Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-07
BANKS FIND II HARD
TO GIVE AWAY MONEY
SPECIAL OFFICIAL TRACES OLD
ACCOUNTS
One Man Even Denies His Identity
in Effort to Sidestep Drawing
Old Deposit Long Fora
gotten

Every savings bank that has been es-
tablshed for twenty-five years has what
are called dormant accourts-deposits
which have lain untouched for years.
Usually the persons who deposited the
money are dead and their heirs have no
knowledge of the bank account.
The sum total of these accounts in New
York state probably runs from $2,5O0,00O
to SO, 900, 900 In 1899 the report to the
state commissioner of banking was about
81 100000 Since then reports are made,
but the sum total is not given OF
course, the sum has grown, and several
of the savings banks authorities put the
amount unclaimed at fully S3,OO0,OOO.
These accounts are troublesome to the
banks. They have to be carried on the
balance sheets and verified. The banks
try to get rid of them, and many of the
larger banks now employ special agents
to look up the owners or the heirs of the
depositors. 1t is custom of some of the
banks to cease to credit interest on an
account which has been sleeping twenty
two years. The law recognizes such ac-
counts as dormant If no change has been
made in twenty-five years and no one has
called for the money. Twenty years used
to be regarded as the limit. but when the
law was passed in the late sos requiring
reports on these accounts the term was
heightened to twenty-five.
Many of the accounts are dormant be-
cause their owners have forgotten all
about them. Some are dormant because
they have been taken out without the
knowledge of relatives. Many wives save
up a little money secretly from their hus-
bands and say nothing about 1t. Many
women also hide bank books so that they
are not found when the hider dies Again,
bank books are burned and the heirs of
the depositors have no knowledge of the
savings. Now and then miserly ten
dency leads persons to keep accourd Sc
cret from their relatives and friends.
Sometimes accounts are taken out in as
sumed names. Through many of these
reasons the accounts become dormant and
the officials of the banks come to regard
them as nuisances. The money belongs
to some one. The difficulty is to find the
rightful heir.
Hunting Up Owners
For many years the banks used to set
their clerks and other employees hunting
up at odd times the rightful owners of the
money. Little was accomplished. Finally
several of the large banks secured
special man to look up these heirs and
now for several years there have been
payments made to hundreds who never
knew that they were entitled to the
money.
1t is a difficult job to find these heirs.
After they are found there must be legal
proof of ownership. Death records must
be searched, proofs of relationship estab-
lished and administrators must be APP
pointed. Not until all this Is done will
the savings banks let the money go. The
task involves not only detective work
but legal work of peculiar ability. 1t
also involves genealogical training.
The investigator usually takes from the
banks books the record of the name and
address of the depositor, if they were set
down.
At the home address usually no one is
found who ever heard of the depositor.
In some tenements the Investigators will
go to every door calling often on fifty
families. Perhaps some one will remem-
ber the dead depositor and will recall
relative If no other means is found of
beginning the trace, old letters are hunted
up in the dead mans effects. Searches of
the death records are made Undertakers
of long standing in the neighborhood are
questioned The books of fraternal orders
are examined. Gradually little light
breaks in. If the name is peculiar every
person of that name in the city is written
to, and so the case goes on.
A Typical Case
One OF the cases that have puzzled one
Of these agents is that of man whose
name might be called Williams, but ism t.
A hunt of months has established just one
fact about Williams. 1t is that he was
bounty jumper in the Civil War, and to
hide his identity deposited his money un-
der an assumed name. The heirs of
Bounty Jumper Williams will probably
never get what he deposited. The amount
involved is $500.
One Of the richest women of Los Ange-
les, the widow of man whose name was
one Of the greatest powers in railroading
in this country, was surprised recently to