City National Bank, Shawneetown, IL (Charter 9435)
City National Bank, Shawneetown, IL (Chartered 1909 - Receivership 1930)
Town History
Shawneetown is a city in Gallatin County, Illinois. The population was 1,054 at the 2020 census, down from 1,410 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Gallatin County. Shawneetown is located southeast of the center of Gallatin County. Illinois Route 13 passes through the city, leading southeast 3 miles to the Ohio River and the Kentucky border at Old Shawneetown, and west 20 miles to Harrisburg. It is located at the northeast edge of Shawnee National Forest.
Located along the Ohio River, Old Shawneetown served as an important United States government administrative center for the Northwest Territory. The village was devastated by the Ohio River flood of 1937. The village's population was moved several miles inland to New Shawneetown. At least one record suggests that a village was established here by the Pekowi Shawnee led by Peter Chartier about 1758.
Old Shawneetown is the site of the first bank chartered in Illinois, in 1816. Originally in a log cabin, it was replaced in 1822 with a brick structure (only the second one in the town) now known as the John Marshall House. Local legend states that the Shawneetown Bank refused to buy the first bonds issued by the city of Chicago on the grounds that no city located that far from a navigable river could survive.
Another historic bank building, the Bank of Illinois, was constructed in 1839-41 to house the offices of the Bank of Illinois at Shawneetown. It later housed numerous other financial institutions before it was closed in the 1930s. This fine example of Greek Revival architecture survives as the Shawneetown Bank State Historic Site. The building housed numerous financial institutions through the 1930s including the First National Bank of Shawneetown.
Shawneetown had five National Banks chartered during the Bank Note Era, and four of those banks issued National Bank Notes.
Bank History
- Organized May 24, 1909
- Chartered June 7, 1909
- Opened for business June 8, 1909
- Receivership May 26, 1930
On Monday, May 31, 1909, stockholders of the Citizens National Bank elected the following directors: L.H. Adams, Geo. A. Lowe, Wm. Brinkley, Arthur M. Maloney, and Marsh Wiseheart.
On June 7, 1909, a certificate was issued authorizing the City National Bank of Shawneetown, Illinois, capital $25,000, to begin business. The officers were L.H. Adams, president; William H. Brinkley, vice president; John McKelligott, cashier; Marsh Wiseheart, assistant cashier.
On March 25, 1930, it was announced that the National Bank of Shawneetown had purchased the assets and liabilities of the City National Bank, making it the only bank in Shawneetown. Deposits of $200,000 were taken over in the transaction. No change in personnel of the surviving bank would be made. W.H. Brinkley said the purchase was outright and was not due to insolvency. The City National Bank was the successor to the old First National Bank of Shawneetown, said to have been the oldest bank in Illinois until its business was sold in 1909.
On June 7, 1930, Mrs. Bess Ollinger, former cashier of the City National Bank of Shawneetown was arrested at her home on a federal warrant charging embezzlement of $35,000 of the banks funds. The warrant was issued at East St. Louis by United States District Attorney Harold Banker who was investigating Mrs. Ollinger's accounts since the discovery of the shortage when preparations for the consolidation of the bank with another bank were under way. The shortage was discovered after Mrs. Ohlinger was relieved as cashier under the consolidation. Mrs. Ollinger was taken to Harrisburg where she was released on $10,000 bond. She was the daughter of John McKelligott, formerly prominent in state democratic politics. Mr. W.M. Brinkley, president of the bank, said her shortage would reach $51,600. Disclosure of the shortage caused the directors to sell its assets to the National Bank of Shawneetown in order to avoid being closed.
On January 19, 1931, Mrs. Bess Ollinger pleaded guilty in federal court at East St. Louis to a charge of embezzling $30,000.
"For fifteen years I was cashier of the City National Bank at Shawneetown, Illinois," she told United States District Judge Wham. "My father, John McKelligott, was president until his death in 1928, and my brother Hugh McKelligott, was my assistant. Father was ill for several years before his death and did not take an active part in the bank's affairs. He owed the bank money and his hardware business was collapsing, and thinking to save him from ruin, I began taking money from the bank. He knew nothing whatever of what I was doing and neither did my brother even though he has pleaded guilty. No one by myself is responsible and I am willing to shoulder the blame. A better man never lived than John McKelligott." When asked how she had concealed the embezzlement for so long, she said when customers made a deposit, she would credit them in their passbook, but not on the bank records. The money she would take for her own use. In addition, she would make out checks to herself and the hardware store, paying debts and tearing them up when they came back to the bank. Judge Wham sentenced Mrs. Ollinger to four years in the federal institution for women at Alderson, West Virginia. Hugh McKelligott pleaded guilty to the same charge, but sentencing was deferred until February to allow him to straighten business affairs.
Official Bank Title(s)
1: The City National Bank of Shawneetown, IL
Bank Note Types Issued
A total of $225,920 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1909 and 1930. This consisted of a total of 29,176 notes (26,356 large size and 2,820 small size notes).
This bank issued the following Types and Denominations of bank notes:
Series/Type Sheet/Denoms Serial#s Sheet Comments 1902 Date Back 4x5 1 - 950 1902 DB/PB 4x5 951 - 1050 Type uncertain 1902 Plain Back 4x5 1051 - 4100 1902 Date Back 3x10-20 1 - 720 1902 DB/PB 3x10-20 721 - 800 Type uncertain 1902 Plain Back 3x10-20 801 - 2489 1929 Type 1 6x5 1 - 321 1929 Type 1 6x10 1 - 134 1929 Type 1 6x20 1 - 15
Bank Presidents and Cashiers
Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1909 - 1930):
Presidents:
- Lysander Harris Adams, 1909-1909
- William H. Brinkley, 1910-1910
- John McKelligott, 1911-1927
- William H. Brinkley, 1928-1930
Cashiers:
Other Known Bank Note Signers
Bank Note History Links
Sources
- Shawneetown, IL, on Wikipedia
- Don C. Kelly, National Bank Notes, A Guide with Prices. 6th Edition (Oxford, OH: The Paper Money Institute, 2008).
- Dean Oakes and John Hickman, Standard Catalog of National Bank Notes. 2nd Edition (Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 1990).
- Banks & Bankers Historical Database (1782-1935), https://spmc.org/bank-note-history-project
- Huston, Francis Murray, and Russel, Andrew, Financing an Empire: History of Banking in Illinois, Vol. 1, S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., Chicago, 1926, pp 47-57.
- Crittenden Record-Press, Marion, KY, Thu., June 3, 1909.
- The Wall Street Journal, New York, NY, Wed., June 9, 1909.
- Evansville Courier and Press, Evansville, IL, Wed., Mar 26, 1930.
- The Sedalia Democrat, Sedalia, MO, Sun., June 8, 1930.
- The Evansville Journal, Evansville, IN, Sun., June 8, 1930.
- Belleville Daily Advocate, Belleville, IL, Mon., June 9, 1930.
- The St. Louis Star and Times, St. Louis, MO, Tue., Jan. 20, 1931.