Saxton National Bank, Saint Joseph, MO (Charter 2898)

Sketch from 1883 of the Saxton National Bank building located on Fourth and Francis Streets, Saint Joseph, Missouri.

Saxton National Bank, Saint Joseph, MO (Chartered 1883 - Liquidated 1894)

Town History

St. Joseph is a city in Andrew and Buchanan counties and the county seat of Buchanan County, Missouri. Located on the Missouri River, it is the principal city of the St. Joseph Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Buchanan, Andrew, and DeKalb counties in Missouri and Doniphan County, Kansas. As of the 2020 census, St. Joseph had a total population of 72,473, making it the 8th most populous city in the state, and the 3rd most populous in Northwest Missouri. St. Joseph is located roughly 30 miles north of the Kansas City, Missouri, and approximately 125 miles south of Omaha, Nebraska. The city was named after the town's founder Joseph Robidoux and the biblical Saint Joseph. St. Joseph is home to Missouri Western State University.

St. Joseph was founded on the Missouri River by Joseph Robidoux, a local fur trader of French Canadian descent. It was officially incorporated in 1843. In its early days, it was a bustling outpost and rough frontier town, serving as a last supply point and jumping-off point for travelers on the Missouri River toward the "Wild West". It was the westernmost point in the United States accessible by rail until after the American Civil War. The main east–west downtown streets were named for Robidoux's eight children: Faraon, Jules, Francois (Francis), Felix, Edmond, Charles, Sylvanie, and Messanie. The street between Sylvanie and Messanie was named for his second wife, Angelique.

St. Joseph, or "St. Joe", as it was called by many, was a "Jumping-Off Point" for those migrants headed to the Oregon Territory in the mid-1800s. Such cities, including Independence, and St. Joseph, were where pioneers would stay and purchase supplies before they headed out in wagon trains across the Great Plains. The town was a very lively place.

Between April 3, 1860, and late October 1861, St. Joseph was one of the two endpoints of the Pony Express, which operated for a short period over the land then inaccessible by rail, to provide fast mail service. Today the Pony Express Museum hosts visitors in the former stables of the company. St. Joseph is identified by the slogan, "Where the Pony Express started and Jesse James ended."

Outlaw Jesse James lived here under the alias "Mr. Howard". The song, "Jesse James", includes the lines, "...that dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard has laid poor Jesse in his grave." On April 3, 1882, James was killed at his home, originally located at 1318 Lafayette. It has been relocated next to the Patee House and still has the visible bullet hole from the fatal shot. It is now operated as the Jesse James Home Museum.

Saint Joseph had ten National Banks chartered during the Bank Note Era, and all ten of those banks issued National Bank Notes.

Bank History

• Organized November 21, 1882
• Chartered March 12, 1883
• Liquidated February 1, 1894
• Succeeded by 4939 (First NB of Buchanan County/FNB, Saint Joseph, MO)

John Colhoun & Company began business in 1864 at Third and Felix. Mr. Colhoun was the president and W.B. Johnson, cashier. David Pinger was Mr. Colhoun's partner. In 1866 a new building was constructed on that site and in 1871 became the Colhoun Bank, the partnership having dissolved. In 1878 this firm was succeeded by the Schuster-Hax Company and this in turn in 1889 by the Schuster-Hax National Bank. The Saxton National Bank was started by A.M. Saxton, J.W. McAllister and others, receiving a charter in March 1883. It went into a new building erected by Mr. Saxton at Fourth and Francis Streets.

The First National Bank of Buchanan County originated in 1894 through the consolidation of the Schuster-Hax National Bank and the Saxton National Bank.

On Monday, April 2, 1883, the Saxton National Bank opened at the corner of Fourth and Francis Streets in the magnificent structure constructed for it by Mr. A.M. Saxton. The directors of the bank were A.M. Saxton, A. Kirkpatrick, J.W. McAlister, R.W. Hocker, S.C. Woodson, John D. Flint, and W.C. Connett. The officers were A.M. Saxton, president; A. Kirkpatrick, vice president; J.W. McAlister, cashier; and R.W. Hocker, assistant cashier. Mr. Saxton was a banker with 34 years of experience and was formerly president of the State Savings Bank of St. Joseph and connected with its management from its organization to his resignation in 1881. The cashier, J.W. McAlister, was formerly cashier of the First National Bank of Stanford, Kentucky. The new building was designed in the French renaissance style, three stories with mansard and basement, making it equivalent to five stories. The height of the front elevation was about 80 feet. It was built of stone with elaborate carvings and decorated with red marble, the pillars in the first story were of polished red granite. The front entrance was guarded by two lions of life-like proportions placed upon pedestals, one looking up Fourth Street and the other up Francis. The interior of the bank had tile floor made at Minton's china works at Stoke on Trent, England, from special drawings made by Eckel & Mann. The first ever tower clock put up in St. Joseph was done under the supervision of Mr. R.U. Hendrick of the firm of Saxton & Hendrick, jewelers of St. Joseph. Clock was one of Howard's best movements and the bell was one of the famous Baltimore bells weighing 3,500 pounds. Plans for the extension on the east side fronting Francis street were complete and the contracts were to be let at once. This section would be separated from the main structure by a narrow passage connected above by a stone arcade. Here a tablet from the cornerstone of the old church that stood for years on the hill, raised to make room for the new bank, would be placed. The cost of the building when completed would be upwards of $100,000.

In May 1888, the directors were A.M. Saxton, S.C. Woodson, Abner Copeland, C.L. Connett, A. Kirkpatrick, J.W. McAlister, C.A. Hubacher, J.D. Flint and R.D. Duncan. The officers were A.M. Saxton, president; A. Kirkpatrick, vice president; S.C. Woodson, second vice president; and J.W. McAlister, cashier. The bank had paid-up capital $200,000, surplus $50,000 and total assets $2,000,000.

Colonel Albe M. Saxton died on June 26, 1889. A.M. Saxton was born near Cleveland, Ohio, February 12, 1821, the son of settlers in the Connecticut Wester Reserve of Ohio during the war of 1812. He received his education in the common schools and at a private academy in Cleveland. In 1841 he went to St. Louis in search of employment and began trading in country produce on a capital of $56, all the money he possessed. During the summer of 1842, he was clerk on a steamboat running up the Illinois River. In 1842 he attended night sessions of a commercial college in St. Louis and graduated from the institution the next spring, 1843. He met Charles A. Perry who wanted to start a mercantile business at the Blacksnake Hills as the site of St. Joseph was then called. With Mr. Perry's younger brother, Elias H. Perry, the two proceeded up the Missouri and on May 1st, 1843, opened a store, the first established in St. Joseph for the purpose of trading with white inhabitants. In 1848, Col. Saxton formed a partnership with Robert W. Donnell, a banker of New York City, and with him continued the mercantile business. This business was closed in 1858 when Messrs. Donnell and Saxton organized the branch of the Bank of the State of Missouri at St. Joseph with Mr. Saxton as cashier. This institution was merged into a national bank in 1864 as the State National Bank, Mr. Saxton retaining the cashier's position. In 1870 the affairs of the State National were closed up voluntarily and the State Savings Bank was organized with Mr. Saxton as president, a position he retained until the summer of 1881. Mr. Stephen C. Woodson, vice president of the Saxton National Bank succeeded him as president in 1889.

On February 1, 1894 the Saxton National Bank and the Schuster-Hax National Bank would go out of existence and the First National Bank of Buchanan County would be established to take their places in St. Joseph. The capital of the new institution was $500,000 fully paid-up. S.C. Woodson was president and S.A. Walker, cashier. The new bank would be located in the bank building of the Schuster-Hax National.

Official Bank Title

1: The Saxton National Bank of Saint Joseph, MO

Bank Note Types Issued

1882 Brown Back $20 proof approved March 20, 1883. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Archives

A total of $282,600 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1883 and 1894. This consisted of a total of 22,608 notes (22,608 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
1882 Brown Back	3x10-20	1 - 5652

No notes are known to have survived.

Bank Presidents and Cashiers

Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1883 - 1894):

Presidents:

• Albe M. Saxton, 1883-1888
• Stephen Crittendon Woodson, 1889-1894

Cashiers:

• James William McAlister, 1883-1884
• Richard Weaver Hocker, Jr., 1885-1885
• James William McAlister, 1886-1894

Other Known Bank Note Signers

• No other known bank note signers for this bank

Bank Note History Links

• Saxton National Bank, Saint Joseph, MO History (NB Lookup)
• Missouri Bank Note History (BNH Wiki)

Sources

• Saint Joseph, MO, 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