Commercial & Savings Bank

Bank Information

Episode Type: Suspension → Closure
Bank Type: savings bank
Start Date: January 1, 1912*
Location: Albion, Michigan (42.243, -84.753)

Metadata

Model: gpt-5-mini
Short Digest: 3090ebe2

Response Measures

None

Description

Article (Detroit Times, 1912-04-25) describes the bank being closed by the bank examiner, discovery of a shortage caused by embezzlement/crookery by bank officers, and reference to a receiver. No mention of a depositor run. Thus this is a suspension leading to permanent closure/receivership due to bank-specific adverse information.

Events (2)

1. January 1, 1912* Suspension

Cause: Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details: Bank examiner closed the bank after discovery of shortages and crookedness by officers (embezzlement by Dearing); receiver appointed referenced in article
Newspaper Excerpt: a friend asked me if I had heard that the bank examiner had closed the bank's doors
Source: newspapers

2. April 25, 1912 Receivership

Newspaper Excerpt: the receiver figures we were just $42 behind the game every day we did business and references to the receiver and closing by the bank examiner , cause: null
Source: newspapers

Newspaper Articles (1)

1. April 25, 1912 The Detroit Times Detroit, MI

Article from The Detroit Times, April 25, 1912

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Article Text

Commercial Savings bank in Albion, resigned and became secretary and treasurer of the new company. In re-organizing the company gave a mortgage on its property for $4,000 to the bank. "About the time of the reorganization, J. H. Cook, a former salesman, came over from Homer, Mich., and interested us in the gasoline engine business," said the younger Dearing. "His plan looked so good to us that we were in a fever of excitement. We counted too much on our hopes. Everything between the bank and the company up to that time had been on the square. I started the crookedness in this way. When a man gave me his order for an engine I drew a sight-draft and turned it into the bank, getting the cash and taking up the draft when the man paid. It started in a legitimate way, but pretty soon the money was slow in coming in. We had 40 to 60 men working for us at times, and we had to have money to buy material. Then the thought struck me to put a note in the bank and get the money, always expecting the business to pick up and redeem the note. It started in such a small way, the prospects looked so bright that it never occurred to me at first what MIGHT follow. It requires a lot of capital to run a businss of this kind; the companes with capital behind them sell their engines on three, four and five years' time." ### Always a Little Behind. "That was the only trouble," put in the elder Mr. Dearing. "We lacked the capital. We were always taking from the bank, but were always just a little behind the game. The total sum taken looks big, but we never took enough at any one time, because it looked to be too much. If we had had plenty of capital there is no doubt we would have made a success of the business." "Yes, I understand that the receiver figures we were just $42 behind the game every day we did business," sighed the younger Dearing, looking at his father. "Now, that is a mighty good engine and some one could make a lot of money on it if he went into it in the right way," he continued. "What, I go back into it? I am going to strike out for the west when I get out of prison, and I'm going to go on a stock farm. My wife is going to Sterling, Ill., until then anl work for her sisters, and in that way she will keep herself and our two boys until I get out. Then we will go out west." The younger man could not restrain his emotion as he spoke of his family and that far-off time when they would go out west. Returning to the thread of his story young Dearing said: "My fault was not only in taking money from the bank through my father. I had an open account on the bank through the Cook company, and had overdrawn that account for my own purposes. But the company did not lose anything through that, because I turned over to them a deed to my 88-acre farm, all my farm tools and stock, to the value of nearly $6,000. They were amply repaid for all I took from the Cook company. And what became of Cook? Well, he stepped out of it long ago. I wish I had. I had 140 shares worth $10 a share in the company and I was in hope of seeing things go differently. ### Would Take All the Blame, "If I could have taken all the blame and all the punishment for the whole shortage and thus shielded my father, I would gladly have done so. In fact, I thought I could at first. This was how the exposure was brought about: I was going home, New Year's night, when a friend asked me if I had heard that the bank examiner had closed the bank's doors, I had not known of it, but I hastened to father. I could not say much, because his wife was there, but he told me he knew the doors had been closed. The following morning we made a clean breast of the affair before the bank examiner. We even picked out the bad notes for him." Father and son paced back and forth in the same cell block, each convinced in his own heart that he was to blame for the other's misfortune, each willing to bear the misfortune of the other, each comforting the other. "Judge Angell was very good to us," said the elder man. "Perhaps we might get a parole in a couple of years. I have hopes of coming out of this trouble alive and living a few years with my family. I do not wish to see them while I am in the penitentiary-that is, I don't wish them to see me too often. It will sadden them the more and do little good. "I feel better today than I have for years, physically. Why, would you believe it, I enjoyed the best night's rest in years right here in this jail after I had unburdened myself of my secret."