Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-sq2k7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-04T15:11:06.619Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Parading as Millionaires: Montana Bankers and the Panic of 1893

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Paula Petrik
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

One day two swindlers came to this city; they made people believe that they were weavers, and declared they could manufacture the finest cloth to be imagined

Historians, in general, and historians of the trans-Mississippi West, in particular, have paid scant attention to the Panic of 1893 except to summarize its highlights: the silver-mining industry collapsed; banks and businesses failed; unemployment increased; labor rebelled—sometimes violently; and the Populists gained political ground. Some historians of the American West have given the panic a miss entirely

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , December 2009 , pp. 729 - 762
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2009. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bibliography of Works Cited

Books

Doti, Lynne Pierson, and Schweikart, Larry. Banking in the American West: From the Gold Rush to Deregulation. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Groth, Clarence W. Montana Banking History, 1864–1954. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1967.Google Scholar
Hine, Robert V., and Faragher, John Mack. The American West: A New Interpretive History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Kane, Thomas P. The Romance and Tragedy of Banking: Problems and Incidents of Governmental Supervision of Banks. New York: Bankers Publishing Co., 1922.Google Scholar
Kindleberger, Charles P., and Aliber, Robert. Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises, 5th ed. New York: Wiley, 2005.Google Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi, R. Insider Lending: Banks, Personal Connections, and Economic Development in Industrial New England. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Limerick, Patricia Nelson. The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West. New York: W.W. Norton, 1987.Google Scholar
Malone, Michael P., Roeder, Richard B., and Lang, William L. Montana: A History of Two Centuries, revised ed. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Milner, Clyde A., O’Connor, Carol A., and Sandweiss, Martha A. The Oxford History of the American West. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Moulton, Harold Glenn. Principles of Moneyand Banking. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1916.Google Scholar
Robbins, William, G. Colony and Empire: The Capitalist Transformation of the American West. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1994.Google Scholar
Robertson, Ross M. The Comptroller and Bank Supervision: A Historical Appraisal. Washington, DC: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, 1995.Google Scholar
Steeples, Douglas, and Whitten, David O. Democracy in Desperation: The Depression of 1893. Greenwood Press, 1998.Google Scholar
White, Richard. “ It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own” : A New History of the American West. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Wicker, Elmus. Banking Panics of the Gilded Age. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.Google Scholar

Articles

Arrington, Leonard J. “Banking Enterprises in Utah, 1847–1880.” Business History Review 29 (December 1955): 312–34.Google Scholar
Barrett, A.R. “Bank Defalcations—Their Causes and the Remedy: By an Ex-U.S. Examiner of Failed Banks. Why Defalcations and Embezzlements Occur. How Bank Defalcations May Be Prevented.” Bankers’ Magazine 52, no. 5 (May 1896): 593–96.Google Scholar
Barrett, A.R.. “The Era of Fraud and Embezzlement: Its Causes and Remedies.” The Arena 14, no. 2 (October 1895): 196–204.Google Scholar
Barrett, A.R.. “Modern Banking Methods. A New Series on Practical Banking-Helpful Hints Derived from Experience. Why Banks Fail.” Bankers’ Magazine 62, no. 6 (June 1901): 815–20.Google Scholar
Blackford, Mansel G. “Banking and Bank Legislation in California, 18901915.” Business History Review 47 (Winter 1973): 482–507.Google Scholar
Calomiris, Charles W., and Mason, Joseph R. “Contagion and Bank Failures during the Great Depression: The June 1932 Chicago Banking Panic.” American Economic Review 87 (December 1997): 863–83.Google Scholar
Carlson, Mark. “Causes of Bank Suspensions in the Panic of 1893.” Explorations in Economic History 42 (January 2005): 56–80.Google Scholar
Diamond, Douglas W., and Dybvig, Philip H. “Bank Runs, Deposit Insurance, and Liquidity.” Journal of Political Economy 91 (June 1983): 401–19.Google Scholar
Dupont, Brandon. “Bank Runs, Information and Contagion in the Panic of 1893.” Explorations in Economic History 44 (July 2007): 411–31.Google Scholar
Eckels, James H. “Protection of Bank Depositors.” North American Review 163, no. 480 (November 1896): 564–73.Google Scholar
Esbitt, Milton. “Bank Portfolios and Bank Failures during the Great Depression: Chicago.” Journal ofEconomic History 46 (June 1986): 455–62.Google Scholar
Gorton, Gary, and Mullineaux, Donald J. “The Joint Production of Confidence: Endogenous Regulation and Nineteenth Century Commercial-Bank Clearinghouses.” Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 19 (November 1987): 457–68.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Charles. “The Depression of the Nineties.” Journal of Economic History 16 (June 1956): 137–64.Google Scholar
Frederic Clemson, Howe. “Commercial Depressions and Business Crises.” American Journal of Politics 5 (November 1894): 3–14.Google Scholar
Macey, Jonathan R. and Miller, Geoffrey P. “Double Liability of Bank Shareholders: History and Implications,” Wake Forest Law Review 27 (1992): 31–62.Google Scholar
Noyes, Alexander D. “The Banks and the Panic of 1893.” Political Science Quarterly 9 (March 1894): 12–30.Google Scholar
Pierce, J. Kingston. “The Panic of 1893.” Columbia: The Magazine of North-west History 7 (1993): 37–44.Google Scholar
Robbins, William G. “The Deconstruction of a Capitalist Patriarch: The Life and Times of Samuel T. Hauser.” Montana: The Magazine ofWestern History 42, no. 4 (1992): 20–33.Google Scholar
Steeples, Douglas W. “The Panic of 1893: Contemporary Reflections and Reactions.” Mid America 47 (1965): 155–75.Google Scholar
Stevens, Albert C. “Analysis of the Phenomena of the Panic in the United States in 1893.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 8 (January 1894): 117–48.Google Scholar
Tarr, Joel A. “J.R. Walsh of Chicago: A Case Study in Banking and Politics, 1881–1905.” Business History Review 40 (Winter 1966): 451–66.Google Scholar
White, Eugene N. “California Banking in the Nineteenth Century: The Art and Method of the Bank of A. Levy.” Business History Review 75 (Summer 2001): 297–324.Google Scholar
White, Richard. “Information, Markets, and Corruption: Transcontinental Railroads in the Gilded Age.” The Journal of American History 90 (June 2003): 19–45.Google Scholar
Wigmore, Barrie A. “Was the Bank Holiday of 1933 Caused by a Run on the Dollar?” Journal of Economic History 47, no. 3 (September 1987): 739–55.Google Scholar

Newspapers

Butte Miner (Butte, MT). May 1893–March 1897.Google Scholar
Daily Independent (Helena, MT). May 1893–March 1897.Google Scholar
Daily Inter Mountain (Butte, MT). May 1893–March 1897.Google Scholar
Helena Herald (Helena, MT). May 1893–March 1897.Google Scholar
Philipsburg Mail (Philipsburg, MT). May 1893–March 1897Google Scholar

Archival Sources

Civil Case #7398 (1894). Cass County District Court, Fargo, North Dakota, North Dakota, Center for Regional Studies, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND.Google Scholar
Criminal Cases #227, #228, #229, #230 (1897). United States District Court, Helena, Montana. RG 21. National Archives and Records Administration—Pacific Alaska Region, Seattle, WA.Google Scholar
Examiner’s Reports, First National Bank of Helena, Bank #1642, Department of the Treasury Records, Records of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (1863–1981), Record Group 101, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD.Google Scholar
Examiner’s Reports, Merchants National Bank, Bank#2732, Department of the Treasury Records, Records of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (1863–1981), Record Group 101, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD.Google Scholar
First National Bank Collection, MC 116, Montana Historical Society Archives, Helena, MT.Google Scholar
Merchants National Bank Collection, MC 115, Montana Historical Society Archives, Helena, MT.Google Scholar
Second National Bank Collection, MC 114, Montana Historical Society Archives, Helena, MT.Google Scholar

Government Documents

Comptroller of the Currency. Annual Report ofthe Comptroller of Currency to the Second Session of the Forty-Fifth Congress of the United States. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1877.Google Scholar
Comptroller of the Currency. Annual Report of the Comptroller of the Currency to the First Session of the Fifty-First Congress of the United States, vols. 1–2. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1889.Google Scholar
Comptroller of the Currency. Annual Report of the Comptroller of the Currency to the Second Session of the Fifty-Fourth Congress of the United States, vols. 1–2. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1896.Google Scholar
Remarks of Hon. Edward S. Lacey, Comptroller of the Currency. House Committee on Banking and Currency. February 13, 1890. House Committee on Banking and Currency. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1890, 1–20.Google Scholar
Statement of James H. Eckels, Comptroller ofthe Currency, Made Before the Committee on Banking and Currency, House of Representatives, At the Request of the Committee on the Existing Financial and Banking Situation and the Proposed Remedies, House Committee on Banking and Currency. Washington, 1897, 229–35.Google Scholar