First National Bank - Philadelphia, PA

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: national
Bank ID: 1
Charter Number: 2731
Start Date: *
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (39.952, -75.164)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: e27ce31b

Response Measures

None

Description

Article (1878) recounts that the First National Bank in Philadelphia, owned/connected with Jay Cooke & Co., went up (failed) and a trustee and creditors' meeting were involved. No explicit contemporaneous run is described in the excerpt; the bank clearly failed and was being wound up. Date of failure is not given in this clipping; the trustee/creditors language indicates receivership/liquidation proceedings.

Events (4)

1. June 20, 1863 Chartered

Source: historical_nic

2. June 14, 1882 Chartered

Source: historical_nic

3. * Receivership

Newspaper Excerpt: The meeting of the so-called creditors of Jay Cooke & Co., in Philadelphia... The trustee is highly and deservedly respected...
Source: newspapers

4. * Suspension

Cause: Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details: Failure/insolvency connected to Jay Cooke & Co.; the bank, owned and run by the Cookes, collapsed ('went up').
Newspaper Excerpt: When Jay Cooke's branch and the First National Bank here, which was also owned and run by the Cookes and others, went up, they held over $17,000 belonging to Mr. Alexander.
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (1)

1. July 29, 1878 The Sun New York, NY

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Article Text

itor" says. The Times gives the "printing and stationery" as "$3,972." There are $6,283.40 of printing bills alone, but a large portion of this is for legal printing, which is doubtless included by the Times in the item "costs of litigation, additional fees for professional services and other legal expenses, $38.673." The trustee is highly and deservedly respected in this community. The committee consists of Isaac Norris, a gentleman of great wealth and high standing; John Clayton, a leading lawyer, whose wife is one of the heirs of the Baldwin estate; Robert Shoemaker, a well-known wholesale druggist, all of this city; Charles P. Helfenstein, who represents claims amounting to $120,000, a coal merchant of Shamokin, Pa., and Joseph Brown, a Wilkes-barre banker, whose recent suspension has been caused by this failure and that of Henry Clews & Co. They want the estate wound up. Their paltry salary of $1,000, and the niggardly allowance of $15 per meeting for travelling expenses given to the two country members, does not pay for their trouble and responsibility. "The fat," one of them said, "all goes to pay expenses." From the Hartford Times, The meeting of the so-called creditors of Jay Cooke & Co., in Philadelphia, several days since, was as clean a fraud as ever was imposed upon a swindled people. The whole meeting was arranged by Lewis, the trustee, and was in the interest of Jay Cooke. When Jay Cooke's branch and the First National Bank here, which was also owned and run by the Cookes and others, went up, they held over $17,000 belonging to Mr. Alexander. As soon as he learned that the bank had closed its doors, he attached the building, determined that he would get his money back. This did not succeed, as other creditors had as much right to the bank building as he had. He thereupon began to fight the Cookes in the courts, here and in Philadelphia. He attended one or two of these so-called creditors' meetings in Philadelphia, and seeing clearly that they were shams, he then and there denounced the whole party, and said outright that he intended to prosecute the Cookes criminally as swindlers. Knowing that he was a famous fighter, and being thoroughly acquainted with Alexander's fight with the District Ring here, Cooke was frightened, and, through his attorneys, made approaches toward Alexander, looking to a compromise. Alexander would not listen to any compromise. He said he was in no particular hurry for his money; that he "wanted 100 cents for every dollar, and interest for the time they hold it that nothing less would do, and that he intended to have every cent or nothing. Alexander made a demand every week for his money.and refused to accept the five per cent. dividend. About two weeks ago a firm of lawyers who are in the employ of the Cookes, and who are buying up claims for them all of the time, called upon Mr. Alexander and made offers to settle. They did that because they ascertained that Alexander had got it down fine that John Sherman was a large stockholder in Cooke's national bank, at the same time being Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Senate. It also became known that Mr. Alexander intends to make this the subject of a Congressional investigation at the next session of Congress, all of which had a tendency to make Mr. Sherman uneasy, as no one will for a moment attempt to defend Sherman for buying bank stock and holding it while he also held the most important financial position in the Government. The connection between the two is too plain, and needs no explanation. Alexander told the attorneys that he intended to have his money. and that whether he got it or not he intended to let all the creditors see that Sherman was a party with the Cookes in swindling them. Various propositions were then made, property of various kinds being offered as payment. Alexander looked at some pieces of property, among them one of Grant's houses here, which, it seems, has in some way got into the hands of the Cookes, but he informed the attorneys that nothing would please him but the money, which was paid him on Friday last. The reason for paying him that day was so that he could not gain admittance by right to the creditors' meeting held in Philadelphia on Monday. It was thought that if Alexander was there he would knock the bottom out of the little game the Cookes are playing. It will be difficult for the trustee, or the Cookes, to explain why Mr. Alexander was satisfied in full, while the other creditors, who should have equal rights, have only been paid a five per cent. dividend.