A Failed Seattle Bank’s Frozen Fortune
Receiver C. M. Sheafe told the court that the Washington Savings Bank’s notes and bonds might eventually pay, but its real estate was unsellable in the hard times of 1894.
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.
The first report of the receiver of the Washington Savings Bank, C. M. Sheafe, was filed yesterday, together with a schedule of the bank’s resources and liabilities as ascertained by him. The schedule showed total resources and liabilities of $253,000.98. Among the resources were loans and discounts, overdrafts, city and county warrants, tax certificates, stocks and bonds, furniture and fixtures, real estate valued at $22,506.04, and interest advanced. Liabilities included $100,000 capital stock, bills payable, and outstanding deposits.
The receiver states that he has carefully gone over the list of bonds, notes, etc., evidencing debt, and from all he can learn believes that in time the greater part, if not all of them, can be collected. He says that as a great deal of the security for the debt is real estate, for which there is at present no sale, he would advise reducing all the debts to judgment, selling the security if possible for enough to discharge the debt, but if not to allow the bank to bid it in and preserve it for creditors.
The receiver was yesterday granted permission to accept from W. W. Dearborn, as security for his debt of $26,517, a trust deed, absolute in one year if the debt is not then paid, of $18,950 worth of Seattle and Iowa real estate, the valuation being set on a hard times basis. Also a transfer of 220 shares of the bank’s capital stock.
“As a great deal of the security for the debt is real estate, for which there is at present no sale, he would advise reducing all the debts to judgment.”
Bank failures and frozen real estate are familiar in Seattle’s booms and busts, from the 1890s to 2008. The receiver’s “hard times basis” valuation is a reminder that a paper fortune can vanish when no buyer can be found.
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