Bank Thefts

On page 137 of McGrane's book The Panic of 1837, McGrane lists some of the bank thefts perpetrated by bank officers, as reported in the newspapers of the time, and listed by him as Table I, seemingly taken from the Illinois Senate House Reports, II, 1842, pages 191 to 193. As follows:

Schuylkill Bank, robbed by cashier - 1,300,000
Manhattan Bank, robbed by Newton - 50,000
Virginia Bank, robbed by Dabney - 500,000
Georgia Bank, robbed by Baker - 80,000
Frederick (Maryland) Bank, compromised by Bill Wiley - 186,000
Norwich Railroad, by the president - 10,000
Bank of Louisiana, by the teller - 60,000
Bank of Orleans, by the teller - 80,000
Canal Bank of New Orleans, by the teller - 100,000
Bank of Michigan, by the officers - 100,000
State Bank of Illinois, by town - 90,000
Merchants' Bank of Baltimore, by clerk - 10,000
Tennessee Bank, Nashville, by officers - 7,000
Frankfort Bank, by the president - 100,000
State Bank of Arkansas, by Ball - 64,000
Twenty-three New York banks, by officers - 1,500,000
Pennsylvania Bank, by officer, Smith - 100,000
Western Bank, by cashier, Israel - 15,000
Camden New Jersey Bank, by Patterson - 13,000
Farmers' Bank (Troy), by Jones - 10,000
Western Bank (Georgia), by Moore - 75,000
Bank of Cape Fear (North Carolina), by cashier - 10,000
Bank of Wooster (Ohio), by officers - 100,000
Planters' Bank (Georgia), by officers - 105,000
Bank of Steubenville (Ohio), by officers - 25,000
Franklin Bank, Baltimore, by Stanberger - 50,000
Newbury Port Bank, by Wychoff - 30,000
Willington Bank (Maryland), by Sherwood - 50,000
Gallipolis Bank (Ohio), by officers - 20,000
Ten other Ohio banks, by officers - 1,000,000
Six Maine banks, by officers - 800,000
Herkimer County Bank, by clerks - 72,000
Commercial Bank (New York), by officers (one-half the capital) - 250,000
Forgeries of Mitchell, Smith, and numerous others - 200,000

"This is but a portion of the amount swindled", McGrane writes. "It is impossible to ascertain the amounts lost by counterfeits, depreciation, etc. Bicknell, (Bicknell's Reporter) in the same year (1839), ascertained that counterfeits on 254 different banks were in circulation, and enumerated 1,395 descriptions of counterfeited or altered notes then supposed to be in circulation, of denominations from one to five hundred dollars."


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