State Bank of Commerce, Wallace, Idaho Records, 1901-1911
Table of Contents
Overview of the Collection
- Creator
- State Bank of Commerce, Wallace, Idaho
- Title
- State Bank of Commerce, Wallace, Idaho Records
- Dates
- 1901-1911 (inclusive)19011911
- Quantity
- 34 cubic feet
- Collection Number
- MG050 (collection)
- Summary
- Ledgers and correspondence of the State Bank of Commerce and its predecessor, the Bank of Commerce, including letters between bank president Bennett F. O'Neil, Idaho governor James H. Brady, and Senator William E. Borah regarding Republican Party activities in Idaho.
- Repository
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University of Idaho Library, Special Collections and Archives
Special Collections and Archives
University of Idaho Library
875 Perimeter Drive
MS 2350
Moscow, ID
83844-2350
Telephone: 2088850845
libspec@uidaho.edu - Languages
- English
- Sponsor
- Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Biographical Note
The State Bank of Commerce, successor to the Bank of Commerce organized in 1901, was organized May 1, 1903. Its officers were Bennett F. O'Neil, president, Thomas L. Greenough, vice president, Maurice H. Hare, cashier, and Charles Z. Seelig, assistant cashier. Additional directors were Albert Burch, Ewan McIntosh, August Paulsen, and G. Scott Anderson who was also a director of the Lane Lumber Company. Later E.S. Wyman succeeded Hare as cashier and in July 1906 Harry L. Day, a major depositor in the bank--the Day family interests had a total of 12 different accounts--joined the board of directors.
The bank was suspended in May 1911 following O'Neil's unsuccessful campaign for governor. A combination of campaign expenses, bad investments and excessive borrowing--on the closing date of the bank his indebtedness comprised 70% of the bank's total loans--depleted the bank's reserves and he was unable to honor depositors' demands when they began withdrawing their money. The bank was turned over to the state bank commissioner and Harry L. Day was named trustee, thus giving him physical control of the bank's records. He asked Bland & Wilson Accountants of Spokane to go over the books and prepare a report. They concluded the failure was due to "excessive and dishonest financing of the personal enterprises of B.F. O'Neil, President and G. Scott Anderson, Director, aided and abetted by E.S. Wyman, Cashier," and also "the abstraction of funds for the private use of B.F. O'Neil."
Content Description
The papers of the State Bank of Commerce span the years 1901 to 1911. They include correspondence and bound financial volumes. In addition to the routine bank correspondence there is also personal correspondence of bank president, B.F. O'Neil, relating to investments and his activities in the Republican Party. Among his frequent correspondents are Governor James H. Brady and William E. Borah. Also included is an early treasurer's book for the town of Wallace, Idaho.
The correspondence is widely scattered, leaving large gaps in the sequence. Several volumes listed on the original inventory were missing at the time of processing. These include one Auxiliary Book, one Trial Balance Book April 1910 to 1911, two Balance Ledgers, 1901-1902 and May 1905 to 1906, one Teller's Cash Book March 1904 to June 1906, and one Closed and Transferred Accounts book. Several volumes not on the original list were with the records, and it is possible the missing volumes were misidentified originally.
Administrative Information
Arrangement
The foldered correspondence, which includes both incoming and outgoing letters and telegrams, was originally arranged first alphabetically, then chronologically by year only. In order to make the collection more useable the correspondence was further separated by month, but no attempt was made to put material in strict chronological order. The letterbooks of outgoing correspondence are in chronological order.
There is a second set of letterbooks labeled "Statements" which contain letterpress copies of bank statements sent to depositors; these were placed at the beginning of the second series.
The remaining bound volumes include stock certificates, Auxiliary Records, Savings Ledgers, books listing valuable papers intrusted to the bank and include the agreements between the bank and the depositor, ledgers of individual accounts, and other financial volumes necessary for record keeping.
Some volumes from the original Bank of Commerce form their own series. These were separated from the State Bank of Commerce records because of their uniform small size and paper binding.
One final volume is the 1890-1897 Town of Wallace Treasurer's Book. This item appears on the original inventory received with the papers so was retained with the collection. Another volume which appeared on the original inventory, an account book of the Wallace Press, was transferred to the Day Mines, Inc. Collection, an unprocessed manuscript group, which also contains Wallace Press Times records. (MG 310)
Several volumes have been water damaged, and the handwriting in others is fading. Many of the volumes are labeled as exhibits for either plaintiff or prosecution in the criminal investigation which followed the failure of the bank.
Acquisition Information
The records of the State Bank of Commerce, Wallace, Idaho, were donated to the University of Idaho library by Henry L. Day in November 1968.
Separated Materials
One box of deposit slips, 2 boxes of debit and credit slips, and one box of bank statements and canceled checks were removed from the collection. In all the records were reduced by two cubic feet.
Bibliography
Barrett, Glen. Idaho Banking. Boise, Boise State University Press, 1976.
Bland & Wilson, Accountants. "Report on Investigation of State Bank of Commerce, Wallace, Idaho. January 12, 1912. (Papers of Harry L. Day in an unprocessed manuscript group, Day Mines, Inc., Special Collections Library, University of Idaho.) (MG318)
Illustrated History of North Idaho. s.l., Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903.
Detailed Description of the Collection
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Series I. Correspondence, 1901-1911
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Description: A200 itemsDates: 1907-1909Container: Box/Folder 1/1-2
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Description: B1245 itemsDates: 1906-1909Container: Box/Folder 1/3-9
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Description: Baker Clothing, Wardner, Idaho37 itemsDates: 1907Container: Box/Folder 1/10
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Description: Bankers National Bank, Chicago13 itemsDates: 1906-1907Container: Box/Folder 1/11
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Description: Boise City National Bank, Boise, Idaho7 itemsDates: 1907Container: Box/Folder 1/12
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Description: Borah, William E.17 itemsDates: 1907-1909Container: Box/Folder 1/13
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Description: C108 itemsDates: 1901-1902Container: Box/Folder 1/14
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Description: C1278 itemsDates: 1905-1910Container: Box/Folder 1/15-23
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Description: Clark, W.A. and Brother, Bankers6 itemsDates: 1907Container: Box/Folder 1/24
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Description: D58 itemsDates: 1901-1902Container: Box/Folder 2/25
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Description: D130 itemsDates: 1905-1906Container: Box/Folder 2/26
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Description: E65 itemsDates: 1901-1902Container: Box/Folder 2/27
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Description: F213 itemsDates: 1901-1902Container: Box/Folder 2/28-29
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Description: G76 itemsDates: 1901-1902Container: Box/Folder 2/30
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Description: G79 itemsDates: 1907-1908Container: Box/Folder 2/31
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Description: K162 itemsDates: 1907-1911Container: Box/Folder 2/32-33
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Description: M232 itemsDates: 1908Container: Box/Folder 2/34
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Description: N464 itemsDates: 1906-1910Container: Box/Folder 2/35-37
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Description: National Bank of Commerce, New York City122 itemsDates: 1906-1907Container: Box/Folder 2/38
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Description: P118 itemsDates: 1908Container: Box/Folder 2/39
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Description: S385 itemsDates: 1908-1909Container: Box/Folder 2/40-41
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Description: Y11 itemsDates: 1910Container: Box/Folder 2/42
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Description: Returned letters for which there are no folders4 itemsDates: 1908-1909Container: Box/Folder 2/43
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Description: Letterbooks4 itemsDates: 1901-1902Container: Box/Folder 2/45-48
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Description: Letterbooks5 itemsDates: 1902-1909Container: Box/Folder 3/49-53
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Series II. Bound Volumes, 1901-1911
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Description: Letterbooks: Statements5 itemsDates: 1901-1907Container: Box/Folder 3/54-58
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Description: Letterbooks: Statements7 itemsDates: 1907-1911Container: Box/Folder 4/59-65
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Description: Stock Journal1 itemDates: 1903-1908Container: Box/Folder os/66
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Description: Stock Certificate Book1 itemDates: 1903-1909Container: Box/Folder os/67
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Description: Auxiliary Records21 itemsDates: 1903-1911Container: Box/Folder os/68-88
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Description: Savings Ledgers3 itemsDates: 1908-1910Container: Box/Folder os/89-91
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Description: Escrows and Valuable Papers in Trust6 itemsDates: 1901-1910Container: Box/Folder os/92-97
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Description: Reconcilement of Accounts7 itemsDates: 1902-1910Container: Box/Folder os/98-104
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Description: Trial Balance Books7 itemsDates: 1902-1910Container: Box/Folder os/105-111
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Description: Cash Books13 itemsDates: 1902-1911Container: Box/Folder os/112-124
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Description: Teller's Cash Book1 itemDates: September 1902-February 1904Container: Box/Folder os/125
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Description: Daily Balance Ledgers3 itemsDates: 1901-1905Container: Box/Folder os/126-128
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Description: Individual Account Ledgers5 itemsDates: 1906-1911Container: Box/Folder os/129-133
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Description: Individual Account Balance Ledgers2 itemsDates: 1905-1906Container: Box/Folder os/134-135
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Description: Individual Account Transfer Ledgers2 itemsDates: 1906-1911Container: Box/Folder os/136-137
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Description: Drafts, Cashiers Checks and Deposits Ledger1 itemDates: 1906-1911Container: Box/Folder os/138
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Description: Accounts Claimed, Indirect Deposits Ledger1 itemDates: 1910-1911Container: Box/Folder os/139
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Description: Ledgers: Accounts with other Banks3 itemsDates: 1906-1912Container: Box/Folder os/140-142
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Description: Current Liability Ledger1 itemDates: 1905-1912Container: Box/Folder os/143
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Description: Transfer Liability Ledger1 itemDates: 1907-1910Container: Box/Folder os/144
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Description: Closed and Transferred Accounts2 itemsDates: undatedContainer: Box/Folder os/145-146
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Description: Discounted Bills Register1 itemDates: 1901-1908Container: Box/Folder os/147
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Description: Unidentified Accounting Books2 itemsDates: 1906-1911Container: Box/Folder os/148-149
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Description: Certificate of Deposit Register1 itemDates: 1901-1905Container: Box/Folder os/150
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Description: General Ledger1 itemDates: 1904-1905Container: Box/Folder os/151
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Description: Unidentified Journal1 itemDates: January-March 1909Container: Box/Folder os/152
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Description: Detailed Account of State Bank of Commerce Account with Lane Lumber Company1 itemDates: December 1902 to May 1911Container: Box/Folder os/153
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Description: Deeds, Mortgages, etc.22 itemsDates: 1906-1911Container: Box/Folder os/154
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Series III. Other Records from Bank of Commerce, 1901-1902
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Description: Cash Books2 itemsDates: April 1901-January 1903Container: Box/Folder os/155-156
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Description: Counter Books2 itemsDates: April 1901-June 1902Container: Box/Folder os/157-158
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Description: Debts1 itemDates: January 1902-December 1902Container: Box/Folder os/159
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Description: Shoshone County Warrants Paid1 itemDates: 1902-1903Container: Box/Folder os/160
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Description: Journal1 itemDates: April 1901-August 1902Container: Box/Folder os/161
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Description: Ledger1 itemDates: April 1901-August 1902Container: Box/Folder os/162
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Series IV. Non-bank Records, 1890-1897
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Description: Town of Wallace Treasurer's Book1 itemDates: 1890-1897Container: Box/Folder os/163
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Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Banks and banking--Idaho--Wallace--History--Sources
- Idaho--Politics and government--Sources
Personal Names
- Borah, William Edgar, 1865-1940
- Brady, James H.
- O'Neill, Bennett F.
Corporate Names
- Bank of Commerce (Wallace, Idaho)
- Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- )--Idaho
- State Bank of Commerce (Wallace, Idaho)
