Glen's Falls National Bank, Glen's Falls, NY (Charter 1293)
Glen's Falls National Bank, Glen's Falls, NY (Chartered 1865 - Liquidated 1905)
Town History
Glens Falls is a city in the southeastern corner of Warren County, surrounded by the town of Queensbury to the north, east, and west, and by the Hudson River and Saratoga County to the south.
As a halfway point between Fort Edward and Fort William Henry, the falls was the site of several battles during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. The then-hamlet was mostly destroyed by fire twice during the latter conflict, forcing the Quakers to abandon the settlement until the war ended in 1783. Fire also ravaged the village in 1864, 1884, and 1902.
A post office was established in 1808. Glens Falls became an incorporated village in 1839, and was re-incorporated in 1874 and 1887, expanding the village to what would become the city limits when the state legislature granted the city charter in 1908, at which time the city became independent from the town of Queensbury.
Finch Paper LLC, headquartered at the base of Glen Street hill, is a major regional employer and a manufacturer of specialty paper and forest products. It is by far the largest taxpayer in the City of Glens Falls, owning property assessed at $60-million in 2006, according to city records. In mid-June 2007, Finch, Pruyn & Company announced it had sold all of its assets, including 161,000 acres of forestland in the Adirondacks, to Atlas Holdings of Greenwich, Conn. The Company name was then changed to Finch Paper LLC. Atlas then sold all of the forestland to The Nature Conservancy.
Glens Falls had four National Banks chartered during the Bank Note Era, and all four of those banks issued National Bank Notes. The Glen's Falls National Bank was the only one of the four to use the possessive form "Glen's". South Glens Falls in Saratoga County also had one national bank.
Bank History
- Organized May 25, 1865
- Chartered June 16, 1865
- Liquidated May 27, 1905
- Succeeded by 7699 (National Bank/Glens Falls NB & TC, Glens Falls, NY)
On August 1, 1851, the first steps were taken to organize a bank in Glens Falls, and the Glens Falls Bank formally opened its doors for business on the site occupied by Denne's women's furnishing store (later occupied by Floyd's Jewelry) on Ridge Street. In 1859, the bank purchased the Pike and Vermillin properties on Glen Street and about November 1860, occupied its new building on that site. This building was burned along with most of the town on May 31st, 1864. A brownstone banking house was erected on the site after the fire. Colonel Benjamin P. Burhans of Warrensburgh was the first president and E.J. Blake was the first cashier. He resigned in 1863 and was succeeded by John Alden. The Glen's Falls National Bank received its national charter, No. 1293, on June 16, 1865.
The loss from the 1864 Glen's Falls fire was estimated at from $600,000 to $800,000, insured for about $250,000. The Lillie safe in the Glen's Falls Bank was opened and the million dollars it contained were found perfectly preserved. Valuables were removed from the safe belonging to the Commercial Bank upon the breaking out of the fire. The total number of buildings destroyed was estimated at 125.
On January 7, 1870, the Glen's Falls National Bank was entered by burglars and at an early hour, the safe was blown open and $20,000 stolen. Wm. A. Wait, Cashier of the Glen's Falls National Bank, published a letter describing how burglars manage to blow open safes. He stated the banking hours was entered about midnight by forcing open the rear door with a "jimmie." The burglars covered all the windows closely with thick army blankets for the double purpose of hiding their light and deafening the report of the explosions. The vault was protected by two sets of Lillie's doors, the outer ones of chilled iron, two inches thick and the inner of single thick boiler plate. Wedges were inserted between the outer doors until a crevice sufficient to allow powder, some of fineness like marble dust to be inserted. The crevice was then tightly caulked and a fuse applied. The explosion tore apart the bolts and the riveted fastenings and the doors were thrown back upon their hinges with tremendous force, smashing the casings and imbedding the handles in the solid masonry. The inside doors were next opened by being wrenched from the hinges with powerful "jimmies." A large Lillie's safe with a 1-1/2 inch think door was next attacked. Wedges were again applied this time at the tops of the doors, powder inserted, and blast number 2 blew the doors completely off the safe, exposing the inner and final stronghold, a Bacon steel safe manufactured about three years earlier and fitting the inside of the Lillie as closely as possible. This safe was composed of five alternate layers of iron and steel, divided into an upper and lower compartment, each secured by a lock. The burglars tried first to uncover the spindle of the lock in an attempt to drive it through, but abandoned the effort and powder was again used. Before the explosion, the outer vault doors were closed. The concussion caused the outer doors to fly open and the safe door weighing several hundred pounds struck one of them and glanced off into the banking room, coming to rest some eight feet from where it started.
At this point the booty was visible consisting of the reserve of legal tenders, private papers, securities, etc. The greenbacks directly exposed to the blast must have been badly burned as fragments of a $1,000 bill with many others of smaller denominations were found in and about the safe. A package of $2,000, not much damaged, was discovered under one of the fallen doors where it had been blown by the explosion. Cashier Wait noted that even in a small town such as Glens Falls, three blasts and all the other unusual noises and disturbances attracted no attention and nothing was known of the robbery until the clerk entered the bank after 7 o'clock. He further described the known fact of the greenback reserve as an inducement for first class burglars to risk life and liberty, making national banks targets where county banks would just not be worth the risk.
On Tuesday, January 9, 1894, directors elected were Hon. J.W. Finch, Hon. Stephen Brown, Henry Crandall, Joseph Fowler, D.J. Finch, F.O. Burhans, T.S. Coolidge, William B. Isham, George R. Finch, L.M. Brown, William A. Wait, and Henry Griffing.
Official Bank Title(s)
1: The Glen's Falls National Bank, Glen's Falls, NY
Bank Note Types Issued
A total of $903,700 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1865 and 1905. This consisted of a total of 95,096 notes (95,096 large size and No small size notes).
This bank issued the following Types and Denominations of bank notes:
Series/Type Sheet/Denoms Serial#s Sheet Comments Original Series 3x1-2 1 - 3000 Original Series 4x5 1 - 5000 Original Series 3x10-20 1 - 1700 Series 1875 3x10-20 1 - 3834 1882 Brown Back 3x10-20 1 - 10240
Bank Presidents and Cashiers
Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1865 - 1905):
Presidents:
Cashiers:
Other Bank Note Signers
- There are currently no known Vice President or Assistant Cashier bank note signers for this bank.
Wiki Links
- New York Bank Note History
- General information on Glen's Falls (Wikipedia)
- General information on Warren County (Wikipedia)
- General information on New York (Wikipedia)
Sources
- Glen's Falls, 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 Pittsburgh Daily Commercial, Pittsburgh, PA, Thu., June 9, 1864.
- Carbondale Advance, Carbondale, PA, Sat., June 18, 1864.
- The Brooklyn Union, Brooklyn, NY, Sat., Jan. 8, 1870.
- Buffalo Courier, Buffalo, NY, Tue., Jan. 25, 1870.
- The Post-Star, Glens Falls, NY, Wed., Jan. 10, 1894.