The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1920-03-28
Banks.

In 1882, there was not a bank in
Columbus; and the hundreds Of set
tiers who came here to enter lands |
and to locate homes brought their
gold and silver in their saddle bags.
and travelled in little companies for
mutual protection. The population Of |
Columbus increased SO rapidly after
the establishment of the land office
for the sale of the Choctaw lands
that before 1884 or 1885 there were
1000 or $500 people in the place.
Richard Barry left his first hotel site
on Blair's corner, and built the Eagle
Hotel where the Gilmer Hotel now
stands. Other hotels soon went up.
The Blewett House, ON College and
Market Streets, kept successfully by
Mrs. Musgrove, Colonel Pope, and
j. H. Curtis; also the hotel that oc-
cupied Boards corner was erected by
James Jones in those flush times and
later was kept by Mordecai Howard.
Every house was a boarding house,
and still there was lack of accom-
modations here.
The financial condition of the coun-
try required the establishment of
banks, which were soon erected-the
first being the Planters Bank of
Natchez. This bank occupied sub
stantiaI building, known after its sus-
pension and wmd-up as the City Hall.
situated on the site of the present
City Hall. William B. Winston was
its cashier, and its business was so
successfully conducted that it did not
fail in the crash of 1887, but was
closed by the suspension Of the par
ent bank.
The next bank established was the
Commercial Bank. DR.. A. G. Wier
was president, and Captain Charles
H. Albert was cashier. They erected
brick building on st. Johns Street,
just in the rear of the present Ma
sonic. Temple. The Real Estate Bank,
Madison Walthall, president, built for
their use the house on the corner just
opposite the court house, later known
as Worrell's corner. The Tombigbee
II. r. and Banking Company occupied
building about the middle of West
Market between Main and Court
House Streets.
These banks were followed by a
great number of private banks, known
as shin-plaster banks, which re-
deemed THEN issue in paper currency
All these banks were swept away by
( the panic of 1897, so that early in the
, forties there, was not. a bank in Co
lumbus. During this time, oul
planters and merchants all did their
BANGING business with Mobile and
other foreign banks. Our farmers
sent their cotton crops to commission
merchants in Mobile, who, with the
proceeds thereof bought their supplies
and sent them by boat to them up the
Tombigbee River.
The Columbus merchants sold goods
on years credit, and were paid with
checks on the Mobile commission nier-
chants. The banks in Nashville
Tenn, Augusta, Ca, and Charleston
S. c., supplied great deal of the
money during these times.
The financial condition was so in
convenient, and involved so much
time, that the business men made il
a political issue, which divided both
the old Wing and the Democratic
party. In 1852, Ex-Governor James
Whitfield, as a Bank Democrat, anc
Colonel 7. c. Bi!lups, as a Bank
Wing, organized a party which de.
feated the regular Democratic nomi-
nees at the following election. The
Bank members of the legislature re-
pealed or modified the anti-banR
legislation SO that banks could be re.
established.
In 1852 the Columbus Insurance