First National Bank - Toledo, IL

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: national
Bank ID: 5273
Charter Number: 5273
Start Date: January 1, 1905*
Location: Toledo, Illinois (39.274, -88.244)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: 5022c31521ba1079

Response Measures

None

Description

Article describes the First National Bank of Toledo, Ill. being 'engulfed' with the collapse of Charles Devlin's business interests; the bank and affiliated institutions went into receivership. No explicit run is described in the excerpt, only closure/receivership due to adverse bank-specific information (owner's failures). OCR errors in the article were present but did not alter identification.

Events (3)

1. April 2, 1900 Chartered

Source: historical_nic

2. January 1, 1905* Suspension

Cause: Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details: Collapse of Charles Devlin's business ventures and investments led to the failure of banks he controlled; banks were placed in hands of receivers.
Newspaper Excerpt: Two other banks controlled by DevJin, the Spring Valley National Bank and the First National Bank of Toledo, III., were engulfed with the First National, and his other properties went into the hands of receivers.
Source: newspapers

3. June 6, 1933 Voluntary Liquidation

Source: historical_nic

Newspaper Articles (1)

1. December 10, 1905 New-York Tribune New York, NY

Article from New-York Tribune, December 10, 1905

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Article Text

months Five month. = 000'000'1$ ""H Chicago, Dec. (Special).-More than $5,000,000 has been embezzled from banks and lost through forced or voluntary liquidation on the part of financial institutions in five months in 1905. and the wrecks have carried with them to destruction men supposed to be beyond reproach in business and financial dealings. Six banks alone have been forced to close their doors through stealings amounting to $5,340,000, and though 15 & few instances some part of this vast sum has been recovered for the depositors, in the majority of cases the loss has been complete. Four banks have paid to the tune of $5,300,000 for speculation on the part of trusted officials. The three big bank wrecks which are still fresh in the public mind on account of their size and recent date are the Enterprise National Bank of Allegheny, Penn: the First National Bank, of Topeka, Kan.: the First National Bank, of Milwaukee, Wis., and the Peoria National Bank, of Peoria, III. The failure of the Denver Savings Bank, of Denver, Col., completes the list of five banks whose losses at first hand reached $8,350,000. or the men who caused these finanrial disasters one committed suicide, one died from disease, two were sent to prison and ten 9,13.14 This series of systematic bank lootings by those who were intrusted with the funds of depositors began last April, when the discovery of & shortage in the First National Bank, of Milwaukee, led to the confession of the president, Frank G. Bigelow, that he had used and lost $1,450,000 of the bank's funds in speculaMon in the wheat pit and in Wall Street. He was admired as one of the foremost financiers of the Northwest, was president of the AmerJcan Bankers' Association, a member of many clubs and societies; in short, one of the leading men of the city. With the connivance of a cashier he manipulated collection accounts 40 and 50 per cent. to make it appear that the bank's reserve fund was intact. The amount of the increased collection fund Bigelow diverted to his stock operations. The reserve maintained by the First National in Eastern banks was tampered with so that It appeared several hun# thank dollars JO spussnon JO speap really was Bigelow is now serving a sentence pood JOJ No taken eurn 411" when prison us behavior, will expire in seven years. On May 1 Francis H. Palmer, cashier of the Peconic State Bank of Peconic, Peconic, Long Island, confessed to a shortage of $40,000, and the bank was forced to close Its doors. Palmer lost the money speculating in Wall Street. The depositors, however, got some percentage of their money, as Palmer had property worth euo 1V realized RUBQ the which UO 000 $23 time Psimer's speculations amounted to $70,000, but he reduced these by fortunate turns of the speculative market. In July the First National Bank of Topeka, se rated T Charles Aq "uny Mest em 10 pijos isout one TO and 0000000'1$ JO UIIAL TEAM em 01 1494 Devlin became ill and this caused a tangle in his allairs which brought on the crash. He had $7,000,000 invested in railroad and mining properties and was promoting various industrial schemes. Two other banks controlled by DevJin, the Spring Valley National Bank and the First National Bank of Toledo, III., were engulfed with the First National, and his other properties went into the hands of receivers. The collapse of his business ventures finished the dissolution begun by disease, and Devlin died. Yet his death brought about what he could not accomplish had he lived, the settlement of all claims against him. His life insurance of $700,000, added to what could be saved from the wreckage, gave every creditor and bank depositor dollar for dollar Hot on the heels of the Bigelow crash came in August the closing of the Denver Savings Bank and the charge that it had been looted of over $1,700,000 by conspirators, among whom were included officers and ex-officers of the bank. The bank had 8,000 depositors, with deposits aggregating $1 400,000. The of the receiver led to the indictment of Leonard Imboden, James A. Hill, C. B. Wilfley, E. E. Hull, H.L. Hull, C. B. Roberts. W. T Camp, D. M. Carey and A B. and J. H Edmondson on a charge of conspiring to steal 712,587 from the bank. Wilfley, Edmondson and Hill had been presidents of the bank. October saw the downfall of Newton C. Dougherty, Chief Superintendent of Schools of Peorla, and the closing of the Peoria National Bank through his embezzlement of its funds, and the foundering of the Enterprise Bank of Allegheney, Penn., which helped not a little in the defeat of the Philadelphia bosses at the last election. Dougherty was arrested October 5 for forgery tavolving a small amount. The charge shocked the community in which he had been a leading member, socially and in business. He protested his Inocence and said that investigation would clear him, but further investigation of the bank's affairs served only to increase the amount of Dougheriy's embezzlement. and the number of his forgeries of the bank's paper. Over two hundred indictments were finally found against him and the proceeds of his embezzling and SEM eH 01 sunotur 01 punoj tried. convicted and sentenced to a much longer term than Bigelow, although his stealings were less. Dougherty's punishment was imprisonment for from one to fourteen years on each of five counts. This may mean five years or seventyfour, as the authorities may decide. It will hardly, however, be, seventy-four The end of the Enterprise Bank scandal is not Tel. for there remain to be proven by the federal authorities who are examining the bank's affairs the charges that the loss of $1,200,000 and the closing of the institution were due to the lending of large sums State politicians without security, and that the funds deposited by the State Itself in the bank were lent to these politiclans without security and also the accusation T. Lee Clarke, the cashier, made in the note he wrote before he committed suicide-that "Bull" Andrews had caused his ruin. At present there hope that any of the depositors will get their money back, and among them are thouspate TO workingpeople. Although poor the Central National Bank of Boston failed and closed Its doors in 1903, It was not until a few months ago that charges were made that the liabilities of $3,000,000 were largely due to the incompetent management of the directoms and the peculations of the president, Otts H Luke Suits have been begun to recover from the officers of the bank between $500,000 and $500,000 The receiver charges that the directors wilfully falsified reports to the State Controller of Currency and allowed Luke to lend the bank's funds without security to himself and a clerk.