Bank of Corwith (Corwith, IA)

Episode Information

Episode UID
4475622091303
Episode Type
Suspension → Closure
Bank Type
trust
Bank ID
447562209 hash
Start Date
July 1, 1908*
Location
Corwith, Iowa (42.993, -93.957)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini (chosen from majority vote of a three-model LLM ensemble)
Short Digest
50eed36eef6852ff

Response Measures

None

Events (3)
1. July 1, 1908* Suspension
Cause
Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details
Defalcation and forged paper by cashier Standring leading to bank failure and insolvency
Newspaper Excerpt
The smash of the defunct Bank of Corwith was tough on the bank
Source
newspapers
2. August 20, 1908 Receivership
Newspaper Excerpt
W. C. Oelke is the receiver of the bank.
Source
newspapers
3. October 28, 1908 Other
Newspaper Excerpt
The final decree in the case of the defunct Bank of Corwith has been made by Judge Clark and with this decree all the cases connected with the bank are concluded
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (5)
1. July 29, 1908 Evening Times-Republican Marshalltown, IA
Article from Evening Times-Republican, July 29, 1908

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Times Republican, Warshallfrount, Banker July 29 1908 tribution to nature. We might suggeneral in Iowa, it seems that the editors are in a frame of mind to gest that the booze be sprayed in the grant it, and all will get in line unwatermelon patches if the sprinklers der the common banner." want to try a little amateur Burbanking. and send us some of the melons, Speaking of Hearst's new party, the adds a democratic friend. Ottumwa Courier says: "In the Hearst papers today there was a full sized Of all cruel acts by publishers the picture of William Randolph in a L slouch hat and baggy trousers. There sudden change of the political policy was also a column of gush and numof a newspaper to accord with new erous cartoons deploting Hearst in ownership is about the most barbarheroic poses. Can anyone take such a ous imaginable. An increase in the party and such a cause seriously mortality list of the readers of the Des Moines Tribune, which has just "Beef is up because cattle are soarce, gone democratic, may be looked for. but the russet shoe, while lower in cut, is higher in price. Seems to be just a The father who is so unfortunate as scheme to get more of our money," to rear a fool daughter, knows what says the Hubbard Monitor. real responsibility is. You miss more than What with two Williams running for That the 8 cent bounty offered president it is discouraging to think of makes small boys go for the gopher is the number of bables that will be wait longer-order named Willie, the Keokuk Gate City shown in Shelby county, where two believes. years' extermination has cost $5,324.50. indicating that the lives of over 50,000 do just as they say 8 Of course, the lower price of steel of the burrowing pests have been offsets the higher price of meat in snuffed out. While there is very little the average cost of living. but the land that lies low in that county, thus Here are the most delicious consumption of steel by the wayfaring making little danger of the gopher becitizen is so indirect that he hardly others begin to compare with th ing flooded out, overybody else lies appreciates the benefits, is the way the Clinton Herald views it. low for the gopher and his lot is not Beans infinitely better than a happy one. cause they are nutty, mealy an Stella-Jack stole a kiss from me last We are selling millions of ca Iowa Newspapers night. and to others. The demand is Mabel-Poor fellow! Stella-Why do you say that? A GOOD HOT WEATHER STORY. over, than for any other beans Mabel-Had he been wealthy there (Grinnell Register). Do you still go without them would have been no occasion for him New Sharon has a hot weather news You can't afford to do that to steal it.-Chicago News. story which is always good in the man who eats bananas literally by the ment, yet see how many you After all, the real secret of forty bushel. Such a citizen as that is a verother food-so appetizing, so bushel No. 1 wheat is in the amount of itable Godsend to the country newspaper in the summer time. The New clover turned under when the soil is cheap as beans! Sharon Star ought to pay him a bonus prepared. Please prove if Van Camp's every time he breaks his record. His name is J. R. Clements and he first Opie Read has come and gone, veriBuy one can today-serve the became known to fame about two fying the impression created by the weeks ago, when he disposed of thirtyAsk your people if they like advance matter to the effect that the six bananas in twenty minutes. The baked beans. mower and harrow could be used on feat was hailed with loud acclaim by his hair crop to advantage. about every newspaper in the county. If they don't, that's all. But Not content with this, so the Star ina new dish for your menu. A forms, the other day he sent forty-two In the long run it looks as tho it choice specimens of his favorite fruit was everything going out and nothing served in numerous ways. A down the broad red way. That is godoming in, as far as is concerned the ing some, especially as he climbed a fresh and savory; always ready exodus of Iowa educators this sumtelephone pole immediately afterward it. rher. But a pleasant exception to the to show the spectators. as the Star rule has been noted in the fact that Please don't be content with aptly puts it, "that his bustle was not an institution at Oberlin, O., which on the wrong side." if our beans are not better. sent for one of Iowa's teachers and The Star has a gold mine there, but the humanity of its editor is superior got him, has returned in exchange a to his nose for news and he winds up piano instructor. his latest account of the prodigy's performance by urging Mr. Clements to All that fuss about the recount in desist from his frenzied course of baDallas must have been made by the nana destruction, intimating that Old Prouty men on the theory that they Dame Nature won't stand such work had all to gain and nothing to lose. and is likely to invite the ambitious Clements to attend his own funeral. The smash of the defunct Bank of Corwith was tough on the bank, but A GOOD HABIT TO GET RID OF is apparently nuts for the lawyers, (Montour Courier). for there are over eighty cases left Why do men swear? Because they for trial, the outcome of the bank's have formed the habit and can not tribulations. One can without much help 1t? Very few men will swear in Here are meals rea strain on the intellect imagine a the presence of ladies. If they can omit it then why not always? It is a violachorus of lusty-throated flawyers tion of law and if all citizens would do warbling in unison, "It's an 111 wind all people like. A di their duty, information would be filed that blows nobody good." against the guilty parties and they way. Think what a would be arrested and fined. It is only In Iowa we could have an inheritthru mercy that such violations are ance tax which would return to the permitted to go unpunished. Profanity Don't judge Van Camp's by state a tithe from all inheritances is a species of vulgarity and properly above a certain minimum. Revenue of belongs to the unrefined and low Please learn by comparison wha strata of society. In the army, where this kind would come from an estate We buy only the choicest of I men associate only or mainly with which the original owner has deserted men, profanity as well as other forms the whitest, the plumpest of th and which has not yet cost the prosof vulgarity is common. Also on the pective owner one cent of effort. buy are picked over by hand, frontier and the plains, among the cowboys, but in the most refined sodiscarded. The result is, we pa At Davenport Sarah E. Ade is suciety profanity is never indulged In. as other beans would cost. ing the Tri-City Railway Company We have heard it said that Montour is for $5,000 as damages for alleged perthe worst place in the world for proOur tomatoes are grown close fanity, but it is a mistake. In fact sonal injuries. A case of Ade after Montour is a saintly place when comened on the vines. Thus our to more aid, as it were. pared with some others we know, and beans that superlative, sparklin the most encouraging feature of it is Merchant-T'll give you a position as that profanity is growing less frequent We could buy tomato sauce f clerk to start with, and pay you what every day. We are rapidly approaching you are worth. Is that satisfactory? the place of delight in obedience to the Applicant-Oh, perfectly: but do--er injunction: "Let your communication -do you think the firm can afford it? be yea, yea; nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." -Illustrated Bits. Insurance of bank deposits can not LICENSING THE DRINKER. Van Camp Pa come soon because the democrats have (Cedar Falls Gazette.) forced the republicans to oppose it, but 4161 Some of the newspaper brethren are we can have a law compelling holders discussing the advisability of compellof bank stock to secure their double ing a man who drinks liquor to take out a license. This would be about as liability with adequate collateral, cominconsistent as licensing saloons. The pelling a bank's capital and surplus to saloon has been declared an evil by the bear a fixed ratio to its deposit liastate, but license is granted to carry bility and compelling a, larger proporon the evil. If it is an evil to sell, it is tion of reserves to be kept in a bank's FIRST NATION no less an evil to drink, and to liown vaults. These measures would cense drinking would be as reprehennot injure the banks and would go a sible as to license selling. The fact 13 we have never believed and do not now long ways toward making insurance of Marsha believe that either the selling or unnecessary. drinking is a sin, but we do believe and know that the liquor traffic is a

2. August 20, 1908 Evening Times-Republican Marshalltown, IA
Article from Evening Times-Republican, August 20, 1908

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BANKS VS. DEPOSITORS Institutions on Which Standring Forged Notes Seek Preference DEPOSITORS MAY LOSE ALL If Victimized Banks Win Contention Their Claims Will Absorb All Assets-Otherwise Depositors Will Receive About 50 Per Cent-Much Forged Paper Outstanding. Special to Times-Republican. Garner. Aug. 20.-If it can be shown that money paid to the bank of Corwith by the Peoples' Savings bank of St. Benedict for alleged forged paper forged by Standring, the absconding cashier, of the Corwith bank was in trust and was not an actual legal transaction in which the St. Benedict bank received value, the court may decide that the claim of the bank for some $13,000 against the receiver of the Bank of Corwith, is a preference claim and will be paid in full. That is the question upon which hinges the outcome of the claims against the wrecked institution of Corwith against which a score of banks of lowa are battling for their money at Garner this week. The St. Benedict people claim that the notes, etc., they received from Standring were forgeries, as has been shown; that no legal transaction occurred and for that reason the money they turned over to Standring was money which was actually held in trust by the bank and can not be reckoned as part of the assets of the institution. If the question which the St. Benedict attorneys are trying to solve to the satisfaction of Judge Clark is decided in their favor it means the letting down of the bars to all other institutions who find themselves in the same situation as the St. Benedict bank, whose claims will at once come in as preferred claims and in a short time the assets of the bank, which amount to $75,000 will be wiped out entirely, leaving other creditors holding the sack. The case has been going on for some days and because of its importance Judge Clark is covering every detail carefully. Days and days of work yet remain before the end in the untangling process. Forged Paper Numerous. The amount of forged paper which is held by banks, etc., which was received in a similar manner to that of the St. Benedict bank, amounts to $70,000. With the expenses of the receiver added to that of these claims nothing would be left. W. C., Oelke is the receiver of the bank. The trial of the cases at Garner has developed that the St. Benedict bank claims $13,000. Because this money was wrongfully received it could not actually mingle with the other moneys of the bank is shown by the attorneys for the claimants. According to the statement of the receiver, Mr. Oelke, he has received time and sight deposit claims against the bank of $118,000. He has collected from the Surety company on Standring's bond, $10,000; has received from the sale of bank fixtures, etc., $14,000; has collected on notes, etc., $18,000; still holds property, etc., belonging to the bank of about $33,000; making a total holding of $ 75,000. With the claims of forged paper holders amounting to $70,000 plus the sight and time deposit claims of $118,000, makes a total claim against the bank of $188,000. Against this is $75,000, leaving a deficit of $113,000. Would Pay About Half. On this basis if all the claims go in on an equal footing the claimants

3. October 10, 1908 Evening Times-Republican Marshalltown, IA
Article from Evening Times-Republican, October 10, 1908

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bank OF CORWITH CASE. Judge Clark Holding Court at Garner to Enter Decree. Special to Times-Republican Mason City, Oct. 10.-Judge Clark will hold court today at Garner, for the purpose of entering a decree in the Bank of Corwith case. Judge Clark has some thirty claims to a preference under advisement, which were heard here at a special session of the April term, during the months of July, August and September. Of these, thirtynine claims are based on forged paper held by outside banks, which amount to $70,000, or practically the whole of the assets of the bank now in the hands of the receiver, or possible to be connected by them.

4. October 28, 1908 Evening Times-Republican Marshalltown, IA
Article from Evening Times-Republican, October 28, 1908

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CLAIMSARE PREFERRED Judge Clark Holds That Buyers of Forged Paper in Corwith Bank Have Precedence TRUST IN FUNDS OTHER : Majority of Thirty of Litigants in Standring Defalcation Win Their Cases in Court - Preferred Claimants Will Secure Bulk of Assets of Failed Bank — The Court's Rulings. Special to Times-Republican. Mason City, Oct. 28-The final decree in the case of the defunct Bank of Corwith has been made by Judge Clark and with this decree all the cases connected with the bank are concluded This final decree disposes of a total of about thirty claims aggregating over $80,000. These claims were tried last summer and have been under advisement by the court since that time. The original number of claims against the bank was over 300 and they aggregated over $300,000. All but these last thirty were disposed of at Garner last summers and in most cases without dispute. They included no cases in which there were forgeries. All those complicated by forgeries are disposed of in this last decree and the thirty cases in this final decree are the most complicated in law and fact and involve the most legal questions of the entire 300 cases connected with the defunct bank. In Three Classes. The claims against this bank are of three classes. The first class is that of trust fund creditors, the second of depositors and the third of general creditors. The thirty cases disposed of in this final decree were largely of the first class or of those who claimed to be in the first class-that is, preferred trust fund creditors. Claims of Depositors. First as to the claims of the depositors. Questions arose under the Iowa laws which give depositors preference over other creditors and the chief of e was, "Who are properly deposite2s Some claimed that time certificates of deposit were loans and not deposits. The supreme court has herd that this question is determined by whether the main intention was to deposit the money for safekeeping or to accommodate the bank with a loan. Peculiar facts in this case made the der cis on difficult. Trust Fund Creditors. But more difficult and more complicated than the questions concerning the certificates of deposit were those concerning the trust fund creditors, and who are properly trust fund creditors and their rights and privileges, Also in this particular case, what are their rights as against depositors and other creditors? In this particular case the creditors who claim to be trust fund creditors and ask for preference on that score fall naturally into) three classes. The first of these three classes is the trust, fund proper. The courts have held that when monies are left with a bank for special purposes, such as the paying of a debt, a trust fund is created in favor of the depositor and the bank is required to keep this fund separate from the other funds of the bank. Then if it should mix this fund wrongfully with the other funds of the bank and the bank should then go into the hands of a receiver, such a trust fund creditor has a preference and is in this way preferred even over the depositors. But in some of the claims of this nature in this particular case the parties did not pay in money but their checks on funds

5. October 28, 1908 Evening Times-Republican Marshalltown, IA
Article from Evening Times-Republican, October 28, 1908

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amounts but in the case of each draft it was shown that Cashier Standring had credited himself on the books of the bank with the amounts of the drafts and had afterwards checked out the sums for his own benefit. It was claimed by these creditors that this gave them a preference because the money tho used by the cashier was due to them because the cashier was an officer of the bank and the bank was liable. Therefore they claimed to be entitled to the amounts from the funds of the bank. On the other hand the receiver and other creditors claimed that the money was shown to have been used by the cashier and that therefore could not have gone into the hands of the receiver. Therefore other creditors should not have to bear the loss of this amount out of the money which they had deposited. The court held that these claims are not to be preferred but established them as general claims. Between Two Fires. The court was thruout all this mass of litigation connected with the defunct Bank of Corwith between the devil and the deep sea. If on the one hand it was decided that all the preferred claims should be allowed, then thousands of dollars would be taken away from depositors. On the other hand should the depositors be given preference they would have swept the board. There were simply not enough funds to go around. The case is unique in the annals of Iowa courts. There was never a case in Iowa where there were SO many jegal points to be considered and where opinions varied so widely on different points. Many appeals are probable.