Peckville National Bank, Peckville, PA (Charter 7785)

Photo of the old Peckville National Bank on 533 Main Street, Peckville, Pennsylvania, ca2020. Courtesy of Google Maps

Peckville National Bank, Peckville, PA (Chartered 1905 - Receivership 1933)

Town History

Postcard, ca1930s, of the Lackawanna Valley and the slag pile from the Lackawanna Coal Company near Olyphant and Blakely, Pennsylvania. Courtesy of Adam Stroup

Peckville is a village in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, approximately 9 miles northeast of Scranton and 9 miles southwest of Carbondale.

Blakely-Peckville is for the greater part located on level reaches of land that stretch westward from the Lackawanna River. Blakely was incorporated as a borough in 1868, some years before Lackawanna County was organized. It was named in honor of Captain Johnston Blakely, commander of the Wasp in the war of 1812 who gained fame by defeating the British sloop Avon. Blakely was regarded as the section lying immediately adjacent to Olyphant, separated only by the narrow river and reaching north to the Lackawanna colliery, while the main or larger portion of the town was that north of Mott Haven and commonly known as Peckville. The incongruity of municipal names--Blakely the borough and Peckville the post office was confusing to the uninformed.

Among the area's pioneers were the Callenders, the Ferrises, the Kingsleys, the Brundages, the Taylors, the Newtons, the Lillibridges, the Pecks, the Bells, the Lulls, the Jones, the Kenyons, the Williams and others who planted the seeds of industry and frugality.

In 1910, the coal industry was the principal one which the borough depended upon for prosperity. The Scranton Coal Company was the largest with its big Lackawanna and Ontario collieries. Other firms included the Temple Iron Co., the Blakely Coal Co., the Peck Lumber Co., Roberts Bros. Lumber Co., Nyhart Milling Co., The Harvey Silk Co. with a throwing mill as well as the Valentine Bliss silk mill, both employing many girls [sic] who resided in Peckville. The Peckville National Bank occupied a fine brick banking house on Main Street just north of Roberts Brothers' department store. On the higher grounds, the Mid-Valley hospital and Blakely High School, the latter on Academy Street, were built along with fine homes of town.

Peckville had two National Banks chartered during the Bank Note Era, and only the Peckville National Bank issued National Bank Notes.

Bank History

Organized February 24, 1905
Chartered June 13, 1905
Opened for business July 1, 1905
Conservatorship Mar 23, 1933
Receivership Oct 25, 1933
Succeeded by the First National Bank of Peckville, charter 13754, July 1933 (no notes issued)

On February 23, 1905, a meeting of those interested in the new Peckville National Bank was held in the Hotel Wilson's parlors. Attorney Frank R. Benjamin, the original promoter of the new bank called the meeting to order and after a few well chosen remarks retired in favor of Mr. J.D. Peck, who was elected chairman, and Mr. Edwin H. Ritter, secretary. A motion prevailed that the board of directors should comprise eleven members. The Chairman was empowered to appoint three tellers and named S.W. Arnold, J.H. Schuer, and C.A. Battenburg, the latter of Archbald. The subscribers then voted for the eleven directors as follows: J.D. Peck, J.G. Bell, S.W. Arnold, W.S. Bloes, Peckville; Charles Schlager, I.F. Megargel, Scranton; Thomas Mock, B.J. Cummings, Jessup; J.H. Schnerr, Winton; Frank Hemelright, Jermyn; Justus Buship, Archbald. Negotiations for a suitable Main Street location of the new bank were being considered.

In March 1905, the directors decided to purchase the Brundage property adjoining Roberts' department store on Main Street for the location of the new bank. The bank opened on July 1, 1905 from 1:00 to 7:00 PM. In August the notes arrived from Washington in sheets of four bills, one $20 and three $10s. President J.D. Peck and Cashier Frank G. Winters both signed their names one thousand times on $12,500 worth of currency.

On Thursday, May 2, 1907, the board of directors accepted the resignation of Frank Winters as cashier. Mr. Winters planned to enter the mercantile business of his own at Jermyn. N.H. Barrett, teller at the National Bank of Jermyn, was made cashier to fill the vacancy.

In August 1910, James J. Gallagher, a 1910 graduate of Mansfield State Normal School received the appointment to fill the vacancy cased by the resignation of B.J. McGurl. McGurl took on the duties of cashier of the First National Bank of Jessup.

On January 14, 1919, the following officers were elected: J.D. Peck, president; F.H. Hemelright, vice president; J.H. Schnerr, secretary; H.N. Barrett, cashier. Directors, unchanged since 1911, remained S.W. Arnold, W.S. Bloes, F.P. Benjamin, B.J. Cummings, F.H. Hemelright, John F. Mack, James P. McAndrew, John D. Peck, Peter Probst, E.H. Ritter, Joseph Reese, J.H. Schnerr and John Favini.

On January 13, 1925, Edwin H. Ritter was elected second vice president, a new office created by the directors at their reorganization meeting which followed the stockholders' meeting. The other officers re-elected were President F.H. Hemelright, Frank P. Bejamin, first vice president; Floyd E. Brink, cashier; and J.H. Schnerr, secretary. Francis Ham was added to the board; other directors re-elected were S.W. Arnold, W.S. Bloes, F.H. Hemelright, John F. Mack, E.H. Ritter, J.H. Schnerr, Peter Propst, James P. McAndrew. F.P. Benjamin, John Favini and George W. Roberts.

John Dwight Peck, one of the founders of the Peckville National Bank and its first president died on January 3, 1933 in his granddaughter's home in Fairfax, Virginia. He retired as president when he was eighty years old. He served in the Union army as a lieutenant with a Pennsylvania regiment. For years he served as treasurer of Oriental Star lodge No. 588, Peckville, and was believed to have been its oldest member in Lackawanna County. He served as building master for the D.L. & W. railroad. Among his nephews were Frank P. Benjamin, president of the Scranton-Lackawanna Trust Company.

On March 25, 1933, the Philadelphia Federal reserve Bank announced the appointment of conservators for fifteen member banks in Pennsylvania. For the Peckville National Bank, Floyd E. Brink was named conservator. On April 6 the bank was allowed to reopen for business on a segregated deposit basis with Mr. Brink, conservator, in charge. That meant that new checking accounts could be opened on a 100% basis, but any balance a depositor may have had was not available. In May, a reorganization plan was announced with Matthew D. Mackie as chairman of the committee. The reorganized bank reopened under the name of the First National Bank of Peckville with a capital of $100,000 and surplus of $25,000 and made available to present depositors 60% of their money immediately. Depositors were given the first opportunity to purchase stock in the new institution and could pledge part of their deposits to that purchase. Such plans were used successfully throughout the county. The new bank was expected to begin business around June 15 with several changes in the official personnel of the institution.

The name of the Peckville National Bank was changed to the First National Bank of Peckville at a reorganization meeting on Wednesday, July 26, 1933. Officers elected were Peter Propst, a former director, president; F.E. Hemelright, vice president, H.B. Anthony, secretary, W.E. Rawlings, cashier and Matthew D. Mackie, solicitor. The bank had been operating under a conservator, Floyd B. Brink, since the national bank holiday.

Official Bank Title(s)

1: The Peckville National Bank, Peckville, PA

Bank Note Types Issued

1902 Red Seal $20 Proof with an approval date of July 18, 1905. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Archives

1929 Type 1 $20 bank note with printed signatures of Floyd E. Brink, Cashier and F.H. Hemelright, President. Courtesy of Lyn Knight Auctioins, www.lynknight.com

A total of $923,790 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1905 and 1933. This consisted of a total of 74,119 notes (60,852 large size and 13,267 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 - 1112
1902 Date Back	3x10-20	1 - 2850
1902 Plain Back	3x10-20	2851 - 14101
1929 Type 1	6x10	1 - 1654
1929 Type 1	6x20	1 - 502
1929 Type 2	10	1 - 296
1929 Type 2	20	1 - 35

Bank Presidents and Cashiers

Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1905 - 1933):

Presidents:

Cashiers:

Frank Garfield Winter, 1905-1906
Homer N. Barrett, 1907-1923
Floyd Ellsworth Brink, 1924-1932

Other Bank Note Signers

There are currently no known Vice President or Assistant Cashier bank note signers for this bank.

Wiki Links

Sources

Peckville, PA, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peckville,_Pennsylvania
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 Tribune, Scranton, PA, Sat., Feb. 25, 1905.
The Tribune, Scranton, PA, Sat., Mar. 4, 1905.
Carbondale Daily News, Carbondale, PA, Sat., Aug. 19, 1905.
The Scranton Truth, Sat., May 4, 1907.
The Times-Tribune, Scranton, PA, Sat., May 5, 1910.
The Scranton Truth, Wed., Aug 17, 1910.
The Tribune, Scranton, PA, Wed., Jan. 11, 1911.
The Tribune, Scranton, PA, Wed., Jan. 15, 1919.
The Tribune, Scranton, PA, Wed., Jan. 14, 1925.
The Tribune, Scranton, PA, Thu., Jan. 5, 1933.
The Plain Speaker, Hazleton, PA, Sat., Mar. 25, 1933.
Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, the Evening News, Wilkes-Barre, PA, Wed., May 3, 1933.
The Tribune, Scranton, PA, Fri., June 2, 1933.
The Times-Tribune, Scranton, PA, Wed., July 26, 1933.