American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-01-17
The Wharton Savings Bank.
STATEMENT OF AN OFFICER.

| ted by officers OF savings banks, and SINH
lar institutions, at the expense of depos
itors. Now, Mr.. Editor, this is a mistake
and to prove it | will give you a shor
history of a Savings Bank with which
was connected u short time since.
Mr.. Reuben Pettigrew, Col. Solomon,
Martin Young, Ginsley Godfrey and my.
sell started a Savings Bank in the village
OF Wharion, Simmons township, in this
State last March, year ago. Mr.. Petit
grew was President, Col. Martin was Vice
President, and Young Godfrey and myself
!. were Secretary and Cashier For a time
the institution flourished There had
never been Savings Bank in Wharton,
and the people put in our hands all the
money they could rake and scrape to-
gether They wanted to put it where
thieves could not get at it, and they want
ed the interest. There was no doubt about
their thorough understanding of the adj
vantages of the institution. Our Board of
Directors was composed of the richest and
most respectable men in the village, and
this gave the people confidence in us,
which was perfectly natural and right.
Men came to lis from farms fifteen and
twenty miles away and such was the gen.
eral disposition to deposit that we thought
we We're about to make permanent sue
cess of our Savings Bank. But we soon
| discovered our error. For example, Mr..
| u j
the village, became convinced that if he
could buy threshing machine he could
not only make it pay in threshing his
own wheat and oats, but he could make
| money by hiring it to the neighbors. So
! he came down to see us about it TIL ere
were two machines in Wharton that Mr..
Pettigrew could buy on reasonable terms,
but one of them was hundred and ten
dollars more than the other. Mr.. p.
| wanted the best one, as was natural, but
| the rest of us concluded that as the in
| stitutiOn was young, it would hardly be
just to his fellow officers to let him buy
the most expensive machine at least not
at that time. So he got the cheap one
| Now, see how this turned out. Mr.
| Pettigrew did not do half the work with
| his machine that he could have done if
he had bought the other one, and he cal
| culated that he could have made, if we
| had let him have all the money that he
wanted, from three to four hundred dol
lars more than he did make (after selling
the machine at the end of the season.. OF
course he was dissatisfied, for he had ex-
pected much better things of the Bank.
And then there was young Godfrey's
case. He was going to marry Mary Mar
tin, the ColOnels second daughter, and
he was very anxious to have good, COM
Portable house provided before the we'd
ding took place. There was very
nice place at the upper end of
the village, near the township line,
that he could get on very good terms, but
he would have to pay five thousand dol
lars down. So that fall he came to see US
about it. No wonder he was anxious
for it was one of the finest houses in
Wharton, and the land was the very best.
The fruit on that place would bring in
several hundred dollars a year, to say
nothing of anything else.
Well, we considered the matter, and we
were all willing to do our best by him,
especially Col. Martin, who was naturally
interested in the matter, as his daughter
would live in the house if it was bought.
But we found that all we could do was to
let him have four thousand dollars. You
see, Col. Martin had had his barn shingled,
and a new kitchen built to his house, and
that drew pretty heavy on the bank. And
then my expenses were perfectly enOr-
nous that summer. What with newly
furnishing my house, and getting
a buggy built with steel tires and
both pole and shafts, and buying horse
to match my sorrel mare, L had to call on
the bank for good many thousand dol
lars; and as our President was so cut up
about his threshing machine, we had felt
obliged to let him have lot of railroad
stock that we had invested in, so that he
might have chance to turn it over two or
three times, and make something that
would ease his mind little. Now, it's
easy to see that all this came heavy on the
bank, and it was impossible to let young
Godfrey have more thanfour thousand. But
we told him if he could go round and induce
anybody to deposit, he should be perfectly
welcome to the money OF course moth
ing could be fairer than that. So he
went about and did his best. He per-
suaded several people, who had been a
Il. Ia TO- hair
in the Bank; but all he could raise this
way did not amount to more than two
hundred dollars. Then he bethOught
himself of old Mrs. Harris, who kept a
trimming store up street, and who was
said to be saving money, and he went to
her. He soon found that she hadn't any
money, except thirty or forty dollars
saved for rainy day, which he induced
her to deposit; but. as she owned the
house she lived in, he showed her (you
see he came several times, and bought
things for his intended, and the prospect
of getting all the trade of the Godtreys
and Martins had considerable effect on
the old LADY, that, if she would get
mortgage on her house, and put the
money in the Bank, that the interest she
would get would more than pay the in
terest on the mortgage, so that she would
be making money all the time, and yet at
no trouble whatever, but to pocket her
profits every month. Well, Mrs. Harris
got a mortgage on her house, and
put the money in the Bank; but
this was not enough, for her
house was a very small one, and
pretty old. So poor young Godfrey was
quite in despair, and he took his money
Git did not amount to more than four thou
sand five hundredD and went to New York,
and specuated in Wall street. so as to
make up the five thousand. But things
suddenly got awfully crooked in Wall
street. and he lost every cent of ii. This
was a very sad case, as anybody would
acknowledge, if he could see how differ
ent the house to which poor Godfrey had
to take his bride was from the one he
would have bought if the Bank could
have let him have the five thousand dol
lars when he wanted it.
Now it is easy to see that all this
made us feel very much dissatisfied; and
when we closed TIE bank, last spring,
there was not one of us who had made
the money he expected to realize from
the institution. As to getting rich, as
the papers have it, that's all nonsense.
We couldn't get rich--at least, not in a small
place like Wharton. And what is more,
the injustice we have been subjected to
since the bank closed is enough to drive
us mad. There are people who have ac-
tually threatened to sue us, after all the
trouble and anxiety we had been at TO es-
tablish savings bank in their midst.
1t is this ingratitude, more than anything
else that induces me to make this state
ment, which will, l hope, help to set the
public mind right on the subject.-J0hn