2884. Exchange Bank of the State (Griffin, GA)

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: state
Start Date: July 1, 1858
Location: Griffin, Georgia (33.247, -84.264)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: be8c0b2a

Response Measures

None

Description

Multiple contemporary papers (July 1858) report the Exchange Bank at Griffin, GA suspended. Coverage characterizes it as a 'wild-cat' / swindle (bank-specific fraud/insolvency). Subsequent reporting (Oct 1858) notes the governor directed proceedings to forfeit the charter after default on redemption, indicating permanent closure/forfeiture rather than a temporary suspension. No article describes a depositor run prior to suspension.

Events (2)

1. July 1, 1858 Suspension

Cause: Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details: Described as a 'wild-cat' bank and swindle; $50,000 of its notes circulated; insolvency/fraud implied causing suspension of payments and failure to redeem notes on demand (default).
Newspaper Excerpt: The exchange Bank of Griffin, Ga., has suspended.
Source: newspapers

2. October 10, 1858 Other

Newspaper Excerpt: The Governor has directed the Solicitor General of this circuit to institute proceedings against this bank, for the purpose of having its charter declared to be forfeited (default on redemption).
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (7)

1. June 22, 1858 Cleveland Morning Leader Cleveland, OH

Article from Cleveland Morning Leader, June 22, 1858

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MORNING LEADER OFFICE, MONDAY, June 21-6 P. M.S Financial, &c. The Money Market for the past week shows no material change, although the offerings of accommodation paper at the Banks have somewhat increased since our last report. The Exchange Bank at Griffin, Ga., and the American Bank at Baltimore, are reported failed. Thompson's Reporter learns that the injunction against the Woodbury Bank, Conn, has been sustained, and the Bank will probably go into liquidation, a receiver having been appointed The appointment of a receiver has depreciated th notes in the market, not so much on account of the fear of an improper application of the assetsof the bank as from the delay in closing up to final dividend a bank in any of the Eastern States. The Litchfield Bank, Conn., rumor says, will shortly be able to resume. Some of the interested parties are in negotiation with the Suffolk Bank, Boston, to make an arrangement to redeem the notes of the bank there instead of New York. Those holding the notes had better not part with them hastily, as there is a fair presumption of their early payment. The Branch of the Bank of the State of Indiana, at Jeffersonville, which suspended last winter. is to be reinstated on the 15th of July. J.S. Harvey is to be President. The time limited for the presentation of the notes of the Merchants' Exchange Bank, Conn., expires on the 24th instant. Mr. Coffin, one of the assignees of the Bank of the Capital at Indianapolis, Indiana, has made a report from which it appears that the total amount of assets are about $9,740. The total deposits are $74,000, leaving due $61,200. He also says th it many notes given in as assets he had never seen, and did not believe they ever existed. LIST OF NEW BANKS. In Itlinois-Narragunsett Bank, Vienna; Garden City Bank, Bank of Prairie du Chien, Bank of Brooklyn, Schujlor; Bank of Cairo, Cattle Bank, Urbana. In Wiscons nNorthern Wisconsin Bank, Aurora; Buffalo County Bank, North Houston. In Georgia-Exchange Bank, Savannah. Iu Louisiana-City Bank, New Orleans. In Maine-Umbeguagns Bank, Banger. In Missouri-City Bank, Exchange Bank, St. Louis. In Canada-Bank of Brantford. The Cincinnati Times of Saturday evening has the fo:lowing:- "The telegraph announces the failure of the American Bank at Ballimore, which closed its doors this morning.This Bank has beenin existence only a few months, and always was regarded as a bogus institution. It had no office in that city we believe, but did what business it transacted, and its notes were redeemed at the Bank of Commerce. Our bankers throw it out nearly two weeks ago, and we think there is little of the paper although it has been extensively circulated throughout the West, which will probably be a large loser. The notes of the Americ in Bank are probably worthless. The monetary market has been and is still very easy for all legitimate business purposes, and the Discount Houses have been desirous to loan freely to their regular customers at 10@12 P cent. First-class namos can be passed at 9a10, but few of this kind are offering. Operations can be made with the bankers and private capitalists as low as 8@9, but there are few applicants for money even at these rates.Call loans could be had at 6@7 P cent but no one wants them. small demand has been experienced for currency, which has been in very largesupply. Monetary matters are exceedingly easy and money is a drug. Capitalists have few opportunities such as they desire to make investments.Currency is accumulating every week at the banking houses while the calls for it are diminishing. Eastern Exchanges have been dull and inactive at previous rates, because no one wishes any more currency The London Economist of June 5, says the money market remains as easy as last reported. In the open market the demand has been perhaps rather more active than of late, but choice bills having two or even three months to run are still freely discounted at 2M@2% P cen'. At the Bank there has consequently been no revival of business. Yesterday it was announced that the rate of the establishment will be P cent for advances until the 14th of July, on government stocks and approved commercial bills not having more than six months to run. This, as is well known, is the recognized practice of the Bank and tends in ordinary times to facilitate the release of the large mass of Treasury deposits which accumulate in Threadneed'e street at this period of the quarter. The regular customers of the institution also find the practice convenient, for while the Bank hasa-fixed rule of not discounting bills with more than 95 days to run, their willingness to make advances upon long bills presents the requisite facilities in another shape. It is not likely however that the formal announcement just made will result in any important additions to the Bank's business, considering the present glutted state of the market. The moderate extent of the demand for money is more worthy of notice because the amount of mercantile bills falling due this day [the 4th] was large.' At the annual meeting of the Copper Falls Mining Company, held at Boston on the 15th inst., the following statem.pt was mane of its business for the year ending the 8:h of June:

2. July 1, 1858 M'arthur Democrat McArthur, OH

Article from M'arthur Democrat, July 1, 1858

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The exchange Bank of Griffin, Ga., has suspended. $50,000 of the wild-cat stu ff has been circulated in Memphis, Tenn. The Appeal of that city regards the suspension as a t otal failure. In other parts of Tennessee, and also in Arkansas, the prolific litter of this Georgia wild-eat has been extensively scattered. When all is known it will be found that a most extensive swindle has been successfully practiced. It is not necessary to hunt exclusively over Western prairies and through forests for this peculiar species of sharp-clawed animal. It abounds everywhere.

3. July 14, 1858 The Daily Dispatch Richmond, VA

Article from The Daily Dispatch, July 14, 1858

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DEATH OF A "WILD CAT."-A concern at Griffin, Ga., with the impostng title of the Exchange Bank of the State of Georgia, has suspended. The Augosta Chronicle calls it a "Wild Cat," or "OneHorse" bank, and there are several more of the same kind in that State.

4. July 15, 1858 The Prairie News Okolona, MS

Article from The Prairie News, July 15, 1858

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grave the day were. Suspended.-The Exchange Bank, at Griffin, Georgia, has suspended payment. Make a note of the fact, as Georgia money is now-and then to be met with through here. The Next Presidency.-The electoral vote in 1856 consisted of 296 votes.The admission of Minnesota will increase that number to 300, and should Kansas and Oregon be admitted, the entire vote will be 306, requiring 154 for a choice of President. Of this 306 there will be 120 from the slaveholding States, and 186 from the non-slaveholding States. In the Charleston Convention, under the twothirds rule, it will require 204 votes to make a nomination. It will require 84 Northern votes, even with the united. South, to make a nomination. Weather and Crops in Texas.-Accounts of the state of the crops in different parts of Texas, appear to be favorable, without exception. The Austin Ivtelligencer and the Houston Argus make mention of fine rains, which have had a good effect. The Houston Telegraph and the Nacagoches Chronicle mention rather too much rain. Enough wheat has been grown in Nacagoches county to materially affect the demand for foreign flour. Accident on the Railroad.-We learn from Mr. Geo. Fowler, conductor on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, that the down train from West Point, when about a mile above Crawfordsville, the cow-catcher of the locomotive threw from the track a negro woman who was asleep on the rails. She escaped with only a few slight wounds on the head. Terrible Accident.-The Masons of Wellsville, N. Y., celebrated St. John's Day, on the 24th ult., and after an oration adjourned to a large hall for dinner. About seven hundred persons had entered the room, when about one-half of the floor gave way, precipitating some three hundred to the floor beneath. . At the same time a floor above came down, with & quantity of Cutler's fanning mills, lumber, etc., burying the mass of people in the ruins. Fortunately no one was killed, but from forty to fifty were woundedtwenty seriously. Death of Martin Kosta.-Martin Kosta, the Hungarian refugee who was rescued from the Austrian authorities in 1853, by Commander Ingraham of the United States Navy, died recently in very indigent circumstances, on a sugar plantation, near the city of Guatemala. The Eutaw Whig says there is of living in that place at this time one the soldiers of the old French Empire.He was in the battle of Marengo, Jena, and Waterloo,-went through them all unhurt and emigrated to America when Napoleon was exiled to St, Helena

5. July 15, 1858 The Prairie News Okolona, MS

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Suspended.-The Exchange Bank, at Griffin, Georgia, has suspended payment. Make a note of the fact, as Georgia money is now-and then to be met with through here. bas

6. July 16, 1858 The Washington Union Washington, DC

Article from The Washington Union, July 16, 1858

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GLEANED FROM THE MAILS. A good story is told of a New Orleans editor, who thought himself some" at ten-pins. He challenged a stranger one evening, who said that he wasn't much of a player, but he'd roH him a game just for amusement, and they began. The stranger won two games easily, and then proposed that he should roll with his left hand against the editor's right. This was assented to, and the result was as before, two more games being scored against the editor. The stranger then seriously proposed to roll again, and not use his hands at all, but to kick the balls down the alley, the other using his right hand as usual. The editor agreed, thinking he had the fellow sure then but he kicked the balls down the alley with astonishing precision and success, making "strikes" and "spares" in a style which struck terror to the soul of the dumbfounded editor. Two games were played in this unique manner, and were both scored against the editor. He then offered to play another game, and blow the balls down the alley, using neither hands nor feet, but the editor was quite satisfied, and left the place amid the laughter of the company. A SLEEPING Juroe.-A woman named Alice Finlay was convicted in Buffalo on Saturday of robbery. The trial took place on Friday the jury retired in the afternoon, and did not agree until 11 (clock at night. The Republic says that when the prisoner was brought up for sentence on Saturday Mr. Josiah Cook, counsel for defendant, demanded a new trial for his client, on the ground that one of the jury was asleep several times during the giving of testimony, and that he was prepared to prove such to be the fact by the affidavit of eleven witnesses. Judge Masten gave Mr. Cook till Monday to prepare papers and affidavits. The Republic adds: "It will be a pity if this wretch gets off from justice through the drowsiness of a jury, though we would scarcely wonder if the entire jury should go to sleep this close and sultry weather listening to the dry details of & robbery, and the still dryer points and arguments of courts and attorneys. The collector of the Flymouth (Mass.) district has been notified that the inspectorship of Marshfield-$160 per annum- is discontinued the salary of the inspector at Scituate is reduced from $600 to $300 of the inspector at Duxbury from $800 to $100 : of the inspector at Kingston from $300 to $200 per annum ; that the of fice of weigher and guager and measurer at Plymouth is discontinued, and the duties thereof will be performed by the inspector of Plymouth, whose additional compensation shall not exceed $105 per annum. The number of Indians in the Canadian provinces, as far as could be ascertained by a special commissioner recently appointed, was about 8,500 in the eastern, and 11,500 in the western provinces, showing a total of nearly 20,000, exclusive of wandering tribes to the north, of whom no correct information could be procured. A majority of the tribes are steadily though slowly increasing in numbers, and in nearly all some appronches to civilization have been made. The origin of the pugilistic phrase "lam," is discovered in the following passage from Scott's Peveril of the Peak;" chapter 42: In short, the tumult thickened, and the word began to pass among the more desperate, Lamb them, lade ; lamb them,' a cant phrase of the time, derived from the fate of Dr. Lambe, an astrologer and quack, who was knocked on the head by a rabble in Charles the First is time." A concern at Griffin.Ga., with the imposing title of the Exchange Bank of the State of Georgia, has suspended. The Augusta Chronicle calls it a "wild cat," or "one-horse" bank, and there are several more of the same kind in that State. A Roman Cafholic Cathedral, St. Patrick's, is to be built in New York under the direction of Archbishop Hughes. It is to be on Fifth avenue, 140 feet front by 325 feet in depth, and cruciform. The estimated cost is $1,000,000 the time of building five years. On the 15th of August there will be laid in the city of New York the corner-stone of a Roman Catholic Cathedral church, which it is intened shall surpass in magnificence any church edifice at present on this continent. The building is to be 325 feet in length, 97 feet wide in the clear, with a transept of 172 feet, and walls of 100 feet in height. The roof will be supported by 51 gothic columns, with groined arches springing therefrom. It is calculated that five years will be consumed in its construction, and that it will cost $1,000,000. The rage for regattas in New York has reached the city convicts and paupers, and on Saturday last a grand boat race came off at Blackwell's Island, under the auspices of some of the alms-house governors, in which del egates from various institutions on the "tight little in Knet river participated. The boats entered for the race were the six oured barges used for conveying passengers between the institutions and the city, and were manned - follower The alms-house boat by vagrants the work-house boat by paupers the penitentiary boat by thieves, and the Innatic asylum boat by lunaties. The entry for each boat was -$5, making a total of $20. The course was around Blackwell's Island, & distance of about four miles, and the race was witnessed with great interest by the governors and their friends, and a large number of spectators on the New York side. The work-house barge came in shead. When erst we did to maidens kneel, Their hearts alone they ensed in steel. But now more caution they display, And wear steel armor all the way, The Citizens' bank of Memphis has closed its doors, and those who hold its "promises to pay no longer sider paper money the best currency in the world. Mrs. Patrick Tope and family were poisoned at Louisville, Ky., by arsenic put in their food by a slave girl ten or twelve years old. Mrs. Pope is in a critical situ

7. October 10, 1858 Nashville Union and American Nashville, TN

Article from Nashville Union and American, October 10, 1858

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# MONETARY AND COMMERCIAL. Land Warrants have declined all over the country, and our quo- tations to day show a decline here of 5@10c: Dealers are offering 90c for 40 acre warrants, 80c for 80 and 160 acre warrants, and 70c for 120 acre warrants. The demand is very limited, with no prospect of an early rise in prices. The following were the sales of State Stocks at the New York Stock Exchange on the 5th: $5,000 Ohio State 6's, '60, at 102; $5,000 Indiana State 2¾'s at 61½; $35,00 Tennessee 6s, '90, at 91@91¾, (an advance of ¾); $76,000 Missouri 6s at 85¼@85½; $12,000 California State 7s at 84½@85½; $10,000 North Carolina 6s at 95. At the Philadelphia Stock Exchange on the 5th, $5,000 Ten- nessee 6s sold at 90½; 20 shares Union Bank of Tennessee at 100¾, and 18 shares Planters' Bank of Tennessee at 100. The Griffin (Ga.) Empire State, of the 7th inst., says of the Exchange Bank of Griffin, which it will be recollected suspended some months ago: "The Governor has directed the Solicitor Gen- eral of this circuit to institute proceedings against this bank, for the purpose of having its charter declared to be forfeited as the law directs. The proceedings, we learn, have been instituted on the complaint of Mr. Jones, the editor of the Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel, the bank having proved default on a demand made by him upon it for the redemption of one of its one dollar "prom- ises to pay." The New Orleans Courier, noticing the fact that gold and sil- ver dollars of the United States coinage are a legal tender to any amount, says: The silver dollar has disappeared mysteriously, and few could tell how, or what had become of it. The mystery is now solved. To give place to the gold dollar the silver one has been melted up and coined into half dollars; and thus the Government has impo- sed upon us an immense amount of money. which is only a legal tender to a small amount. We are completely flooded with silver of this denomidation. The banks will only receive ten dollars on deposit, and thus it is that our merchants have to sell this specie, called money, at 2 per cent, discount. Our Mint, we believe, has not cast any silver pieces above the denomination of fifty cents for two years. The Custom House will not receive anything but gold for its dues, and still the coiners of our Mint are kept at work turning out $200 000 or $300,000 per week of this uncurrent commodity. If we had our old genuine currency, this would not be the case. The Custom House would be compelled to take it for the amount due her, and silver would be worth its intrinsic value. The Courier considers this a great act of injustice, and one which should be investigated and corrected. Groesbeck & Hoyt, of New York, in their circular for the coun- try, of the 5th inst., say: Since our issue of the 28th ult., the money market has exhibit- ed increased ease and consequently lower rates have ruled. We quote loans on call from 3 to 4 per cent, according to the charac- ter of the collateral. On government stocks we hear of loans as low as 3 per cent. For mercantile loans as low as 5 per cent. For mercantile discounts the rates remain unchanged. The continued abundance of money has influenced an active denand for Treasury notes as a temporary investment, and a large amount have been withdrawn from the market. The foreign exchange market has been firm during the week at our previous quotations, but the de- mand for the steamer oston to-morrow has only been limited, and the rates are a shade lower. We quote bankers' signatures on London at 109¾@110; on Paris 5.15@5.12. The stock mar- ket for the past week has exhibited some symptoms of returning life, and a large business has been done in most of the dividend paying shares, the public, however, continuing to represent a very limited part of the daily transactions at the Stock Exchange. # Review of the Nashville Market for the week ending Oct. 9. COTTON-There is no export demand, and with the exception of a few sales to fill manufacturers' orders, there is nothing doing in Cotton. The receipts of the new crop at this point amount to one hundred and twelve bales up to this date. In the absence of trans- actions upon which to base quotations, we present the following, which, however, may be regarded as entirely nominal: Inferior 6@7c, Ordinary 7½@8½c, Low Middling 9@9¾c, Middling 10 @10½c. PROVISIONS-The demand for Bacon during the past week has been very light, though the market has remained steady at 7¼@7½c for Clear Sides, of which there is a moderate supply. Joints are very scarce and in demand at 10c for Hams and 6@6½c for Shoulders. The supply of Lard is about equal to the demand, and we quote 9@9¼c, according to quality and packages GRAIN AND FLOUR-The amount of Wheat offered the past week shows a falling off from the preceding week, and the market shows less firmness in the export demand. and prices have given way slightly. We quote common to fair Red at 40@55c, and prime White and Red at 75c bushel. The prime qualities are in demand for milling purposes, but the poorer grades are neg- lected. Flour continues dull, and country superfine is selling from wagons as low as $1.50@1.60 per sack of 100 lbs. Extra Family is still held at $5@5.50 bbl. by our millers. GROCERIES-There has been a good deal of activity in Groceries at prices current last week, and we repeat our quotations as fol- lows: Sugar 9½@11c in hhds and 10@11½c in bbls; Molasses 35@38c in bbls, and 38@40c in half bbls; Golden Syrup 90@110c; Rio Coffee 12@12½c. DRIED FRUIT-There is a good demand for Dried Fruits at a considerable advance on prices current previous to this week. We quote pealed Appies at $1.25, pealed Peaches $3. Unpealed Peaches are not in request and are quoted at only $1 bushel. BAGGING AND BALE ROPE-We quote Tennessee Bagging at 22c, Kentucky 18@20c, and India 20c. Rope 9½@10½c. FEATHERS AND GINSENG-Feathers are in demand at 39 @45c for Live Geese, when put in good shipping order. Ginseng finds ready sale at 40@45c. LEATHER AND HIDES-The market is well supplied with Leather, which we quote as follows: Oak and hemlock tanned Sole and Harness 27@28c; Skirting 30c; Upper $27@30 per dozez; Dry Hides are worth 8@10c. and geeen 5c per ft. SALT-We quote Coarse Sack at $1.60 and Fine at $1.75. Barrel is selling at 37½c bushel. WHEAT BAGS-Two bushels 17½@20c each.