The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-09-08

IN 1865 to transfer his services to New |
York, doubtful Of his ability to compete
with the bankers there. He determined,
instead, to join a partnership ample in
capital and character to compete with |
the English and German joint stock COM
panles which were running the bullion off |
the coast and cut of the country, and he |
prevailed upon Mr.. D. 0. Mills, who was
just retiring from active business at Sac
ramento, and was one of the most trust.
worthy and popular bankers on the coast,
to join with himself and Fritz in small
stock undertaking. Samuel Wilson and
A. r. Crittenden were the consulting at
torneys IN the matter, and the only char
ter the bank required was an mandatory
statute adding to the law authorizing
corporations for mining and manufacture
ing the words, "and other business The
new bank came quietly into existence in
the summer of 1854, with paid.up CAPT.
tai Of $2,O0O,OOO. The character of the
men, however, gave it superstition from
the start. Mills was president and Rails
ton cashier, and these, with nine trustees.
were the absolute managers of the con.
Germ. The bank, pursuing the policy of
controlling the bullion yield for the sake
of the deposits which would follow, speed.
lily became the favorite depository Of the
coast. 1t was alleged that in the first
twenty months the bank made 100000
The capital still being unequal to that
employed by foreigners, and the opportu-
mites of the bank exceeding it's capacity,
they determined to increase the capitai
to $5,000,000, and to greatly add to the
number Of stockholders the fame and
success of the concern gave it the selec-
ton of the best men on the coast, while
to the known vigilance, enterprise, and
good judgment of it's managers, was be.
queathed by the corporation very liberal
executive powers. No man has to wait
in the Bank of California to know wheth-
er he can have accommodation; it is
t'yes' or 'no.' About three hundred
gentlemen, representing every interest,
mercantile, commercial, professional, and
mechanical, were taken into the enlarged
corporation, and they represented in
their private aggregate about 500, 900, 900.
10 say that these individuals are the
Bank of California, is to confound one in.
strumentality with nearly all the active
mind and enterprise Of the Pacific Coast.
The new stockholders bound them
selves to take of the rndi.
vided earnings Of the bank no more than
one per cent. a month, and hence a sur
plus Of of rs FER cent. at the present
time above TIC $4,000, COO paid up at the
reorganization. In September, 1864, the
bank had established an agency or branch
at Virginia City, with an offshoot at Gold
Hill, Nevada. and this in compendium is
the Bank of California; beyond this it is
whatever the superstition, the envy, or
the righteousness of people may contrive
about it. The bank edifice and ground
is worth $35O,OOO, there are a president,
a cashier, an assistant cashier, secretary
and eleven trustees, and meetings are held
once week.
SECRET OF THE BANK SUCCESS.
Various reasons have been urged to &C.
count for the banks prosperity, but I
have not been able to detect the agency
of its leading men in more than two en-.
terprises. They control a bullion re.
tinery, established at cost of $500, 900.
and they are individually owners
of the Union Mill and Mining As.
ISOLATION in Nevada. Both Of these
matters fall legitimately in the way of
banking on geld producing coast. Me-
vada has been the seat of the finest silver
lode known to man, and, in the flush of
silver mining there, crude and cheap ma
chinery was sufficient but, as the ore
fell off in richness, the desultory mech
anism Of private quartz millers failed to
give satisfaction; the mills stopped one
after another; and, by the failure Of
their factors and correspondents, the
Bank Of Calif rnia lost 100000. With
the establishment of their Nevada br an
ches, the rate of interest fell from 20 and
rs per cent. to one per cent. month, and
two or three Of the bank managers in
their private capacity only-assisted a
number Of the quartz companies to pros
ecute their work, and firally nodded them
into corporation; the prices of fuel,
quicksilver, and machinery we're reduced
by wholesale system Of purchases and
transportation, and silver mining in Ne.
vada now owes its prosperity to this vigi.
liant superintendent.
There is scarcely large, nervous, use
full enterprise on the Pacific coast which
has not asked the aid Of this bank, or
owed its origin to some stakeholder in it.
But as bank, within the sphere of it's
capital and its corporate function, it is
managed with the prudence of old age
and judicial reference, beyond its origi.
nal business purpose, to promoting the
mutual and necessary interests of Pacific
America. When the great earthquake
in the fall of 1865 occurred, and the tena-
bllity, even the existence, of that part of
the world seemed in question in the gen.
eral panic, and bankers wandered around
the closed banks with the distinctions of
debtor and creditor obliterated. word