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A Century of Banking in New York, 1822-1922

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A Century of Banking in New York, 1822-1922 h-^ The date snows wneinhis volume was taken. To renew thia book copy the call No. and give to the librarian. HOME USE RULES lifif3 Bso-^- All Books subject to recall All borrowers must regis- ter in the library tot bor- ' lilAJ 0/1 •*U4»-<i-4f^g5'(J row books for home use. All books must be re- turned at end of college year for inspection and ...llil...!.'.y.V.iJ.fJ!!.y.'.?Z... repairs. Limited books must be Returned within the four eek limit and not renewed. Students must return all books before leaving town. Officers should arrange for the return of books wanted during their absence from town. Volu»nes of periodicals and of pamphlets are held in the library as much as 522, 'KpQssible. For special pur- e of poses they are given out a limited time. uter orrowers should not use their library privileges for vnce the benefit of other persons. Books of special value hich -I and gift books, when the "rust . giver wishes it, are not al- lowed to circulate. Headers are asked to re- port all cases of books Dne ,. marked or mutilated. Do not deface books by marks and writing. the ;cept the accompanying copy of A CENTURY OF BANKING ~ in new york James H. Perkins President February 28, 1922 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032534020 ABANKINGCENTURY OF IN NEW YORK l8:j2-1Q22 By HENRY WYSHAM LANIER The Farmer/ Loan and Triut Company Edition THE GILLISS PRESS NEW YORK CITY 1922 1% 'V- r 6 Copyriglit, 1922, by Henry W. Lanier New York Dedicated to The Ferocioiu City which dei>ourt) and forgets itd own history i^Sfes CONTENTS PART I Chapter page I The Year the Banks Migrated 3 II The Old Order Begins to Change 25 III Individual Notes as Currency 41 IV The Banker of 1820 54 V Who Was Who in Finance 75 VI Expansion and Panic 185 VII The Coming of the Clearing House 207 VIII Civil War and the National Banking System . 219 IX A Alarvellous Quarter-Century 240 X The Era of the Trust Companies 251 XI The Federal Reserve and the New Era 258 XII Then and Now 271 PART II XIII An Intimate Record 275 XIV History of a Downtown Plot 319 1/5r OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE ^ New York Bank on Hammond Street ... Frontispiece Broadway and City Halt in 1819 . 3 " Removal Notices" from the Evening Post . 6 Where the Bowery Joined Broadway . 7 Attack upon the Quarantine Station . .7 Dutch Cottage in Beaver Street, 1679 . 22 When Men Sawed Wood on Walt Street . ... 23 Old Dutch Deed to New York Property .... ... 38 Federal Hall 39 Bowling Green {West Side), 1826 54 Specimens oj Notes 55 Early Banks in Wall Street, 1797 70 The Government House 71 Tontine Coffee House, Wall Street 86 Union Square in 1820 87 New York Notables at the Play, 1822 102 Wall Street in 1789 . 103 Wall Street in 1825 . .118 Bowling Green [East Side), 18JO 119 TJie First Merchants' Exchange 134 The Merchants' Room 134 IX X A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK PAGE Ruins of the Merchant/ Exchange ... 135 "Wealthy Citizens of New York City" . 150 First Art "lisement oj the Farmers' Loan Co. 187 Tht ire of 1835 . .... 198 The Ntxv Merchants' Exchange . 199 Wall Street in the Forties ... 214 JVall Street in the Fifties 215 The "Counterfeit Detector" . 225 First Published Price-list of Stocks . ... 230 Graph of Commoddy Prices . 245 Curbstone Brokers in 1864 . ... 246 Broad Street during the Panic of 1875 . ... 247 /llodern Wall Street . 294 Exchange Place in 1850 295 Broad Street in 1855 295 A Deed of 1719 310 Where William Street Meets Beaver 311 Plan of Wall Street in 1822 and 192.2 337 PART I "«IF - Chapter I THE YEAR THE BANKS MIGRATED The Great Plague of i822~The "Boom Town" of Greenwich— A Stranger's Impres/ioiw—When Pigs Roamed W^alL Street— Pumps on Broadway— Condi- tions that Faced the 1822 Banker—How Downtown Looked —The Banks a Century Ago — The Banks' Public in Old New York kNE day in the early summer of 1822 a smart packet-boat was standing up New York harbor. The sight of the clustering houses, filling the whole width of the lower island and stretching away northward, was welcome enough to the weary passengers, who had been cooped up on board for weeks. Among these was an EngHsh gentleman, William Newnham Blanc, who was of that breed of Islanders who love to travel far and near— " For to admire and for to see. For to be'old this world so wide." He was using his keen eyes and mind now to their fullest capac- ity as his vessel approached the lusty young giant-city of the West. "The entrance to the bay of New York," he presently noted in his journal, "is one of the most beautiful sights in the world. On each side of the Narrows, where the steep and almost perpendicu- lar cliffs of Staten Island are only two miles distant from the shore of Long Island, the forts and fortifications that defend this cele- brated harbor" (it was but seven years after the War of 1812!) "seem to frown upon the vessels that enter. We passed close to the formidable batteries of Fort La Fayette, which advances into the water with four tiers of guns, one of which tiers is occupied by a large kind of carronade, called Columbians" (he meant Colum- biads), "each throwing a hundred-pound shot. "After passing the Narrows, we entered the Bay which, ex- panding immediately, is about nine miles in width in the broadest part. On each side the shore, though wooded down to the 3 4 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK water's edge, is thickly studded with farms, villages and country- seats. At the upper end are seen the spires of the city; and in the distance the bold, precipitous banks of the Hudson. The day was beautiful, the sky without a cloud, and the vast sheet of water was covered with inward and outward bound vessels, the white sails of which were illuminated by the sunbeams. "We anchored just below the Battery, at the point of the island on which New York is built, and getting into a boat rowed to Greenwich, which, though once a separate town, now forms part of the city. * Looking up the streets that run down to the water, I perceived they were all barricaded at the upper ends, and strewed with lime. The houses, of course, were all shut up and deserted; and out of a population of 120,000t inhabitants not more than 7,000 or 8,000 remained in the city; and those only in the higher and more healthy parts." (In point of fact, there was nobody left but some negroes, nurses, doctors and under- takers, and the poor folk who could not manage to get away, from illness or lack of funds.) "I do not know a more sombre spectacle than a large deserted city. We are so accustomed to associate the idea of a town with that of an active and noisy multitude, that to see a number of houses quite deserted and hushed in perfect silence impresses the mind with the deepest melancholy. "Nothing endued with life was to be seen in any of the streets or neighboring quays, except here and there a cat; for these animals, in the hurry and confusion of moving from the town, had been left behind in considerable numbers, and formed at that time the only inhabitants of a great part of the city." And what was it that had caused over 125,000 out of the 135,000 citizens of the greatest American city to forsake their homes and business and flee, leaving New York to homeless cats? In May of that year, in spite of the rigid quarantine established at Staten Island the preceding summer, the community had been thrown into consternation by the news of an outbreak of yellow fever in Rector Street. This section of the city had been con- sidered immune: every previous epidemic had started in the lower quarter east of Broadway, and very few cases had been chronicled from the Rector Street neighborhood, even when the scourge was at its height. This happening produced a general panic. Manhattan knew only too well what yellow fever was: it had ravaged the city a * It was really quite outside of the city—which was the reason why the fugitives went there. t There were actually from 130,000 to 135,000 in that year. THE GREAT PLAGUE OF 1822 5 score of times. Every grown resident still recalled the frightful visitation of 1798, when 2,086 persons (a tenth of the population) had been slain by this invisible enemy,* who heeded the colum- biads of Fort La Fayette as little as the Columbiad of Joel Barlow or the vociferous admissions of newspapers, orators and "Stran- gers' Guides" that we had the healthiest, most progressive, most marvellous city of the civilized world. Now, it happened that there was at the city's very door a safe refuge. From the time of the "epidemical distemper or plague" reported by Mayor John Cruger in 1742, New Yorkers had discovered they could escape the infection by fleeing to the village of Greenwich, only two or three miles away.
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