Naumkeag Bank - Salem, MA

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Reopening
Bank Type: state
Start Date: October 1, 1857*
Location: Salem, Massachusetts (42.520, -70.897)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: 9dc51320

Response Measures

None

Description

Article is an anecdote from the Panic of 1857 describing that specie payments were suspended; it does not describe a depositor run on Naumkeag Bank nor a permanent closure. Likely a temporary suspension of specie payments during the panic (Oct 1857). Bank type inferred as a state bank (pre-National Bank era).

Events (1)

1. October 1, 1857* Suspension

Cause: Macro News
Cause Details: Suspension of specie payments during the Panic of 1857 (broader financial panic), not an individual bank insolvency.
Newspaper Excerpt: about an hour before the suspension of specie payments... They were paid in bills of the Naumkeag Bank, and at that bank demanded the specie about five minutes after the suspension.
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (1)

1. October 28, 1857 The American Washington, DC

Article from The American, October 28, 1857

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Article Text

"Gowd FOR PAPER."-Among the incidents of the "panic" we have heard related the following, which lately occurred in Salem: A mother and daughter drew from one of our savings banks, about an hour before the suspension of specie payments-the mother forty dollars, and her daughter one hundred and seventy-two dollars. They were paid in bills of the Naumkeag Bank, and at that bank demanded the specie about five minutes after the suspension. It was ascertained that the old woman was a notorious beggar about our streets, pleading the most abject poverty, and at this very time was supplied with bedding by one of our charitable societies. The next day she called at the Savings Bank, when the following scene took place, as related to us: Old Woman.-The Lard bless your honor. Yes therday ye paid me farty dollars o' paper, and I want ye should give me gowd for it. I'm a poor old woman, who wants to get to the auld counthry to Jay her poor auld bones with her chilthers. Treasurer.-Did you deposit gold here, ma'am. Old Woman.-No, yer honor, the Lard bless ye, but me paper was as good as gowd thin. Treasurer.-And so were the bank bills when I paid them to you-and so they are now for ali the ordinary purposes of life. You can buy a much with them now as you can with gold. Old Woman.-Oh, the Lard bless ye, but they 'Il buy me nothing in the auld counthry, where I'm going. Treasurer. - Very true, ma'm, but they will be re eived for your passage to the old country as re d. as gold. Old Woman.-Oh, yer honor, the Lard's blessin be wid ye-but I have other money with which to pay my passig, and want the gowd for this paper. Treasuret.-We pay here, madam, in such money as we receive--in such "money as we know to be good. But if you will go over to the City Marshal's office, and assure Marshal Perkins beyond a doubt that you will go out of the country, be will exchange your paper for gold and pay you ten dollars beside to get rid of you from the city. The old woman, who came tottering into the bank, seemed on this to have renewed her youth, she departed so quickly.-Salem Gazette.