of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 406-407
MERCHANTS' EXCHANGE. After Colonel Isett took up his residence in New York, the firm of Isett & Brewster was merged into the Merchants' Exchange Bank, which a little later became the Merchants' Exchange National Bank and is now the First National Bank. Peter Jackson was the first president of this bank and William C. Brewster its first cashier. Mr. Brewster's resignation and removal from the city soon came and S. G. Stein became president and Mr. Jackson cashier.
I entered the Muscatine branch of the State Bank of Iowa, a boy, early in 1864. My first duty in those days was the sorting of the bills of state banks which came to the bank in the regular course of its business. They were issued by the hundreds of banks in all sections of the country. All these notes were at a discount, those of New York and New England at one rate; those of the state banks of Indiana and Ohio at another, and others at still different rates, and all these rates were fluctuating from day to day. Telegrams from Chicago announcing failures and changes were frequently received and resorting became necessary. There were hundreds of counterfeits and altered notes in circulation. The rate paid for exchange on New York and Chicago was high and the business men of today have little idea of the cost of those days of banking privileges.
The directors of the Muscatine branch in 1865 were Jacob Butler, Chester Weed, John B. Dougherty, S. Douglas Viele and Joseph Richardson; of the Merchants' Exchange Bank, Simon G. Stein, William H. Stewart, R. M. Burnett, William C. Brewster, Charles Page, D. C. Richman, Henry W. Moore, Peter Jackson and I. L. Graham. Can you find fourteen better men in Muscatine county today?
S. Brewster of Cook, Musser & Company entered the office of Isett & Brewster soon after I did that of the Muscatine branch. He is the Nestor of banking in Muscatine and has been longer continously in that business I believe than any man in the state. These two banks served the whole country. Their aggregrate deposits at no time exceeded $450,000.
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