Commercial Bank - New Orleans, LA

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: state
Start Date: *
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana (29.955, -90.075)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: 84b35f8d

Response Measures

None

Description

Article (1855) recounts that the Commercial Bank (organized 1832) was made a depository of public funds after removal of deposits from the U.S. Bank (c.1834); becoming a government depository is described as laying the foundation for its subsequent suspension and forced liquidation. No run is described in the excerpt. Date of suspension not given in this article; I classify this as a suspension that led to permanent closure/liquidation.

Events (1)

1. * Suspension

Cause: Government Action
Cause Details: Became a government depository after removal of public deposits from the U.S. Bank (c.1834); large government deposits are said to have laid foundation for later suspension and forced liquidation.
Newspaper Excerpt: On the organization of the Commercial Bank of this city, in 1832, he was elected its first President... This bank, it will be recollected, was selected on the removal of the deposit or public money from the United States Bank in 1834, as one of the depositories of government. In our view the bank becoming a beneficiary of government, laid the foundation of its subsequent suspension and forced liquidation-the government deposits reaching at times to over two million of dollars.
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (1)

1. April 7, 1855 Thibodaux Minerva Thibodaux, LA

Article from Thibodaux Minerva, April 7, 1855

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Article Text

Opelousas Railroad. The receipts of this road for the month of March, exceeded our calculations by upwards of three hundred dollars, they being $17,303, of which amount $11,770 was for freight, and $5,533 for passage, making the total receipts since its opening to the Lafourche, in November last, the rise of seventy thousand dollars, being an average of fourteen thousand dollars per month, which should be congratulating to the friends of the enterprize. The work on the road, at this time, is progressing very rapidly-there being over six hundred laborers employed on the sections between the west bank of the Lafourche and Tigerville. The best of feeling and harmony seems generally to prevail on all sides and from every quarter. The management is represented to be the best and most satisfactory-all owing to the business capacities of the President and new Board of Directors, who seem to have at heart the interest of the company, and neglect nothing that has a tendency to increase the interest and augment the zeal of those whose good the road, when completed, is destined to effect. We take pleasure in laying before our readers a short biographical sketch of the President, WILLIAM G. HEWES, whose indefatigable exertions in favor of the road since his assuming charge have been productive of the very best results, and rendered its completion in time for the transportation of the ensuing crop to market, beyond all cavil. We extract from the New Orleans Semi-Weekly Creole Mr. Hewes was for many years largely engaged in commercial pursuits, perhaps to a larger extent than any other house in this city with New England commission business. He is really and truly identified with New Orleans and all its interests, and, we perceive, is still engaged in commerce. Time and the great cares of a heretofore extended business have dealt kindly with him; although his head begins to teem with venerated greyishness, he looks as hale and hearty, appears as active, agile and vigorous as a man of two score. Fortune has not been SO generous with Mr. Hewes as with some of his compeers, he however holds a very elevated and eminent standing in our community. Though the severe revulsions commencing in 1837 and ending in 1842, prostrated and impeded his commercial career, yet, at the present moment, there is no individual, connected with commerce and business, who possesses a purer reputation, a more enlarged proficiency, or more liberal ideas than William G. Hewes. On the organization of the Commercial Bank of this city, in 1832, he was elected its first President, which office he filled for several years. This bank, it will be recollected, was selected on the removal of the deposit or public money from the United States Bank in 1834, as one of the depositories of government. In our view the bank becoming a beneficiary of government, laid the foundation of its subsequent suspension and forced liquidation-the government deposits reaching at times to over two million of dollars. It, however, fortunately completed one most important requisition of its charter under Mr. Hewes' administration, the erection of the present Water Works, which furnishes our city with water. Mr. Hewes was the agent of many eastern factories for the purchase of cotton; his purchases for American or home account were generally considered as bearing comparison to Vincent Nolte's purchases for foreign account. We believe the introduction of stamping the name of the purchaser on the end of the bale of cotton originated with Mr. Hewes, though Nolte and others adopted it, Nolte claiming the invention; and it was what attracted the notice of Mr. Francis Baring, when on a visit to our city in 1821, while walking the levee in company with Nolte, to see SO much cotton going on shipboard branded V. Nolte & Co. A few weeks since Mr. Hewes was unanimously elected to the Presidency of the Board of Managers of the Opelousas and Great Western Railroad, and we hope, under his supervision and direction, the road will soon show the judiciousness and wisdom of the selection, and prove what the original proprietors contemplated-a work of utility, benefit and usefulness. We have alluded to the locality of Bienville street, as being the center of eastern commission houses. Mr. Hewes removed afterwards to Conti street, near where the old Bank of Orleans stood now the corner of Exchange Alley. We recognize the present Secretary of the Crescent Mutual Insurance Company, Charles J. Mansoni, as one in the service of Mr. Hewes at that time, and afterwards for a long term of years a resident of Mobile. Mr. M. still preserves activity, and his rugged, hearty countenance indicates health and longevity. When commerce commenced moving into the old faubourg St. Mary, settling in the old Sixth Ward now the densest and most thickly settled of the First District, the Boston merchants, ever alive to the natural instinct and sagacity of their race, led the van; many locating on Camp and Common streets among these was Mr. Hewes, afterwards forming a connection with our worthy creole citizen, Mr. Edward Durrive; and this firm continued till after the termination of the great financial and commercial revulsion in 1842 and 1843."