The Bank of Coupeville Collapse
A disgraced bank manager is returned to face justice after his reckless dissipation leads to an $11,000 shortfall.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Thomas R. Beals, the manager of the Bank of Coupeville, was taken back to that town by Sheriff Thomas Nunan yesterday morning to answer the charge of embezzling bank funds. Beals had fully recovered from his wild outbreak of dissipation and realized his situation. His chief fear seemed to be meeting the people of Coupeville. He expressed his willingness and ability to make full restitution, and was calmed by an agreement from Mr. Fairfield that the depositors would be satisfied with $6,000 in bonds. The bank is now in the hands of the court, with Walter Crockett appointed receiver. It is suspected that Beals used the depositors' money to buy up the bank's stock; at any rate, the bank has no means of recovering the money except by taking possession of his stock. Mr. Allmans, the cashier, says the shortage is about $6,000 due depositors, but the total defalcation is estimated at $11,000.
“Mrs. Allmans was ill with grief at her brother's disgrace and had an attack of hysterics.”
Bank failures and internal embezzlement schemes have long been a feature of frontier finance, with the fallout hitting local depositors—like school teachers and county officials—hardest. This story highlights the precarious nature of community banking in early Washington, where the line between personal wealth and depositors' savings was often dangerously thin.
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