Archives West Finding Aid
Table of Contents
Exchange National Bank of Spokane Records, 1880-1930
Overview of the Collection
- Creator
- Exchange National Bank of Spokane
- Title
- Exchange National Bank of Spokane Records
- Dates
- 1880-1930 (inclusive)18801930
- Quantity
- 29 containers., (12 linear feet of shelf space.), (7500 items.)
- Collection Number
- Cage 20
- Summary
- Correspondence, minutes, charters, reports, printed material and other papers of the bank and its subsidiaries; papers of businesses in which the bank had a financial interest; papers of the bank president, E.T. Coman, and his assistant, E.E. Flood. Correspondents include Idaho lumberman Fred Herrick, whose business failures caused the collapse of the bank.
- Repository
-
Washington State University Libraries' Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections
Terrell Library Suite 12
Pullman, WA
99164-5610
Telephone: 509-335-6691
mascref@wsu.edu - Access Restrictions
-
This collection is open for research use.
- Languages
- English
- Sponsor
- Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Historical NoteReturn to Top
The Exchange National Bank of Spokane was organized in 1889 and operated until early 1929. During its existence it was one of the major financial institutions of the Inland Empire and was generally regarded as the second largest bank in Spokane. The importance of the institution transcended its business activities as many of the people connected to ownership or management of the bank were active in governmental, educational, philanthropic, trade association, Federal Reserve and clearing house activities.
The bank itself was involved in many facets of financial and business operations beyond commercial lending. It was, in fact, a pioneer "full-service" bank, offering a savings department, home loans, escrow, trusts, and investment subsidiary - the Cariboo Company, and such other services at a fairly early date. It was, ironically, these special activities which eventually spelled the doom of the bank. More and more special loans, most of a capital investment nature, were made in the 1920s and the bank began to become involved in the operation and overseeing of other businesses. On occasion some of these concerns failed and the bank found itself directly operating non-financial business such as a stock yard and a lumber mill. Not only were such operations of doubtful legality, but additionally they proved to be business mistakes. The most costly mistake was a long protracted affair called "the Herrick loans." These loans grew from the vigorous lending activities of E. E. Flood, the moving spirit of the bank in the 1920s, who seems to have imagined himself as the "Washington Giannini." Flood, early in the 1920s, committed the bank to refinancing a series of commercial loans secured by personal notes which had been made by Fred Herrick, a logging and sawmill operator of St. Maries, Idaho. A crusty and colorful character of the "robber baron" stripe, Herrick was totally unscrupulous and seems to have consistently deceived Flood.
Through the mid-twenties, Flood continue to pick up Herrick's notes from banks all over east Washington and north Idaho. Eventually he realized Herrick was on the verge of insolvency. Flood then backed Herrick's proposal to contract cutting a vast stand of National Forest Land timber in central Oregon. When that arrangement failed to materialize, due to Herrick's difficult relations with governmental agencies, the whole Herrick operation began to collapse. Flood, in a last desperate effort to stave off bankruptcy, consolidated all the debts of Herrick, now totaling over four million dollars. He then attempted to refinance Herrick with gold bonds sold on the Chicago market. But before the bond sale was successfully completed, depositors who realized the bank was holding vast amount of illiquid assets began a "run," forcing its closure.
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
The papers of the Exchange National Bank of Spokane, Washington consist of a significant portion of the original records of the bank, being especially complete for the period after 1910, at which time the bank passed into the control of a new group of stockholders. Because of this, there may be some reason to regard this collection as papers emanating from the Coman-Huntley group of investors, rather than from the Exchange National Bank as a corporate entity. Supporting this is the inclusion in the collection of personal and political papers of Edwin Coman, president of the bank from 1910 to 1922, and of his assistant Everett Edmund Flood, who was the dominant figure in the bank after Coman.
Use of the CollectionReturn to Top
Preferred Citation
[Item Description]. Cage 20, Guide to the Exchange National Bank of Spokane Records. Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Arrangement
The present arrangement of the collection is an attempt to restore the relationships between the several parts of the collection. It was a process of addition and subtraction, as well as arrangement, as many items were weeded and several estrays were returned to the collection.
There are five main categories into which the thirty-four series are arranged. These are 1) Records and papers of the bank as a whole (A-N); 2) Internal operations and records of the bank (O-S); 3) Papers of subsidiaries or other businesses of which the bank assumed management (T-CC); 4) Papers of E.T. Coman and E. E. Flood, (DD-EE); and 5) Miscellaneous (FF-II).
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.
Series 1: Records and papers of the bank as a wholeReturn to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
container | file | ||
1 | A | Charter, Articles of Association,
company history (1915) 15
items.
|
1889-1921 |
1 | B | Minutes of Board of Directors and
annual meetings 50
items.
|
1910-1923 |
2 | C | Licenses, wartime registrations,
government bond agency certification, etc. 10
items.
|
1910-1920 |
2 | D | Minutes of Finance Committee
meetings 1
volume.
|
1890-1900 |
2 | E | Auditor's reports, statements of
condition, and statements of Caribou Company, the real estate holding affiliate
of the bank 50
items.
|
1915-1928 |
3-6 | F | Examiners Reports (Comptrollers'
calls), United States Treasury Department examinations, correspondence, and
inspections on behalf of the Department of Interior, required of the bank as a
recipient of Indian Agency money 500
items.
|
1889-1923 |
7 | G | Tax receipts on property in
Spokane, Whitman County, Idaho, and British Columbia 100
items.
|
1890-1925 |
7 | H | Surety bonds posted by directors,
officers, employees and some customers of the bank 150
items.
|
1905-1928 |
7 | I | Insurance policies and utility
contracts 150
items.
|
1895-1920 |
8-12 | J | General correspondence, arranged
chronologically 3000
items.
|
1889-1930 |
13 | K | Depository bonds, posted to
secure deposits of governmental units, such as city and county of Spokane,
Washington State Treasurer 25
items.
|
1912-1920 |
13 | L | Colville Indian Agency Account.
Depository bonds and correspondence with Department of Interior and the local
agent 200
items.
|
1900-1920 |
14 | M | Stock, bond and debenture
certificates, apparently part of escrow and assignment, many from Walter J.
Nicholls and Company, stock-brokers 300
items.
|
1880-1925 |
15-16 | N | Deeds, mortgages, assignments,
wills, trusts, contracts, mineral and water claims, satisfactions,
garnishments, and other legal papers concerning real estate in Illinois, Iowa,
South Dakota, Idaho and Washington, many from Newton, Guernsey and Company, a
mortgage placement firm closely allied to the bank 300
items.
|
1880- 1928 |
Series 2: Internal operations and records of the bankReturn to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
container | file | ||
17-19 | O | Escrow agreements on property in
the Spokane area and in North Idaho 200
items.
|
1895-1928 |
19 | P | Telegraphic code books apparently
used in the foreign exchange department, whose record will be found in General
Correspondence 15
items.
|
1910-1925 |
20 | Q | Depositors records: passbooks
record forms 200
items.
|
1900-1905 |
21 | R | Credit examinations: research
reports done preparatory to the making of loans, annual statements and audits
of several Spokane area businesses and the credit rating files of individual
borrowers 100
items.
|
1915-1925 |
21 | S | Estates: powers-of-attorney and
proxies to be exercised by the bank as executor. Includes naturalization papers
and funeral bills 20
items.
|
1880-1917 |
Series 3: Papers of subsidiaries or other businesses of which the bank assumed managementReturn to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
container | file | ||
22 | T | Walter J. Nicholls and Company,
stock-brokers of Spokane and a close affiliate of the bank. When his business
came to trouble in the early 1920's, and assignment arrangement was worked out
with the bank and eventually the bank acquired these papers. Documents and
correspondence 300
items.
|
1907-1926 |
22 | U | Spokane Union Stockyards Company.
Control of this firm passed to the bank in the early 1920's via a trustee
arrangement 50
items.
|
1920-1925 |
23 | V | Stack-Gibbs Lumber Company,
Gibbs, Idaho. Documents and correspondence relative to the bankruptcy of this
company whose solvency the bank had tried to preserve 30
items.
|
1916 |
23 | W | Caribou Company. Grants, deeds,
descriptions, contracts relative to certain tracts of land in British Columbia.
These lands were held in assignment, owned by the bank, or owned by the Caribou
Company 30
items.
|
1907-1920 |
23 | X | Mechanics Loan and Trust Company,
Spokane, This company was owned by certain of the bank's officers and was used
for making certain special loans 10
items.
|
1920 |
23 | Y | Little Falls water power site,
Spokane River, claim of David Wilson. Title abstracts, deeds, correspondence
with Interior Department and Indian Service relative to claim 40
items.
|
1900-1905 |
23 | Z | Wick Estate: correspondence
regarding sale of mining investments 10
items.
|
1921 |
24-25 | AA | Fred Herrick Correspondence and a
variety of legal documents relating to the "Herrick loans" which were the
biggest operations ever attempted by the bank and apparently the cause of its
demise. Involved was the effort to consolidate several millions of dollars of
loans to a number of corporations through which Herrick (b. 1853, resident of
St. Maries, Idaho) carried out a variety of timber operations in Idaho and
Oregon 700
items.
|
1920-1929 |
26 | BB | Pi Kappa Phi account, record of
donations to a fraternal organization in which certain of the bank's officers
were active 30
items.
|
1914-1919 |
26 | CC | Spokane Clearing House
Association, re: assessments for charities, lobbying, clearing house operations
and other activities of the association 130
items.
|
1909-1919 |
Series 4: Papers of E.T. Coman and E. E. FloodReturn to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
container | file | ||
27 | DD | Papers of Edwin Truman Coman (b.
1869). Personal and political correspondence of Coman, President of bank from
1910-1921; Washington State Senator (1918-1920); candidate for gubernatorial
nomination; member of Board of Regents of the State College of Washington; and
Director of the Spokane Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
Correspondents include Ernest Lister, E.A. Bryan, E.O. Holland, Miles
Poindexter, C.C. Dill, Wesley Jones, John Skelton Williams, William Gibbs
MacAdoo. 400
items.
|
1906-1922 |
27 | EE | Papers of Everett Edmund Flood
(b. 1881). Personal and political correspondence of Flood, assistant to the
President and later Vice President. Correspondents include Roland Hartley, Olaf
Olson and J. Stanley Webster. 250
items.
|
1918-1927 |
Series 5: MiscellaneousReturn to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
container | file | ||
27 | FF | Specimen contract for a vast
wheat pool or cartel 1
item.
|
1920 |
28 | GG |
Photographs; many of properties in which
Exchange National Bank loans were involved, such as the Herrick mill and
railroad in Oregon, various Spokane scenes, including the American Legion, GAR
and active military. Some with captions cited to "Kameragraphic News Service,
Spokane." (contact print from nitrates #s 12-80) 100
items.
|
1900-1930 |
29-30 | HH | Deposit record: ledger
books 2
volumes.
|
1900 |
28 | II | Advertising Material. 50
items.
|
1927 |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Banks and banking--Washington (State)--Spokane--Records and correspondence
Personal Names
- Coman, Edwin Truman, b. 1869
- Flood, Everett Edmund, b. 1881
- Herrick, Fred, b. 1853
Corporate Names
- Exchange National Bank --Archives (creator)