Jasper County, Missouri - Chapter 40: Mining and Banking, 1912

Fifteen Years' Mineral Output - Prices for Twelve Years - Strike AT Oronogo - Banks and Banking - The Panic of 1907 - Business Carried on by Checks - Jasper County Bankers' Association - The Joplin Clearing House.

During the last decade, excepting now and then, the old-time methods of mining have disappeared and the modem mill, with its up-to-date machinery and equipment, has taken the place of the old windlass, the horse hoister and the hand jig.

The mining industry of the county can best be represented by a citation of the output of the several mines during the decade, and because the great mining industry, of which Jasper county is the center, has so much in common - with other portions of the district. Therefore, for comparison's sake, we include in our table the output of the entire mining district.

The following table will give an idea of the several mining districts of Jasper county, the figures showing the total value of the lead and zinc output for 1911 :

At the "World's Fair, 1904, the mining industry of Jasper county was well advertised, five train loads of specimens being sent from the mines of the district. The feature of the exhibit was a mill in operation, where the visitors were shown the maimer in which the mineral product was prepared for the market. At this mill was a representation of a mine from which the mineral was hoisted with the full equipment of an upto-date mill, crusher, steam jig and all.

wages and at Oronogo in May, 1900, went on a strike for higher pay. The strike was attended with no riots. The miners simply quit work and the miners throughout the district did not rush in to take their places. The Granby Company which controls most of the mines at this place arbitrated the matter with the miners and the following sliding scale of wages was agreed to : When jack sold for less than twenty dollars a ton, miners were paid $1.75 a day ; when it sold from twenty to thirty dollars a ton, $2.00; from thirty to thirty-five dollars, $2.25; from thirty-five to forty dollars, $2.50 ; and so on for each five dollar raise in the price of jack an additional twenty-five cents per day was added to the pay of the spade hands, tub men, etc.

The banking interests of Jasper county have grown to such importance that, we prefer, on account of the conditions peculiar to this last decade, to treat them as a whole, rather than make separate comment of them in the history of the different cities and towns.

Fourteen new banks were organized and have added not only great strength to the county in a financial way but have greatly facilitated the transaction of business. We have to record the failure of one bank, the first bank failure in the county since the panic of 1893, to-wit, the Joplin Savings Bank. With this single exception the banks of the county have flourished.

In 1907 Jasper county was enjoying unbounded prosperity. Jack was commanding a good price and in all of the mining communities there was great activity. The people in the farming districts were prospering, and in the cities especially - Joplin, Webb City and Carthage - ^there was a pronounced building boom. The demand for houses made real estate in great demand and everything was life and activity in the business world: Early in October the failure of the Manhattan Trust Company, of New York City, threw the county into the wildest excitment, and it was feared that many of the large financial institutions of the metropolis would go to the wall. The banks in the exchange cities declined to ship money to their correspondents in the country and for the two-fold purpose of (1st) preventing a run on the banks and thus plunging the country into a great financial disaster and (2nd) of carrying on the business of the country, the following plan was adopted by most of the banks of the county :

(1) The people were asked to pay all of their obligations with checks - that is, if they had a bank account, and these checks, based on the credit at the bank, served as a medium of exchange.

(2) Each customer at a bank was permitted to draw in money during the week twenty per cent, of his deposit, but no more than fifty dollars was paid to any one person.

,this time would mean great disaster to the people and quickly dropped into the plan proposed, to meet the situation until the banks of the large cities could work out a plan to meet the emergency.

For the convenience of carrying on the business of the county the mine owners and other large employers issued a number of small checks to their employees in payment for their wages. To illustrate: At the Yellow Dog mine, Webb City, checks were issued in two dollar denomination and for fractional parts. If the miner had earned $17.50 for the week, he received eight $2 checks and one of $1.50, and with these he could easily pay his grocer, butcher, milkman, etc., and at each place receive a little change for incidentals. At other places the checks were split up, as the wage earner desired it.

After the first week of the panic the banks of the county issued cashiers' checks in $1, $2 and $5 denominations and these served as a medium of exchange until January 1, 1908, when all of the banks began to pay out the real money over the counter and the panic, save the effect, was at an end.

Several of the large firms, such as Newmans in Joplin, and Humphry, at Webb City, also issued their personal checks for the purpose of expediting the business of the community. To illustrate : The customer desired to buy a hat - say that would cost $3 - and tendered in payment his wage check. This was accepted and in return for the balance the purchaser was paid one or two of the firm's $1 and $2 checks and some money. These personal checks were accepted without protest and were counted as good as a bank draft.

Most everybody wanted to get rid of the checks and cashiers* checks, and so the people bought as much, if not more, than before the panic came on, and as the merchant at the bank received credit for all these cash items the business of the county went merrily on.

All of this carrying on the business of the community on paper brought on an immense amount of bookkeeping at the banks. It will be readily seen that as it takes as much labor to enter a check for $2 as one for $20, there would be about five times the amount of labor in handling a $20 payment of wages, because there would be perhaps five checks in small denominations issued to cover the amount paid. It was no uncommon thing for the bank clerks to labor late into the night in disposing of the day's business, especially the Saturday and Monday's work.

Until the panic all of the banks of the county kept open on Saturday night, and, in the mining towns especially about one-fourth of the business of the week was transacted. All of the stores kept open until late and the scene of activity was a sight worth going miles to see. The stores were crowded and the streets packed. When the panic came on, however, it was thought best not to open the banks on Saturaday nights.

and since then the banks throughout the county have thought that the business could be handled satisfactorily without the Saturday night opening. Two banks in Carterville and four in Joplin have returned to the Saturday night opening and transact a general banking business from 7 to 8 o'clock. Quite a number of the banks which did not return to its old plan, encouraged their customers paying large numbers of men to use the envelope system and pay the men at the mines and factories in money. This, of course, does away to a certain extent with the demand for the Saturday night opening.

The panic brought into existence the Jasper County Bankers' Association which, during the panic, held many sessions, looking to a satisfactory solution of the great problem then before the people. This association, at its organization, agreed that in the event of a run on any bank to come, as a body, to the rescue, and so complete was the understanding, and so splendidly did each bank do its part, that at the close of this unfortunate financial disturbance every bank was as solid as the day the storm broke loose ; in place of having lost deposits, they had increased them and, excepting for the unpleasant memories of the strenuous ten weeks that followed the failure of The Manliattan Trust Company of New York, the banks of Jasper county came through without the loss of a dollar to either the depositors or stockholders and as strong as the everlasting hills.

The following banks compose the Jasper County Bankers' Association : Bank of Alba, Alba; Bank of Carl Junction and Citizens' Bank, Carl Junction; First National Bank and Miners' Bank, Carterville; Bank of Carthage, Carthage National Bank and Central National Bank, Carthage; Farmers & Merchants and First National Banks, Jasper; Citizens' State, Conqueror Trust Company, Cunningham National, First National. Joplin National, Joplin State, Joplin Trust Company and Miners' Bank, Joplin ; Bank of LaRussell, LaRussell ; Bank of Neck City, Neck City; Bank of Oronogo, Oronogo; Bank of Purcell, Purcell; Bank of Reeds, Reeds; First National Bank of Sarcoxie, and State Bank, Sarcoxie; Merchants & Miners' Bank, Mineral Belt Bank, National Bank and Webb City Bank, Webb City.

The banks of Joplin, at the beginning of the panic of 1907, organized, for the purpose of better handling the perplexing financial situation, a clearing house and its operations were highly successful and very greatly assisted in maintaining confidence among the people.

The seven banks of the city guaranteed each other credit and issued, in place of the cashiers' certificates, which had circulated for the first few days of the financial flurry, clearing house certificates which were guaranteed by the Clearing House Association.

For each seventy-five dollars of the clearing house certificates issaed one hundred dollars of either bonds or approved securities were deposited with the finance committee of the Clearing House and were pledged to secure their payment. This gave the clearing house certificates an air of stability which maiiced them gilt edge and these were taken, not only in Joplin but by surrounding towns and not infrequently found their way to the banks of the exchange cities, everywhere passing at i>ar.

The clearing house was found to be such a convenience in handling the business of the city that its organization has been maintained and the daily balances of the banks' daily clearings are settled through this medium. The oflScers of the clearing house from its organization to now have been : President, John A. Cragin, of the First National Bank, and manager and secretary, J. A. Qarm, of the Joplin National Bank.