Romance of an industrious man. His progress from boyhood to a bank presidency – how he gained his wealth and successfully failed in business – disappearance of the savings of over 2,000 depositors – convicted of consipiracy to defraud and sentenced to receive the full penalty of the law.
Special Dispatch to the New-York Times.
Pottsville, Penn, Jan. 22 – This is a story about a poor young man: He was born 70 years ago, in a small village in the Pennsylvania-Dutch County of Berks. His father was a proprietor of a small country store, and at ten years of age young Jacob Huntzinger got his start in life by an appointment to the responsible position of chore-boy in his father’s establishment. By industry, enterprise and encouragement he advanced step by step until he was made a partner, and his counsel in a recent suit to which he was a party – as will appear hereafter – related feeling how the junior partner walked all the way to Philadelphia, a distance of nearly 100 miles, to purchase goods for the store. The simple business maxim of the Pennsylvania farmer and his mercantile brethren is, “Get all you can and keep what you get.” Jacob early learned its value, and applied it so successfully that we presently find him keeping a store of his own, and dealing in everything from needles and thread to core-wood and railroad sills. At 20 he married. His wife brought with her a fortune of a few hundred dollars, which she eked out after marriage by keeping boarders, and by acting as milliner and dress-maker for the village folk and the country side. With such a partner, success in life was assured. Jacob and his wife were now capitalists in a small way, and they presently went into real estate speculations, a number of bequests, which amounted to $6,400 in all, giving them material assistance. Jacob, however, did not neglect a legitimate business for speculation. He kept up his store; secured contracts for the sale of $20,000 cords of wood a year, which continued for several years; operated a steam flour mill for three or four years and made considerable money. Tried running a colliery for a year but confessed that he didn’t make much out of it. Sold it and took another colliery, from which, and a store connected with it, he claims to have made $10,000 in a single year. Operated three powder mills at once, and in all the time was busily engaged in buying and selling lands, on which he made some very large profits, often netting $10,000, $15,000 or $20,000 in a single transaction. His wife was equally fortunate, her first speculation, according to his sworn statement in the suit above referred to, having cleared her $30,000.
By this time Jacob was well along in years and in wealth. He was known as a shrewd and successful operator and a fortunate man. In 1850, “the Schuylkill Haven Life and Insurance Company” was organized, and after maintaining a feeble existence, for four years, was reorganized as the “Miners’ Life and Insurance and Trust Company,” its business transferred to Pottsville, and, in looking about for a suitable president, the corporators could find no man so desirable as Jacob Huntzinger. He was accordingly elected and proved himself a good banker from the start, gradually giving up his other businesses and devoting himself exclusively to this. The capital stock of the bank was $100,000, of which, at the start, the president owned 22 ˝ percent. Deposits flowed in, business prospered amazingly – especially after the war had suddenly raised the price of coal, coal lands, and everything connected with the coal business far beyond the dreams of the wildest investors – and Mr. Huntzinger became accustomed to paying the dividends of from 15 to 40 percent, a year, mainly to himself, for he gradually absorbed the greater portion of the stock. His entire family were made wealthy, and out of this bank grew two others, both of which are in good standing today. At last, one day in August, 1876, the news went round that the Miners’ Trust Company Bank had suspended. As it was scarcely a month since the institution had declared a $40,000 dividend, and as no suspicions of its soundness had been entertained, the public was slow to believe the report; but when it was confirmed beyond a doubt, the excitement not only in Pottsville, but throughout the country, was intense. “The Huntziner bank,” as it was familiarly called, was the most popular bank in Schuylkill County. It was largely used by the poorer classes as a savings bank, and hundreds of people had placed in it the savings of years, trusting to have a sum laid by for old age or sickness. It was the depository of numerous trust funds, as well of the county officers, of whom Cyrus Moore, County Treasurer, had one deposit at the time of $70,000; J.F. Werner, Sheriff, $30,000; Thomas F. Kerns, Prothonotary, $25,000 and Hiram Mayer, ex-Prothonotary, $11,000. The total amount of deposits held or supposed to be held by this bank on $100,000 capital at the time it closed its door was $1, 277,061.58, belonging to about 2,200 depositors. Bad investments, a loose way of doing business and a more careful looking after personal interests than public obligations, reinforced by the general depression of the times, were the causes of failure. It was a splendid bubble, which was slowly inflated to the bursting point, and when that point was reached it burst as suddenly and as irrecoverably as other bubbles do. It is doubtful whether the depositors will ever recover 5 percent of their money.
The experience of the past two or three years has made the county familiar with the scenes that ensue when an old and trusted depository closes its doors, and it is needless to dwell upon them here. Suffice it to say that public indignation against Jacob Huntzinger quickly rose to fever heat being intensified by the fact that though well known to have enriched himself and family from the business of the bank, he not only refused to contribute a cent of his private fortune toward making good its losses, but threw every obstacle in the way of a settlement of its affairs. There was strong talk for a while of dealing out harsh and summary justice to him; but, singularly enough, in a country where more than one man has lost his life for a slight insult or a fancied injury, this man, who had ruined hundreds, walked the streets day after day, unharmed and unmolested save by verbal abuse. It was finally decided that he should be subjected to a trial at law, and several suits against him were begun, the only one that has yet been tried being a criminal prosecution brought against Jacob Huntzinger, President and J. Albert Huntzinger (his son), cashier of the Miners’ Trust Company Bank, for conspiracy to defraud Thomas F. Kerns. The gist of the charge was that they had conspired to induce Kerns to deposit the court’s money in their bank, with the intent to defraud him of the same. On the defendant’s application the case was moved to Reading, where it was contested by able counsel on both sides, fourteen weeks being spent on the trial. It resulted in a verdict of guilty, but a motion for a new trial was immediately made, and a formidable list of reasons filed. The court rendered its decision yesterday, denying the motion, and the defendants were called up for sentence this morning. They received the full penalty of the law, two year’s imprisonment, $500 fine, restitution of the money $24,000 and cost of prosecution, which amount to several thousand dollars. On their way to jail the prisoners were followed by a large crowd. An appeal has, however, been taken to the Supreme Court.
Submitted by Brenda.
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