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)
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)