First State Bank - Shelburn, IN

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: state
Start Date: October 31, 1932
Location: Shelburn, Indiana (39.178, -87.394)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: 833335dd

Response Measures

None

Description

Article (The Indianapolis Times, 1932-10-31) states The First State bank of Shelburn ... is in receivership. Mentions official Jessup F. Bolinger imprisoned for mishandling depositors' funds and forged/substituted notes; bank placed in receivership and assets compromised. No explicit run reported; receivership implies permanent closure.

Events (1)

1. October 31, 1932 Receivership

Newspaper Excerpt: The First State bank of Shelburn in Sullivan county, just south of here, is in receivership.
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (1)

1. October 31, 1932 The Indianapolis Times Indianapolis, IN

Article from The Indianapolis Times, October 31, 1932

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Article Text

Sour Note ERRE HAUTE, Ind., Oct. 31-Even if there were no ReT publican factionalism in this community, which is going to work to the detriment of Senator James E Watson, he would be an excellent bet to lose the county, because of the peculiar conditions surrounding a $5,000 note signed by him and made on a defunct bank Details of this transaction are known widely in this district and serve to bring home to farmers and workers of the district the long record of misrepresentation in the senate by Watson, punctuated by such incidents as his sugar stock deal. The First State bank of Shelburn in Sullivan county, just south of here, is in receivership. Jessup F. Bolinger, an official of the institution, is serving a term in the state penitentiary for the peculiar ways he had of handling depositors' money. On Feb. 1, 1925, court records reveal one James E. Watson executed a promissory note for $5,000, payable in nine months to the order of the "Florida Industrial Development Corporation of Tampa, Fla." Bolinger indorsed the note as treasurer of this high-sounding corporation and put it in his bank to replace $5,000 of the depositors' savings. # # On April 29, 1927 when it began to appear that the house of cards was getting shaky, Bolinger removed this note from the bank and substituted for it a forged document of his own, "for the same amount and of no value." When the bank was declared wrecked, and it was learned that the senior senator's note was part of the assets, the original Watson promissory note was ordered delivered to the receiver, and this was done. Now here comes the difficulty. It appears from the court record that the receiver was unable to realize from the Florida development company on the note, and that, "on account of acts connected with execution and handling of the said note, and the general transactions throughout the country and sentiment toward such transactions and banks" ... and, because the receiver believes that the result from litigation in an cffort to enforce payment would be doubtful, that the $5,000 note be compromised for $1,650." The record also sets out that the