The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1912-01-17

1 New York Jan. lT-More than ST.
600. 600 is held in the savings banks
of New York in what banking people
call dormant accounts ts"-that is. ac-
counts 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been withdrawn for many years But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 and demand it,
In fact, since the beginning OF the
five accounts in the Emigrants' Saw
ings bank alone, which had been un-
touched from twenty-five to thirty
years. suddenly became active,
through the owners, who had not
been seen nor heard from in that loEg
period, appearing al the bank
Money at 4 per cent compound m
Iterest doubles itself in about eighteen
Years, and as per cent is the aver
Iage. ii will be seen that the "un-
claimed money" or dormant accounts,
unless checked, would pile up enor-
mously in the course of time and be-
come such burden that the banks
might collapse under it, Accordingly
the legislature limited the period dur
ing which interest must be paid on
dormant accounts, At first the limit
was fixed at twenty years, but later
was extended to twenty-five years.
Origin of the Accounts
Most of these sleeping accounts
were originally sums Of only $5 or
$40. fag ends of accounts which once
were active. The owners perhaps
had left these small balances simply
ITO keep their accounts open and fin
ally perhaps forgot all about them.
But many of the accounts repre-
sent money deposited by some emil
grant who later probably went west
or to some other section of the new
country. and. unable to write. had
never again got in communication
with the bank
Several of the deposits We're made
ov men for the benefit of some child
cr other person. while Il number cf
others represent the savings of sea-
faring men who hal sailed away and
for some reason never returned.
Year after year efforts have been
made in Albany d canse The passage
Of some j. sasure ofovid - that after
a certain. lapse o. tisEe lie funds
should revert to the state. The pro-
moters of such legislation, the bank
ers assert, want to see the money SO
disposed that they could trump up
claims TO IT,
Banks do not want dormant ac-
counts. Most OF them employ clerks
or agents TO hunt up the owners Or
heirs Often the searcher has been
curt.y told by him that he knew all
about the account and he didn't thank
the bank for troubling about it,
Ia pf q
searchers look up the depositor in !
house where he resided at that time |
Ii he is dead we inquire as to his |
relatives. If he has moved out OF
town we locate as nearly as possible |
the section into which he moved and |
then we advertise fol him or his |
heirs. Sooner or later we find some |
one who has claim to the money,
"One day woman walked in and |
presented an Old bank book saying |
that her husband had died in Pana- |
ma. leaving her without meana e.
tond his deposit of $4,000. The total |
With interest was $4,000. She got the !
money.
~The other day bank book came
o MS from Scotland with a dormant /
account of about forty years stand
ne. We had worked ON that case
or several years before we found
,ur depositor He was a wealthy I
nan in scotland We find them in
Scotland. England Ireland Germany,
rance and Italy.
Among some Of the moneys UNI
Gained is $4,000 belonging to the
leirs OF Stefano Belmonte and his
wife Lydia Ii is known that Ste
ano Belmonte was married in Maine
,rior TO 1897. and that a daughter.
Iarie. was born there August Is, l9oI.
record has been found of this
laughters baptism in the Catholic
hurch in 1855, at which time her
parents 1t is believed We're dead 7
HE money has been unclaimed for
bout twenty years Some of the
eirs. it is thought, are living in
faine. but they have not been found
5 yet
For the eirs OF Henri Moss. or
ar Mr.. Moss himself, ii he is all{e.
nere are sixteen shares Of stock 0i
ne Of the richest banking institu-
ions in this city. on which IL divi-
ends amounting to $2,S9iW have
ccumulated
IN one bank Scme years ago
rura woman deposited sums aggrs-
,ating $500 After her death the
ank hunted ~ her mother and o.
cred to pay over the money to her,
ut. though she was poor, she refus-
d To touch it because her daughter
nd run away from her home and
anne wayward
s.l