Bank of Charles Town - Charles Town, WV

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Reopening
Bank Type: state
Start Date: October 7, 1857
Location: Charles Town, West Virginia (39.289, -77.860)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: f7b7f0b404f038fe

Response Measures

None

Description

Article (Staunton Spectator, 1857-10-14) reports a convention of banks that have suspended specie payments, listing Charlestown among represented banks. This indicates the Bank of Charles Town had suspended specie payments in the wider 1857 suspension; the coverage describes intent to resume when eastern cities resume, implying a temporary suspension and expectation of reopening. No specific run is described. Date of the meeting was Oct 7, 1857 (reported Oct 14).

Events (1)

1. October 7, 1857 Suspension

Cause: Macro News
Cause Details: Part of a wider suspension of specie payments among banks in the region (linked to the broader 1857 financial disturbance); banks awaiting eastern cities to resume before resuming themselves.
Newspaper Excerpt: The Banks in Winchester, Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Alexandria, Charlestown, ... were represented.
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (1)

1. October 14, 1857 Staunton Spectator Staunton, VA

Article from Staunton Spectator, October 14, 1857

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Article Text

South or C. M. Firman is President. Convention of Suspended Banks. A meeting of officers of a portion of the Banks of this State, which have suspended specie payments, was held in Charlottesville on the 7tb inst. The Banks in Winchester, Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Alexandria, Charlestown, sonburg, Wheeling and Staunton, were represented. H. M. Brent, of Winchester, acted as Chairman, and W. H. Tams, of Staunton, as Secretary. The object of the meeting was to take into consideration a letter addressed by Gov. Wise to the Auditor and Treasurer of the Commonwealth, and forwarded to the suspended Banks. After stating his belief that the Banks are anxious to aid the Executive in protecting the State credit and collecting the revenue, the Governor says: "To that end I suggest that it would be well for you to correspond with the leading suspended banks immediately, and propose that if they will agree to meet their notes received for public dues, in fifteen days, with specie, at the public depositories, the depositories will receive their notes on State account, and the executive will not proclaim a prohibition of the receipt of their notes in payment of the revenue of the State." A business Committee was appointed, and the Convention took a recess. At the evening session, the Committee reported the following resolutions : 1. That we regard the maintenance of the credit of the commonwealth as the first duty of the banking institutions as well as the citizens of Virginia, and therefore assent heartily to the spirit of the letter of Gov. Wise to the auditor and treasurer, which has been read. 2. That, with all respect to the source from which it comes, we feel bound to say that in the opinion of this meeting the specific remedy suggested in the letter is unnecessary, impracticable, and unequal as between the depositories and the other banks of the State, and also calculated to excite an injurious competition between the banks in regard to the funds sent on in payment of the revenue by the collectors. 3. That a provision for the amount of the State payments to be made abroad for interest on her bonds on the 1st January next, amounting, as we are informed, to the sum of $850,000 in the aggregate, will fully protect her credit. 4. That a contribution of specie or New York funds by each bank of 2 1-2 per centum on its capital, will make such provision. 5. That in our opinion, the spirit of the governor's letter will be complied with, if each bank, for itself, shall undertake with the deposit banks to redeem, to the extent just mentioned, by the 1st day of December next, its paper which may have been received in payment of the public revenue, in Richmond, in specie or New York funds. 6. That the suspension of the banks in Virginia, SO far as it has gone, was without fault on their part, for the public good as well as their own, under the circumstances that whenever the eastern cities resume, our banks should be prepared to resume with them and, in the mean time, the paper of our banks should be maintained, without exception, current in the State. 7. That when this convention adjourn, it adjourn to meet to-morrow at Richmond, to confer personally with the governor on the subject of his letter and these resolutions. Which resolutions were, after discussion, adopted unanimously. Mr. Conrad offered the following resolution, which was also adopted unanimously, to wit: Resolved, That this meeting recommend to the banks in the commonwealth, holding demands upon the State for interest or treasury notes, to notify the treasurer of the State at once, that all such demands will be satisfied by a payment in Richmond by the deposit banks in the issues of such creditor banks respectively, received by said deposit banks in payment of the revenue. The Convention then adjourned to meet in Richmond on the following day, when a personal interview was obtained with the Governor.Without expressing a decided opinion upon the suggestions contained in the resolutions adopted at Charlottesville, Gov. Wise assured the delegates that it was not his intention to issue a proclamation prohibiting the receipt of notes of suspended Banks in payment of public dues, so long as he remained convinced that they were acting with a bona fide intent to protect the State credit and the communities in which they are located. As yet he reposed the greatest confidence in all the Banks of the Commonwealth. Should the deposit Banks in Richmond continue to refuse the notes of suspended Banks, the Treasurer would provide a place of deposit, and would receive and pay out the rejected notes in discharge of demands upon the State as far as he could.And for such amount of them as he could notso pay out, the Governor would rely upon the integrity and public spirit of the Banks issuing them, to redeem them at the treasury as rapidly as may be required by the necessities of the Commonwealth,and as in the power of the Banks, in specia or snch funds bankable in Richmond,