Grant Trust & Savings Company

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: state
Start Date: October 1, 1930*
Location: Marion, Indiana (40.550, -85.659)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: b3f4d764

Response Measures

None

Description

Articles describe the Grant Trust & Savings Company as defunct and merged into the First National of Marion about one month after Sept 30, 1930, following insolvency stemming from poor investments. There is no explicit description of a depositor run in the texts provided; the bank appears to have been insolvent and was merged (closed) — classified as a suspension leading to permanent closure. Dates are approximate based on article text.

Events (2)

1. October 1, 1930* Other

Newspaper Excerpt: Practically every guardianship of the Grant moved into the First National with the office furniture. Valeted to their files in the First National of Marion ... they became part of the trust division of the old First National without audit.
Source: newspapers

2. October 1, 1930* Suspension

Cause: Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details: Became insolvent or in failing condition due to poor investments (defaulted bonds and risky mortgage assignments purchased for veterans), leading to merger/closure.
Newspaper Excerpt: Nearly one month from those days the Grant Trust, according to state banking department records, was merged with the First National of Marion.
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (1)

1. March 2, 1934 The Indianapolis Times Indianapolis, IN

Article from The Indianapolis Times, March 2, 1934

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Article Text

# BONDS BOUGHT FOR VETERANS PROVE COSTLY Securities Purchased in 1930 for Ill Ex-Soldiers Now in Default. STUDY COURT RECORDS Chateau Apartment Flotation Figures in Investments for Service Men. BY ARCH STEINEL Times Staff Writer MARION, Ind., March 2.—Like the "three little words" in the popular song that meant so much, "two little days" in September, 1930, were extremely important ones to the mentally incompetent veterans in the Marion veterans' hospital, according to the records. For on Sept. 25 and Sept. 30 of 1930, there was wholesale activity in veterans' guardianships in the Grant circuit court. If those days in September, 1930, were red-letter days for the defunct Grant Savings and Trust Company of Marion, then too are they red-letter days for any one perusing the guardianship trusts held in that year by the Grant company. Wholesale assignments of realty mortgages, that later have proved in some instances as frigid collections, and equally wholesale petitions to invest in securities for insane war veterans were heaped on the circuit court rostrum of Grant county on those two red-letter days. Now Basis for Suits In many instances, thousands of dollars of the securities, which for the most part, as records reveal, were purchased before Sept. 30, 1930, for the veterans without court orders in some instances. These are now the basis of suits for the recovery of thousands of dollars in suits for depleted estates of veterans pending against the Grant Trust and Savings company. Nearly one month from those days the Grant Trust, according to state banking department records, was merged with the First National of Marion. Practically every guardianship of the Grant moved into the First National with the office furniture. Valeted to their files in the First National of Marion (now in receivership) by Marshall Williams, secretary and trust officer, they became part of the trust division of the old First National without audit. Became Trust Officer In some of the guardianships Mr. Williams had played midwife at birth as in Case 2054, in which he petitioned for declaring Case 2054 insane on Oct. 13, 1922, and then accepted that guardianship for the Grant Trust on Nov. 10, 1922, as secretary of the Grant. Court reports were signed in most cases by Mr. Williams for this ward. In the First National of Marion he became vice-president and trust officer. The demise of the First National of Marion left him, according to George W. Rauch, receiver for the old institution, as merely "working for me in the old bank." But on the counters of the First National in Marion (the new bank born of the memorable March holiday) are folders to be picked up and on their saffron backs is the listing of "Marshall Williams, trust officer" among the bank's new officials. Admits Holding Stock Mr. Rauch, who is a Democratic senatorial aspirant, was quick to line out with fountain pen the printed words on the folder and to assure a Times representative that Mr. Williams was not connected with the new bank. Mr. Williams did admit that he was a "small-very small stockholder" in the new institution. And it is the guardianships tended over by Mr. Williams through two banks, and on occasions a third, the Citizens Trust and Savings Company, that are being charged in suits filed in circuit court as "wrongfully and unlawfully, and without prior order of the court, purchased and held as investments." The suits further charge that the securities in guardianships were carried "on its books at the several face values thereof instead of the true cash or market values . . . that said securities were not safe, sound securities . . . and were by them sold at a profit . . . that said former guardian (meaning Grant Trust) wrongfully and unlawfully failed to make full disclosure to, and concealed from, this court the facts as to the status of the investments, but on the contrary reported said investments as being of their full face value." Probe Report Is Studied The suits against the Grant Trust further charge that the bank "became insolvent or in a failing condition" and that this condition (Turn to Page Twenty-One)