First National Bank, Ambler, PA (Charter 3220)
First National Bank, Ambler, PA (Chartered 1884 - Receivership 1934)
Town History
Ambler is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is located approximately 16 miles north of the city center of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1900 it had a population of 1,884 and in 2020 it had grown to 6,807.
William and George Harmer are listed among the Quakers who emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1682. In 1716, William and George Harmer purchased a 408-acre tract from William Penn, an area including most of what now is Ambler Borough. William Harmer built a grist mill powered by the Wissahickon Creek, the first commercial venture in the Ambler area. He also built a stone dwelling with casement windows and diamond shaped leaded glass, near what is now the intersection of Butler Pike and Morris Road. After his death in 1731, the house, mill, and property were sold to Morris Morris and his wife Susanna Heath Morris.
In 1829, Mary Johnson of Bucks County married a weaver named Andrew Ambler. The couple purchased the Fulling Mill and land in Wissahickon. When Andrew died in 1850, Mary took over the mill operations. In 1855, Wissahickon Station became a stop on the North Pennsylvania Railroad line. On July 17, 1856, the town was the site of a disastrous train accident: The Great Train Wreck of 1856. The northbound Shackamaxon, a picnic excursion train, and the southbound Aramingo collided head on, killing 59 people instantly, with another 86 injured. Mary Johnson Ambler, a local Quaker woman, walked two miles to the crash site, bringing medical supplies and directing rescue efforts. She turned her house at Tennis Avenue and Main Street into an impromptu hospital for nursing the survivors. Thirteen years later, in 1869, the railway company renamed the station Ambler in her honor. The post office followed suit, and when the borough was formally incorporated on June 16, 1888, it too took the name of Ambler, in honor of Mary Johnson Ambler.
In 1881, the Keasbey and Mattison Company, whose business included the manufacture of asbestos, moved to Ambler from Philadelphia. Ambler's location along the railroad line was a primary consideration in the location of the company in Ambler, as it meant that raw asbestos could be easily brought in from Quebec and finished products sent out to markets. Another consideration was the availability of magnesium carbonate from local dolomite mines. In Ambler, where more than 1.5 million cubic yards of asbestos waste were discarded in a 25-acre area known as the "White Mountains", contamination remains an issue. From 1973 to 1993 the United States EPA oversaw remediation of the "Ambler Asbestos Piles." It was proposed to the National Priorities List as a Superfund site on October 10, 1984, and formally added to the list as of June 10, 1986. Various remedies were completed as of August 30, 1993 and the site was consequently deleted from the National Priorities List on December 27, 1996.
Ambler had two National Banks chartered during the Bank Note Era, and one of those banks issued National Bank Notes.
Bank History
- Organized May 12, 1884
- Chartered July 11, 1884
- Conservatorship March 16, 1933
- Receivership March 26, 1934
Three Companions Caught and Money Found in Apartment CASHIER KIDNAPPED Samuel R. Horst Forced to Open Bank at Ambler: On February 16, 1933, the leader of a gang of bank bandits was killed by Philadelphia police machine-gun bullets and his three companions were arrested shortly after the First National Bank of Ambler, north of the city, was robbed of $30,000. Lying in wait for Samuel Horst, 45, cashier of the bank and his wife to return to their Ambler home from a party, the bandits kidnapped him, took him to the bank and forced him to admit them to the institution. There they waited for the time lock to open the vaults which they looted. The money, Philadelphia detectives said, was recovered less than an hour later in a Philadelphia apartment, where William Ferguson, 35, was shot and killed in a gun fight with state police and detectives. Three other men, whom police charged with aiding Ferguson in the Ambler robbery, were arrested. They gave their names as Barney Wacht, 31; Samuel Mitchell, 38, and James Magee, 35. With two women also found in the apartment, they were taken to City Hall Police Station for questioning. Detective Captain James Malone said the men were involved in the robbing of the Gloucester City branch of the Camden Safe Deposit Co., the Farmers' National Bank of Mullica Hill, New Jersey, a National Bank in Florence, New Jersey, and the attempt to loot the 7th Street and Oregon Avenue branch of the Sixth National Bank of Philadelphia. Ferguson and Magee, according to Malone, recently were freed in Baltimore after serving eight years there for a bank holdup and had been arrested here in 1919 by Malone and Detective Captain John Creedon in connection with the holdup of the now closed Overbrook National Bank. Trapped in their apartment the bandits barricaded themselves in a bathroom. When police started pumping machine gun bullets through the door, Ferguson was killed. The others surrendered, police said. The money was found in several satchels which had been used to carry it from the Amber First National Bank.[1]
Samuel Mitchell, 42, member of the bandit gang that looted the First National Bank of Ambler of $33,000 was convicted on 11 bills of indictment on April 4, 1933. Two bills of aggravated assault and battery and a second of the same charge resulted in verdicts of not guilty. Mitchell and his two companions, Barney Wacht and James Magee, were facing as high as 125 years. Wacht and Magee pleaded guilty, and sentencing was scheduled for Friday April 7, 1933.[2] At sentencing, Mitchell received a term of 20 to 40 years. Lesser sentences were handed down to the two that pleaded guilty. James Magee, 34, and Barney Wacht, 30, were given sentences of 17 to 34 years and 15 to 30 years, respectively.[3]
Official Bank Title
1: The First National Bank of Ambler, PA
Bank Note Types Issued
A total of $2,586,720 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1884 and 1934. This consisted of a total of 294,127 notes (232,788 large size and 61,339 small size notes).
This bank issued the following Types and Denominations of bank notes:
Series/Type Sheet/Denoms Serial#s Sheet Comments 1882 Brown Back 3x10-20 1 - 4110 1902 Red Seal 4x5 1 - 3166 1902 Red Seal 4x10 1 - 1667 1902 Red Seal 50-100 1 - 1080 1902 Date Back 4x5 1 - 9750 1902 Date Back 4x10 1 - 8350 1902 Date Back 3x50-100 1 - 200 1902 Plain Back 4x5 9751 - 15450 1902 Plain Back 4x10 8351 - 33064 1929 Type 1 6x5 1 - 6214 1929 Type 1 6x10 1 - 3104 1929 Type 2 5 1 - 3862 1929 Type 2 10 1 - 1569
Bank Presidents and Cashiers
Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1884 - 1934):
Presidents:
- Benjamin P. Wertsner, 1884-1894
- Joseph Haywood, 1895-1903
- Richard Vanselous Mattison, MD, 1904-1910
- Joseph Watson Craft, 1911-1917
- Joseph M. Haywood, 1918-1932
Cashiers:
- John Janney Houghton, 1884-1903
- William A. Davis, 1904-1917
- William H. Faust, 1918-1923
- Samuel Rife Horst, 1924-1932
Other Bank Note Signers
- 'David J. Ambler, Vice President 1901...1909
- There are currently no known Assistant Cashier bank note signers for this bank.
Wiki Links
- Ambler, PA, on Wikipedia
- Pennsylvania Bank Note History
Sources
- 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