History of Henry County, Missouri (1919)

GenealogyBuff.com - History of Henry County, Missouri (1919) - Chapter XXII - FINANCIAL DISASTER AND DEPRESSION - CLINTON NATIONAL BANK ORGANIZED - THE SALMON & SALMON FAILURE - THE LOCAL OPTION ELECTION - RESIGNATION OF WINDSOR OFFICIALS - MURDER OF CAPT. ALLISON - MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP IN CLINTON

Posted By: GenealogyBuff.com
Date: Thursday, 23 March 2023, at 11:57 p.m.

CHAPTER XXII

Clinton National Bank was organized and chartered by the Government and an election held by the stockholders on Saturday the thirtieth of April, 1905, and the following directors were chosen: Dr. W. H. Gibbons, C. H. Avery, E. C. Kent, W. L. Gurner, all of Clinton; W. C. Henrici and Thomas B. Lee, of Kansas City; C. W. Snider of Whiting, Kansas, and W. E. Docking of Clay Center, Kansas. The directors elected as the first officers of the bank, president, W. E. Docking; vice-president, Dr. W. H. Gibbins; cashier, C. W. Snider; bookkeeper, Harry R. Gilbert.

On June 21, 1905, the Salmon & Salmon Bank in Clinton failed to open its doors for business, although the bank had been widely considered as stable as it was possible for a bank to be, yet it had been involved in financial difficulties for some time. In a large measure the embarrassment being due to its endorsement of the paper of the Tebo Cattle Company. The failure was precipitated when a draft for $15,000 went to protest in St. Louis. The protest of this draft was not known in Clinton until after banking hours. The secretary of State, John E. Swanger, and R. M. Cook, State bank examiner, posted a notice on the door of the bank early on Wednesday morning, stating that the bank was in the hands of the secretary of State. Before this was done the news of the failure had spread through the town. Excited people gathered on the streets and the two telephone exchanges were overworked spreading the news throughout the county.

The bank of Salmon & Salmon was intimately related to most of the business interests of Clinton and this whole section of the country. It was the city and county depository, the city having $2,100 on deposit at the time of its failure and the county $63,000, besides the current collections of city and county collectors. The secretary of State took temporary charge of the affairs of the bank and an exhaustive examination was immediately made of its condition. Both Dr. G. Y. Salmon and Major H. W. Salmon immediately made over all their personal estates to the bank for the benefit of depositors. The bank was the oldest financial institution in Clinton, having been organized under the name of Salmon & Stone on December 1, 1866. It was since a partnership bank and when D. C. Stone retired in 1873, he left the Salmon brothers as sole owners. The last published statement of the bank prior to its failure was of date May 29, 1905, and was as follows:

  

Resources, loans and discounts,  

personal or collateral		$614,638.31  

Loans, real estate			$35,885.35  

Overdrafts			$9,042.77  

Bonds and stocks			$000.00  

Real estate, banking house		$17,500.00  

Other real estate			$7,500.00  

Furniture and fixtures		$2,000.00  

Due from other banks and  

bankers				$0,000.00  

Subject to check			$52,099.27  

Cash items			$8,373.15  

Currency $15,855.00  

Specie $3,290.46  

Other resources as follows		$31,198.43  

==========================		==========  

Total				$797,382.74  

  

Liabilities, capital stock paid in		$50,000.00  

Surplus fund				$6,000.00  

Undivided profits, net			$7,660.38  

Due to banks and bankers subject to check	$6,123.29  

Individual deposits, subject to check		$366,627.44  

Time certificates of deposit			$358,408.85  

Demand certificates of deposit		$2,567.78  

Cashier's checks				$000.00  

Bills payable and rediscounts			$000.00  

Other liabilities as follows			$000.00  

=============================			=======  

Total					$797,382.74  

One always to be feared effect of a closing of a bank is a run on other institutions in the same community. This was happily missing at the time of the closing of the Salmon & Salmon Bank. The officers of the Citizens Bank were notified on the evening before of the trouble in the Salmon bank and took immediate steps to fortify themselves. Ample funds were rushed from Kansas City, St. Louis and Sedalia to carry the Citizens Bank through any emergency. The good sense of the community would not be stampeded by a causeless scare as to the stability of other institutions. As a result, there were few withdrawals of funds, and absolute and justifiable confidence was felt in the Citizens Bank. The liquidation growing out of the suspension of this bank covered a period of years. It developed that there was a great deal of forged paper and that the bank's condition was very much worse than it had been thought at the time of its failure. The failure was a most deplorable affair and worked untold hardships on the people of the city and whole county.

A local option election was held in Clinton and Henry Counties on Saturday the fourth of November, 1905, and resulted in the county going dry by a vote of 1,876 dry to 1,096 wet. As an effect of this the saloons then operating in Windsor, Montrose and Deepwater were compelled to close. The election in Clinton, which voted separately from the county, was carried by the wets by 199. The vote cast in the city was over 1,000, being larger than was expected. If the day had been a pleasant one it would probably have reached 1,200. The vote in Clinton on this question by wards was as follows:

  

Ward			Wet			Dry  

====			===			===  

First			179			125  

Second			96			54  

Third			196			83  

Fourth			129			139  

======			===			===  

Totals			600			401  

As an echo of the local option election at this time, the city of Windsor had an unusual experience of having Mayor Davis and four of the six councilmen resign. The action was the culmination of the local option fight in the county. The mayor and councilmen of Windsor favoring saloons of a source of revenue to pay for street lights and other expenses of the municipality. At the first meeting of the city council after the county went dry and thereby put the ad on Windsor, the mayor had a financial statement printed, showing where the city money was spent. By such statement, the city owed accounts amounting to $747.58 with only $100 in the treasury. Following the reading of the financial statement, the following proceedings transpired, according to the Windsor Review: "At this point all business being transacted, it was thought that a motion to adjourn would be the next order. Not so, however, and considerable consternation and surprise were expressed when Clerk Fields rose and read the resignation of H. F. Davis as mayor of Windsor, effective January 1, 1906. A motion to accept the resignation of Mayor Davis was accepted without debate. Then in succession came the resignation of H. B. McClaverty, of the Third ward; John Bowen, of the Third ward, and C. E. Griffith, of the First ward. Each accepted in order without question and without debate. J. W. McIntire, of the Second ward, also resigned.

Aldermen Kabrich and Bridges refused to resign. Alderman Bowen said there was nothing secret about his reason for resigning, that he, for one, did not care to longer try to run the tovm without money. Mayor Davis then made a brief statement to the members of the council that he had never asked for the office, that he only took it at the urgent solicitation of the people; that he consented only when assured of being given sufficient funds to administer the city affairs as they should be; that he had given practically his entire time in his efforts to build up the town; that he had paid for car loads of rock out of his own pocket in order to have the necessary work done before bad weather; that the council had done the very best it could; that he could see no way of Windsor maintaining her position as a live, up-to-date city with practically half her revenue cut off; that he did not care to longer assume his part of the responsibility; that in making his resignation effective January 1, he did so in order to give the people plenty of time to study the matter well and to select the best man possible to fill the office."

In a desperate attempt to escape from the State penitentiary on Friday, the twenty-fourth day of November, 1905, Capt. Ephriam Allison, long a prominent citizen of Clinton, laid down his life in performance of his duty. Four desperate convicts attempted to escape, engaging in a terrific battle with weapons and nitroglycerine at the prison gates, followed by a running fight through the streets of Jefferson City, with the final capture of all four of the convicts, two of whom were shot and wounded. There was not the slightest premonition of any trouble within the prison walls. Suddenly Convicts Harry Vaughn, Charles Raymond, Hiram Blake, George Ryan and Eli Zeigler, who were working in close proximity to the prison gate inside the enclosure, as if by a given signal, made a rush for the gate. From their pockets they drew pistols and it is presumed that at least one of them carried a bottle of nitroglycerine. Where the weapons and the explosives were obtained was unknown. Rushing past the gates they entered Deputy Warden See's office and shot him as he sat in his chair. He sank back and was unable to resist them. Instantly they returned to the gate and met Gateman John Clay, who had been alarmed by the shots. Before he could raise his weapon he was shot dead. Captain Allison, who was in charge of the commissary department, as the outbreak occurred at the gate, ran out to the assistance of the guard. Crane. As he stepped out of the door Captain Allison received a bullet in his breast and fell unconscious. He passed away without regaining consciousness.

Captain Allison was born in Saline County in 1835 and with his father moved to Henry County in 1852. At the beginning of the war, he enlisted in Captain Owen's company of the Missouri State Guards. This company, however, soon disbanded and he re-enlisted in Company I, 16th Missouri Confederate Infantry. The close of the war found him in Madison County, Texas, where he remained until 1867, when he came to Clinton and engaged in merchandising, first in grocery and later in dry goods. He was very successful and built up the largest store in Clinton, making a fortune. He, however, made large real estate investments in Kansas City and suffered financial reverses when the inflated values of that place collapsed. He was prominent locally in Democratic politics, had served as county treasurer, as member of the County Court and later as presiding judge thereof. In his later life he was employed in the penitentiary in various posts of responsibility and importance. Nearly two years later Convicts Raymond, Vaughn and Ryan, who had killed Captain Allison, were hanged in the jail yard and suffered the penalty for their crime.

The city council in January, 1906, held a special session at which time the first step toward municipal ownership of the public utilities was taken by rejecting a franchise proposition presented by the water company and ordering the city clerk to prepare a resolution to submit to the vote of the people a bond issue to build a municipal light plant. All of the members of the council were present except Councilman Cheatham.

At a subsequent meeting of the council, a week or so later. Attorney Owen for the city brought in a resolution calling for a special election to vote $30,000 bonds to build a municipal electric light plant. At that time Mayor Barnhart advocated a municipal water system and declared that to be more important than a light plant.

The council was divided as to whether or not it was advisable to submit both propositions at the same time, but they did not oppose the mayor's wishes and a resolution to submit both propositions to a vote of the people was passed unanimously. Both resolutions provided for a special election to be held on Thursday, February 15, 1906. The first vote to be submitted was on the proposition to issue $30,000 at four percent, bonds to build or acquire a municipal light plant. The second proposition to be voted on at the same time was to issue $70,000 in bonds to build or acquire a waterworks system. At the time members of the light and water committee of the council stated that a Kansas City engineering first had estimated that $70,000 would build a water system, obtain the water either from the surface pond or from deep wells, filtering and softening it before it passed into the pipes. Pursuant to the calls the special election was held and the result was overwhelmingly in favor of the bonds. There was no preliminary work done to get out the vote and no active workers. In spite of that fact more than 800 votes were cast, which showed the interest that the proposition aroused in the minds of the people and clearly demonstrated where they stood on the matter. The result of the vote was as follows:

  

For $30,000 light bonds:  

  

Wards			For			Against  

=====			===			=======  

First			264			10  

Second			123			9  

Third			198			3  

Fourth			213			12  

=====			===			==  

Total			798			34  

  

For $70,000 water bonds:  

  

First			261			13  

Second			125			11  

Third			198			3  

Fourth			216			12  

=====			===			==  

Total			804			39  

Following the vote on municipal ownership, which resulted so overwhelmingly in favor of the city overseeing the public utilities, came the April city election. The election resulted in the selection of Shackleford for mayor on the municipal ownership ticket by a majority of 435 over Sol Blatt. The whole municipal ownership ticket was overwhelmingly elected, the majorities averaging above 300 except in the case of city attorney, where J. F. Delaney beat Fred B. Owen, Democrat, by only 110. The municipal ownership aldermen were all elected and the entire administration was committed to that proposition.

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