Huntsville gazette., 1891-08-29
ONCE A SLAVE.
And now the President Of a
Novel Bank.
Strange Prank Fortune Played
With J. w. White, President
OF the Penny Savings
Bank
A BOoTBLACK's BANK ACCOUNT

Thirty Per Cent. uf the Colored Banks
Depositors are Women Finding
Real Romance in a Colored Banking
Institution.
From Chattanooga baily Times.
II am an ex-slave."
A word of paths shone in the eyes and
trembled in the voice OF one of Chattan-
ooga's bank presidents as he with pecul-
lar dignity of manner uttered the words
to Times reporter yesterday Ex-slave
and bank PRESIDENT What strange pranks
fortune Outlines plays!
]. w. White, the courtly president of
the Penny Savings Bank, the only col
ored institution of the kind in the United
States, was, according to his own state
ment, born and reared slave and recent
ly had the peculiar honor and pleasure Of
entertaining at his home the man whose
property he at one time was.
A penny savings bank is app arently a
poor place to find romance in real life,
but in casual visit to the above named
institution yesterday by Times repor-
ter he was met by surprise after surprise.
He found in the first place that not only
has this presumably colored bank
many white shareholders and
depositors, but that they in
clude some of the most prominent citi
zens and staunchest Democrats in Chatta-
nooga. To use President Whites lam
guage, "Politics cuts no figure" One of
his best white friends, a Democrat, owns
four paid up shares of the bank, and
among the shareholders can be found
white men of various professions, and
one or two society leaders. The reporter
also found that of the $4,000 which the
bank has now outstanding in loans, a
large proportion has been loaned to white
business housesin sums reaching as high,
in one or two instances, as $4,000.
1t has stockholders in New York City,
Boston, Bedford: Mass, Cincinnati, New
Orleans, Atlanta, Savannah, Little Rock.
Macon, Memphis, Nashville, Natchez,
Austin, Tex. ,Murfreesboro and Salisbury,
N. G. The Memphis stockholders have
asked for branch for their city, and the
matter will be decided at the next meet
ing of the Board of Directors.
The depositors come from all ranks and
conditions of life. both sexes and all age q
and colors, the deposits ranging from l
cent to thousands of dollars. About 80
per cent. of the depositors are women,
one hard-working colored women being
credited with s. 500. There are many
ludicrous points about the deposits. For
instance, several depositors have only 2
cents on deposit for year, and yesterday
a boot black drew out 1 cent on his &C
count. Several accounts of hard work
ing people show how the deposits grow
from cent or two to hundreds of dol
lars. One laborer who began with So
has been piling up an average saving OF
$40 per month.
Though only year old the Goth of last
May, the business of the bank has been
steadily increasing. Up to Aug. there
were 1,21S depositors and the indebted
ness to depositors has increased from
$16,531, 10 last March to $40, $685. The
shares number 1872 and pay an aggre-
gate of about $500 per month. The
officers are: J.W. White, presiden; John
Mickey, vice president; H. N. Willis
cashier, VIM. H. Singleton, assistant
cashier; Edwin F. Horne and F. w. Hen
dersOn bOOkkeepers.