656. International Bank of Nogales (Nogales, AZ)

Bank Information

Episode Type
Suspension → Closure
Bank Type
state
Start Date
*
Location
Nogales, Arizona (31.340, -110.934)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini
Short Digest
1c3d98d7

Response Measures

None

Description

Articles describe mismanagement, insider loans and undercapitalization that led to the bank's collapse and losses to depositors. No explicit contemporaneous run is described in these excerpts; the bank 'did collapse', implying permanent failure/closure (receivership is discussed but not explicitly dated).

Events (2)
1. * Receivership
Newspaper Excerpt
It was their business to do some knocking. The pussyfooting they did laid open the bank to wreck, and gave Nogales a black eye ... when the International Bank did collapse, and caused losses of many thousands of dollars to depositors.
Source
newspapers
2. * Suspension
Cause
Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details
Undercapitalization and large insider loan of $54,000 to the International Trust Company (notes of officers Dessart and Lewis), plus directors withdrawing rather than exposing the transactions; mismanagement and insider lending undermined solvency and led to collapse and depositor losses.
Newspaper Excerpt
when the bank did collapse
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (2)
1. June 9, 1920 The Daily Morning Oasis Nogales, AZ
Article from The Daily Morning Oasis, June 9, 1920

Click image to open full size in new tab

Article Text

# EDITORIALS "KNOCKING" VS. "PUSSYFOOTING" In his capacity as the Presedient of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Bracey Curtis, President of the First National Bank, as related in these columns heretofore, took occasion at the last meeting of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of deplore the sharp critism that had been drawn forth in the recent election, repeating the sterotyped cry that has rung in all places, at all times when men are exposed in things they should not do, that the exposure "factional fights" Mr. Curtis calls it) "hurts the town:" and "The Oasis" is informed that Mr. Curtis sings the same kind of a song in private conversation. "The Oasis" has taken issue with Mr. Curtis on these topics both in public and private. No town is ever hurt by a fair and open discussion of men and measures. Of course it may hurt Mr. Curtis' amour propre to see mention made of the fight he put up when he was a member of the Nogales Town Council to force the George B. Marsh Incorporation off from the railroad reservation; and it may prick the tender hide of Mr. Titcomb too as shown up by the fact that his "courtesy of wholesale prices" on goods sold the town of Nogales by Roy & Titcomb was quite a per cent higher than the retail prices of other dealers in the same commodities; but it is rightt that the public should know these things when Mr. Curtis and Mr. Titcomb are active in support of a municipal ticket that they aimed to get elected. Suppression of these facts hurt a town more than their ventilation. "The Oasis" can cite a number of instances in which Nogales was damaged most seriously by "Pussyfooting" performed by certain men, whose bounden duty it was to do "knocking" both loud and long. One will suffice right now. It was a case where the town suffered great scandal, and many thousands of dollars were lost to depositors in the old International Bank of Nogales. "The Oasis" was over three years getting to the bottom of that story, and that was done most unexpectedly to the editor by surprising Mr. John F. Tener into an admission and confession n the presence of witnesses, in the dining room of a hotel at Magdalena. The story as told by Mr. Tener has been tucked away in a corner of the editor's brain since that time, awaiting proper occasion to tell it. This is the proper occasion, when it is used to illustrate how "the town was hurt" by three men "pussyfooting" when it was their solemn duty to "knock" good and hard. Mr. Tener reproached "The Oasis" for not hav-

2. June 9, 1920 The Daily Morning Oasis Nogales, AZ
Article from The Daily Morning Oasis, June 9, 1920

Click image to open full size in new tab

Article Text

ing exposed the inside history of that scandalous bank failure. The editor demurred at the imputation, and asserted that he had done everything possible to get at the bottom of the story; and had sat in the Court in Santa Cruz County when the civil suit against R. Allyn Lewis was tried, and had published a full synopsis of testimony taken, had attended the criminal trial against Mr. Lewis in Pima County, and had published copious notes of the evidence there submitted, but that not a scintilla of evidence had been drawn out which went to the bottom of the subject while Mr. Lewis had been acquitted on the criminal charge, and had not fared very seriously in the civil suit. "But" said the editor to Mr. Tener, "if the three directors who withdrew from the International Bank in Nogales a very few months, after they went in at itsreorganization, without making public the fact that they had withdrawn would have made known the fact of their withdrawal, and told the public why they had withdrawn, "The Oasis" might have had something to print that would have been interesting; and the exposure might have saved a part of the large sum of money that was lost when the bank did collapse." Mr. Tener looked very uncomfortable and said "that means E. Titcomb, Captain Mix and myself." The editor disclaimed having mentioned any names; but Mr. Tener plainly repeated his assertion that Mr Titcomb, Mr. Mix and himself were the three directors who withdrew at the time cited. "Now," said Mr. Tener, "the situation was this: When the International Bank was reorganized, after Mr. Herrera sold his interest and went out, the capital of the concern was increased from $25,000 to$50-000. The additional $25,000 of stock was taken by five men, in lots of $5,000 each. Those five men were John Tener, Edward Titcomb, L. W. Mix, John Dessart and R. Allyn Lewis. We five became directors, Shortly after I discovered that my $5,000 was the only cash that passed into the bank for shares. The other four gave their individual notes. So of the $25,000 additional capital $20,000 was just paper, and but $5,000 cash. I did not like that but I brooked it. "A little later Dessart and Lewis organized the International Trust Company, of which they were president and treasurer respectively (or treasurer and president, the arrangement made no diffrence.) The rest of us had no interest in that. "After a few weeks the cashier accosted me on the street and requested m to call at the bank, he wanted to show me something. I did not go until he made me a second request. I went to the bank and the cashier showed me where the International Bank had loaned the International Trust Company the handsome sum of $54,000 upon the notes of the Trust Company, signed by Lewis and Dessart as its officers and they had not even endorsed the note individually as they might have done. I called a meeting of the directors and laid the matter before them. Lewis bought my shares, paying me $5,000 and some $600 earnings, and I was a director no longer. I understood that Titcomb and Mix were given back their notes, and delivered up their stock. Whether they took any earnings I do not know. "But there was a bank, with an alleged capital of $50,000 of which $20,000 was personal notes, which had loaned to its chief officers and leading directors $4,000 more than its alleged capital of which $20,000 was paper." Now, the foregoing is the story of the inside management of the International Bank, as told by Mr. John F. Tener, one of the three directors who got out from under at the beginning of a course of policy which within a little more than a year or two wrecked the bank, and caused losses of many thousands of dollars to depositors. Had Mr. Tener, Mr. Titcomb and Captain Mix done their full duty as directors they would have exposed the transaction with the International Trust Company, entered suit for a receiver and they might have recovered the $54,000 saving all the other heavy losses that were made known when the International Bank did collapse, her E. Titcomb, Captain Mix and Mr. Tener were DIRECTORS in the International Bank of Nogales It was their business to DIRECT the affairs of the bank, not to get out from under when they found them going wrong. It was their business to do some "knocking." The "pssyfooting" they did laid open the bank to wreck, and gave Nogales a black eye that has not been forgotten yet. It is understood that Mr. Titcomb is now a director in the First National Bank of Nogales. There are other cases "The Oasis" can recall where "knocking" was what was needing in Nogales. Probably some of them may be ventilated in