window, on Saturday night last, and robbed of silks, broche shawls, &c., amounting in value to more than $500. Fire.-The Farmers' and Mechanics' store at Enow station, Ohio, on the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad, was destroyed by fire on Wednesday morning. Loss, $10,000; insurance $5000. The Philadelphia City Council are talking of swapping away $450,000 Pa. Railroad stock for the same amount of North Pa. Railroad bonds-the former paying 8 per cent., the latter nothing. The fools are not all dead yet. For sale-Both the Tyrone papers. It wouldn't be a bad idea for the editors along the Juniata to buy the material of one establishment, and keep it for the especial accommodation of "traveling jours." As they average about one a week the year round, the paper might be edited, set up, worked off and distributed by each in turn, and thus afford an unequalled variety in the way of editorials, selections, &c.

2. September 29, 1857 Evening Star Washington, DC
Article from Evening Star, September 29, 1857

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Article Text

The Monetary Crisis. The money panic continues to be the absorbing topic. On yesterday the principal suspensions were those of the Delaware and Rhode Island banks. The New England banks continue firm. The Boston Journal learns from an authentic source that the net gain of coin in the Boston banks for the week ending Saturday morning was $375,200. The Philadelphia papers of yesterday all comment upon the bank suspension in that city and the effect it is likely to have upon business. They are, however, at variance as to the propriety of an extra session of the Legislature. The Richmond Dispatch of yesterday says : The news of bank suspensions at the North, which came by telegraph last Saturday, created quite a stir in our city, and caused the price of specie to run up to high rates, some of the brohers holding it ten per cent., while others were selling for five." On Friday last, a run was commenced on the Farmers' Bank, of Laneaster, Pa., and was only stopped on Saturday by the suspension of all the banks there. The St. Louis papers of Friday announce that the Bank of Missouri had commenced discounting again, to a large extent, much to the relief of mercantile business. A despatch from New York city yesterday says: Terror seized upon the stock exchange this morning, and the whole list went down from one to twelve per cent. The most extravagant and groundless rumors are affoat, discrediting houses known to be beyond casualty. The presidents of the city banks have issued the following circular: The undersigned having been called upon to give their opinion as regards the effect likely to be produced upon the banks of this city by the suspension of institutions in neighboring cities, reply that it is their decided opinion that the banks of the city of New York are in a safe and secure position. and that they can not only sustain themselves as specie-baying banks, but, from the natural flow of coin and produce to this point as the common centre, soon be enabled to furnish further and more efficient aid to the mercantile community. Signed by the presidents of the Phenix, Merchants', Mechanics', Metropolitan, Union, and other banks. quiet." At the clearing house to-day everything was

3. October 26, 1857 The Evansville Daily Journal Evansville, IN
Article from The Evansville Daily Journal, October 26, 1857

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Article Text

BANKABLE FUNDS. -The leading bank ing houses in Cincinnati now take at par the notes of Kentucky, Ohio, Louisiana, Missouri banks, State Bank and Branch es of the State of Indiana, all currency bankable in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston and Pittsburgh. In New York city the notes of all the banks are received except the following Niagara River Bank, Tonawanda; Agricultural Bank, Herkimer county; Dairyman's Bank, Newport; Hollister Bank, Buffalo; Ontario Bank, Utica; O. Lee & Co.'s Bank, Buffalo; Bank of Orleans, Albion; Reciprocity Bank, Bufialo; Sackett's Harbor Bank, Buffalo; Yates County Bank, Pen Yan; Tompkins County Bank, Ithaca; Hugenot Bank, New Paltz; Medina Bank, Medina; Troy City Bank, Troy; Central Bank of New York, Utica; Hamilton Exchange Bank, Greene. All Pennsylvania notes are received except those not solvent before. the suspension, and the Anthracite Bank of Tamaqua, and the Farmer's Bank of Lancaster. All the notes of solvent Maryland Banks. The notes of the old banks of Virginia are looked upon with more favor, as are also the Indiana Stock Banks, and the indications are that the former and perhaps the latter will be bankable in a few days in Cincinnati. The same currency is now received by the private Banks in St. Louis, and in Louisville the private bankers are taking the notes of the Indiana and Ohio State Banks, New Orleans, and most of the New York, New England, Pennsylvania, Baltimore, old Tennessee, and some of the South Carolina Banks on deposit, returnable in the same money. Why cannot the same course be adoptted by the three Banks in Evansville ? It would give us at once a currency for business in which every one would have confidence.

4. November 25, 1857 Democrat and Sentinel Ebensburg, PA
Article from Democrat and Sentinel, November 25, 1857

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Article Text

Consolidation Bank, Nov. Bank of Chambersburg, Nov. Reading Savings Bank, Bank of Danville, Nov.1 Western Bank, ,Nove South Wark Bank Nov. Miners' Bank of Pottaville, WE Tradesmen's Bank of Philadelphia, Nov, Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Ponasylvania, Nov: Mechanics' Bank of Pittsburg, AGA Bank of Penn township, Nov: Kensington Bank, Nov, Farmers' Bank of Reading, Nov. Lebanon Bank, Nor: Laneaster County Bank, Nov Girard Bank, Nor Easton Bank, Nov, Allentown Bank, Nov, Bank of Lawrence county, Novi Wyoming Bank at Wilkesbarre, Nor, Anthracite Bank of Tamaqua, Nov, Farmers' Bank of Easton, Nov. Doylestown Bank, Nov. Lock Haven Bank, Nor Commercial Bank of Pennsylvania, Nov. Bank of Germantown, Nov. Farmers' Bank of Lancaster, Nov. Merchants' and Manufacturers' Bank of Pittsburg. Nov. Mochanies' Bank of Philadelphia, Nov Harrisburg Bank, Nov. Bank of the Northern Liberties, Nov, Bank of Middletown, Nov. Mauch Chunk Bank, Nov. Columbia Bank, ,Now, Bank of Commerce. Nov Six Penny Savings Institution, of Philadelphia, Nov / Bank of North America, Nov City Bank, (Philadelphia,) Nov Nov Exchange Bank of Pittsburg, Bank 0: Gettysburg, Nov Manufacturers' and Mechanica' Bank of Philadelphia, Nov Nov Citizens' Deposit Bank of Pittsburg, Honesdale Bank, No Bank of Delaware county, Nov. Nov Bank of Montgomery County, Bank of Pennsylvania, NW York Bank, Nov1 York County Bank, Nor] Nor] Philadelphia Saving Fund Society, Lewisburg Bank, Nov West Branch Bank, Nor Not Bank of Choster County, Penn'a Co. for Insurance on Lives and Granting Annuities, Nov.] National Safety, Insurance and Trust Co., Nov Western Saving Fund Society of Philadelphia, Nov. Central Insurance Co., Harrisbarg, Nov War. en County Bank, Not No further notice of acceptance have be received at the Auditor General's office (4 several days past, and it is therefore preus ble that those Banks that have not signition their accaptance, have declined the provi ions of the law. Woobserve, however. fre the newspapers. that the Erie City Back au the Bucks County Bank, bad taken to accept, but no notice to this effect has : been received at the Author's Department The law allowed the Banks thirty days ter the date of suspension, to accept the pr visions, and required them to give notice the Auditor General of the factor acceptant All the new Banks pay specie. Mr. C. McLain, Bank clerk of the depart ment, is entitled to our thanks for his tesy in giving access to the books from which we have derive di our statement We append a list of the Banks and Savings Institutions, from hom no notice of servy tance has been received, as follows :-