near the river, was a sawmill, where ship timbers were sawn. The loca-
tion was north of Union Wharf. At Sawin's shop practically all the
Fairhaven whale ships were supplied with fittings. Mr. Sawin was not a
man of much wealth, but he was distinctly a leader in the community,
always ready to tackle any problem of ])ublic interest. He seemed to be
the natural head of anything that was doing in Fairhaven in his day.
When the crash in the whaling business came and Fairhaven was laid
low, Mr. Sawin was seriously affected, but it did not kill his courage.
His dwelling was the fine house which Weston Howland lived in for
many years, still occupied by his family.
Asa Swift, Jr., an original director, was a whaling captain and after-
wards a merchant. He was one of the leading men of the town. He
lived on Water street. Lemuel Tripp, another original director, was
known as "Deacon Tripp." He was a man of high character and devoted
to the Congregational church. He had the respect of the whole com-
munity. He lived on William street, in the house where his grandson,
Lemuel T. Willcox, lately died.
Nathan Church, another original director, was the rich man of Fair-
haven. His wealth measured by modern standards would seem trivial,
232 NEW BEDFORD
yet in the Fairhaven of his day he was considered a plutocrat. Mr.
Church's counting house was on the east side of Water street, opposite
Ezekiel Sawin's. Job C. Tripp, who until last summer was the oldest man
living in Fairhaven, said that as a young man he admired Nathan Church
because notwithstanding his exalted position as a man of great wealth,
standing on a sort of pinnacle, he nevertheless was most urbane and
stopped and greeted all his neighbors and fellow-citizens in the most
friendly sort of way. "common sort of people just the same as the mer-
chants."
Mr. Tripp also said that it was Mr. Church's rigid rule of paying all
his bills weekly every Saturday afternoon, not only his bills at the retail
shops, but all accounts connected with his extensive whaling enterprises
which could possibly be adjusted weekly. Mr. Church built the attractive
house which Walter P. Winsor, of the First National Bank, long lived
in. F. R. Whitwell was also a whaling merchant. His counting room
was on Water street, south of Ezekiel Sawin's. He was somewhat more
successful in escaping calamity than some of his fellow merchants. He
was deemed to be the second wealthiest man in Fairhaven after Nathan
Church. He lived on the west side of North Main street. His son, who
was also later a director of the Fairhaven Bank, was also a leading mer-
chant. Abner Pease, another original director, was a quiet, soft-man-
nered Quaker, who lived in the north part of the town which has been
since distinguished as the "Pease district." His attempt to dedicate his
property to educational purposes was somewhat diverted to the support
of lawyers, owing to the complicated litigation which ensued.
William P. Jenney, another original director of the Fairhaven Bank,
was a partner in the firm of Gibbs & Jenney. Gibbs & Jenney failed just
before the war of i860. The assignees appointed by the court were
George E. Tripp, afterwards the president of the Fairhaven Bank ;
Joshua Tobey, of Wareham, and William W. Crapo. Mr. Tripp was an
excellent man, somewhat pretentious, but not ambitious to undertake
cares which could be avoided. Mr. Tobey lived in Wareham, where he
had plenty of business to attend to. The result was that Mr. Crapo had
his only experience as a whaling merchant in fitting ships, arranging
voyages, selling oil, making settlements, etc. He had often acted as
attorney for ship owners, but he had never before been confronted with
the task of actually running a whaling business. It was only the rem-
nants of a once prosperous business which Mr. Crapo could rescue. He
employed Edmund Allen, who had clerked it for Gibbs & Jenney as his
assistant in the business. Mr. Allen attempted the whaling business on
his own account and failed and Mr. Crapo was in turn his assignee. As
an illustration of how hard hit Fairhaven was in those days, the best bid
which could be obtained for the elaborate gothic house and large well-
conceived garden belonging to Mr. Jenney was $4,000. This attractive
NEW BEDFORD 233
estate was on the site of the present Unitarian church. Mr. Allen's hand-
some house was sold for $6,000 and afterwards became the residence of
Henry H. Rogers, where later he built his big house which has since
been dismembered.
There were other early directors of the Fairhaven Bank whose enter-
prise and faith in the risks of the whaling business were equal to those
of the merchants on the west bank of the Acushnet river. One difference
between the two groups of men was religious. The west side merchants
were Quakers and Pacifists. The east side merchants were Congrega-
tionalists and fighters. It is perplexing to consider that peace without
victory has been the lot of Fairhaven in a business way. Possibly vic-
tory without peace is the less desirable result on the west bank of the
river.
The Fairhaven Bank is the only bank of Old Dartmouth which has
had the thrilling experience of real bank burglars. Mr. William C.
Stoddard tells the story. One Saturday evening in April, 1868, he took
the nine o'clock bus from New Bedford over the bridge, intending to go
to a club meeting. The club consisted only of Walter P. Winsor,
Thomas B. Fuller and himself. He was a clerk in the Fairhaven Bank,
then located in the old building where now is the Savings Bank. He had
left his pipe in the bank and went there to get it before going to the
club for the customary smoke talk. As he was about to unlock the front
door, he heard noises in the dark bank. He called James F. Tripp, who
was standing on the opposite side of Centre street, and together they
investigated. They heard several persons leaving the bank by the back
windows. It was too dark to see them. On entering the bank, they
found the directors' table covered with burglars' tools, with a rigging to
force the vault door. The burglars, however, had found an easier way of
approach to the treasure, and had made a hole in the plastering at the
side of the vault, which would have enabled them easily and within a
short time to penetrate the thin boiler plate of the vault, where they
would have found a plenteous supply of specie and money and negotiable
bonds amounting to several hundreds of thousands of dollars in value,
including the securities of the Savings Bank, which were kept in the same
vault. The forgotten pipe saved the bank. The precipitous departure
of the burglars possibly saved Mr. Stoddard, as by means of keys of the
bank on his person they would have had a convenient access to the vault.
Two of the men, who had been making a study of the situation for sev-
eral weeks before pulling off the job, were taken by the New Bedford
police. One of them was Jimmy Hope, a notorious bank robber, who
was finally caught and held in San Francisco. They were quickly bailed
out from detention in New Bedford, the bail being $15,000 in one case
and $5,000 in the other. Thereupon they vanished.
Mechanics' Bank — The Mechanics' Bank and the Mechanics' Insur-
234 NEW BEDFORD
ance Company were incorporated under separate legislative acts in June,
183 1. A majority of the incorporators of both companies were the same
mdividuals, and William R. Rodman was the president of each company.
Isaac Howland signed the notice to the subscribers for the meeting
of organization of the bank, held July 16, 1831, at the counting room of
William R. Rodman. At this meeting Thomas A. Greene was chairman
and James Thornton secretary. At the first meeting of the directors,
July 23. 1831, William R. Rodman was elected president. James B.
Congdon, the cashier of the Merchants' Bank, soon afterwards made
application for the position of cashier, and was elected. Subsequently he
withdrew and his brother, Joseph Congdon, was elected in his stead.
Mr. Congdon's salary was fixed at $1,000, and was not increased as to
gross amount during his twenty-six years of service. In the beginning
he was authorized to employ an assistant at his own expense. This
assistant was Peleg Hall, who served until 1835, when Isaac C. Taber
was appointed his successor at a salary of $400 a year. Mr. Taber was
soon succeeded by William G. Coffin, who after nearly ten years of serv-
ice in 1845 was given a maximum salary of $450 a year. Joseph R. Shiv-
erick acted as the secretary of the board of directors without pay for
twenty-eight years, from the organization of the bank in 1831 until 1859.
The bank was originally capitalized at $200,000. In 1854 this was
increased to $400,000, and in 1857 to $600,000, which is its present capi-
tal. In 1851 it renewed its State charter, but in 1864 the stockholders
voted to surrender the State charter and organize a national banking
association. The bank continued for about a year to conduct busine.ss
under both charters as two separate institutions. The bank paid in divi-
dends six per cent, a year for the most part during the first half century
of its existence. The failure of Charles Russell & Sons in the early his-
tory of the bank was evidently a trying experience for all the banks in
New Bedford, and there is much about it in the early directors' records.
"Memo. May 12. 1S37. This bank, together with all the other
banks in town and vicinity, suspended specie payments, or in other
words, ceased to redeem their bills on demand." This entry is not to be
construed literally. The bills were redeemed in perfectly good money,
but not in coin. Occasionally the difficulty in obtaining specie was so
great that almost all the banks of the country were forced now and then
to suspend specie payments. At the time of the Civil War the suspen-
sion was practically universal. The resumption of specie payments after
the war was looked forward to with much apprehension which was not
justified by the event. The difficulty in obtaining specie in 1837 and 1838
is evidenced by the entries in the records urging the cashier to purchase
It on the "best terms available." On November 25, 1837, at a special
meeting of the directors, Mr. Congdon was authorized to represent the
NEW BEDFORD 235
bank at "the convention of banks in New York,'" held, doubtless, to con-
sider the general situation.
An entry in the bank record reads, January, 1836: "On the 13th
inst., the cashier committed to the care of John Sargent (of this town)
$2,000 in Bank Bills to be delivered to the Suffolk Bank in Boston. They
were not delivered in Boston as requested but lost on the road. On the
19th inst., said bundle containing Two Thousand Dollars was found and
returned to this bank in safety by * * * Godfrey, wagon driver on the
line between N. Bedford and Boston. Whereupon, Voted: That the
Cashier be authorized to pay to .said * * * Godfrey the sum of Fifty
Dollars it being as a reward for finding and returning to this bank said
package containing $2,000. Voted: That the Cashier is authorized to
pay to sd John Sargent the sum of ten dollars 91 cents, it being the
amount expended by him in searching for sd money."
Before the Civil War, all four of the old State banks of New Bed-
ford made free use of an unrestricted right to issue circulation. At times
the issuing of currency in exchange for bills receivable was more profit-
able than loaning money or credit at interest. The danger of over-circu-
lation and the difficulty in a time of stress of redemption made this form
of banking somewhat hazardous. The bank bills of the Massachusetts
country banks and other New England banks were redeemable at the
Suffolk Bank in Boston. This was not a matter of legal requirement,
simply an established custom. To the credit of the integrity, wisdom
and conservatism of our community, it can be said that no New Bedford
bank bill was ever dishonored.
Before the Civil War, the need of a more stable and reliable cur-
rency had been demonstrated. The New Bedford banks, carefully and
conservatively managed, had been able to supply a dependable currency
and the profit was satisfactory. This was by no means the universal
rule. As one of the results of the war, the national banking system was
inaugurated and one of its provisions was a special tax of ten per cent,
on all currency of State banks. This was a completely effective method,
as it was designed to be, to force every State bank of issue to submit to
the national system. The four banks of New Bedford were wise enough
to see the writing on the wall, and abandon their State charters and seek
Federal charters.
The Mechanics' Bank received its Federal charter in June, 1864, re-
taining its State charter, however, until March, 1865. At that time it had
outstanding a considerable amount of circulation which, under the terms
of the national banking act, was redeemable within two years. After
two years the old bills were outlawed, but so far as known no New Bed-
ford bank ever took advantage of this statute of limitation. Even within
this century the bank has redeemed bills issued by it prior to 1864.
The business of issuing circulation had been profitable to the Me-
236 NEW BEDFORD
chanics' Bank, and it wished to make the experiment of continuing that
branch of its business under the new law. One necessary requirement
for the right to issue circulation under the new regime was to acquire
and deposit in the United States Treasury, bonds of the United States
to secure the same. The best bonds to buy were the "5-20's." The
sooner they were picked up the better, since it was evident that it was
a rising market. These United States bonds bearing interest at six per
cent, were called the "5-20's," because although they were payable in
twenty years the national government reserved the right to retire them
at the end of five years. They took the place of the 7-30's, so-called be-
cause they bore interest of two cents per day for three hundred and sixty-
five days in the year. So the Mechanics' National Bank picked up here
and there as it could, in the Boston and New York market, $600,000 of
these "5-20" United States bonds, an amount which represented its entire
capital stock, by the deposit of which in the treasury it could obtain the
right to issue $540,000 of national bank bills. The troublesome question
was now to get these bonds from the old vault on Water street to the
Treasury Building in Washington. There were two or three so-called
"express" companies in New Bedford, brought into existence about 1850
by the building of a railroad between New Bedford and Taunton. Hatch,
Gray & Company are, perhaps, the best remembered. The directors of
the Mechanics' Bank, however, did not consider it safe to entrust so
much value to agents who would be quite unable to make good any mis-
carriage. It was therefore decided that two officers of the bank should
take the bonds to Washington. The cashier, Eliphalet W. Hervey, being
a salaried officer, was naturally selected as one. The other, it was deter-
mined, should be a member of the board of directors. Thomas Mandell,
the president, said he was much too old for the job. John R. Thornton
simply said he wouldn't. Thomas WMlcox was too modest, wherefore by
a natural process of elimination the job was wished on William W.
Crapo. the youngest member of the board, then about thirty-five years
of age. No extra compensation was suggested. The bank did, how-
ever, pay the bare traveling expenses of its messengers.
Mr Hervey and Mr. Crapo obtained an old well-worn carpet bag in
which the $600,000 of government bonds were stored, and going to Fall
River by team, took the boat to New York. Mr. Crapo cannot recall
whether it was Mr. Hervey or himself that slept with the precious carpet
bag in his bunk, but together they had it in the stateroom, ancj together
they carried it up to the Astor House in the morning and tctok a room
where they deposited the bag on the floor. Mr. Hervey went downstairs
and had some breakfast, Mr. Crapo guarding the bag in the chamber,
and then, in turn, Mr. Hervey guarded the bag while Mr. Carpo went
downstairs for breakfast ; and then together they guarded the bag until
the next train was ready to leave Jersey City for Washington, which
NEW BEDFORD 237
was not until noontime. In those days of the war, traveling was neither
luxurious or safe. The train, called a "mixed train," was crowded with
soldiers and camp followers, and assault and robbery were incidents to
be expected. The carpet bag was placed on the floor of the car, closely
between them, and they tried to appear unconcerned. The train reached
Washington long after the Treasury Department had closed, and the
guarding of the bag was continued in the old Willard Hotel with watches
turn and turn about. As soon as the Treasury opened the next morning,
two tired, travel-worn men deposited their old carpet bag with the Treas-
urer of the United States. A considerable time was taken in checking
up the bonds and listing the numbers and fulfilling various necessary
formalities. In the end a receipt was issued to the Mechanics' Bank, and
Mr. Hervey and Mr. Crapo, with a feeling of intense relief, walked down
Pennsylvania avenue, and had a bite for breakfast. Mr. Crapo subse-
quently became, through various employments, extremely familiar with
the Treasury Department, its methods and its varying personnel, and
twenty years later he drafted and, as chairman of the finance commit-
tee of the Congress, was instrumental in the legislation which renewed
the national bank charters, yet nothing connected with the Treasury or
the national bank system has ever made so deep an impression on him as
that perilous journey from New Bedford to Washington with the old
carpet bag bulging with more than half a million of precious bonds.
In 1831 a lot of land for a banking house was purchased by the
Mechanics' Bank from Mary Rotch, with an extra ten feet in the rear
from Benjamin Rodman, at the northeast corner of Water and Rodman
streets, about thirty-one feet frontage and fifty-five feet depth, an identi-
cal lot to the south being at the same time conveyed to the Merchants'
Bank. Apparently the Mechanics' Bank, together with the insurance
company, began business in "Samuel Rodman's Stone Building, south
side," opposite his dwelling, the building now occupied by Charles O.
Brightman. The earlier stockholders' meetings, however, were held
either in William R. Rodman's counting room, or "in the reading room
over S. & C. S. Taber's store. No. 36 North Water street." Meanwhile
the new building at the foot of William street was under construction.
"The Mercury" of July 19, 1833, says: "The Mechanics' Insurance Com-
pany have removed their office to the New Building at the foot of Wil-
liam Street." This was the second story over the bank. Moses Gibbs
was the secretary of the insurance company. The annual meetings of
the bank in October, 1833, 1834 and 1835 were held in this office or
"hall," as it was called, presumably because it was more commodious
than the banking room. Afterwards the stockholders' meetings were
usually held at the bank. Probably the bank was established in its quar-
ters at the foot of William street in the later part of 1833 or the early
part of 1834.
238 NEW BEDFORD
The old bank building at the foot of William street still stands, a
fine example of that steadfast loyalty, without subservience, to the purity
of the architectural orders adapted without being mutilated to serve the
exigencies of specific problems, which characterized Russell Warren's
work. New Bedford is indeed fortunate in still preserving a number of
examples of this famous architect's work. It is difficult in view of later
history to conceive that the Merchants' and the Mechanics' banks could
ever have agreed to act jointly, yet, in 1831, they evidently did act jointly
in employing Mr. Warren to design a building for their common use.
The skill with which Warren's design was made becomes more and
more impressive as the location and form of the building is studied from
the point of view of the artist. Nothing approaching it has ever since
been achieved by later bank architects. The design alone was a joint
undertaking between the banks. The construction of the two several
halves of the building was undertaken separately under different con-
tracts. The south half, belonging to the Merchants' Bank, was built by
Dudley Davenport, a prominent and showy sort of man who, curiously
enough, was a director of the Mechanics' Bank. The north half was con-
structed for the Mechanics' Bank by Robert Chase, a less showy but, in
some ways, a more reliable contractor. Mr. Chase subsequently became
the boss mechanic of the New Bedford & Taunton railroad. When the
building was nearing completion after a year or two of delayed construc-
tion, it was discovered that the Ionic columns which support the pedi-
ment in front of the several halves of the building differed in entasis,
which is to say the perpendicular swelling curve of a classical pillar. A
builder learned in his profession is supposed to know the exact entasis
requisite for a pillar of a specified height and diameter. Russell Warren
passed judgment on the work of the two builders. He found that the
three pillars in front of the Mechanics' half of the building were ortho-
dox, and that the three pillars in front of the Merchants' half of the build-
ing were heterodox. The cost of the building to the Mechanics' Bank
was $9,500.
In this fine old building both banks carried on their business for over
sixty years, the Merchants' on the south side and the Mechanics' on the
north. The two banks were similar in their interior arrangements.
Whenever one made some slight improvement or change, the other
quickly followed with something hopefully better. The vaults in each
case were at the easterly end of the original building. When in 1876
the property of the old Savings Bank was acquired from Mr. Bartlett,
both banks extended their quarters.
The north half of the second story of the old building was from the
start the office of the Mechanics' Insurance Company. In 1846 the Wam-
sutta Mills was started and established its office over the Merchants'
Bank. Joseph Grinnell was its president and Edward L. Baker its treas-
NEW BEDFORD 239
urer. Here was located the office of the Wamsutta Mills until the build-
ing was abandoned by the banks in 1894. The front room, at the corner,
was occupied by Andrew G. Pierce and two or three clerks. The back
room was filled with samples of cotton. There were no typewriting
machines, or adding machines, or stenographers connected with the
establishment. It is doubtful if any female person ever worked in any
office on Water street, surely none until after the last quarter of the last
century.
At the time of the exodus from Water street, the Mechanics' Bank
acquired a twenty-year lease of the corner stores in the old Cummings
building at the southwest corner of Purchase and William streets, oppo-
site the location of the Merchants' Bank Liberty Hall property. The
banks still kept close together, although the street separated them. On
the location of the Mechanics' Bank in my boyhood was the apothecary
shop of William P. S. Cadwell, and to the south the book shop of Charles
Taber. In this location the bank continued to do business for nearly
twenty years, when the approaching termination of its lease and the pro-
posed widening of Purchase street led to its seeking new quarters. It
purchased in 1914 land at the southwest corner of Union and Pleasant
streets. This property was conveyed by John Williams to Moses Grin-
nell in 1782, and was occupied as a homestead by him and his widow and
his son, Charles Grinnell, for seventy-three years, until 1855. In 1858
it came into the possession of Oliver R. Whitcomb, whose family owned
it for the next thirty-eight years. On this site the Mechanics' Bank built
its present banking home. Quaker-like in its severe simplicity, yet as
the Quaker ladies prided themselves in an ungodly way on the fineness
of the weave of the fabric they wore, the hank plumes itself on the tex-
ture of its Bethel granite.
The first president of the Mechanics' Bank was William Rotch Rod-
man, son of Samuel. He served the bank as president for twenty years,
until 185 1. Mr. Rodman was essentially an aristocrat. He had a some-
what haughty manner, and consequently was not generally popular. His
counting room was in the old wooden building at the corner of Rodman
and Front streets, afterwards occupied by Francis and Horatio Hatha-