Denison-Sherman City Directory, 1876-1877 The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, September 29, 1895 pg.3 DENISON REMINSCENCES A Weekly Summary of What Transpired in the Gate City 20 Years Ago With Running Commentaries When the Incidents Suggest it - Other Items (Items gleaned from the Denison Daily News) Friday, September 24, 1875 - The Drovers and Planters' bank was organized with the following officers: President, J.P. Leeper Vice-President, John Nevins Cashier, J.H. Slater Directors, J.P. Leeper, C.C. Binkley, John Nevins, J.R. Stevens, James Porter, E.H. Lingo, and J.H. Slater Capital, $200,00 C.C.
Binkley was also the Director of Sherman's Merchants & Planters bank
at this time; Director Judge James Porter was also a stockholder in Sherman's Merchants & Planters bank.
Denison Daily News Thursday, August 1, 1878 pg. 4 J.H. Slatter, President of the defunct Drovers and Planters Bank, left at daylight Wednesday morning for Oil Springs, in the Territory. He was accompanied by his wife. A ROTTEN CONCERN The Drovers and Planters bank seems to have been a rotten concern, on the verge of dissolution for some time. Stockholders have been quietly getting ride of their stock. Prominent business men who were supposed to be stockholders, it now transpires had sold out to Slater, or other irresponsible parties. Binkley, of Sherman, who it was generally believed was largely interested in n the bank, and whose name and standing did much to preserve public confidence, it seems transferred his stock some time ago to Mr. Slater. Mr. Sam Hanna transferred his stock to Slater, and men who figured as directors had even gone so far as to withdraw their deposits and transact their banking business at the First National Bank. Slater, the President, overdrew $1700, and just before the final collapse endeavored to get away with $500 more, but this latter sum he was forced to disgorge by the indignant depositors who were being robbed. Will Hughes, the acting cashier, also overdrew some $900, about $600 of which he claims to offset by bank stock and a month's salary. The bank was allowed to go into liquidation on the presentation of about $4,000 certified checks, when there was that much money in the vaults, and yet only about twenty per cent of the stock had been paid in! Those who were induced to deposit their moneyin the rotten concern to be swindled out of it, will probably ask in vain why the stockholders were not called on for another assessment to place the bank on a safe footing, before its funds were well nigh exhausted. The stockholders ought to be made to make good every dollar due depositors for allowing their names to be used in carrying on such a hollow fraud. It appears from the statement of Mr. Nevins that for months the Drovers and Planters Bank had been doing business on $1000 capital! And yet the directors knew this and know, or should have known, that the officers were taking the money of the depositors on which the bank was doing business was in jeopardy. Why did not the directors do their duty, and see that depositors were protected? What right had they to remain quiet, and the influence of their names induce the public to place their money in such an irresponsible concern? The directors and stockholders are deserving of the severest censure for their course. SLOVENLY BOOKKEEPING AS an evidence of the loose way the business of the Drovers and Planters Bank has been conducted, we will allude two items: The cashier, Mr. Hughes, reported to the depositors Tuesday morning, that there were $4000 in the safe. On counting the money the next day, it was a little over $160 short. In the report of the amount of the deposits furnished by Mr. Hughes, there was given as due Mr. Henry Merritt $123.02. An examination of Mr. Merritt's cash book shows that he was overdrawn $73.38. We understand Mr. Hughes explains this discrepancy by saying an entry was placed by mistake on the wrong side of the bank book! Comment on the above is not necessary. Mr. Hughes, Senior, is out in a card in the Herald, because we said the books of the Drovers and Planters Bank showed he had overdrawn his account $627.00, yet he doesn't deny out statement, but intimates that he has rendered services to the bank more than enough to balance his account. We know nothing about his claims on the bank - never pretend to any knowledge in this direction; but simply record a fact, and that fact he doesn't deny. We spoke of him as a director of the bank. We supposed he was, but it seems in this we were mistaken. He also tells us he is not a stock-holder, having transferred his stock to his son, the acting cashier. We have always labored under the impression that he was largely interested in the bank some way, judging from his own conversation at different times, and we think the public generally were of the same opinion. We are not authorized to state that since the first of last June, Mr. Hughes, Sr. informed a prominent business man of this city, that he was both a stockholder and directors in the Planters and Drovers bank. We are at liberty to furnish Mr. Hughes our authority, if he requires it. Mr. Lowe, of the National Bank, and Mr. Coffin, two as good accountants as there are in the city, were engaged by Mr. Sam Hanna, upon the recommendation of the depositors, to thoroughly examine the books of the defunct Drovers and Planters bank. They were hard at work Wednesday. The assignee of the Drovers and Planters Bank, Mr. Sam Hanna has retained Hare, of Sherman, and Messrs. Robertson & Fletcher, of this city, on behalf of the depositors. This is excellent legal talent, and depositors may rest assured their interest will be closely guarded. 
Denison History Copyright © 2024, TXGenWeb. If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable,please send me a message. |