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Bank Enterprisers in a Western Town, 1815-1822

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Harry R. Stevens
Harry R. Stevens
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History at Duke University
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Abstract

When attention is shifted from individual entrepreneur to the socio-economic group of which he is a part, new historical perspectives are opened to view. This study of a group of bankers in frontier Cincinnati considerably sharpens the historical concept of the “Western Banker” and provides insight into the nature of the banking function in a developing economy. The data employed yield significant conclusions about the nature of the bankers' backgrounds and about the importance both of those backgrounds and of the frontier environment in shaping the bankers' function and role.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , June 1955 , pp. 139 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1955

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References

1 The most common general source of information is the local newspaper obituary. To facilitate finding it without giving each citation separately the date of death (where known) is given parenthetically following the name. The bankers on whom the study is based are as follows: John Andrews; John Armstrong (6 Sept. 1839); William Barr (18 March 1837); Martin Baum (14 Dec. 1831); Jacob Baymiller (July, 1824); Ethan Allen Brown (24 Feb. 1852); Isaac G. Burnet (11 March 1856); Jacob Burnet (10 May 1853); Thomas Davis Carneal (3 Nov. 1860); Francis Carr (23 July 1833); William Corry (16 Dec. 1833); John Cranmer (1832); Samuel W. Davies (21 Dec. 1843); John Davis; Daniel Drake (6 Nov. 1852); William Eaton; David Kirkpatrick Este (1 April 1876); James Ferguson (21 Oct. 1853); Abraham Ferris (1861); James Findlay (28 Dec. 1835); Daniel Gano (17 Aug. 1873); John Stites Gano (1 Jan. 1822); John Gibson, Jr. (26 July 1849); Joshua Gibson (19 April 1823); Hugh Glenn (28 May 1833); James Glenn; Thomas Graham (29 March 1838); Philip Grandin (29 Jan. 1858); David Griffin (6 Nov. 1854); William Harlow; William Henry Harrison (4 April 1841); David Holloway; Lewis Howell (Aug. 1858 ?); Jesse Hunt (24 Aug. 1835); William Irwin (1824); Levi James (27 July 1849); Cave Johnson; James Keys; John F. Keys; David Kilgour; Nicholas Longworth (10 Feb. 1863); Stephen McFarland (8 Nov. 1832); Andrew Mack (12 July 1854); Oliver Martin; Benjamin Mason (19 Oct. 1847); Daniel Mayo (25 Dec. 1838); Adam Moore (28 Dec. 1849); James C. Morris (25 June 1828); Samuel Newell; William Noble (23 May 1827); William Oliver (1851); Elijah Pearson (21 June 1833); Joseph Perry (1852); Samuel Perry (12 April 1855); Horatio G. Phillips (10 Nov. 1859); John Hopper Piatt (11 Feb. 1822); William Piatt (16 Aug. 1834); Job Pugh; Lot Pugh (2 April 1850); William Ramsey; Nathaniel Reeder (29 Dec. 1831); Lewis Rees; James Reynolds; James Riddle; William Ruffin (5 July 1834); Hezekiah Saunders (3 Jan. 1836); Thomas Sloo, Jr. (17 Jan. 1879); Richard Southgate; Oliver M. Spencer (30 May 1838); Thomas Stansbury; John Sterrett (23 June 1849); William Sterrett; Samuel Stitt (1847); Ethan Stone (20 April 1852); John Sutherland (9 Sept. 1834); James Taylor (7 Nov. 1848); George Paull Torrence (27 Aug. 1855); Samuel C. Vance; David Everett Wade (22 July 1842); John Sloan Wallace (28 July 1836); Calvin Washburn (9 Oct. 1835); Jacob Wheeler (10 July 1835); Jacob Williams (6 July 1840); Richard Williams; William Woodward (23 Jan. 1833); Gorham A. Worth (1856); William M. Worthington; Griffin Yeatman (4 March 1849).

Bibliographical references for seven of the men may be found appended to the sketches in the Dictionary of American Biography: Ethan A. Brown, Jacob Burnet, Daniel Drake, James Findlay, Hugh Glenn, William H. Harrison, and Nicholas Longworth. Sketches of David K. Este, John H. Piatt, James Taylor, and several of the others appear in Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography. A number may be found in three standard reference works: The Biographical Encyclopaedia of Ohio of the Nineteenth Century (Cincinnati and Philadelphia, 1876)Google Scholar; Brennan, J. Fletcher (ed.), A Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Men, with an Historical Sketch of the State of Ohio (Cincinnati, 1879)Google Scholar; and The Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait Gallery with an Historical Sketch of the State of Ohio (6 vols., Cincinnati, 1883-1895)Google Scholar. A larger number may be partially identified through six local histories: Ford, Henry A. and Ford, Kate B., History of Hamilton County, Ohio (Cleveland, 1881)Google Scholar; Ford, and Ford, , History of Cincinnati, Ohio (Cleveland, 1881)Google Scholar; S. B. Nelson & Company, History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio: Their Past and Present (Cincinnati, 1894)Google Scholar; Greve, Charles T., Centennial History of Cincinnati and Representative Citizens (2 vols., Chicago, 1904)Google Scholar; Goss, Charles F., Cincinnati the Queen City, 1788-1912 (4 vols., Chicago, 1912)Google Scholar; Leonard, Lewis A. (ed.), Greater Cincinnati and Its People: A History (4 vols., New York, 1927)Google Scholar.

There are special studies of a number of others. For example (on Martin Baum), Trepte, Helmut, “Deutschtum in Ohio bis zum Jahre 1820,” Deutsch-Amerikanische Geschichtsblätter, XXXII (1932), 279–304Google Scholar, and Katzenberger, George A., “Martin Baum,” Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XLIV (Jan., 1935), 204–19Google Scholar; (on Ethan A. Brown, in addition to the references in the Dictionary of American Biography) Still, John S., “The Life of Ethan Allen Brown Governor of Ohio” (Ms dissertation, Ohio State University, 1951)Google Scholar; (on Isaac G. Burnet) Stevens, Harry R., “Cincinnati's Founding Fathers — Isaac G. Burnet,” Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio Bulletin, X (July, 1952), 231–9Google Scholar; (on O. M. Spencer) Virginius C. Hall, “Oliver M. Spencer, Man and Boy,” ibid., VIII (Oct., 1950), 233-57; (on Thomas Sloo Jr.) Snyder, John F., “Thomas Sloo,” Illinois State Historical Society Transactions for 1903 (Illinois State Historical Library Publication No. 8, Springfield, Ill., 1904), 201–6Google Scholar, and Isaac J. Cox, “Thomas Sloo, Jr., A Typical Politician of Early Illinois,” ibid., 1911 (I.S.H.L. Pub. No. 16, Springfield, Ill., 1913), 26-42.

2 Bankers of the smaller towns in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana have been identified primarily through the scattered files of local newspapers and through city and county histories, those published between 1870 and 1905 having been most helpful. Newspaper advertisements often provide evidence of occupation, and the local histories sometimes include biographical data. Newspapers chiefly consulted were those at the Cincinnati Public Library, Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, Ohio State Museum, Western Reserve Historical Society, Newberry Library, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Library of Congress, and Duke Library. On county histories, see Peterson, C. Stewart, Bibliography of County Histories of the 3111 Counties in the 48 States (2d ed., Baltimore, 1946Google Scholar, with supplement).

3 Huntington, C. C., “A History of Banking and Currency in Ohio before the Civil War,” Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XXIV (July, 1915), 269–351Google Scholar; Neufeld, Maurice F., “Three Aspects of the Economic Life of Cincinnati from 1815 to 1840,” Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XLIV (Jan., 1935), 65–80Google Scholar; Utter, William T., The Frontier State, 1803-1825 (Columbus, Ohio, 1942), 229–95Google Scholar; Buley, R. C., The Old Northwest Pioneer Period, 1815-1840 (2 vols., Indianapolis, 1950), I, 565–603Google Scholar. The last work contains excellent bibliographical notes.

4 Evidence of age is taken chiefly from the newspaper obituaries, a variety of biographical memoirs and reminiscences, the Cincinnati Pioneer (5 nos. in 1 vol., Cincinnati, 1873-75), and the extremely valuable manuscript card index of the Spring Grove Cemetery Association, Cincinnati, Ohio.

5 The general data contained in the Census Report of 1820 must be supplemented by the information in two city directories, Oliver Farnsworth (comp. and ed.), Cincinnati Directory for 1819, and Harvey Hall (ed.), Cincinnati Directory for 1825.

6 The city directories cited above provide the basic data. The Directory for 1825 provides (p. 7) a tabular summary of this information, and in its alphabetical listing of 2,427 heads of families usually includes the place of origin of each individual. This information seems to refer in many instances, however, to the last place of residence prior to removal to Ohio rather than to place of birth. A large portion of it has been checked and corrected, and some additional information supplied by reference to the manuscript card index of the Spring Grove Cemetery Association (Cincinnati, Ohio), the manuscript obituary index of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, extensive biographical notes in Nova Caesarea Harmony Lodge No. 2 (Masonic) Records (John Day Caldwell Mss, H.P.S.O.), cemetery inscriptions published in the “Genealogical Department” of the H.P.S.O. Bulletin, the printed sources mentioned in footnote 1 above, and certain other works such as In Memoriam, 1881 (Cincinnati, 1881)Google Scholar and Cist, Charles, Cincinnati Miscellany (Cincinnati, 1844-1846)Google Scholar.

7 The initial personal farming experiences of three of the bankers are specifically and vividly described (for John H. Piatt) in A Memorial Biography of Benjamin M. Piatt and Elizabeth, his wife (Washington, 1887)Google Scholar, Lodge, N. Louise, The Tribe of Jacob [Piatt] (3d ed., Springfield, Mo., 1934)Google Scholar, and M. Joblin & Company, Cincinnati Past and Present (Cincinnati, 1872), p. 200Google Scholar; (for Daniel Drake) in Daniel Drake, Pioneer Life in Kentucky, 1785–1800, ed., Horine, Emmet F. (New York, 1948)Google Scholar; and (for John Sutherland) in A History and Biographical Cyclopedia of Butler County (1882), 287–8, and Bert S. Bartlow and others (eds.), Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio (1905), 939–40.

The less-often described farming activities of the men while they were bankers may be seen by reading the John C. Short Family Papers (Mss, Library of Congress), especially Boxes 18, 19, and 56; the William Henry Harrison Mss (Library of Congress), Vol. VI and Acc. 3636, both representing Harrison; and the Isaac Bates Mss (Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio), representing James Findlay and Andrew Mack.

8 Newspapers were generally silent on the subject; there was no demand for explanation. Private correspondence offers abundant detail on the mechanical procedures by which the banks performed their services, but only indirect evidence of what those services were. See particularly the remarkably vivid and detailed letters, including banking house conversations, from John C. Short to William Short for the years 1817–20 (Short Family Papers, Library of Congress). Public statements were usually made by the bankers only when exceptional action required explanation. A suspension of specie payment was the most common occasion. See the resolutions adopted by a public meeting at Cincinnati, 26 Dec. 1814 stating “unless the Western Banks had stopped specie payments, their vaults would have been drained so far as to injure not only themselves, but farming and mercantile interests generally” (Western Spy, 17 Jan. 1815); the report of a state bank convention at Chillicothe, 6 Sept. 1816 (Western Spy, 20 Sept. 1816). Some information is contained in newspapers written by men closely associated with the banking group. One of the owners of the Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette, for example, was a banker and the paper was for a time edited by another banker and his brother-in-law. Resolutions, committee reports, and debates in the state legislature on the subject of banking in 1817 and 1818 are uninformative in respect to methods of operation.

9 A defense of western banks against “oppression” by the Bank of the United States appeared in the Western Spy, 28 March 1818. The general financial situation had previously been examined in the Cincinnati Liberty Hall, 15, 22, 29 Sept. 1817, and the currency problem by public meetings 7 and 14 Feb. 1818, reported in the Western Spy, 7 and 28 Feb. 1818. At the beginning of the crisis a remonstrance was sent by representatives of the Cincinnati banks, 20 Aug. 1818, in reply to action taken by the Bank of the United States in Philadelphia (American State Papers, Finance, IV, 859-61). Soon after, a petition was sent by a state bank convention at Chillicothe, 30 Oct. 1818, to the Ohio state legislature (Western Spy, 23 Jan. 1819). At the climax of the crisis a series of resolutions was adopted by a public meeting held in Cincinnati 7 Nov. 1818, and a more elaborate committee report was received 12 Nov. (Western Spy, 14 Nov.; Inquisitor and Cincinnati Advertiser, 10, 17 Nov.; Liberty Hall, 10, 17 Nov. 1818). From this time on the newspapers were filled with information and comment on financial and general economic conditions. Political criticism of bankers on banking began to appear after mid-August, 1819, in newspapers and broadsides. It continued in considerable volume for about four years. The actions of bank cashier Gorham A. Worth, Oct.-Dec, 1819, may be followed in a dramatic series of his letters (H.P.S.O. Quarterly Publications, VI, No. 2 [April-June, 1911], 20–35)Google Scholar.

After the critical attacks on the banks and bankers of this period came to a close, a retrospective literature gradually emerged, in part defensive or apologetic. Among the best examples are a study in the Cincinnati Daily Gazette, 19 Nov. 1827; Burnet, Jacob, Notes on the Early Settlement of the Northwestern Territory (Cincinnati, 1847), 407–11Google Scholar; Worth, Gorham A., Recollections of Cincinnati, From a Residence of Five Years, 1817 to 1821 (Albany, 1851)Google Scholar, reprinted in H.P.S.O. Quarterly Publications, XI, Nos. 2 & 3 (April-July, 1916)Google Scholar; and among briefer statements the recollections of Timothy Kirby in M. Joblin & Co., Cincinnati Past and Present (Cincinnati, 1872), 76Google Scholar; of Mansfield, Edward D. in his Memoirs of the Life and Services of Daniel Drake (Cincinnati, 1855), 117Google Scholar, and Personal Memories Social, Political, and Literary (Cincinnati, 1879), 167–218Google Scholar; and of John F. Dufour in Dufour, Perret, “The Swiss Settlement of Switzerland County, Indiana,” Indiana Historical Collections, XIII (1925), 79–80Google Scholar.

This literature commonly became primarily an assignment and distribution of blame for the disasters of 1818-23, and that attribute has continued to characterize most of the subsequent writing. Only in the most recent years has an effort been made to turn attention from an apportionment of blame to an assessment of the work that was actually done by the bankers of that period.

10 The extensive, important, but highly specialized functions of the western banks in the War of 1812 are excluded from consideration. On earlier banking, see footnote 3 above, Drake, Daniel, Natural and Statistical View or Picture of Cincinnati and the Miami Country (Cincinnati, 1815)Google Scholar; Rowe, John J., “Money and Banks in Cincinnati Pre-Civil War,” H.P.S.O. Bulletin, VI (July, 1948), 74–99Google Scholar.

Uncertainty about the appropriate functions of banks, and the miscellaneous variety of their interests, are shown typically in the earlier years by the Miami Exporting Company, and later by the activities of such other banks as the Dayton Manufacturing Company (Feb., 1814) and the Little Miami Canal and Banking Company (Dec, 1817). Their work seems to have been closely related to that of nonbanking firms such as the (Cincinnati) Union Trading Company (Dec, 1817). On the other hand, many banking functions were performed by other men than bankers. Paper notes were issued by individual merchants (e.g., Benjamin W. Leathers) and by the corporation of Cincinnati, beginning in May, 1817 (Cincinnati Town Records, John Day Caldwell Mss, I, 211 verso, H.P.S.O.; annual reports of the town and city treasurer, published in local newspapers).

The notices published by various bank cashiers in the local newspapers calling for partial payments on stock subscriptions show one method by which capital was accumulated, a wide variety of money and farm produce being acceptable in payment. Another method of capital accumulation is evident in the financial records of large-scale owners of western lands such as William Lytle (Lytle Mss, H.P.S.O.), William Short of Philadelphia (Short Family Papers, Library of Congress), and John Cleves Symmes (William Henry Harrison Mss, Library of Congress). The work of merchant-bankers in an exporting partnership is presented in detail in the example of Baum & Perry (later Baum, Sloo & Co.) which may be followed (1814-17) through newspaper advertisements, the Miami Exporting Company Account Books (M.E.C. Mss, H.P.S.O.), and correspondence of the partners (H.P.S.O. Quarterly Publications, IV [July-Sept., 1909], 132–8)Google Scholar.

11 The basic evidence for these services is to be found in the following sources: Miami Exporting Company Account Books, Journal, and Stock Books (M.E.C. Mss, H.P.S.O.); the annual statements of western banks published in local newspapers; American State Papers, principally Finance Vols. III and IV, Public Lands Vol. III, Miscellaneous Vol. II, and Claims; records of the U.S. District Courts, Cincinnati, Ohio (see footnote 15 below) and Frankfort, Kentucky; Cincinnati City Court Docket, May, 1819-Dec, 1821 (Mss, H.P.S.O.); records of John H. Piatt & Co. (privately owned in Cincinnati); evidence in the Piatt case (see footnote 15 below); personal financial records of James Findlay, William Henry Harrison, William Lytle (particularly in the Torrence Papers, H.P.S.O.), William Short, and many others; financial records of certain business partnerships such as the Merino Sheep Company (Isaac Bates Mss, H.P.S.O.) and fragmentary records of others such as the Cincinnati Bell, Brass, and Iron Foundry, accessible through the court records mentioned above; reports of banks and bank letters to the governor of the state (Ethan Allen Brown Mss, Ohio State Library, Columbus); U.S. Department of War, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Letter Books (National Archives) on the work of Indian agents and military contractors.

A distinction should be noted between those who borrowed from the banks and those who invested in them. The former group, which may be identified from the voluminous court records, official notices of suits published in the newspapers, and the M.E.C. Account Books, consisted to a large extent of merchants, with some manufacturers and a few others. The latter, particularly the 79 individually identified stockholders in the Miami Exporting Company and a few others whose ownership is shown by public notice of administrators on the disposition of estates, included many merchants but also a quite considerable proportion of landowners and farmers, mechanics, lawyers, and others.

12 The primary sources on religious affiliations include the Wesleyan Society Records (Transcripts), John Day Caldwell Mss (Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio) and Hinshaw, William W. (ed.), Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy (6 vols., Ann Arbor, 1936-1950), Vols. IV and VGoogle Scholar. For the general religious situation as well as identification of many names, see Ford, Cincinnati, 146-64; Greve, , op. cit., I, 481–5Google Scholar; Goss, , op. cit., I, 467–97Google Scholar; Leonard, , op. cit., II, 400–32Google Scholar. On the Swedenborgians, Smith, Ophia D., “Adam Hurdus and the Swedenborgians in Early Cincinnati,” Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, LIII (April-June, 1944), 106–34Google Scholar, and “The Beginnings of the New Jerusalem Church in Ohio,” ibid., LXI (July, 1952), 235-61.

13 Those among whom family kinships have been established are Armstrong, Barr, Baum, I. G. Burnet, J. Burnet, Carneal, Drake, Este, Ferris, Findlay, D. Gano, J. S. Gano, John Gibson, Joshua Gibson, H. Glenn, J. Glenn, Grandin, Harrison, Howell, Hunt, Johnson, J. Keys, J. F. Keys, Longworth, Martin, Oliver, J. Perry, S. Perry, J. H. Piatt, W. Piatt, J. Pugh, L. Pugh, Reeder, Ruffin, Sloo, Southgate, Taylor, Torrence, Wade.

Many of the relationships were formed through the earlier pioneer families having large numbers of children, especially the Wallaces, Howells, Ganos, Willises, and Symmeses. Illustrative although not typical were the relationships of John H. Piatt and his first cousin William Piatt (their fathers, Jacob and Daniel, were brothers). J. H. Piatt's sister Hannah married Philip Grandin. J. H. Piatt married Martha Ann Willis, whose mother, Hannah, was a daughter of Silas Howell. Two of Howell's other daughters, Sarah and Susan, married T. D. Carneal and Nicholas Longworth respectively. Lewis Howell was a brother of Hannah, Sarah, and Susan. John Armstrong married Susan Willis, evidently a daughter of Hannah (Howell) Willis and sister of Martha Ann (Willis) Piatt. Nancy Willis, probably of the same family, married W. G. W. Gano, who was evidently of the same family as J. S. Gano. Three daughters of Robert Wallace, Rebecca, Ann and Mary, married Jacob Burnet, Martin Baum and Samuel Perry, all bank directors; a younger daughter, Margaret, married Nehemiah Wade, son of D. E. Wade. Hugh and James Glenn were brothers; an older brother Isaac Glenn, married Elizabeth, a sister of Daniel Drake. Hugh Glenn married Mary Gibson, daughter of Joshua Gibson and sister of John Gibson.

Numerous connections were of course formed in later years; but the extent of intermarriage was so great throughout the entire business community that family combinations did not form a dominating feature. A comparison of family ties with business partnerships, their formation and dissolution, shows an extreme “fluidity” or individualism prior to 1825.

14 For names of the individual leaders in general cultural life see Rowe, John J., “Cincinnati's Early Cultural and Educational Enterprises,” H.P.S.O. Bulletin, VIII (July, 1950), 211–16Google Scholar. On scientific leaders, Hendrickson, Walter B., “The Western Museum Society of Cincinnati,” Scientific Monthly, LXIII (1946), 66–72Google Scholar. On literature, Rusk, Ralph L., The Literature of the Middle Western Frontier (New York, 1925)Google Scholar. On the theater, Rusk, op. cit., and advertisements in the local press; and compare the names of the owners of the Cincinnati Theatre, May, 1819 (Nova Caesarea Harmony Lodge No. 2 [Masonic] Records, John Day Caldwell Mss, I, 448, H.P.S.O.), and at the time of its dissolution (Drake, Benjamin and Mansfield, Edward D., Cintinnati in 1826 [Cincinnati, 1827], 30Google Scholar). On musical life, Stevens, Harry R., “Adventure in Refinement: Early Concert Life in Cincinnati, 1810-1826,” H.P.S.O. Bulletin, V (Sept., 1947), 8–22Google Scholar, and “Further Adventures in Refinement,” ibid., V (Dec, 1947), 22-32; Smith, Ophia D., “Joseph Tosso, the Arkansaw Traveler,” Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, LVI (Jan., 1947), 16–45Google Scholar; and Harry R. Stevens, “The Haydn Society of Cincinnati, 1819-1824,” ibid., LII (Apr., 1943), 95-119. On painting and other arts as well as those previously mentioned see appropriate chapters in the general histories by Ford, Greve, Goss, and Leonard cited in footnote 1.

15 On the loss of capital the statistical summary in Senate Document No. 98 (12 March 1832), 22 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 22-36 is impressive but inconclusive. The actual names of many of those who lost property following the panic of 1819 may be found in the Record of Pleas, Circuit Court of the United States, Seventh Circuit, District of Ohio, Record Book for Terms September 1821-September 1822 and September 1823-July 1824 (Mss, Recorder's Office, U. S. District Court, Cincinnati, Ohio). There is a graphic account of the general loss in Burnet, Jacob, Notes on the Early Settlement of the North-western Territory (Cincinnati, 1847), 407–11Google Scholar. Detailed evidence in an individual case may be found in Abraham S. Piatt and others, U. S. Court of Claims, General Jurisdiction Case No. 2205, Record Group 123, National Archives. Microfilm copies of selected portions of the material have been deposited in the Duke Library. From another side, the extensive record of individual transfers of bank stock between 1814 and 1831 are revealing (Miami Exporting Company Stock Book, Mss, Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio). Records of the Piatt bank are in private hands in Cincinnati.