Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1911-11-27
MORE THAN 100000
IN SAVINGS BANKS
dormant" Accounts Whose
Owners Have Not Been
Heard From For Years.
ORE than $1.00O,0O0 is lying
V in the savings banks of New

4 1Ork CITY IN WnaC Danklii;s
people call dormant az
counts"-that Is. accounts to which
nothing has been added and from
which nothing has been withdrawn for
many years But the depositor in each
case is liable to appear any day ana
demand it.
Some OF these dormant accounts are
more than seventy years old. none is
less than twenty-five, and what to do
with such deposits has been a puzzle
ever since savings banks We're first es
tablished in this city more than eighty
three years ago.
Money at per cent interest per an
mum doubles itself in about eighteen
years, and as 4 per cent Is the average
rate paid by the savings banks In New
York it will be seen that the 'unclaim-
ed" money or dormant accounts. unless
checked, would pile up enormously in
the course of time and become such
a burden that the banks might col
lapse under it. Accordingly the legis-
lature limited the period during which
interest must be paid on dormant ac-
counts. At first the limit was fixed at
twenty years, but later was extended
to twenty-five years.
What They Represent.
Most of these sleeping accounts wei.
originally sums Of only S. or $40. fae
ends of accounts which once We're ac-
tive. The owners perhaps had left
these small balances simply to keep
their accounts open and finally perhaps
forgot all about them.
But many of the accounts represent
money deposited by some enigrant
who later probably went to some other
section Of the country and, unable to
write. had never again got in commu-
nication with the bank.
Several of the deposits We're made by
other person. while a number of others
represent the savings of seafarng men
who had sailed away and for some
reason never returned.
Year after year efforts have been
made to cause the passage of some
lapse of time the funds should revert
to the state. The prompters of such
legislation. the bankers assert. want to
see the money so disposed that they
could trump up claims to it.
Under the law the savings banks are
required to report to the state bank
ing department every dormant account.
but the amount of each is not given.
because if it were INSCRIPTIONS law
yers might overwhelm the banks with
fictitious claims to the larger amounts.
Hunt For Owners or Heirs.
Banks do not want dormant ac-
counts. Most of them employ clerks
or agents to hunt up the owners of
heirs. Often when the owner has been
found the searcher has been CURLY told
by him that he knew all about the ac-
count and he didn't thank the bank for
troubling about it.
I'VE usually" said one of these
searchers. look up the depositor in
the old directories and go to the house
where he resided at that time. If he
is dead we inquire as to his relatives.
If he has moved out of town we To-
cate. as nearly as possible, the section
into which he moved. and then we ad-
vertise for him or his heirs. Sooner
or later we find some one who has a
claim to the money.
Zone day woman walked in and
presented an old bank book. saying
that her husband had died in Panama,
leaving her without means beyond his
deposit of $1,000. The total. with
interest. was $4,000 She got the
money.
"The other day bank book came to
us from Scotland with dormant ac-
count of about forty years standing.
We had worked on that case for sew
eral years before we found our de-
positor. lie was wealthy man in
Scotland. We find them In Scotland.
England. Ireland. Germany. France
and Italy"
Some Unclaimed Moneys.
Among some of the moneys unclaim-
ed is $4,000 belonging to the heirs OF
Stefano Bemonte and his wife. Lydia.
H.. -