Commercial Bank - Tacoma, WA

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: state
Start Date: June 1, 1893*
Location: Tacoma, Washington (47.253, -122.444)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: 8edf35e5

Response Measures

None

Description

Article (1896-09-13) lists Commercial (Commercial Bank) among several Tacoma banks that 'have since failed' after the Panic of 1893 and the Boggs warrants affair. The text does not describe a depositor run on this specific bank; it reports the banks have failed (i.e., closed/failed and presumably placed in receivership). Date of failure is not given precisely in the extract; failures appear to have occurred after the June 1893 panic. I classify this as a suspension/closure (failure) with receivership. Bank type not specified by the article.

Events (1)

1. June 1, 1893* Receivership

Newspaper Excerpt: He deposited them in the German American, the Bank of Tacoma, the Commercial the State Savings and the Columbia National banks. All these institutions have since falled.
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (1)

1. September 13, 1896 The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Seattle, WA

Article from The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 13, 1896

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Article Text

TO RAISE THE MONEY. Tacoma's Council Again Passes the Funding Ordinance. THIS TIME AT FIVE PER CENT. Whether Turker Fawcett Will Approve This, or Again Veto It, Is a Vexing Question. Tacoma, Sept. 12-Special-A today's meeting the city council passed the warrant funding ordinance, which was vetoed recently by Mayor Fawcett, by the decisive vote of 11 to 4. The ordinance is practically & copy of that which the council passed before and which failed to pass over the mayor's veto. About the only difference is that the bonds will draw 5 per cent. interest instead of 7. as was provided in the first ordinance. By the terms of the ordinance the city will proceed to issue bonds to an amount not exceeding $1,200.000, which covers the face of the outstanding warrants and interest that has accrued on them since their issuance. The warrants to be funded are all drawn on the general fund and were issued in payment of salaries and bills for supplies between August 14. 1892, and June 16, 1894. The plan is to exchange bonds for the warrants and cancel them. The warrants on their face amount to $890,000. of which approximately $500,000 are drawn at 8 per cent. interest and the balance draw 10 per cent. Mayor Fawcett was asked this evening If he intended to approve the ordinance. The mayor declined to answer the question. He was then asked if he had ma le up his mind what he was going to do in the matter, and again he refused to answer. The vote on the final passage of the ordinance was: Ayes-Bell, Bulger Coates, Chandler, Hice, Holgate, Norton, Sampson, Stevens, Whitty and Warner, 11. Noes-Harris, Hartman, Parker and Scully, 4. It is believed that the council will pass the ordinance over the mayor's veto by this vote, If he should return it without his approval. The ordinance was not passed without & struggle and considerable debate. in which some sharp things were said. Councilman Harris, of the First ward. characterized It is a "steal, and said that if the council passed the ordinance It became an accessory and a participant in all the Boggs infamy, and that the councilmen who voted for It ought to be sent to the penitentiary. This was pretty warm language to use, but the First warder meant what he said. Harris was replied to by Councilman Norton. Rep., of the Second ward. Mr. Norton was elected as a business man, and he has worked early and late in an effort to straighten out the city's finances. Mr. Norton has all along advocated the funding of the outstanding warrants, and he declared vehemently today that what the council was about to do should have been done two years ago, and that for want of such action by the council at that time the city had lost thousands of dollars. He denied that there was anything of the semblance of a steal, and declared that the First ward man should blush for what he had said. Mr Norton characterized the funding proposition as a business transaction which had every reason of policy, business sense and prudence back of it. The city's funds had been tied up for months and months, and her citizens had been obliged to pay money out of their pockets to enable her to meet the interest on the present outstanding debt. No money to pay salaries had been avallable for a year, and all because the outstanding warrants had not been provided for. These were the reasons that demanded that the ordinance should pass. In Councilman Harris' objection to the ordinance and the whole funding plan is bound up the old story of the Boggs warrants, with which the readers of the PostIntelligencer are familiar. During Treasurer Boggs' last term in office he purchased with city money, or redeemed out of the order of their Issue as prescribed !y law, something over $400,000 of general fund warrants Issued between the dates named in the ordinance. These warrants he sold to brokers and others, or loaned them to his friends to raise money on as security A large part of them were deposited as "cash" by Boggs a few weeks prior to the end of his term. Boggs was interested himself in quite a large amount of the warrants, and his friends among the bankers with whom he did business, and who were his bondsmen, held a large block of them which were purchased of him before the panic which struck Tacoma in June, 1893. City warrants up to that time had been readily salable at par and often at a premium The banks in which the city was supposed to have large deposits were holders of many of these warrants, and when the panic came they would have gone far below par had Boggs complied with the law and indorsed the warrants "Not paid for want of funds, as he should have done, for the reason that there were then in June, 1893 and thereafter. over $300 000 of general fund warrants of prior issue unpaid and outstanding But Boggs, un. der and with the sanction of the council, which he obtained by me hods with which he was familiar, took up the warrants as fast as they were issued with city funds, and then deposited them as cash or held them in the city's vaults. When he went out of office on April 17, 1894. it was estimated that he had on hand $225,000 of warrants. which he deposited in the German American, the Bank of Tacoma. the Commercial the State Savings and the Columbia National banks. All these institutions have since falled. The banks named owed the city as follows $228,000 Bank of Tacoma 6,000 Commer 90,000 State Savings 104,000 Columbia National 58,000 ***** German American Savings $486,000 Total It is claimed by Councilman Norton Mayor Fawcett and a great number of business men. property-owners and lawyers that the city can not be made to redeem the warrants which were deposited in these falled banks, as they had been purchased with city funds. The council committee on funding was able to find evidence touching only $160,000 of the Boggs warrants, although the general belief is that his transactions covered over $400 000 of warrants This is the meat of Councilman Harris' objection to the ordinance Councilman Norton and the majority of the body believe that the following clause in the ordinance will save the city from again paying these warrants "Section The sinking fund commission of the city of Tacoma is hereby authorized and directed to issue the negotiable coupon bonds of said city in the sum of $1,200,000 or so many thereof as may dent to fund all