Millers Bank of New York (Clyde, NY)

Episode Information

Episode UID
1366646490488
Episode Type
Suspension โ†’ Reopening
Bank Type
state
Bank ID
136664649 hash
Start Date
August 26, 1840
Location
Clyde, New York (43.084, -76.869)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini (chosen from majority vote of a three-model LLM ensemble)
Short Digest
dd1dc9986b007008

Response Measures

None

Description

Sources show Comptroller assistance in 1840 and the bank stopped payment in 1841; no clear evidence of permanent closure or receivership.

Events (2)

1. August 26, 1840 Other
Newspaper Excerpt
The Millers' Bank of Clyde received $154,000 from the Comptroller, and deposited the following securities:-
Source
newspapers
2. April 3, 1841 Suspension
Cause
Macro News
Cause Details
Part of a wider regional/state panic where many banks abruptly stopped payments; agents 'threw out' numerous banks and redemptions were exhausted.
Newspaper Excerpt
Most of the brokers refuse to purchase the Red Back Notes, as late as Monday and Tuesday, thirteen of these Institutions stopped payment, nomely; Millers' Bank of Clyde;
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (2)

Article from Morning Herald, August 26, 1840

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Article Text

according to his own register of issue. The Farmers' bank of Seneca County, some of the securities of which were sold to day, deposited the following securities, and received $50,000 in bills. Securities Deposited Alaban a 5 per cent stock, $20,000. Present Value. ...14,4 0 Michigan 6 " " 10 000 8,400 Indiana 5 " " 6,000 4,320 Mortgages 20,000 10.000 Total. $55,000 $37,120 This will yield the note holders about 68 cents on the dollar, according to the sales made to-day. The Millers' Bank of Clyde received $154,000 from the Comptroller, and deposited the following securities:- Securities Deposited. Present Value, Arkansas 6 per cent 70,000 45,500 Michigan 6 per cent... 40,000 33,600 Mortgages .57,500 30,000 Total. $167,503 $109,100 This gives about 63 per cent to the note holders. In this we do not allow the 1ยฝ per cent commission, due the State on stocks sold at auction, according to the recent decision of the Attorney General, and which must come out of the pockets of the note holders, where there is a deficiency of means. Another evil influence, which the law has exercised thus far, has been to injure the credit of State Stocks, by enforcing sales at a moment when the markets are under the influence of panic. It is a period of revulsion, want of confidence, and scarcity of money, that causes the stoppage of the bank. The law then requires that within ten days the stock shall be thrown upon the market, for the benefit of the bill holders. The consequence is, that prices are established for stocks, seriously to the injury of other stock holders. These quotations go abroad, and greatly affect the market there, which again produces a reaction here. The same causes produce similar results, in a more marked manner, in regard to mortgages. That description of property has been peculiarly the sport of speculation, and the attempt to make it, at inflated prices, the basis of a new currency, to be a measure of value in a season of reaction, has singularly failed. Real estate is scarcely convertible at any price, and when sales are forced, they have in no instance brought the amount of the mortgage foreclosed. An eminent lawyer has had occasion lately to foreclose on 40 different farms, and in no instance has a purchaser been found; they have invariably been bought in by the parties interested. It is easy to see that the very materials of which the new banks are composed, are of a nature to insure their destruction. A few of the banks which have been started with cash capitals, and have employed their means in legitimate business, and avoided investments in speculative property, will succeed, not on account of the securities they have lodged with the Comptroller, but because their regular business enables them to meet their bills with specie, without having recourse to those securities. In case of failure they do not give any additional security, because the bill holder looks to the Comptroller, and not to the bank.


Article from Salt River Journal, April 3, 1841

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Article Text

M. VAN BUREN. MONEY AND BUSINESS MATTERS. The Philadelphia Inquirer of the 17,says-Yesterday was a dull day in out-door transactions. Money 14 per cent in a month. United States Bank 16: a 17; Girard 28: State Fives 71. The complaints are loud and deep with regard to the inaction of our State Legislature. There is, says an afternoon contemporary, a constant and general demand for small notes, and for the imperfect supply in circulation we are indebted to oth er States, and use any trash that may come to hand. It is the people of limited means and small business who feel the want of cur rency most severly, and yet for the suffering mass nothing is done. This apathy is unaccountable, and is by no means calcula ted to increase the popular ty of the members who share it. We should be glad, in common with most of our fellow citizens, to have some explanation of the cause, from those who are in the secrets of the Capitol. Our New York friends are getting into sad confusion with regard to their Banks.Most of the brokers refuse to purchase the Red Back Notes, as late as Monday and Tuesday, thirteen of these Institutions stopped payment, nomely; Millers' Bank of Clyde; Farmers. Bank of Seneca county: Tonawanda Bank; N. York City Trust and Banking Co., [fraud]; Tenth Ward Bank. N. Y.; Chelsea Bank. do.: Staten Island Bank, do : Erie county Bank of Western N. Y., Rochester; Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank, Batavia; Binghampton Bank. The Albany Argus savs: On Wednesday, the following were thrown out by the agents of this city, viz:-Bank of America, Buffalo, Merchants' Exchange, do. And finally yesterday the explosion became general,and the agents threw out the following:-Mechanics' Bank of Buffalo; of United States do.; Phoenix do.; Bank Commerce do.; Bank of Brockport; Catteraugus county Bank; Bank of Lodi; St. Lawrence Bank. The two latter banks it is supposed will furnish their age nts with funds to go and keep up their redemptions in a short time; the officers and some of the stockholders of the St. Lawrence Bank particularly, being among the most wealthy citizens of St. Law rence country. The same puper states that the panic burst so suddenly upon the Agencies of the Associations,thst the funds placed with them were exhausted before they could arrange to meet such an extraordinary demand. By a singular, if not an inadmissible construction of the law. by the late Comptroller r. Cooke) preference has been given in the redeptions from the deposite in his hands to those who were the first to appear with their prostests. The Couriorand Enquirer states that business was never duller in that city than at the present moment.--It would seem then, that our neighbours have very little to brag of. Twenty or thirty of their specie paying Bankshave already been discredited. and their condition is any thing but enviable. If The Pennsylvania Legislature would only give us small notes, we should hold ourselves in quite as good a condition as those who have been charging us with bankruptcy.The Buffalo Commercial says: Exchange continues to advance daily. and at such a rate as amounts almost to prohibition. The rates on uncurrent to-day are as follows: Eastern 1 a 2; Can da 6; Ohio, In dianna, Kentucky and Virginia, 8; Illinois 15; Michigan 20 per cent discount all around.