Hidden Places

I learned of this piece of local history while back home recently. This following is taken from the book "The Battles Story" by Sabina Shields Freeman, 1992. Thank you to my friend, Paul, for teaching me about the courage and sense of Elizabeth Battles.

The history of the R.S. Battles Bank was incredible from its beginning. It was privately owned and conducted business long beyond the lifetime of such institutions. It had survived the banking panic of 1873 and the resulting depression. In 1933 there was another crisis to overcome.

The stock market crash in 1929 revealed that the basic business of the country was unsound. Everything was affected as the economy began a relentless downward spiral.

On Thursday and Friday, March 2 and 3, 1933, there were heavy runs on all the banks. Millions were withdrawn in gold each day and hoarded. By that Friday evening 27 states had authorized or put restrictions on bank withdrawals.

Using authorization available through the amended Trading with the Enemy Act of October 6, 1917, [Roosevelt] proclaimed "a bank holiday for all banks and a cessation of all banking transactions..." to be in effect until March 10.

The R.S. Battles Bank had been solely owned by Elizabeth Battles since 1920. She was vacationing out west that March and wired back instructions to remain open to her uncle, Charles F. Webster, who as cashier had managed the bank for many years.

On opening hour March 6, 1933 ... [there] were three or four men [outside] ... whooping and yelling. At the appointed hour the doors of the bank opened. The depositors rushed in demanding their money and it was turned over to them immediately. Then Webster said, "Now what are you going to do with it?" 99% turned right back and redeposited it.

According to the Erie Daily Times, there were 1,147 banks in Pennsylvania at that time. All but one closed.

It was the Battles Bank that was making news. Under the title, "Girard Bank Says 'Pooh' to State and U.S. Closing Edict," the Erie Daily Times carried the local story on March 9, 1933.

With a Girard, PA dateline, the New York Times printed on March 11: "There has been no banking holiday as far as the Battles Bank in Girard is concerned. Business has been transacted as usual, officials explained. The institute is neither a state nor a federal bank. It is private, operated on the same basis as a private or independent store."

There is still a story that circulates that when government officials learned that the Battles Bank has not closed, they issued orders for it to comply immediately. Perhaps those orders came directly from the president, for either Webster, Kibler [bank teller] or Elizabeth Battles is said to have sent a telegram back to Roosevelt stating, "We're minding our business, you do the same." (An inquiry to the archivist at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park revealed that no such telegram is on file at that site.)

It was progress that finally closed the Battles Bank. After a delay earlier in the year, on July 25, 1946, it merged with the Girard National Bank to offer more services and physical room to their combined customers.

Thank you Norann Dillon! Future Senator!