1862 Bank of DeSoto, Washington County, NE Green Overprint, Ghost Town

Description

Title: Bank of DeSoto, DeSoto, Washington County, NE; note, 1862. Green Overprint. Ghost Town.
Haxby NE- 25 G2c
The village of DeSoto was located four miles southeast of Blair, on the Missouri River. It was incorporated 7 March 1855. By 1857 the population had risen to several hundred, and it was a shipping port that accommodated steamboat passengers and cargo. It also had a rail line owned by Minneapolis and Omaha (M&O) railroad passing through the north section of town.
At its peak in the late 1850’s the town had a population of about 700, a hotel, a dozen saloons, several merchants, three banks and three newspapers.
The Bank of DeSoto was organized in 1856
by a group of Wisconsin investors and
was incorporated by the Third Territorial Legislature on 13 February 1857, after an override of the Governor Mark W. Izard’s veto. It had capitalization of ,000 to 0,000. A few months after its incorporation Judge Samuel Hale, William Barstow and George E. Scott purchased it from the investors. Samuel Hale became president and George E. Scott cashier. In the fall of 1858 George Scott was elected to the Nebraska Territorial Legislature as a council representative of Washington County to serve in Omaha. In February 1859 William Barstow bought out the interest of the other two owners and became president, but Scott remained as cashier.
In 1861 there was a flurry of suits in which the bank tried to collect on mortgages and investors tried to recover their investments from the bank. By the spring of 1862 the bank folded. The notes printed with the date 1863, although signed, were never circulated. The population left DeSoto as quickly as they had arrived, and it became a ghost town. Even the Missouri River left – meandering off two or three miles to the east. Presently the place where the town was located is a horse pasture identified with an historic marker on the side of the road.
This note was printed on sheet “B” by the American Bank Note Co. New York and has a green ONE overprint. It is also printed with Redeemable at No. 68 Wall Street, New York.
The central vignette is entitled “Home,” which has the following microlettering beneath:
“Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1856 by BALDWIN, BALD, COUSLAND in the Clerks office of the Southern District of New York.”
The vignette on the left is of a Native American family, and on the right is a portrait of Daniel Webster.
The note is hand numbered
1189
with a printed date of June 2d 1862. It was signed by
M. Forman,
cashier and
W. Williams, V.
president.
This note is complete. It is circulated and soiled, with some splits and pinholes and edge roughness and stains in the upper corners. It had a horizontal split across the middle with a small notch out of the right edge. It was professionally repaired using archival paper and conservation techniques. The back has the note
Corigable,
the initials
R. T. B.,
and the number
100.
It is an acceptable example of a note from this no longer existent town.