hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

180 BUSINESS METHODS AND CHARACTERISTICS.
bilities of hardly three and a half millions. The most
serious was the failure of the bank of Palmer, Cook
and Company, which involved a number of officials,^ 0
and shook the credit of the state. Then, with a misunderstood
uprising of popular power, California sank
into disgrace abroad. But it was only for a time.
In view of the apparently reckless way of doing
business, California has been remarkably free from
financial convulsions, and these misfortunes, the only
great disasters during flush times, were brought upon
her primarily through her connections.
The crisis of 1855-6 was but the clouded change
from the magnificent disorder of the golden period to
the better regulated tenor of a setttled era; from the
speculative mania of general mining to the sedate
habits of broad industrial expansion. On the ruins
of mushroom firms rose the substantial houses of men
trained and purified by varied experience; men who
had helped to raise reliable safeguards against hurtful
fluctuations, and established standards for more
legitimate business, under which San Francisco was
to retain the high position gained as the fifth commercial
city in the union, and the foremost on the Pacific.
in May. Nine years later there was still half a million owing, besides interest,
with a residue of barely five per cent to meet it Meanwhile the
run extended to other banks, among them foremost Adams & Co. The failures
for the year, chiefly connected with this crisis, numbered 197, with
liabilities over $8,300,000, and assets estimated at only $1,500,000. Among
these figured Markwald & Caspari with about $268,000 liabilities, J. B. Bidleman
$261,000, A. J. Tobias $250,000, £. Vischer $192,000, J. Middleton
$180,000, Chapin & Sawyer $180,000, Gibbs & Co. $166,000, T. F. Gould
$145,000, A. S. Wright $145,000, C. H. West $144,000, R. H. Chenery
$140,000, J. A. McCrea $131,000, F. Vassault $119,000, M. A. Correa
$116,000, T. Sherry $115,000, Lepien, Schultz & Co. $112,000. Lucas, Turner
& Co., B. Davidson & Co., and Drexel, Sather & Church sustained themselves
under heavy pressure; Palmer, Cook & Co., and Tallant & Wilde
were considered sound enough to escape the fury; Wells, Fargo & Co. suspended
only temporarily for lack of ready coin; but Wright's Miners' Exchange
bank succumbed, as did Robinson & Co.'s aavingB bank. Other savings
banks are mentioned elsewhere.
6 * Who had intrusted it with large sums of public money on the strength
of the surety offered for them. Its liabilities as bondsmen for state officials
alone were placed at $583,000. Sac. Union. Oct. 17, 1855; July 1856; 8. F.
Bulletin, Nov. 28, 1855; July 30, 1856; AUa Cat In June 1856 the firm
failed for the secoud time to pay the interest on the state bonds at N. York,
and to meet their own drafts there. Among the leading bankrupts were
Clifford * Simmons for $355,000, Fnedlander k Kirchner $285,000, H. A-
Breed $132,000, H. B. Pomeroy $107,000, £. S. Perkins $108,000.