The Van Buren press., 1896-02-22
EARLY CALIFORNIA BANKS.
fhe Profits We're Large, But Customers
Were Suspicious andFickle.

Alt ITohlS W IaFRes Iout NusboHitrs
Were Suspicious andFiclxle.
In treating of the romantic period of
the Argonauts, writer's have touched
but lightly upon pioneer banking,
subject which would have furnished
many 0an interesting chapter This is
to be doubly regretted, because the
business was of magnitude hardly
equaled in any other new country, and
because the records are to-day mainly
derived from personal "reminiscences,
blotted and dimmed by the passage of
time. The old banks of San Francisco
were undoubtedly maryels od the age.
While lacking the snowy extsriors and
handsome furnishings of their modern
successors, they proved fully equal to
the requirements of a day when gold
was more of a commodity than it has
ever been since. Statements of immense
deposits of gold in the ramshackle
buildings and the pot-metal safes pc
caliar to the times, might seem eXag-
eerated were they not amply proven by
reliable statistics.
In new land where gold is king,
banking naturally fourishes, With the
accumulation of metallic wealth. de-
pository must be provided for storage
and security. The miner following
some prolific lead in quartz or gravel
cannot continually cache his pile un-
der the sole guardianship Of nature.
When the opportunity offers his treas
Tile is transported to some safer place,
leaving its owner to pursue his labor
free from any further care. As all roads
then led to the city by the bay, San
Francisco became the great banking
center of all mining districts. If the
profits were large in those days, many
and varied were the vicissitudes of the
business. While as rule the banker
of the period is generally supposed to
have rolled in luxury, his pathway was
literally strewn with thorns. 1t could
hardly be said that capital was eau
tious then, but it certainly was timed
TO a degree which frequently precipi-
tated a crisis, short-lived as a rule, but
sufficiently threatening in its aspect to
cause general uneasiness.
The depositors among the mining
community were inclined to be as tickle
as the fortune which attended their
search for gold, and when not engaged
in delying among the gulches and ra-
vines of the higher Sierra, or along the
banks and beds of the Sacramento and
its tributaries they seem to bave kept
watehful eye over the movements of
the banker. An apparently trivial
event would suffice to create suspicion,
and that meant an immediate demand
for whatever was on deposit, which had
to be forthcoming on short notice
There was no law then to protect the
banker by requiring formal application
| for the withdrawal of deposits under
special classification. The drafts pre-
sented had to be paid or the doors must
| be closed.
In the beginning of 1854, Adams 81
! Co. were subjected to a most trying eX-
perience from the most trivial cause.
/ Usually large shippers of coin, the Jan
uary steamer had departed without
their name appearing on the manifest
for some reason. a run Immediately
was commenced on the bank, and be-
fore the first day had closed nearly
! $500, 900 in gold had been paid over the
| counter to an excited crowd of deposit
ors. As usual in such cases the appar-
ent ease with which the sudden demand
was met, and the well-stocked trays of
| gold behind the counters confronting
customers, soon turned the tide, and a
few hours later the deposits were pour
ing back again more rapidly even than
they were withdrawn. This is only one
instance of the kind, quoted to show the
nervous disposition of a community
largely made up of men who had fol
lowed the exciting and precarious ca
reers of miners in a comparatively wild
and uneXplored region, life in itself
calculated to inspire and foster natur-
al feeling of distrust in their surround
ings.
1t is little wonder that banking -four
ished in this golden era. Had the flow of
this glittering stream been checked at
the bay in those halcyon days, what a
story might have remained 10 be told
q a city, mistress of the waters, greater
even in wealth and grandeur than Car
thage of old.-Overland Monthly.