Bath National Bank, Bath, ME (Charter 494)
Bath National Bank, Bath, ME (Chartered 1864 - Open past 1935)
Town History
Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine. It is also the county seat of Sagadahoc County. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its 19th-century architecture. It is home to the Bath Iron Works and Heritage Days Festival, held annually on the Fourth of July weekend. It is commonly known as "The City of Ships" because of all the sailing ships that were built in the Bath shipyards. Bath is part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan statistical area. Bath has a 2020 population of 8,766. In 1860 the population was 8,076, peaking in 1920 at 14,731.
Abenaki Indians called the area Sagadahoc, meaning "mouth of big river". It was a reference to the Kennebec River, which Samuel de Champlain explored in 1605. Popham Colony was established in 1607 downstream, together with Fort St George. The settlement failed due to harsh weather and lack of leadership, but the colonists built the New World's first oceangoing vessel constructed by English shipwrights, the Virginia of Sagadahoc. It provided passage back to England. Most of Bath, Maine, was settled by travelers from Bath, England.
The next settlement at Sagadahoc was about 1660, when the land was taken from an Indian sagamore known as Robinhood. Incorporated as part of Georgetown in 1753, Bath was set off and incorporated as a town on February 17, 1781. It was named by the postmaster, Dummer Sewall, after Bath in Somerset, England. In 1844, a portion of the town was set off to create West Bath. On June 14, 1847, Bath was incorporated as a city, and in 1854 designated county seat. Land was annexed from West Bath in 1855.
Several industries developed in Bath, including lumber, iron, and brass, with trade in ice and coal. The city and surrounding area is renowned for its shipbuilding and, at one point, was home to more than 200 shipbuilding firms. The industry began in 1743, when Jonathan Philbrook and his sons built two vessels. Since that time, roughly 5,000 vessels have been launched from Bath, which became the nation's fifth largest seaport by the mid-19th century. The clipper ships built in Bath sailed to ports around the world. The last commercial enterprise to build wooden ships in the city was the Percy & Small Shipyard, whose schooner Wyoming is considered the largest wooden ship in world history, and which was acquired for preservation in 1975 by the Maine Maritime Museum. The most well-known shipyard is the Bath Iron Works, which was founded in 1884 by Thomas W. Hyde. Hyde became the firm's general manager in 1888. It has built hundreds of wooden and steel vessels, mostly warships for the U.S. Navy. During World War II, Bath Iron Works launched one new ship approximately every 17 days. The shipyard today is a major regional employer, and currently operates as a division of the General Dynamics Corporation.
Bath had six National Banks chartered during the Bank Note Era, and all six of those banks issued National Bank Notes.
| Obsolete Title | State
Charter |
National Bank
Title |
Federal
Charter |
Charter # | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Lincoln Bank | 1813 | The Lincoln NB | 1865 | 761 | 1910 merged with First NB |
| The Sagadahock Bank | 1836 | The Sagadahock NB | 1865 | 1041 | 1894 merged with Lincoln NB |
| The City Bank, Bath | 1853 | The First NB‡ | 1863 | 61 | 1882 Charter expired, became Charter 2743 |
| N/A | N/A | The First NB‡ | 1882 | 2743 | 1960 merged with First NB of Portland |
| The Bath Bank | 1855 | The Bath NB | 1864 | 494 | 1965 merged with Canal NB of Portland |
| N/A | N/A | The Marine NB | 1865 | 782 | 1910 absorbed by Lincoln NB |
‡Bank histories of Charter 61 and 2743 combined on one page.
Bank History
- Chartered August 12, 1864
- Succeeded Bath Bank
- Bank was Open past 1935
- Merged with The Canal National Bank of Portland, Maine (Charter 941), May 1965
On Thursday, July 12, 1855, the Bath Bank went into operation and its bills of various denominations were in circulation. Freeman Clark was president, and E.C. Hyde, cashier.[2] In December 1855, Mr. Partridge of Saccarappa was elected cashier of the Bath Bank. Capt. E.C. Hyde, its late cashier, began his duties as superintendent of the Kennebec and Portland Railroad on Wednesday, December 19th.[3]
Stockholders met in the banking room on Thursday, October 8, 1863, to choose directors and to consider organizing under the National Banking Law approved February 25, 1863.[4]
On Tuesday, January 8, 1867, stockholders elected the following directors: Freeman Clark, president; Alfred Lemont, A.G. Page, Geo. A. Preble, Arthur Sewall, T.M. Reed, and Jas. T. Patten. W.D. Hill was cashier.[5]
In January 1901, the comptroller of the currency announced changes in the Bath National Bank as follows: Wm. D. Sewall, president, in place of Arthur Sewall, deceased. Samuel S. Sewall, vice president, in place of Wm. D. Sewall.[6]
In January 1914, directors of the Bath National Bank were William D. Sewall, president; Samuel S. Sewall, vice president; Arthurs S. Bosworth, Albert H. Shaw, Langdon T. Snipe, Frank B. Nichols; Fred D. Hill, cashier; Harry A. Walters, assistant cashier.[7]
On Tuesday, January 13, 1920, stockholders elected the following directors: William D. Sewell, Arthur Sewall, Albert H. Shaw, Langdon T. Snipe, Frank B. Nicholas, Samuel S. Seall. The officers elected were W.D. Sewall, president; Arthur Sewall, vice president; Fred D. Hill, cashier; Harry A. Walters and Dunlap A. Hatch, assistant cashiers.[8]
On Tuesday, January 9, 1934, no changes were made at the annual meeting of stockholders. The directors re-elected were Fred D. hill, John G. Morse, Frank B. Nichols, Arthur Sewall, Sumner Sewall, and Dr. Langdon T. Snipe. Arthur Sewall was re-elected president; Fred D. Hill, vice president and cashier; Harry A. Walters and Dunlap A. Hatch, assistant cashiers.[9] On August 14, 1934, Arthur Sewell, president of the Bank National Bank was selected Class A director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.[10]
On Tuesday, January 14, 1964, a pension plan for employees of the bank was ratified by shareholders. The directors re-elected were Edwin R. Andrews, Harry C. Crooker, Frank Freeman, Edward A. Myers, T. Tarpy Schulten, Nicholas S. Sewall, and Gov. Sumner Sewall. The directors met following the shareholders' meeting and re-elected Sumner Sewall, president; Edwin R. Andrews, senior vice president; Reginald L. Parker, executive vice president and cashier; Miss Hedwidge Rheaume, vice president and trust officer; Dominique J. Tardif, vice president; Horace H. Lee, Mrs. Catherine E. Little, assistant cashiers and Mrs. Patricia L. Skinner, loan officer.[11]
On Monday, January 25, 1965, Former Governor Sumner Sewall, president of the Bank National Bank, died unexpectedly at his home at 1132 Washington Street. Mr. Sewall was a World War I flying ace, a commercial aviation pioneer, and a distinguished politician. He was president of American Overseas Airline and spent a year in Germany as U.S. Military governor of Wuerttemberg-Baden. In World War I, Mr. Sewall was a pilot with the famous 95th Pursuit Squadron and was credited with downing seven German planes and balloons.[12]
In February 1965, T. Tarpy Schulten of Woolwich was appointed the new president of the Bath National Bank. He was the seventh person to serve as president of Bath's oldest remaining independent commercial bank which was observing its 110th anniversary. The new president was a native of Louisville, Kentucky and was connected with banking, manufacturing and public relations firms in that state and in New York City prior to moving to Maine in 1950. He was a member of the 100th Main Legislature, later served two years as a member of the Governor's Executive Council, and director of the bank since 1958.[13] In March directors of the Canal National Bank and the Bath National Bank agreed to make a second try to merge the two institutions. The consolidated bank would operate under the name and charter of the Canal National Bank, according to T. Tarpy Schulten, Bath National president, and Widgery Thomas, Canal president. Directors first approved a merger at the end of February 1964; however, the proposal failed to get the two-thirds approval need from stockholders of the Bath National after being approved by Canal stockholders. Proposed capital of the merged bank would be 470,000 shares of $10 par value. Of that amount, 38,000 shares would go to Bath National stockholders in exchange for their 8,400 shares, and 432,000 to Canal stockholders in exchange for their 420,000 shares. For Bath bank stockholders that broke down to 4-11/21 shares in the merged bank for each share of Bath National stock. The banks were two of the oldest in Maine. Canal Bank was founded in 1803 and Bath National in 1855. Total resources of the merged bank would be more than $70 million.[14]
On Friday, April 30, 1965, stockholders of the Canal National Bank and the Bath National Bank approved consolidating the two institutions. T. Tarpy Schulten would become a vice president and director of the Canal bank.[15] On May 12, 1965, announcement was made of the approval of the consolidation under the Canal name by the Comptroller of the Currency. The consolidation gave Canal 20 branches with the 21st planned to open in August at Brunswick.[16]
Official Bank Title
1: The Bath National Bank, Bath, ME
Bank Note Types Issued
A total of $3,640,630 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1864 and 1935. This consisted of a total of 454,625 notes (387,436 large size and 67,189 small size notes).
This bank issued the following Types and Denominations of bank notes:
Series/Type Sheet/Denoms Serial#s Sheet Comments Original Series 3x1-2 1 - 2250 Original Series 4x5 1 - 4000 Original Series 3x10-20 1 - 1300 Original Series 50-100 1 - 736 Series 1875 3x1-2 1 - 400 Series 1875 4x5 1 - 3080 Series 1875 3x10-20 1 - 1135 1882 Brown Back 3x10-20 1 - 12316 1902 Red Seal 4x5 1 - 6500 1902 Red Seal 3x10-20 1 - 4800 1902 Date Back 4x5 1 - 9600 1902 Date Back 3x10-20 1 - 7580 1902 Plain Back 4x5 9601 - 41185 1902 Plain Back 3x10-20 7581 - 19525 1929 Type 1 6x5 1 - 7290 1929 Type 1 6x10 1 - 1980 1929 Type 1 6x20 1 - 528 1929 Type 2 5 1 - 4886 1929 Type 2 10 1 - 2771 1929 Type 2 20 1 - 744
Bank Presidents and Cashiers
Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1864 - 1935):
Presidents:
- Freeman Clark, 1864-1866
- Albert G. Page, 1867-1870
- Arthur Sewall, (Sr.), 1871-1900
- William Dunning Sewall, 1901-1929
- Arthur Sewall, (Jr.), 1930-1935
Cashiers:
Other Known Bank Note Signers
- No other known bank note signers for this bank
Bank Note History Links
Sources
- Bath, ME, on Wikipedia
- Don C. Kelly, National Bank Notes, A Guide with Prices. 6th Edition (Oxford, OH: The Paper Money Institute, 2008).
- Dean Oakes and John Hickman, Standard Catalog of National Bank Notes. 2nd Edition (Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 1990).
- Banks & Bankers Historical Database (1782-1935), https://spmc.org/bank-note-history-project
- ↑ The Times Record, Brunswick, ME, Thu., Apr. 22, 1965.
- ↑ Eastern Times, Bath, ME, Thu., July 19, 1855.
- ↑ Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, Bangor, ME, Wed., Dec. 19, 1855.
- ↑ The Times Record, Brunswick, ME, Tue., Sep. 22, 1863.
- ↑ The Times Record, Brunswick, ME, Sat., Jan. 12, 1867.
- ↑ Commercial, Bangor, ME, Fri., Jan. 25, 1901.
- ↑ Kennebec Journal, Augusta, ME, Wed., Jan. 14, 1914.
- ↑ The Times Record, Brunswick, ME, Tue., Jan. 13, 1920.
- ↑ The Times Record, Brunswick, ME, Tue., Jan. 9, 1934.
- ↑ Rutland Daily Herald, Rutland, VT, Wed., Aug. 15, 1934.
- ↑ The Times Record, Brunswick, ME, Tue., Jan. 14, 1964.
- ↑ The Times Record, Brunswick, ME, Tue., Jan. 26, 1965.
- ↑ The Times Record, Brunswick, ME, Mon., Feb. 8, 1965.
- ↑ Evening Express, Portland, ME, Tue., Mar. 9, 1965.
- ↑ Evening Express, Portland, ME, Fri., Apr. 30, 1965.
- ↑ The Times Record, Brunswick, ME, Wed., May 12, 1965.