Lake Washington Sanborn of Galesburg, Illinois

In 1882 Lake Sanborn organized the Mechanics Homestead and Loan Association in Galeburg, Illinios, and was elected secretary, a position he held until his death.  Sanborn also represented various insurance companies as an agent.  So he apparently ordered a circular date stamp that could function as his cancelling device no matter what hat he was wearing - lender or insurance agent.   The cancel seemed peculiar to me at first inspection, but after reading his bio, "Agent or Sec'y" made perfect sense.

In 1905, Sanborn was elected Mayor of Galesburg. 

LAKE W. SANBORN

MAR

22

1899

AGENT OR SEC'Y

Lake W. Sanborn

from Notable Men of Illinois & Their State, published in1912

Germania Half Dollar Savings Bank, Wheeling, West Virginia

GERMANIA HALF DOL SAV. BANK

MAR

21

1901

WHEELING, W. VA.

from The Wheeling Intelligencer, Tuesday, July 3, 1917:

 New Home of the Germania Half Dollar Savings Opens

FIFTEENTH AND MARKET STREETS, WHEELING, W. VA.

Public opening of our new bank this evening, July 3, 1917 from 6 to 10 P. M. 

A cordial invitation is extended to the public to attend and see our splendid new home.

Wheeling's new banking house, the home of the Germania Half Dollar Savings bank, corner of Market and Fifteenth street, city, is ready for business, and this evening the general public will be given an opportunity to call and inspect this fine new banking house, which is a credit to the Wheeling district. The bank was designed by Fred F. Faris, who has drawn the plans for many of the finest banks in the Wheeling district.

The bank is located on the southwest corner of Fifteenth and Market streets and extends back to Alley B in the rear. It occupies the site of the old Reymann brewery, which was later the Wheeling Majority building, and also the old building on the corner. It is the very latest in architecture and strictly modern in every respect.

The building is the regulation type, but one story in height, but this story of course is as high as two ordinary building stories. It is strictly fireproof throughout and is as modern as money and skill can make it. The front is of granite and terra cotta. The doors are of bronze and the entrance is very ornate.

The interior of the building is made up of one spacious room, extending from the street front to the alley in the rear. The room is finished in marble wainscoting. The ceiling is centered by a large dome skylight. The alley wall has no windows and the entire lighting of the bank will be furnished by the spacious dome in the ceiling.

In the extreme rear there is a large concrete vault, reinforced with railroad iron. It is strictly burglar and fireproof and includes scores of safety deposit vault sections. The vault is equipped with the latest type bank vault door, a massive circular affair of steel, and equipped with intricate mechanism.

Extending towards the front from this vault are the bank offices, the spaces for the cashier, tellers, president and secretary, directors' room, etc. These arc of marble walls with ornamental bronze grating. Desks and other conveniences for patrons are located throughout the main bank lobby.

The Germania Half Dollar Savings bank has an interesting history. It was founded in April 1897, by the late George Hook, George K. Stifel, the late F. C. H. Schwertfeger, the late H. F. Behrens, Sr., and Paul O. Reymann. The first board of directors was composed of George Hook, Paul O. Reymann, A. G. Hadlich, Chris Vieweg, Jr., F. C. Driehorst, L. S. Good, H. F. Jones, C. M. Oliver, Sr., K. M. Holliday, W. O. McClusky and James McCamic.

Through years of struggles the bank has risen to foremost ranks until it is considered one of the strongest financial institutions of the country, its deposits have grown with rapidity and its semi-annual dividends were received by stockholders as regularly as clockwork. The bank has been located temporarily, during the construction of its new home, in the adjoining former Quarter Savings bank room.

The present officers are: F. C. Driehorst, president; A. G. Hadlich, vice president; Val G. Gundling, cashier; John Metzger, assistant cashier; Carl Lang, teller; Thomas S. Thoner, bookkeeper, and J. W. Lashley, messenger. Some of the present directors served on the first board. The board is made up of George W. Lutz, C. F. Bachmann, John H. Clarke, William H. Pfarr, C. M. Oliver, Sr., F. C. Driehorst, A. G. Fladlich, Louis Berthschy, L. S. Good and H. F. Jones.

With the above named officers the Germania Half Dollar Savings bank is sure to grow and promises to be one of the leading banks of the state. Its depositors are the very best people in the Ohio valley and it has gained a wide reputation through honest dealings with all. It is another monument in the field of progress and advancement in the Wheeling district.

 

Bank Cancels: The Corn Exchange Bank

THE CORN EXCH BANK

MAR

14

NEW YORK CITY

I figure the cancel, if complete, would read The Corn Exch Bank.  

 

The Corn Exchange Bank was a retail bank founded in 1853 in New York state. Over the years, the company acquired many community banks. In 1855, the Corn Exchange Bank moved into an existing building in New York City at the northwest corner of William and Beaver Streets in Manhattan. In 1894, the bank completed its new headquarters, an 11-story building designed by Robert Henderson Robertson located at 11-15 William Street. Between 1923 and 1925, together with a number of other New York banks, it held a small stake in the Connecticut-chartered Bank of Central and South America. In 1929, it was renamed the Corn Exchange Bank and Trust Company. In 1954, it merged with Chemical Bank and the combined entity took the name Chemical Corn Exchange Bank. After Chemical Corn merged with New York Trust Company in 1959, the words "Corn Exchange" were dropped, creating the Chemical Bank New York Trust Company.

Bill of Exchange Fragments: The Canadian Bank of Commerce

The Canadian Bank of Commerce merged with the Imperial Bank of Canada in 1961 to form the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), now one of the Big Five Canadian banks.

 Reverse side of document fragment:

THE CANADIAN BANK OF COMMERCE

AUG

18

1900

front side of document fragment:

Seal of Canadian Bank of Commerce:

CANADIAN BANK OF COMMERCE - 1867

While the Canadian Bank of Commerce was in the business of facilitating international trade, in part through the example of the bill of exchange fragment above, the bank also played a significant role in the expansion of businesses to Canada's extensive western prairie regions.  Vestiges of that expansion remain:

Canadian Bank of Commerce National Historic Site of Canada

201 Main Street, Watson, Saskatchewan

General view of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, showing its neo-classical style, evident in its three-bay facade with classical decorative treatment, particularly the pedimented front gable with bulls-eye window and heavy dentilled cornice, fluted pilaster © Parks Canada Agency / Agence Parcs Canada, 1990.

Heritage Value

The Canadian Bank of Commerce was designated a national historic site in 1976 because of its prefabrication technology and the entrepreneurial imagination of the bank. The heritage value of this site resides in its historical associations with the expansion of eastern banks into the Canadian west as illustrated by the building’s physical characteristics.

The former Canadian Bank of Commerce (CBC) bank at Watson, Saskatchewan is the largest surviving example of the prefabricated bank buildings erected by the CBC in railway towns across the prairies. Designed by Toronto bank architects Darling and Pearson, and prefabricated in Vancouver by British Columbia Mills, Timber and Trading using a patented sectional wall system, the bank structures were shipped by railway to newly established towns and assembled within days. The neo-classical styling of these wood-frame buildings mimicked the stone and brick bank buildings of larger urban centres at a minimum cost, and projected the same air of respectability and confidence. By erecting these buildings quickly and early, the bank hoped to monopolize local trade. The use of three standard designs created by Darling and Pearson allowed the bank to convey a consistent and immediate impression of stability, at a minimum investment. Erected in 1906-07 using the largest of the three designs, the Watson Bank is the most intact example. While other banks also made use of prefab technology, it was the CBC that most fully exploited the potential of the prefab banks and made them enduring features of the western Canadian landscape.

Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, June 1976.

Bill of Exchange Fragments: Bank of Montreal

While I don't have absolute confirmation of the identity of this cancel, I'm pretty certain that these stamps were canceled by the Bank of Montreal:

B. of M.

SEP  27  1901

Note use of R170p

Front side of document fragment:

from The Commercial and Financial Chronicle, July 4, 1903:

Bill of Exchange Fragments: Illinois Trust & Savings Bank and the Story of the Wingfoot Air Express Crash

Back of bill of exchange fragment:

Ill. Tr. & Sav. Bk.

17

JUL

1901

CHICAGO

Front side of bill of exchange fragment:

The Illinois Trust and Savings Bank pioneered the establishment of the trust business in Chicago and the midwest, and became one of America's largest financial institutions in the early 20th century.  They also built a grand main bank building at the corner of Jackson and La Salle in Chicago, pictured on the postcard below:

The building would be severely damaged in 1919 when a Goodyear dirigible doing business as the "Wingfoot Express", crashed into the center of the roof, piercing the skylight of the central atrium and bringing with it the airship that was a ball of burning hydrogen by the time it made impact.  By the time the time the airframe hit the floor of the building, the gas tanks that fueled the airship's engine exploded.

Business hours were over by the time of the crash, limiting the carnage, yet still there were 10 deaths.  The building was seriously damaged.

A more fulsome version of the story can be found at the Chicagology website.

Cancel for March 17: Tradesmen's National Bank

In 2009, when this site first began, and into 2012, I regularly posted a "cancel of the day".  A stamp was posted with a cancel for that day (except for the year, of course), and a bit of history was often given about the company or individual that applied the cancel.  That hasn't been done in years, partially because I haven't posted in so long, but also because I just stopped organizing posts around the dates of the cancels.

Today's stamp is a rather random stamp that fell out of a packet that has been in storage for over a decade.  The cancel is so clean that I figured I needed to feature it here, but it took me a couple of days before I realized that the cancel's date, March 17, was soon approaching and that I could run the first cancel of the day post in at least 7 years.  

TRADESMENS NAT'L BANK,

MAR 17 1902

PHILA.

The stamp is on an incomplete document fragment.

I was getting ready to write about Tradesmens National Bank when I took a second look at the copy of R184 above and wondered about the color of this series of stamps.  Is this the color gray as Scott tells us it is?  I don't even see a gray undertone.  More like a light, yellow khaki or tan.  As a young collector I was confused by this color designation, and I still am today.  Whatever the case, this series of dollar documentary stamps, due to their color and size, are perfect backgrounds for cancels, partially explaining why so many stamps from this series are highlighted on this site.

Back to the point of today's March 17 cancel.  Tradesmens National no longer exists as a bank.  But it never closed;  it became part of a series of mergers that has led to the creation of PNC, the seventh largest bank in the United States, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  In 1958, Tradesmens and Provident Trust merged to form Provident Tradesmens National Bank, thereafter through further mergers becoming today's PNC.  

In a post from 2010, Provident Life and Trust Company was highlighted.  The focus of the post was on the dating style of the cancels they used, which employed Quaker style dating that did not used the romanized pagan names of the months, and instead used numbered months.  The stamp below was included in the post and is a good example of Quaker dating:

THE PROVIDENT LIFE & TRUST COMPANY OF PHILADELPHIA

11 Mo

25

1898

July 1, 1898, First Day of the Tax Period

Farm. & Mec. Nat. Bk

JUL     1     1898

Georgetown,  D. C.

Langlois scan

Check of the Farmers & Mechanics National Bank of Georgetown, District of Columbia from Joseph B. Bailey dated July 1, 1898, the first day of the Spanish-American War tax period. 

Completed in 1922 in the heart of Georgetown at the corner of M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, this neoclassical building was once the home of the Farmers & Mechanics National Bank.  It became a branch of the Riggs Bank for years, and is now a branch for PNC Bank. 

*****

The user of this check, Joseph B. Bailey, was a dry goods merchant in Washington.  ArlingtonCemetary.net provides a few details about Mr. Bailey:

"Joseph B. Bailey was born in 1848 at Heathsville,Northumberland County,Virginia. He entered service at Richmond on November 23,1864 and served under Captain William Dement, Company D, 1st Maryland, Light Artillery. In the Battle of Dutch Gap and Drewry's Bluff on the James River, he was taken prisoner of war. Paroled at Appomattox on April 9,1865 and Oath of Armesty taken May 29th,1865.  After the war, he was a dry goods merchant in Washington, D.C. and the father of Ralph B.Bailey. Lived at 413 6th Street,Washington, D.C. SW and was a Member of Camp# 171,Confederate Veterans.

First National Bank, Moravia, New York

F. N. B.

JUN

29

1901

MORAVIA, N. Y.

David Thompson scan and highlight

National bank note issued by The First National Bank of Moravia, series 1925

The Canadian Bank of Commerce, San Francisco

The Canadian

Bank of Commerce

San Francisco

DEC  30  1901

David Thompson scan

The Canadian Bank of Commerce building in San Francisco prior to the great earthquake of 1906.  The stamp above was likely canceled in this building.

The Pearl City Bank

As previously mentioned, On Beyond Holcombe is off through the remainder of the year but will be back in 2013.  If you are visiting this site looking for Malcolm's column, thanks for stopping by.  Meanwhile, enjoy this cancel from the P. C. Bank.

The P. C. Bank

APR   10   1899

Pearl City, Ill.

Langlois scan

From A History of Stephenson County, Illinois, 1910:

The banking facilities of Pearl City are un­excelled for a village of the size. The Pearl City Bank, a private corporation, was organized about twenty years ago, by Simon Tollmeier, who became the first president, and has since continued to hold the office. The firm represents a capital of $25,000, and a personal responsibility of $250,000. The officers are: President, Simon Tollmeier; vice president, Dr. S. H, Aurand; cashier, A. L. Kurd; directors, Simon Tollmeier, Dr. S. H. Aurand, Frank R. Erwin, Fred Tollmeier, Frederick Althof, Henry Althof, August Althof, Charles Althof, Al­bert Althof, Otto Althof. The bank occupies a frame structure on Main street which is well fitted out for its banking offices.

Pearl City check from 1904

Pearl City is a town in north western Illinois that by the 1880s was a stop on the Chicago Great Western Railway.  Today the town has a population of 2,000.

Check out these previous posts on small town midwestern banks:

Lincoln County Bank, Merrill, Wisconsin

First National Bank, Charlotte, Michigan

The Bank of Baraboo, Baraboo, Wisconsin

The Bank of Willmar, Willmar, Minnesota

First National Bank, Charlotte, Michigan

FIRST NATIONAL BANK

MAR

28

1900

CHARLOTTE, MICH.

Langlois scan

The hazards of living and working in the Michigan logging business, even for a white-collared owner and banker, are made clear by this story from the Fulton, Michigan Patriot.  First National Bank President William Smith came to a rather gruesome end in 1889:

Fulton Patriot, Sep 26, 1889

Bank President Killed

Charlotte, Mich., Sept 25 - President William Smith of the First National Bank of this city, was killed at Wolverine by being thrown from a log carrier against a moving saw. Mr. Smith held vast lumber interests in Cheboygan county and went to that point to make general arrangements for the transfer of the property to a Chicago man, who was with Mr. Smith at the time of the accident. Besides controlling the stock of the First National bank he was rated as one of the richest men in the county.

State Savings Bank, Detroit

State Sav. Bk. Detroit.

MAY

4

1901

Dave Thompson scan

The State Savings Bank was based in Savoyard Center in Detroit.  The building is in the National Register of Historic Places.

State Savings Bank, Detroit

-or-

Savoyard Center

California Banks: The Bank of California

1875

THE BANK OF CALIFORNIA

MAY

20

1901

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.

Dave Thompson scan

The Bank of California was opened in San Francisco in 1864 by William Ralston.  Darius Ogden Mills, builder and owner of the Mills Building in Manhattan that housed many Wall Street brokerage firms, was the bank's first President.  Much of the bank's early profits were generated from the mines of the Comstock Lode in Nevada.

William Chapman Ralston

Founder of the Bank of California

D. O. Mills was the first President of the Bank of California.

As in the photo above of Mills from King's Views of the New York Stock Exchange, his title was "Capitalist"



Foreign Banks: Bank of Montreal

1901 Poor's Manual Advertisement

At the bottom of the advert is a list of the Bank of Montreal's correspondent banks in the United States, including the Bank of New York, N. B. A.

BANK OF MONTREAL

OCT

31

1899

MONTREAL

Cancel for November 23: Lumberman's State Bank

Lumberman's State Bank

NOV  23  1898

Menominee, Mich.

Cancel for November 13: National Bank, La Crosse

Nat. Bank

NOV

13

1899

La Crosse.

John M. Levy started the first bank in La Crosse in 1855. Soon after, the Green Bay Bank was organized, but both failed in the Panicof 1857. Gysbert van Steenwyk established the Batavian Bank in 1861 and re-organized it in 1883 as a national bank. The First National Bank became a competitor in 1863 but failed in 1875.20 A group of wealthy citizens, G.C. Hixon and Judge S.S. Burton among them, saw the need for another bank. They organized the La Crosse National Bank and started operations on January 3, 1877. It was capitalized at $100,000 and opened for business on the corner of Second and Main Streets. Hixon became president and a member of the board of directors. The directors obtained a new charter in 1896 designating it as the National Bank of La Crosse. Sixty years later their successors changed its name to the First National Bank of La Crosse.

From A SKETCH OF GIDEON COOLEY HIXON: LA CROSSE LUMBERMAN, A Seminar Paper Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School Wisconsin State University at La Crosse, In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree, Master of Science in Education by Drucilla Kathleen Munson, July 1967

New York Bankers, Banks & Trusts: The National Park Bank

THE N. P. B.

MAY

15

1900

N. Y.

Dave Thompson scan

The National Park Bank was one of New York's and the nation's largest banks in 1900 at the time of this cancel. 

Banks in New York City as of 1897 showing the National Park Bank as the #2 bank in total assets, ahead of banks like Chemical, Chase, Hanover, and the Bank of New York.

From The New York Times, September 11, 1898:

EDWARD E. POOR AND RICHARD DELAFIELD.

As the active heads of the bank does the largest commercial business in the country, President Edward E. Poor and Vice President Richard Delafield of the National Park Bank are two of the interesting men of the New York financial world, and a word as to their personalities follows appropriately the sketches recently give in these columns as to the personnel of some of our city banks...

The home of the bank has been [the same] building since 1867.  Its charter dates from 1856.  In spite of the great growth of the business, its original capital of $2,000,000 has never been enlarged, the measure of its prosperity being represented by a surplus of $3,700,000.  While the city business of the bank is enormous, its out-of-town connections are world-wide.  The deposit of the bank is $50,000,000.   It is the agent and depository of a long list of banks in Canada, Great Britain, and other countries and to the banks in the Southern States it has long been a sort of "father confessor," extending help to them when needed, and thus playing a prominent part in the movement of the great cotton crop.

It is this wide-reaching sphere of influence that has built the business of the National Park Bank up to where it exceeds that of any other in the country and made it one of the notable institutions of the metropolis.   Locally this sphere is soon to be enlarged.  The Directors of the National Park Bank have acquired an influential interest in the Plaza Bank, at Fifth Avenue and 58th Street, and the Plaza will be operated hereafter in harmony with the downtown institution. 

In addition to President Poor and Vice President Delafield, the roster of officers of the National Park Bank includes the names of Stuyvesant  Fish [1], as a Vice President...among the Directors are Joseph T. Moore, George S. Hart, Charles Sternbach, Charles Scribner, Edward C. Hoyt, W. Rockhill Potts, August Belmont [2], Francis R. Appleton, John Jacob Astor [3], George Frederick Vietor, and Herman Oelerichs--a list which, to those who know New York, both proclaims and explains the wide fame and high repute of this institution.

1.  Stuyvesant Fish: Fish was the President of the IC RR and a Vice President of The NPB.

2.  August Belmont, Director The NPB and member of the New York Stock Exchange

3.  John Jacob Astor IV:  Astor, an inheritor of a vast fortune, was one of the most famous and certainly the richest man to die in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

Cancel for September 19: Great Northern Bank?

G. N. B'k

SEP

19

1898

In 1897, a bank was opened in Minot, North Dakota called the Great Northern Bank.  While I can't confirm this cancel was made by this bank, it is my best guess.  Anybody with an old check from this bank from July thru late 1898 on could help confirm my guess.

James J. Hill's Great Northern Railway passed through Minot;  the railroad founded and was largely responsible for the growth and building of the town. 

The Great Northern Bank of Minot would become the 2nd National Bank of Minot

Cancel for July 23: First National Savings Bank, Neligh, Nebraska

FIRST  NAT'L BANK

JUL

23

1898

NELIGH,  NEB.

Not long after the use of the stamp, the First National Bank would have the regulators close in:

From The New York Times, October 20, 1898:

Failure of a Bank at Neligh, Neb.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19.--Bank Examiner Whitmore has telegraphed the Controller of the Currency that he has closed the doors of the First National Bank of Neligh, Neb.  He says the condition of the bank makes resumption impossible.  The bank's report on Sept. 20 was: Capital stock, $50,000; surplus, $3,037; due to depositors, $108,956; borrowed money, $10,000; circulation, $11,250.  Total resources, $183,243.

***

Neligh is a small town of about 1700 on the Elkhorn River in Nebraska and is the county seat of Antelope County.