First National Bank, Philmont, NY (Charter 7233)

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The old First National Bank of Philmont, New York, ca2020.
The old First National Bank of Philmont, New York, ca2020. Courtesy of Google Maps

First National Bank, Philmont, NY (Chartered 1904 - Liquidated 1934)

Town History

Philmont is a village in Columbia County, New York. The population was 1,379 at the 2010 census. The village is located in the northeastern part of the town of Claverack on New York State Route 217. It's approximately 35 miles south of Albany and 35 miles northeast of Kingston near the High Falls Conservation Area. High Falls, Columbia County's highest waterfall, cascades 150 feet before culminating in a large pool. The water flows southwest, then northwest by Claverack Creek, until eventually reaching the Hudson River.

The community was once known as "Factory Hill" due to the number of wool factories. The village was incorporated in 1891. It derives its name from George P. Philip, who built a 36-acre reservoir to provide water for his mill. This in turn led to construction of a 56-acre reservoir up the "mountain" in the Taconic Mountains to guarantee water to the mills, thus creating the factory hill.

Philmont had two National Banks chartered during the Bank Note Era, and both of those banks issued National Bank Notes.

Bank History

Josiah Wentworth Place (1869-1952) was a prominent banker and manufacturer. He was born in Williamsburg, New York and was a descendant of William Wentworth who came to Exeter, NH from England in 1637, and a great grandson of Josiah Winslow Wentworth who served in the Army during the Revolutionary War. Mr. Place built and organized several small manufacturing firms, including silk mills in Fleetwood, New Jersey, and Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and a tinplate rolling mill in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. In 1904 he helped found the U.S. Gauge Co., in Sellersville, and opened the First National Bank of Marysville, as president, also in Pennsylvania. That same year he opened the First National Bank of Philmont, New York as its first president. While he only served as president of the Marysville bank for a few years, he led the national bank in Philmont for 21 years. He was a member of the Bankers' Club of New York and was a long-time resident of Orange, New Jersey.

In the early morning hours of March 23, 1922, yeggmen blew open the vault in the Philmont National Bank and escaped with negotiable securities with an estimated value of $75,000, but overlooked a box containing $32,000 in cash. It was believed the robbers were scared away before they had finished the job. The janitor discovered the vault door blown off its hinges at 5 o'clock that morning.

On May 10, 1922, bonds valued at $40,000 found in the possession of Mack Kline and Harry Maniff, arrested by Boston Police, were determined to have been stolen from the Philmont National Bank on the night of March 22 this year. It was said the loot from that robbery amounted to more than $200,000. Kline and Maniff, both residents of Revere, were arrested in the office of a broker who reported they had requested a loan of $75,000 offering $100,000 of bonds as collateral. When taken into custody they had bonds valued at $40,000 and said they found them on the highway between Revere and Somerville in June of last year. Sheriff Carter of Columbia County, New York, said he doubted if Kline and Maniff committed the burglary, but thought they acted as the agents of the robbers in an attempt to market the securities. When the door of the bank vault was blown off, the burglars did not succeed in opening the inner vault where the banks' cash and securities were kept, but plundered the safe deposit boxes of individual customers and obtained more than $100,000 in negotiable securities.

In October 1923, the inquiry into activities of a nation-wide band of highwaymen and safe-robbers, formerly headed by Herbert Wilson who was serving a life sentence in San Quentin for the murder of Herbert Cox was still before the Federal grand jury. One of the important witnesses in the Wilson case was J. Warren Tibbett, vice president of the Union Trust Company of Boston. Tibbett, soon after a mail robbery in November 1922 was approached by a Boston lawyer, Harry Maniff, who had $40,000 worth of industrial bonds to dispose of. Tibbett agreed to pay $30,000 for the lot and gave Maniff a check for $13,500. The money was not called for and in the mean time Maniff was sent to prison on Deer Island, Massachusetts for two years on state charges. The bonds, it was believed, were from some of the plunder obtained by Wilson and his gang in Los Angeles. Federal authorities believed indictments would be returned and that suspects were scattered from San Francisco to Boston. Indictments would be secret and bench warrants issued immediately for the apprehension of the indicted men.

On January 30, 1924, Harry Maniff of Revere, Mass., surrendered at the federal building in Boston on charges of conspiracy to rob in connection with the million dollar mail truck robbery in Los Angeles in March 1921. Bert R. Chapman of Boston was arrested on similar charges. In July, charges against Charles Solomon, Harry Maniff, Bert R. Chapman and Benjamin Greenberg were dismissed by United States Commissioner Jenny at Boston. The commissioner held that there was no probable cause to believe the four were part of the Los Angeles mail robbery, but were charged with disposing of part of the bonds stolen in the robbery.

Official Bank Title(s)

1: The First National Bank of Philmont, NY

Bank Note Types Issued

1902 Plain Back $10 bank note with printed signature of Harold L. DeWald, Cashier and pen signature of John W. Vedder, Vice President
1902 Plain Back $10 bank note with printed signature of Harold L. DeWald, Cashier and pen signature of John W. Vedder, Vice President Courtesy of Heritage Auctions, www.ha.com
1929 Type 1 $10 bank note with printed signatures of Harold L. DeWald, Cashier and Edward L. Harder, President.
1929 Type 1 $10 bank note with printed signatures of Harold L. DeWald, Cashier and Edward L. Harder, President. Courtesy of Lyn Knight Auctions, www.lynknight.com

A total of $392,450 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1904 and 1934. This consisted of a total of 31,554 notes (27,232 large size and 4,322 small size notes).

This bank issued the following Types and Denominations of bank notes:

Series/Type Sheet/Denoms Serial#s Sheet Comments
1902 Red Seal 3x10-20 1 - 732
1902 Date Back 3x10-20 1 - 2420
1902 Plain Back 3x10-20 2421 - 6076
1929 Type 1 6x10 1 - 524
1929 Type 1 6x20 1 - 138
1929 Type 2 10 1 - 295
1929 Type 2 20 1 - 55

Bank Presidents and Cashiers

Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1904 - 1934):

Presidents:

Cashiers:

Other Bank Note Signers

  • Edward L. Harder signed notes as Vice President Vice President (1921...1929).
  • John W. Vedder, Vice President (1921...1926). Signature
  • There are currently no known Assistant Cashier bank note signers for this bank.

Wiki Links

Sources

  • Philmont, NY, 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
  • The Kingston Daily Freeman, Kingston, NY, Thu., Mar. 23, 1922.
  • The Ithaca Journal, Ithaca, NY, Fri., May 12, 1922.
  • The Los Angeles Times, Los Angles, CA, Fri., Oct. 12, 1923.
  • The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, CA, Wed., Jan. 30, 1924.
  • The Los Angeles Times, Los Angles, CA, Wed., July 2, 1924.
  • The Daily Item, Sunbury, PA, Thu., Feb. 17, 1938.
  • Asbury Park Press, Asbury Park, NJ, Sun., Feb. 27, 1938.
  • Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, Poughkeepsie, NY, Tue., May 17, 1938.
  • The Ithaca Journal, Ithaca, NY, Wed., May 18, 1938.
  • The Birmingham News, Birmingham, AL, Sat., Dec. 17, 1938.
  • Middletown Times Herald, Middletown, NY, Mon, Jan. 23, 1939.
  • The Kingston Daily Freeman, Kingston, NY, Sat., Feb. 4, 1939.
  • Daily News, New York, NY, Fri., Feb. 10, 1939.
  • The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, NY, Fri., Apr. 18, 1952.
  • The Ithaca Journal, Ithaca, NY, Tue., Feb. 15, 1955.
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