GENTLEMEN OF THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY:-When I received an invitation from your secretary to present a paper to be read as this meeting of your Society, I could think of nothing at the time in my own experience, which could form the proper subject for a historical paper and I so informed him. My residence in Nebraska, it is true, commenced over thirty years ago, but my connection with its life has been in a business way solely. It has, however, occurred to me, that some reference to early banking in Nebraska might be appropriately made the basis for such a paper, and that you would pardon the presentation of some deductions therefrom, which would not be exactly historical, but would be applicable to the financial situation and the financial questions of the present day.

As delegate from Nebraska, I was called upon to deliver

Delivered before the State Historical Society, Wednesday evening, January 10, at Lincoln, Neb.

an address at the World's Congress of Bankers and Financiers, held in Chicago last June. Referring to our early banking enterprises, I used the following words: (p. 519 of Proceedings.) "The history of banking, from peculiar causes, commences with the civil existence of the Territory. The chief occupation of the early legislatures, composed largely of men from Iowa and Missouri-for the population was not at first sufficient to supply its required number of statesmen-was largely capital location and the chartering of paper banks and paper townsite companies. The banking resources of the period were founded upon a basis which still supplies ample capital for the enterprising adventurer-the gullibility of the public. The Territory came into existence at the height of the "wild cat and bob-tailed currency" times and the Nebraska settler who could raise sufficient money to obtain a charter and pay for the printing of his bank notes, had what would be termed in these times a "bonanza." His paper town answered perfectly the requirements of his paper currency, rendering presentation for redemption extremely difficult, as it was not always easy even to find the town in which the supposed bank was located.

The financial panic of 1857 put an end to this business, and the only record I have ever seen referring to the banking of this period is in the comptroller of currency's last report to Congress.

Under the statistics of state banks prior to 1863 I find the following: "Nebraska, 1857, four banks, capital, $205,000; circulation, $353,796; deposits, $125,291. Nebraska, 1858, six banks, capital, $15,000; circulation, $41,641; deposits, $3,673." And with one additional entry in 1859, Nebraska disappears from these bank statistics until 1875. Governor Black, the third territorial governor, in his message of 1859, has this to say of the financial situation: "It is a matter of bitter experience that the people of the Territory have been made to pass through the delusive

day of high times and paper prices, and the consequent dark and gloomy night of low times and no prices. We have had a full share of the financial spasms which for two years have afflicted the great body of the American people. They are gradually passing away, but they will never altogether disappear until the producing causes are removed."

It would doubtless be interesting to learn something in detail of the business practices and operations of these early banks. I have myself no acquaintance with any ' existing papers or documents which would throw light upon the subject. Although my residence commenced only a few years after the general failure, at that time, 1861, not a vestige remained of any business pertaining to or connected with these banks. A few of their notes were still in circulation, but with the exception of those of two banks, they were all treated as worthless, just as they are today, when a stray one is occasionally presented.

The issue of the two banks referred to were redeemed by persons who had been interested in their circulation, but of these no new bills were being issued, and in fact the banks no longer existed. One bank still remained in Omaha, called the "Omaha and Chicago Bank," but it had no business, and maintained a precarious existence, by paying out bills for the living expenses of its managerwhich bills were returned for redemption about as fast as issued with the possible chance that a few would stray off, and be lost in the hands of their holders.

The archives of your society may contain some relics of these early banks, and I presume the official records of the Territorial legislatures will show the names and numbers of those authorized to do business, as special charters were required in all cases. No banking board was provided or any public official to whom reports were required to be made, and if any reports of the condition were published it was done voluntarily by the bank, and they were doubtless "doctored" for the occasion. I do

not know upon what authority the figures were given. which appear in the comptroller's report to which I referred, but no reason exists for doubting their accuracy so far as they go, and they were doubtless taken from some of these published reports. There were, however, many more banks than those named in this report, and the business was not embraced as now in the volume of deposits, but in the volume of circulating notes, which each bank could manage to float upon a confiding public. Sorenson in his "History of Omaha," writing of the panic of 1857, says there were "numerous wildcat banks in the territory at that time. Two or three of these banks were located at Omaha, and one or more at every little village through the river counties."

He mentions as the first banking institution chartered, the "Western Exchange Fire and Marine Insurance Company of Omaha." This bank failed September 23, 1857, and in its schedule of assignment the assets amounted to $288,083.75, composed mainly of "bills receivable" and "notes discounted." In actual cash it held $191.03 in specie and $121 in bills of other insolvent banks. Its liabilities of an equal amount were doubtless mainly embraced in its circulating notes, none of which were ever redeemed. I have recent and excellent authority for the statement that very little was ever collected from these assets-not sufficient, in fact, to pay the expenses of "collecting. It is equally certain that a similar result followed the closing up of all the other banks which failed at that time, unless it may be the "Bank of Nebraska❞—the notes of which bank were subsequently redeemed by Mr. B. F. Allen of DesMoines, Iowa. Mr. David H. Moffatt, president of the First National Bank of Denver, and one of Colorado's largest millionaires and most prominent citizens was a teller in this bank. Mr. Leroy Tuttle, who subsequently became an assistant treasurer of the United States at Washington, was the cashier of the Western Exchange Fire and Marine Insurance Company, and Mr. A. U. Wy

man was a teller, who subsequently became the treasurer of the United States, and now is president of the Omaha Loan and Trust Company. Mr. Sorenson notes the fact that among the relics of this last named bank, stored in old dry goods boxes at the time of his writing, were bundles of checks signed by old, well known Nebraskans, and among them the name of J. Sterling Morton, your honored president, and a member of the cabinet of President Cleveland. It is proper to state here that my reference is to the banks which failed. There were two banks which did not fail and whose obligations were all redeemed. The Platte Valley Bank of Nebraska City, owned by Mr. S. F. Nuckolls, and the Bank of Dakota, owned by Kountze Brothers of Omaha.

The four banks mentioned in the comptroller's report had an aggregate circulation of $353,796. We can safely estimate the circulation of the remaining banks at as much more, and adding to this the wildcat money of other states in circulation, with a small amount of specie and good bank notes, and a total aggregate of $1,000,000 would be a conservative estimate.

The census of 1855 gave a population of 4,491, but in 1857 this was claimed to have increased to 10,000. Accepting this number as approximately correct, and we have a circulation per capita of $100. I am assured by Dr. George L. Miller, who lived in Nebraska through all these times, that my figures are low. He thinks the volume of circulation was greater and population less than estimated. The present per capita in the United States is $25, that of France, which has the largest in the world, is $40, and that of Great Britain, recognized as the wealthiest nation in the world, is only $18. These figures in comparison with those of Nebraska in 1857 indicate a remarkable financial condition in the young commonwealth-a fair consideration of which will throw convincing light upon some of the financial propositions of the present time