State Savings Institution (Chicago, IL)

Episode Information

Episode Type
Run → Suspension → Closure
Start Date
July 18, 1877
Location
Chicago, Illinois (41.850, -87.650)
Bank Type
savings

Metadata

Notes

Initial runs tied to St. Louis bank troubles; later revealed embezzlement and insolvency led to suspension and receivership.

Events (3)

1. July 18, 1877 Run
Cause
Local Banks
Cause Details
Runs triggered by contagion from St. Louis bank troubles; light depositors withdrew funds
Measures
Paid out larger-than-usual sums (e.g., $16,000 more than usual; paid out large cash sums to try to calm depositors)
Newspaper Excerpt
There has been a small run by light depositors to-day on the State Savings Bank
Source
newspapers
2. August 29, 1877 Suspension
Cause
Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details
Bank forced to suspend/close after heavy runs and discovery of frauds/insolvency (embezzlement alleged against officers) leading to failure
Newspaper Excerpt
As yet no bank has closed except the State Savings Bank
Source
newspapers
3. September 13, 1877 Receivership
Newspaper Excerpt
Judge Williams appointed David O. Strong ... as Receiver of the State Savings Institution, with bonds at $2,000,000.
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (23)

Article from The New Orleans Daily Democrat, July 19, 1877

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A Run on FL Chicago Bank. [Special to the Democrat.) CHICAGO, July 18.-The St. Louis bank troubles produced scarcely a perceptible impression on banking institutions here. There has been a small run by light depositors to-day on the State Savings Bank, but there is nothing like a rush.


Article from New-York Tribune, July 19, 1877

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NO EXCITEMENT IN CHICAGO

CHICAGO, III., July 18.-The St. Louis bank troubles have produced scareely a perceptible impression on the banking institutions here. There bas been a small run by light depositors, to-day, on the State Savings Bank, out there is nothing like a rush. and the Bank officere say they frequently pay out more 18 a forenoon in the ordinary course of business than they did up to 1 o'clock to-day. It is prépable the run will cease to-morrow, as that begun yesterday on the Fidelity has to-day.


Article from The Cincinnati Daily Star, July 19, 1877

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Want Their Money

National Associated Press to the Star. CHICAGO, July 19.-The run ou the savings banks continues to-day. Long before the hour of opening a large crowd gathered in front of the State Savings Bank and proved 80 threatening as to compel an opening an hour earlier than usual. The institution paid out $16,000 more than usual yesterday.


Article from The Cheyenne Daily Leader, July 19, 1877

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ILLINOIS

Banking Troubles in Chigago. Chicago, July 18.-The St. Louis bank troubles produced scarcely a perceptible impression on banking institutions here. There has been a small run to-day on the State Savings bank, but there is often a like rush, and bank officers say they frequently pay out in a forenoon in the ordinary course of business more than they have up to 1 o'clock to-day.


Article from The Daily Dispatch, July 19, 1877

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X6, at Run on Chicago Banks. NO FEARS ANTICIPATED: CHICAGO, July 18.-There has been a small run by light. depositors to-day on the State Savings Bank, but there is nothing like a rush. The bank officers say they frequently pay out more in the forenoon in the ordinary course of business than they have


Article from The Daily Gazette, August 29, 1877

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MONEY AFFAIRS IN CHICAGO

By Telegraph to the Gazette. CHICAGO, Aug. 29. As yet no bank has closed except the State Savings Bank, Tho savings banks are being freely run upon by depositors but the commercial banks are as quiet as usual.


Article from New-York Tribune, August 30, 1877

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CHICAGO BANK TROUBLES

STATE SAVINGS INSTITUTION. EXCITEMENT AMONG DEPOSITORS-A GENERAL PANIC NOT EXPECTED-RECKLESS INVES TMENTS OF TRUST FUNDS.


Article from The Rutland Daily Globe, August 30, 1877

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A Savings Bank Panic

CHICAGO. Aug. 29. It is feared the failure of the state savings bank will cause a general run ( n savings banks, and that fully six more suspenei na will occur this week. An Elkhorn, Wis., dispatch charges that President Spencer of the state savings institution was cashier of the Elkhorn bank when it failed, and embezz ed its funds, and was sub equently id ntified with the Cook county national bank of Chicago, which failed disastrously a few years ago. The assets of the state savings institution are now placed at $3 050 947.


Article from The Sun, August 30, 1877

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The savings bank panic in Chicago yesterday was serious. The frauds which have brought the State Savings Bank to ruin have at the same time brought a multitude of poor depositors to grief, and the scenes witnessed around its doors yesterday are such as have been only too common in the history of American savings banks. There was a heavy run upon three of the other savings banks of Chicago, and there is evidently a widespread feeling of insecurity among depositors. It is absurd to ask people to retain confidence in such an institution as the State Savings Bank. after the revolutions that have been made of its management, and the character and career of its President, D. D. SPENCER


Article from The Wheeling Daily Register, September 5, 1877

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THE story of the State Savings Bank in Chicago is fearful. SPENCER, the President of the institution, cannot be found. The Times briefs the swindle in this way: Fifteen thousand persons lent to Spencer & Co. $3,000,000. for safe keeping and investment. Spencer & Co. lent it to Spencer & Co. upon whatever securities Spencer & Co. thought fit to give and accept. The trusting depositors hold Spencer & Co.'s bank books secured by Spencer & Co.'s liabilities as debtors to Spencer & Co. In other words the available assets won't pay a dollar each to the fifteen thousand depositors of three million of dollsts. There is a faint hope*that from tifteen to twenty per cent. may be saved from the ruins, by coddling the collateras.


Article from The Donaldsonville Chief, September 8, 1877

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Domestic

Ex-Governor Wilson Shannon of Kausas is dead. Village of Ashland, Ills., almost entirely burned. Decrease of the national debt in August $3,869,538. Adams, founder of Adams Express, died at Boston, aged 73. Avaring mille, litte, Illa., with 25,000 bushels of wheat, burned. Louisville business men will petition Congress to repeal the bankrupt law. The State Savings Bank of Chicago has failed and the officers have left the city. Ten blocks, composing nearly the entire business portion of Paris, Texas, burned. A.B. Haynes. grand master of the State Grange and n leading farmer of Mississippi, is dead. John King, and extensive St. Louis lard and oil dealer, has gone into voluntary bankruptcy. Hamburg distillery, Pekin, Ills., was destroyed by fire. A blacksmith perished in the flames. A convention of bankers will be held at New York ou the 12th. The attendance will be large. The Grand Encampment of Knights Templar adjourned at Cleveland to meet in Chicago next year. The State department has advices of the death of United States Vice Consul Harrison at Gnayas. Robert Leich, a Scotchman, just arrived from Florida, died in New York Hospital, of yellow fever. A locomotive ran into a group of five persons at Salem, Mass., killing three and wounding the others. The Lehigh Valley railroad refuses to transport coal for minioing companies that yielded to the strikers. Hon. A. G. Lawrence of Rhode Island has accepted the civilian's position on the Sitting Bull commission. Dr. S. M. Stein, a New York physician, committed suicide by jumping from the Niagara suspension bridge. Theopholus Gaines, recently appointed attorney for Montana, has complied with the request to resign. Gen. Wesley Merritt will command ten companies of cavalry to be sent in pursuit of the hostile Nez Perces. Mrs. Catherine Berry of New Orleans ventured beyond her deptii while bathing at Grand Isle, and was drowned. ) During a heavy shower the wall of I the building of the Woreester Wire Company was blown down, killing i two persons. e A house of ill fame at Cincinnati e fell while workmen were making an excavation under the walls. Several y persons were injured. t The sixth regiment Maryland miliS tia, Col. Peters. which took a promit nent part in quelling the strike riots r at Baltimore, has disbanded. n S. S. Burdett, a commissioner of p e the general land-office, who it was II supposed committed suicide, has turned up at Sedalia, Mo., insane. y g Simeon Garnett, a negro who comil mitted an assault on Mrs. Perry Kingrey. near Oxford, O., was taken out of jail and shot dead by the people.


Article from The Redwood Gazette, September 13, 1877

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signally defeated

Though sadly crippled since the fire, it was hoped by the management that the Institution would worry through, but the series of sudden failures in St. Louis brought a run upon the quivering bank, which, in an effort to save itself, paid out from $300,000 to $400,000 of its cash means without securing the object sought-the allayingof the excitement. It was finally forced to fall back upon the sixty-day rule, though it has constantly paid out money to needy depositors. This drain, the payment of the half-yearly interest of 3 per cent on $4,000,000 of de posits, and the slow receipts of deposits, conspired to still further weaken the Institution, which, up to July 1, had paid $800,000 over its receipts, and thus parted with the bulk of itecash means. Its assets were of an unfortunate nature. Masses of real estate, which could not be turned owing to the general depression of the market, crippled paper secured by lots whose buildings had been destroyed by the fire, and an enormous amount of unimproved property, taken for debt, and valuable only as it represented a dead loss in the taxes that must be paid, made up the list. The $500,000 capital had been wiped away and the interest of the stockholders extinguished by the hard times that had eaten sadly into the prosperity of the bank, and shrunk it from a live and healthy institution to a pitiful monument of the banking system. It is estimated that nearly one-third of its loans were to mechanics and the salaried class, who borrowed to build homes, and whom the Institution endeavored by every means to assist when the hour of payment found them unable to respond. All this time it preserved its high rate of interest on deposits, notwithstanding the fact that much of its money was idle and its expenses heavy. Perhaps this outline of its affairs will remove any doubt that may exist as to the propriety of the explosion. It is certain that Mr. Spencer did not fully enjoy the confidence of the financial community. His unfortunate experience in the Cook County National, which subsequently landed high and dry, militated against him seriously, and through him against the State Savings. But he managed to stem even this tide until the troubles in St. Louis precipitated the disaster he had hoped to avert. But little could be learned of the condition of the bank for some time before the failure, and this fact, connected with surmises that Mr. Spencer had reasons for suppressing all information, did not tend to the establishment of the confidence he coveted. When the necessity for raising money became absolute, Mr. Spencer went among bankers and said he had $1,000,000 in paper good for its face, $1,000,000 in slow paper, and $1,000,000 in miscellaneous securities. Per contra, his obligations were $3,000,000, and on this showing he wanted $300,000 on such securities as he could afford to part with, claiming that this would enable him to raise from $300,000 to $500,000 in New York, with which he could restore credit. It was readily seen that he would have no first-class securities left, and that the bank must go under by the 1st of January, and bankers concluded that there would be less disappointment if it should fall now than in the winter, when less could be realized on the securities than when the corn was waving, the crops moving, and business generally more brisk. As to the dividends for depositors, Mr. Spencer has claimed that they will reach 75 or 80 per cent., or, under first-class management, 90 per cent., if the paper were sold wisely and slowly, while bad management will reduce them to 60 or 70 per cent. How much really will be realized depends upon the manner in which the vast mass of real estate can be utilized. The question whether the affairs of the bank have been managed dishonestly, or merely imprudently, is asked, and an investigation is awaited anxiously. Mr. Spencer has always been secretive, and has kept the details of his administration to himself. In how far this has been a wise course is left for time to determine. The depositors feel desirous of understanding the matter, even if they receive no other equivalent for their money. From these facts it is manifest that the State Savings Institution was doomed. No general pressure exists upon banking interests, and none was needed to cripple the foundation of this one institution. Flush times might have saved it, but flush times were necessary, and a little pinching. which has not yet affected, and will not affect, the rest, has raised the tombstone of the bank whose vitality has been sadly impaired since the fire.-Chicago Tribune, Aug. 29.


Article from Chicago Daily Tribune, September 13, 1877

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ABNER TAYLOR

maded on British oil Moralay mornfuz. Mr. 27. and from that time to the present he has been under the protection of the Englich laws. I have ron-nitrd several eminent lawyere, and they all agree that he has committed no crime cor. erol by any extradition treaty with England, Therefore, if he was found on English coil, he could not be brought back. I therefore did not food authorized to waste the money ney of the State Savinge Institution in an al- tempt to bring him back when I was satisfied it cunlil not be done, If there in any person who believes he can bring him back. I hereby offer to pay $1,188) ont of my own money to any person who will produce the body of D. D. Spencer in Chicago.

ANOTHER FIND.

Mr. Isaac G. Ogden's prediction that those six lots in Mason & McKichan's Subsilviston would be found to belong to the bank was verified yesterday. IHe went over to the Recorder's office, and found recorded on Page 7 of Book 663 the conveyance of Lots 45 to 50, Inclusive, in Block 6, Mason & McKichan's Subdivision, Sec. 14, T. 39, N. R. 11 E., to Hatfield, the employe down in the Safety-Deposit vaulte, upon whom the bank was in the habit of unloading the surplus real estate which it did not wish its depositors to know it was carrving. The probability is that the clerk in the Recorder's uffice who made up the abstract furnished Cot. Taylor a day or two ago inadvertently skipped this portion of the record. As stated yesterday, there were sixteen lots which Mr. Ogden, acting for a third party, conveyed to the bank in ret- Llement of a trade between that third party and the bank. Ten of the lota were traced up and reported to Col. Tavlor as in the name of Hat- flykl, but the six were not, or rather they dilo't appear, until Mr. Ogden turned them up. They are said to he worth altogether about 1,000.

THE DEPOSITORS' COMMITTER

did not get together until late yesterday afternoon. An effort was made to get them all together during the morning in order to deter- mine upon some naine to recommend to the Court for the Receivership. The attempl was wholly unsuccessful, Mr. Aldrich being In one part of the city and Mr. Wentworth, at the hour he was wanted, being in the very act of taking an oninibus ride to the depot, where he took the train for his corn-fields. He did, however, the best he could-promised to returu and meet the other members at 4 o'clock. The other members were on tiine, but it was nearly 5 o'clock when Lang John stooped to get through the low doors in the rear of the bank, and found his way to the Indies' parlor, where the Committee met. The subject of the Receiv ership was talked over and viewed in all its ns- pects, the several names mentioned carefully canvassed, and the Committee finally arrived at. the conclusion that they would draw up a docu- ment stating to the Court that either D. A. Strong or Col. Taylor would sunt them. Three of the members-Messrs. Aldrich. Bishop, and Keeley-were in favor of Strong for first cholce, while Long John and Mr. Decker stood out for Col. Taylor. As it seemed impossible to get the whole Committee to consent on one man, the matter was finally compromised by their agreeing to name both men. It was also learned yesterday that the other side will nominate Judge Henry Strong, In ad- dition to Judge Otis.

Somo quser facts are coming out in regard to the deposits of the persons who brought the motion for the appointment of a Receiver for he "bustel" bank. Mr. Eaines' $10.77 hal- anee, and the back-door facilities he enjoyed with Gould which enabled him to cut down his 85.000 balance to that insigullicant figure, were brought to light by Mr. Sidney Smith in his ar- gument before Judge Williams on Tuesday. It now turns out that the child of one of the at- torneys in the case had an account with the bank subject to the parent'sorder. This account amounted to 25. On Saturday, Aug. 25, the man learned in the law hied hinself over to the bank, interviewed one of the clerks, and told him he wanted that money. The afore- sald clerk looked up the account, sald it was all right, and paid over the money. He did more than that. In his hurry he had figured up the lawyer's child's balance at $23.77. Instead, therefore, of the disciple of Blackstone appear- ing in the role of attorney for the creditors, he will now have a chance to take his stand among the debtors to the institution, and turn in that little nsact of $1.77.


Article from The New York Herald, September 14, 1877

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BANK RECEIVER APPOINTED

CHICAGO, Sept. 13, 1877. In the Circuit Court this morning Judge Williams appointed David O. Strong, a retired banker, as Recelver of the State Savings Institution, with bonds at $2,000,000.


Article from Daily Kennebec Journal, September 14, 1877

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ILLINOIS

Appointment. CHICAGO, September 13. In the circuit court Judge Williams appointed David Strong. a retired banker, as receiver of the State savings instition.


Article from The Stark County Democrat, September 20, 1877

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POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS.

The run upon and failure of some of the St. Louis savings banks, the explosion of the Franklin Bank and State Savings Institution at Chicago, and such scandals as those that attended upon the downfall of Mr. Darling's Third Avenue Bank, have brought into very general notice the postal savings bank system introduced into England in 1861, and since then adopted with some slight modifications in Canada. In England on the 1st of January, 1876, there were over five thousand of these banks, which held £26.127.967 to the credit of their depositors, the average amount deposited by each person being nearly $71 and the business of the year 1875 including 3,132,433 deposits, amounting to £8783,852. The deposits must be made in round pounds and shillings, and not exceeding £30 in one year, £150 in all, or £200 including interest, is received from a single depositor. Depositors are allowed 2½ per cent. interent on sums exceeding £1, the money being invested in the public funds. In Canada the system is somewhat different. Deposits must be in round dollars, 4 per cent. interest is paid, and when the deposit becomes considerable the Receiver-General buys 5 per cent. Dominion bonds and holds them in trust for the depositor. Deposits are exempt from seizure, and are payable anywhere where there is au office. Thus a man may make his deposits at Gaspe and draw them out at Fort Garry, the only delay in the process being the time occupied in sending an application for withdrawal from the local office to Ottawa, where all the accounts are kept, and receiving back the Postmaster-General's check. There is no expense whatever to the depositor.

The postal savings bank system went into effect in Canada in April, 1868, when 81 offices were designated for the receival of deposits. There are now 278 such offices-232 in Ontario, 45 in Quebec and one in Manitoba-with, on the 1st of January last, 24,389 depositors. These have at their credit $2.727.910,77, including interest. During the eight years and nine months then ending 307,290 deposits have been made, amounting to $15 741.621, and there have been 153,394 withdrawals, aggregating $12.208.189,20, while further 6,786 investments have been made in Dominion 5 per cents to the amount of $1.617.300. There have been opened 85.971 accounts and closed 61,582, and interest amounting to $811.778,87 has been allowed to depositors. The average to the credit of each depositor is $111,85. The following figures show the progress of the business:


Article from The New York Herald, September 25, 1877

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CHICAGO'S SAVINGS BANKS

moha CHICAGO, Sept. 24, 1877. The Fidelity Savings Bank, of this city, closed its doors this morning. A notice is posted that an injunction having been served a receiver will be applied for before Judge Moore, of the Superior Court, and the bank will be closed to await the action ot said Court. The petition received alleges that the officers have been sacrificing valuable securities in order to realize cash and that the back 18 already insolvent. It is believed that the assets will be much larger in proportion than those 01 the State Savings Bank. The last quarterly statement gives as resources:$341,222 Cash and exchange Government bonds. 279,432 Other bonds 50,061 234,818 Demand loan, secured by collaterals 438,749 Time loans, secured First mortgage loans on real estate. 606,342 85,878 Bank and depository building. Real estate 102,000 Property account. 18,454 Safe depository vaults 121,520 Other small items make a total of resources $2,230,511 Liabilities were:Capital $200,000 Surplus 100,000 Pront and loss 3,447 Due depositors. 1,977,064 Total $2,280,511 OFFICIALS INDICTED. The Grand Jury has indicted Spencer, Guild and Bulkley, officers of the State Savings Bank, for the embezziement of $700,000. None of them are in the city, nor is their present whereabouts known.


Article from New-York Tribune, September 26, 1877

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UNEASINESS IN CHICAGO

NOTICE GIVEN TO THE SAVINGS BANKS BY DEPOSITORS. [BY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE.| CHICAGO, Sept. 25-To-day there seems to be more evidences of a panic among the banks than at any time since the recent suspension of the State Savings Institution. The collapse of the Fidelity, the next in importance in the city has, created more real excitement among both bankers and business men gener ally than was noticed. A thousand rumors are now affoat relative to the present condition of other savings institutions in the city. It is a matter of difficulty to settle one's belief upon what may be the present safety of any particular bank, but botn brokers and depositors a e fighting the matter over the counters and the correspondent of THE TRIBUNE has learned that almost every savings bank in Chicago has received notice from its depositors to-day stating that they desire to withdraw their funds as soon as possible. Within the last ten days this same proceeding brought financial ruin to two banks. It is not perhaps, 100 much to say that two more will soon totter and fall. Their ruin is hourly expected.


Article from The Emporia News, September 28, 1877

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Since the State Savings bank of Chicago suspended, the City savings bank and the Merchants', Farmers' and Mechanics' savings banks, have failed, and the Fidelity has also run out. All but one savings bank are requiring thirty and sixty days' notice from depositors. Thousands of industrious and economical people in Chicago have lost or will lose all their savings by the failures of these banks, and become paupers. The difficulty is that the savings banks' assets consist largely of loans on real estate, and the market value of the real estate has depreciated 80 much in the last five years that the assets are practically worthless, and when depositors of a bank ask for their money to any great extent the bank has to suspend. Thus do industry and economy receive their reward under the savings bank system.


Article from The Donaldsonville Chief, September 29, 1877

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Domestic

03 Senator Morton is better. Thirty-one buildings burned at Lowell, Ills. Fidelity Savings Bank of Chicago has suspended. The post-office at Catskill, N.Y., was burglarized. Secretary Schurz is entertaining a delegation of Sioux chiefs. John Rhodes, convicted of murder, was hanged at Newcastle, Del. Gen Sherman and his staff were at Portland, Oregon, on the 23rd. Gov. Rice has been renominated by the Massachusetts Republicans. A furious snow storm occurred at Mount Washington on the 21st. A fire at Keyport, N.J., destroyed all the business portion of the town. Mrs. Gustave Donafort committed suicide by drowning herself at New Orleans. The Chinese quarter of Grass Valley Cal., was destroyed by au incendiary fire. John Ohern, aged 18 months, was run over and killed by a New Orleans street car. Twelve persons were poisoned seriously from eating ice cream at Macon, Ga. Francois Senac, a New Orleans butcher, committed suicide by hanging himself. Gen. Geo. B. McClellan accepts the Democratic nomination for Governor of New Jersey. The Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows adjourned at Baltimore to meet at Austin in 1878. Three floors of a large linseed oil factory at Cincinnati fell, with 15,000 bnshels flaxseed. Col. Rogers, the president's private secretary, dislocated his elbows by falling down stairs. Two North Carolinians were avrested at Baltimore with counterfeit money in their possession. Goodwin & Behre, extensive St. Louis soap and candle makers, filed a voluntary petition in bankiuptcy. The schooner Ocean Wave, with a crew of seven or eight souls, was lost off Galveston during the recentstorm. The officers of the defunct State Savings Bank of Chicago have been indicted for embezzlement of $700,000. A lady and her two daughters were poisoned at Clevelaud by eating toadstools, which they mistook for mushroons. Two iron foundries, employing 3200 men, have resumed work at Pittsburg. Striking coopers in the same city have gone to work, A package containing government bonds and other securities valued at $200,000 was stolen from the First National Bank at Cortland, N.Y The Black Warrior river, Alabama, rose suddenly sixty-three feet, entirely sweeping away the crops of cotton and fodder along its course.


Article from Daily Kennebec Journal, October 17, 1877

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Returned

Buckley and Guild, the fugitive officers of the State Savings Bank of Chicago have returned and will assist the receiver in straightening out the accounts of the institution.


Article from Chicago Daily Tribune, December 9, 1877

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ness, in which she was engaged as his agent. She assigned the account to him, and he went down the day the bank closed to draw the money, but found the doors shut. He owes the bank $2,000 secured by collaterals, and he prays that this balance to his wife's credit, but assigned to him, may be set off as far as it will go against his note.

Martha P. Sedgwick relates that in June last her husband, since deceased, had a deposit of $1,025.62 in the ill-fated bank. She employed one Stephen Sibley to close up her husband's estate, and in pursuance of his duties he called on the bank to draw this balance. The officers refused to pay it, but offered to apply it on a note for a larger sum owing by Sedgwick to it, and which was nearly due. They also offered to and did transfer this bank account to Sibley's name, in order to facilitate matters. After the failure of the institution, the Receiver declined to set this note and account off against each other, they being in different names, and Mrs. Sedgwick, under the circumstances, thinks that it should be done, and asks that the Receiver be directed to credit the deposit account on the note.

Christopher McJohn, in his petition, represents that in August, 1875, he borrowed $350 of the bank, giving a note and a trust-deed executed by his father on the latter's land. Petitioner had an account of $355 in the bank when it closed, and he asks that it may be set off against the note and trust-deed, on the ground that the securities were given by his father solely on his account.

Lastly, Thomas S. McClelland filed a petition stating that in December, 1876, Sydney Myers bought in at a trustee's sale Lot 1, Block 1, of E. Smith's Resubdivision of B. F. Johnson's Subdivision of part of the W. ½ of the S. W. ¼ of Sec. 34, 39, 14. This purchase was made solely in trust for petitioner who was to resell the land and out of the proceeds pay the purchase money. Subsequently, and without consideration, Myers conveyed the lot to A. D. Guild, Cashier of the State Savings Institution, and Guild turned it over to the bank for $10. McClelland claims these conveyances were fraudulent, and asks that Judge Otis may be compelled to pay him $149, that being his interest in the lot, or that in default thereof the lot may be sold.

Judge Williams was engaged in hearing evidence on these claims, but no order was made beyond dismissing a petition of Jacob S. Matthews for a set-off of an account against his note. No further steps were taken toward making out the order for the sale of the bank building, though yesterday was fixed as the time when the notice of publication should be made out.


Article from Chicago Daily Tribune, December 12, 1877

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Receiver three days after. He has authority, on the order of Court, among other things, to com- pound doubtful debts, and he asks for the direc- tion of the Court as to the disposition to make of the following securities: Nov. 21 J. H. Clough deposited in the bank a check for $5,000, payable out of the Union National Bank. He received credit therefor, and the check was refused at the Union National on account of want of funds, and it was charged back to him. Similar accidents happened on all the following checks: Babcock Bros., check for $100; R. B. Cuson, Special Agent, check for $56.43; A. Knisely & Co., $225; Holly, Easton & Allen, $323; Fisher Bros., $221.25; Holly, Easton & Allen, $1,000; McDonald & Stimpson, $100; and Nation- al Cigar Company, two checks for $130 each. These checks have all been charged back to the parties making or presenting them, and they have asked to have them given back to them. All the parties also have balances at the bank to their credit, and none of them are in debt to the bank, except A. Knisely & Co., so that no damage or loss can re- sult to the bank. An order was therefore entered allowing the Receiver to surrender the checks as asked.

THE DEAD SAVINGS-BANKS

yield little or nothing to the newsgatherer. Judge Otis wants to sell the State Savings Institution, but neither he nor any depositor is willing to have it sold at too great a sacrifice. The proposed sale has accordingly been abandoned for the present, and the Judge will wait for better days, when peo- ple are more settled on the money question, busi- ness improves, and real estate takes a rise. In the State Savings-Hans case Judge Williams yesterday entered an order allowing the Receiver to sell to James F. Joy, President of the Michigan Central Railroad Company, an undivided 7-24 in- terest in 60.383 acres, being parts of secs. 22 and 27, Township 37, Range 14, owned by the bank. The sale is at the rate of $312.50 an acre, one-quarter cash, and the balance in one, two, and three years, with interest at 5 per cent. The Receiver is also authorized to lease certain strips of land near the above property to the railroad to enable it to get water from Calumet Lake. The petition for the purpose was filed several days ago, and several witnesses were examined to ascertain whether the proposed sale and lease was advantageous. The Fidelity is still paying out that 10 per cent dividend. Something near $100 was doled out yesterday. The big fish have come and get their wealth, but the little ones who had deposits from $1 up to $20 do not press forward with any noticeable amount of anxiety to draw the moiety coming to them. The approach of the Christmas holidays will no doubt suggest to some of them that even a small amount will go a little towards buying presents. What is left after the paying-out falls off to noth- ing will be set apart as a first dividend fund, and kept for those who do not want their money now, but prefer to let it accumulate. The deadest of all the banks, savings or Nation- al, is the Beehive. The voice of the mourners isn't exactly heard in its midst, for "merrier men, within the limits of becoming mirth," than those same clerks and the jolly Receiver, one "never spent an hour's talk withal." But, for all that, there is no news.