21246. Guaranty State Bank (Ranger, TX)

Bank Information

Episode Type
Suspension → Reopening
Bank Type
state
Start Date
June 29, 1921
Location
Ranger, Texas (32.470, -98.679)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini
Short Digest
6aaf90c1

Response Measures

None

Description

Guaranty State Bank failed to open on June 30, 1921 while the other local bank (Farmers & Merchants) experienced a run and was temporarily closed. Articles describe temporary measures (scrip plan, state banking board intervention and payments) rather than an assignment of a receiver or permanent failure, so the episode is classified as a suspension with an eventual reopening/assistance implied but not fully detailed.

Events (2)
1. June 29, 1921 Run
Cause Details
A classic depositor run on Farmers & Merchants bank in Ranger that prompted closures and cash shipments from Dallas.
Measures
Cash shipment from Dallas ($50,000) to meet withdrawals; local merchants considered issuing scrip with state board consent to aid creditors.
Newspaper Excerpt
The Farmers and Merchants bank opened for business, but a run started shortly afterward. The doors were closed shortly before $50,000 in cash arrived from Dallas.
Source
newspapers
2. June 30, 1921 Suspension
Cause
Local Banks
Cause Details
Both Ranger banks closed; a run started on the Farmers & Merchants bank, and Guaranty State Bank failed to open the following day amid local loss of confidence and banking disturbance.
Newspaper Excerpt
Although Ranger citizens were without banking facilities to-day... The Guaranty bank failed to open for business yesterday.
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (2)
1. July 7, 1921 Vernon Parish Democrat Leesville, New Llano, LA
Article from Vernon Parish Democrat, July 7, 1921

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Article Text

WHY CAN'T PEOPLE ISSUE AND USE THEIR OWN SCRIPT? Ranger, Texas, June 30.-Although Ranger citizens were without banking facilities to-day, an effort was to be made to aid creditors of the Guaranty State bank, by issuing script in $1 and $5 denominations good as tender in any local place of business. Both of the Ranger banks closed their doors yesterday, but both were said to be solvent. The Guaranty bank failed to open for business yesterday. The Farmers and Merchants bank opened for business, but a run started shortly afterward. The doors were closed shortly before $50,000 in cash arrived from Dallas. Late yesterday seventy-five members of the Retail Merchants' Association met and decided to appoint a head and allow creditors of the Guaranty bank to assign their accounts to him. He in turn would issue script good in this city. The plan will be put in operation if the consent of the state banking board can be obtained.

2. July 28, 1921 The Lubbock Avalanche Lubbock, TX
Article from The Lubbock Avalanche, July 28, 1921

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Article Text

LACK OF CONFIDENCE KILLING THE HOME BUSINESS Commissioner of Insurance and Banking, Edward Hall, turned a machine gun on the people of Ranger when he said, speaking of a recent run on a local bank, "every dollar of non-interest bearing and unsecured deposits of the Guaranty Bank will be paid depositors. If you people insist on destroying your banks by an unreasonable lack of confidence and by making demands that no bank can meet, you cannot expect the State Banking Department to grant a charter for another bank in Ranger. The State Banking Board has now $2,500,000 to pay depositors and is collecting assessments from something more than 1,000 state banks in the State of Texas." This should be a lesson to depositors everywhere who are unreasonable. When they destroy their banks by their cowardice or their timidity, they destroy themselves, their business prosperity, their industry and their community. Now is the time for men to sit steady in the boat. Now is the time for men to guard their tongues, to throttle newspaper gossips and discontinuance at all times malicious or mischievous manufactures of stories which reflect on their fellows or the institutions of their cities and towns. Regardless of the pessimist, there is an upward trend and conditions are much more encouraging than they were ninety days ago.