Temple & Workman Bank - Los Angeles, CA

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: private
Start Date: January 6, 1878
Location: Los Angeles, California (34.052, -118.244)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: e48322d5

Response Measures

None

Description

Articles (Jan–May 1878) refer to the prior suspension/failure of the Temple & Workman Bank and describe it as bankrupt with a U.S. assignee in possession and the old bank vault burglarized. No explicit contemporaneous depositor run is described; the bank was suspended and in bankruptcy/receivership.

Events (4)

1. January 6, 1878 Suspension

Cause Details: Article references the bank's suspension/failure as part of prior local calamities (drought, panic, smallpox); no single cause specified in the texts provided.
Newspaper Excerpt: the failure of the Temple & Workman Bank
Source: newspapers

2. February 27, 1878 Other

Newspaper Excerpt: the old bank room and vault of the Temple & Workman Bank was burglarized. ... office was occupied by G. E. Long, U. S. Assignee of the bankrupt banking firm of Temple & Workman
Source: newspapers

3. February 27, 1878 Receivership

Newspaper Excerpt: office was occupied by G. E. Long, U. S. Assignee of the bankrupt banking firm of Temple & Workman
Source: newspapers

4. May 25, 1878 Other

Newspaper Excerpt: the suspension of the Temple & Workman Bank, the small-pox epidemic and the drouth, threatened Los Angeles with extinction.
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (3)

1. January 6, 1878 Daily Los Angeles Herald Los Angeles, CA

Article from Daily Los Angeles Herald, January 6, 1878

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Article Text

We wish to be distinctly understood as advocating all that judicious freights and fares legislation can do to relieve the people and put it out of the power of Railway monopolies to oppress them. We have no hesitation in saying, however, that it is not fair, in any sense, to pile upon the Southern Pacific Railway the onus of what we owe to an unprecedented drouth, to the effects of the panic, which at last told even in California, to the failure of the Temple & Workman Bank and to the small pox which prevailed here last winter. There is an old adage about giving the devil his due, which we commend to the consideration of a contemporary when writing of the Southern Pacific. For our part, we would not have a single rail in California taken up, and we deny the assertion that the Southern Pacific Railway has been an unmixed curse to this section. As to the bonds, we voluntarily gave them to the Railway Company, and if we don't "sabe" enough to make the local taxation of the Company pay the interest of those debentures we ought to sell out to somebody who does. Bring the Railways down to their work of servitors of the people; but, for heaven's sake, don't keep eternally snapping and snarling at them. Join in a good humored effort to obtain the passage of an equitable fares and freights bill, or hold your peace, brother quill!

2. February 27, 1878 Eureka Daily Sentinel Eureka, NV

Article from Eureka Daily Sentinel, February 27, 1878

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Article Text

again, in a day or two, on an attachment of the office farniture and fixtures-that he, to a certain extent, started that bank with the understand. ing that if it should have money to loan, and be had securities to offer, that be should have the preference as borrower. As the bank was to be on a low interest basis, he could thus avoid the usurious rates which he had been pay. ing. He said he put some $32,000 into the bank, part cash, but no Safe DeposIt stock was included, and it had all gone, he knew not where. He avowed the honesty of his intentions in starting that bank, which was to be conducted on strict savings bank principles. While Police Officer, Joseph Capelli, and his wife. were at supper this evening, aquarrel arose between them concerning Capelli's relations with a woman named Morinsky, during which Capelli was shot in the side and mortally wounded. The woman, Capelli, said he shot bimself accidentally; but Capelli says his wife fired the shot. His version of the story iscorroborated by David Kain, a Deputy Sheriff, who was present during the difficulty. Bank Robbery at Los Angeles-The Southern Pacific Railroad. Los ANGELES, Feb. 25. Sometime between the close of business hours on Saturday and the opening of the office this morning, the old bank room and vault of the Temple & Workman Bank was burglarized. The onter door of the vault was of cold-chilled iron, with massive slides and bolts, and was operated by a combination. The office was occupied by G. E. Long, U. S. Assignee of the bankrupt banking firm of Temple & Workman, and the lock on the safe was set on the same combination as that in use when the bank suspended. It is asserted that this combination was known at least to ten persons. Withinthe vault there was a large safe, closed by a padlock, which was crushed by the bnrglars. About $10,500 in coin was eaptured. There is no clue to the perpetrators. By to-morrow night, it is hoped. the last break in the Southern Pacific Railroad, between San Francisco and Los Angeles will have been repaired. A train is looked for within 36 hours.

3. May 25, 1878 Daily Los Angeles Herald Los Angeles, CA

Article from Daily Los Angeles Herald, May 25, 1878

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Article Text

# LOS ANGELES citizens. The progress in building, in the past two years, is really memorable, and the steady believers in our future deserve recognition for their pluck and liberality. When the writer first saw Los Angeles-and his residence in California does not yet comprise six years-the Temple-now the Newmark-Block was the only business edifice that bespoke a town with a future. It is true that the Pico House was then erected, but almost any town is ambitious of a fine hotel. Since that first visit, Los Angeles, in her business quarters, at least, has been absolutely transformed. The Downey Block and what was once known as the Backman House, now a portion of the St. Charles Hotel, were put up either in the flush times of Los Angeles or just before, and in anticipation of, the "flush times." But real marvels of building have been achieved when such calamities as the suspension of the Temple & Workman Bauk, the small-pox epidemic and the drouth, threatened Los Angeles with extinction. Such a train of misfortunes would have simply blotted out an ordinary town. Instead of desponding, our "solid men" erected such buildings as the McDonald, Cardona, Strelitz and Odd Fellows' blocks. The superb facade of the Baker block has now reached cornice and tower. This building would really be notable in Broadway, New York, and is not surpassed in extent, expense or magnificence, by more than three or four edifices of the kind in San Francisco. On the heels of the Baker block we have the Hellman-Mascarel block, on the corner of Main and Commercial streets, which will be finished by the time the Supreme Court of California is ready to occupy its upper story, in October. In addition to these business edifices a number of handsome private residences, such as the Hellman Mansion, on Main street, edifices which would grace the best quarters of San Francisco Oakland or San Jose, have gone up. All these public spirited citizens, in our opinion, in their lavish oatlays for the future, show the same sagacity which has enabled them to make their money. Los Angeles has almost passed through her ordeal. The shock has been a severe one, but it has shown how firm is the faith of her own citizens in the future which lies clearly before her. We shall shortly only remember the last two years and a half as a foil to set off the brightness of the future, and the immediate future, at that.