More on Mount Vernon, Rhode island

Keen business eyes were focused on a process by which western Rhode Island could profit by the rapid growth of Providence. Leverage through banking was a process by certain leading families with names such as Place, Frye, and Holden. Mount Vernon, a small area near Foster in Moosup Valley, held a store which was also a bank. In general banks held private funds which were lent, and for safety, probably no more than 5% of a wealthy man's income might be placed there. Mount Vernon bank was a radical exceptionⁱ

Pardon Holdenⁱⁱ in the 1830's had a $1,540 investment which was ¾ of his estate.

We have a nice description of this bank's early days in an historical recollection by Rachael Knight Budlong, about 1880.

The Mount Vernon Bank was situated in Foster near the Coventry line on the Plainfield Pike or stage road about two miles east of Rice City. The founders of the bank were Col. Nathaniel Stone, Pardon Holden, Elisha Fish and Peleg Place. The bank was chartered about 1824 and commenced operations in the fall of 1825, with Peleg Place as Cashier and Nathaniel Stone as President. The bank was kept for a few months in the west front chamber of the two storied house, which was owned and occupied by Pardon Holden. It was afterwards removed to a stone building which had been built by Dr. Thomas Carpenter and used for a while as a store after which it was sold to Pardon Holden. This building, together with a shed, stood a short distance west of his house, and was leased by him to the bank for as long a time as it should be used for banking purposes after which it should revert to Holden or his heirs.

Mount Vernon village, called after the bank, was a thriving village at that time. There were then two stages on the road, each driver carried a long tin horn which he blew before coming to a dwelling house. The stage house or tavern was kept by Elisha Fish, and was later sold to Moses Potter.

Mr. Holden was an enterprising man. He owned a large country store, which at that time meant to buy and sell everything. He had a plough shop for the manufacture of cast iron ploughs.

…

Peleg Place was the first cashier and a stockholder. He filled that office for eleven years when, becoming infirm from age, Charles M. Stone was chosen to take his place, which he held for eight years, when in the spring of 1844, he removed to Providence to take charge of an agency connected with the bank, a large amount of the business being done in the city. Raymond G. Place was the next and last cashier.

The daughter of Pardon Holden remembers distinctly riding home from Providence with her father, the latter bringing large sums of money in his breast pocket, often times not arriving until dark, something never done at the present time. He went to and fro two or three times a week without molestation although completely unarmed. Mr. Holden was a large and exceedingly powerful man fully able to cope with any opposition he was likely to meet in those days. He served the bank in this and every way in which he could further its interests until his health failed. Afterwards the packages of money were sent by the driver of the mail stage or any person considered perfectly reliable and not a dollar was ever lost in transportation. Fifty-five years ago {c. 1825} there were very few houses this side of the bridge.

It is difficult to put the pieces together, but it appears that the men who ran the bank took assets from providence and applied them to business schemes in the Foster area, and in turn took raw materials, processed them, and returned those at a premium profit to Providence. By 1850, the branch in providence was extremely successful and the bank managed significant assets for the time. We know this by a coincidence, an inside-job robbery that made headlines. At the time the bank had about $60,000 in capital stock, and $41,000 in circulationⁱⁱⁱ.

There was also a trade announcement:

Foster.— The Mount Vernon Bank, at Foster, Rhode Island, was entered between Saturday, the 4th of September {1852}, and the following Monday morning, and robbed of $ 10,300 in bills of the bank. About $ 7,000 were of the denomination of $ 50, and numbered mostly from No. 400 to 500, $ 2,000 of which had never been put in circulation. The remainder were in bills of $ 10, $ 20, and $ 100. The bank has issued the following advertisement: —

Caution.— The Mount Vernon Bank, of Foster, hereby cautions the public against receiving bills of the bank of the denomination of $20, $50, and $100, issued prior to this date. All parties holding bills of those denominations, which have been put in circulation by the bank, are informed that said bills will be redeemed on presentation at their counter.

By order of the Directors,

R. G. Place, Cashier

A rare 1852 deposit specimen

The signatures of Raymond Place and Henry Whitman are seen on this 15 May 1856 note. It is likely one held once by the Rhode Island Historical Society. Other species show that by 1 January 1857, a new president signed.

More trouble ensued in 1852^iv when:

Mount Vernon Bank V. Charles M. Stone.

Where a bill makes charges of fraud, which are not established at the hearing, the bill will be dismissed, notwithstanding it states other grounds upon which relief might have been granted, if not blended with the allegations of fraud.

In Equity. The Mount Vernon Bank was a Bank located in Foster, and the defendant was from the 8th of June 1844 to the 29th of May, 1850, their agent for the purpose of transacting the business of the Bank in the city of Providence, where the plaintiffs provided him with an office and books to be kept in the office, in which to record the business of his agency, and they paid him as such agent a salary of five hundred dollars per annum.  The bill alleged first, that the defendant had not fully accounted and had refused to deliver and exhibit the books of the Bank to the plaintiffs, and, in the second place, charged that the defendant fraudulently concealed the said books, fraudulently used the money of the Bank, and by fraudulent representations obtained a release or discharge of a portion of said account, and a surrender of the bond given for the faithful discharge of his duties as agent. The bill prayed for a decree for an account, a delivery of the books of the Bank, a surrender of the release obtained from the plaintiffs and a return of the bond. … After a careful examination of the evidence in relation to the charges of fraud, we feel bound to say that the plaintiffs in our judgment have failed to prove them.

The bank, essentially, was in deep trouble, and on an attack from within. A faction, by force or by subtlety, was attempting to commandeer the bank's assets.

An 1856 declaration^v .

MOUNT VERNON BANK.—87 Westminster Street {Providence, R.I}.

Incorporated, 1823. Capital, $92,778. Henry Whitman, President; Raymond G. Place, Cashier. Henry Whitman, Ira Brown, Raymond G. Place, Robert Knight, Wm. Hill, Giles M. Nichols, Thomas S. Battey, Whipple Phillips, Amos Fuller, John Henry Ormsbee, Thomas M. Remington, William H. Collins, Sterry Fry, Directors. — Annual meeting, first Monday in September. Dividends payable, first Mondays in September and March. Discount, Mondays and Thursdays.

Two names were highlighted by this writer, above. The first is the brother of Robie^vi Place, Raymond Gardiner Place, and the other, Whipple Phillips, the brother of Jeremiah Phillips, and uncle of Whipple V. Phillips. Note also that the 1852 robbery was by men whose last names were Fuller and Place –  black sheep of the family? Stone was attacked by a lawsuit. The bank was turbulent, and things needed to settle down.








The Mount Vernon Bank was declared^vii publicly “broken”, that is bankrupt or defunct, by 26 September 1857. It seems that the new president could not turn the bank around.

iThe economic & social transformation of rural Rhode Island, 1780-1850, p. 104 ff.

iiPardon Holden and Daniel Wood were plowshare makers as early as 1823 in Foster. See The Providence Gazette, 20 March 1823, page 1, ad.

iiip. 762 of The Bankers Magazine, Volume 2, 1949, for the year 1848.

ivMarch Term, 1852, Supreme Court of Rhode Island, 1854 Volume 2. By Thomas Durfee, Providence.

vp. 86, Rhode Island Register, In same issue, p., 166, W.V.B. Phillips is listed as a store keeper in Foster for the year 1856, published by George Adams (Volume II).

viSpelling during her life varied from Rhoby to Robie.

vii 26 September 1857 Hartford Weekly Times, page 2, colum 7. listed the Mount Vernon Bank as one of several banks suspended.    

Was Peleg Place of Mount Vernon, Rhode Island a Whig?

This blogger has made a circumstantial case that Jeremiah Phillips' family was a Republican-Democrat (i.e. democratic) under the influence of the two Daniel Howard's (father and son), as was much of north Foster, Rhode Island, later identified with Foster Center, Rhode Island.

The voting tended to be a 2:1 ration of Republican-Democrats to Whigs until the Dorr Rebellion, at which time the Daniel Howards switched to the "Law and Order Party".

From whence the Whigs?

Mount Vernon, Rhode Island.

How do we know this?  The most powerful authority political parties had from Andrew Jackson onward was the ability to appoint a local post master.  In the 1840's, when "franking" (the ability of a congressman to mail free mail, propaganda) became fully authorized, the post master also became the local precinct captain, in today's parlance.

Here is what I would call a "smoking gun". (I love Google as it allows the direct copying of many primary documents into Blogger).  On 22 June 1841, Peleg Place was appointed by Tyler as the postmaster.  The document is listed below, the preface by the president and Postmaster General, and page 22 listing the notable Peleg Place, of the Mount Vernon Bank.

One does not get to be a local postmaster lightly.  It means communing with the Governor, the U.S. senators, likely contributing to the party significantly, and getting the vote out.  If Peleg Place was a Whig in 1841, then the cashier, Raymond G. Place, would also be a Whig.  This would indicate that a youthful Robie A. Place, then of Rice City, would also have been Whiggish, though unable to vote.

This leads to a scenario:  After the Dorr Rebellion, Daniel Howard the younger, and Horace Howard, his son, were Law & Order men.  The voting patterns of Foster, Rhode Island slowly began to change.  At the same time of the disintegration of the Whigs, and the split of the Republican-Democrats to "Democrats", and the beginning to the "Republican Party", Jeremiah Phillips died, and James Wheaton and Whipple, V. came directly under the influence of the more conservative Raymond G. Place, their guardian.

Therefore, we can almost exactly time the transition of this branch of the Phillips family to the Republican Party during the years between 1844 and 1849, the most formative years of James (b. 1830) and Whipple (b. 1833).

Phillips Orphans: November 1848 to August 1850

Lovecraft's Grandfather: The Business Career of Whipple van Buren Phillips

Appendix

"The Phillips Orphans: November 1848 to August 1850."

Below is a listing from the 1850 census, asserted to have been taken 8 August 1850, but the question asked was data as of 1 June 1850.

This writer draws from this document {facsimile from Mormon Genealogy online source}, Faig. [See below for reference], and cemetery references.

Jeremiah Phillips died in a grist mill accident on 20 November 1848. James Wheaton Phillips was at that time 18, and of age. However, due to debts, he did not inherit the property which went into complicated receivership. The time between the death of Jeremiah and the Census was 21 months. We have minimal data on these months. WVP was attending school as was his sister Abbey.

Faig did a review of the estate proceedings in August 1990. This can be summarized below.

• Raymond G. Place, husband of Jeremiah Phillips' niece Eliza Lyon Fry and already in place as Cashier at the Mount Vernon Bank, was appointed administrator of the estate by Daniel Howard, Clerk. This was on 4 December 1848. (Note this was a very quick 14 days.)
• Inventory was taken by Albert Foster, Abraham Place (a relative listed on the 1850 census), and John Vaughn on 18 December 1848. (28 days after Jeremiah's death.) The inventory was extensive, but insufficient to pay debts. It was typical corn, animals or animal products of pig, goose, horse, ox, bees, cow, turkey. Wheat was rare and not listed. Total $637.75, a not insignificant sum.
• Inventory submitted 1 January 1849. Committee confirmed Raymond G. Place to liquidate inventory except for wearing apparel of the children.
• The preliminary report was submitted on 4 March 1849.
• 2 July 1849 Samuel Tillinghast and Jason T Place went before the probate court (Peleg Place had died in the interim).
• After a notice, the estate was sold at The Mount Vernon Bank on 30 June 1849. At that time it was seen that debt was $1252,21, of which Jeremiah's brother had $495.49 outstanding.
• 27 August Raymond G Place presented his report.
• 1 October 1849 the Committee met all real property was ordered sold. The farm first.
• 17 November 1849 it was reported that 73 acres were sold in Foster and 12.5 acres in Coventry.
• Final report was submitted on 4 December 1849.

In summary, the orphans became penniless. Their uncle, Whipple Phillips, Raymond G. Place, Job W Place, and others in the community met legal obligations and still allowed James W Phillips a piece of land to set up farming. WVP went to school and assisted.

"James W Phillips" is listed twice on the Census with two different ages.

@@@ further research @@@@

Reviewing the data from the U.S. Census of 1850 and starting with the entries at Job W Place, the assumed clan patriarch, the Phillips orphans seem to have come quickly under his umbrella. If dollars are a place keeper for wealth and influence, Peleg Harrington and Jason G Place had the highest business values, and every other land owner were on a relatively equal landing.

If we conclude that the Phillips orphans were under the Job W Place umbrella, we can make a decision on what role "Mary E Stanton" played. She was not listed as a landowner, and perhaps could not be a landowner in Foster. If this were her property (i.e. she was a widow), it can't be determined by any additional data at this time. Therefore, she must have been a housekeeper and appointed guardian.

This brings up an additional piece of data that might be relevant. There is a very early burial in the Place-Battey (FR090) Foster cemetery: Sally Stanton (1790c - 12 APR 1815). This one single pieces of data, of only one "Stanton" buried in Foster makes Mary E Stanton a very elusive individual. If she married a Place, or other citizen, her name would have not been Stanton. If she was a widow, no sign of ancient Stantons can be found, other than one Joseph Stanton, rather famous at his time.

James W Phillips was the elder of the family, and of age. He was a farmer, and he was the head of the house both officially, by age, and by community designation. James did not need a guardian, and certainly not by a female resident in 1850 Rhode Island. This writer will follow a thesis that Mary E Stanton was an assistant to the family. It may later be found, looking at the 1840 census data, that Jeremiah Phillips had her under his household, but this, of course, is untenable speculation as of now. What the census data seems to make clear, and will be the thesis here, is that the Phillips orphans were not specifically living under Mary E Stanton's roof. She shows no ownership of property, and despite the reforms after the Dorr Rebellion, she may not have been able to own property.

References:

The Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries Transcription Project Index, p. 380.

Internet http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rigenweb/cemetery/cemetery340.html accessed on 18 Januaryt 2012, and when this was recorded, the following data was pertinent located 10 ft south of MOOSUP VALLEY RD at TEL pole # 56; 2521 burials with 25 inscriptions from 1822 to 1944; 40 ft x 40 ft in fair condition enclosed with a stone wall]. No other Stanton in the database is buried in a Foster cemetery. Job W. Place was buried in Foster cemetery FR083, so we cannot make a direct correlation between Mary E Stanton and the Place family, but some vague connection is allowable as she appears to be an isolated "Stanton" on Phillips and Place land in 1850. There are four listings for burials of "Mary E Stanton" and 13 other "Mary Stanton". One comes close to to match her officially noted birthday of 1812, indicated by her age of 38y in 1850. This is Mary Moore {Bell} Stanton 1814 - 20 APR 1887 NT001 which is in Newport. This is an unlikely candidate. Sadly, this writer cannot find any additional notes on Foster's Mary E Stanton in any online databases.}

Kenneth W. Faig, Jr, Mahossauk Review, Candlemass, 1992. "Lovecraft's Last Yeoman Farmer Ancestor, p. 7 ff. Provided by author.

In this publication, Faig stated, "The household seems to be next south of the homesteads of Job W. Place and Abraham Place of Johnson Road. Perhaps Mary E. Stanton was keeping house for the children. One would normally expect that Susan Esther Phillips, the elder surviving daughter, would undertake this function, but she may by this time have already been ailing, since she died on July 28, 1851, aged only twenty-four. James Wheaton Phillips (1830-1901) married Job W. Place's daughter Jane Ann Place (1829-1900) in 1853 and probably purchased the farm of Job's deceased brother Abraham Place (1800-1852) at about this time."

Schedule I. - Free Inhabitants in The Town of Foster in the County of Providence State of Rhode Island enumerated by me, on the 6^th day of August 1850. Elisha Johnson Ass't Marshall

(The data above, itallics are handwritten. There are 13 columns of data, and below are columns 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9. For item 1 and 2, I have placed a #, and for item 4 I have placed a y afterwards. For item 9, all are "Rhode Island" unless noted.}

{in the margin is a "1"}

#1 #1 Samuel Greene 67y M Farmer $1000

Polly 54y F

#2 #2 Peleg Harrington 66y M Farmer $2300

Harriet 45y F

Betsey F 10y F

James W Phillips 17y M laborer

#3 #3 John Johnson 41y M Farmer $1000

Susan 36y F

Elizabeth 11y F

Wanton 69y M Farmer

#4 #4 Job W Place 54y M Farmer $900

Asenath 56y F Massachusetts

Lester 10y M

Jane A 21y F

#5 Aaron B Place 27y M Carpenter $900

Hannah 20y F

Manford 1y M

#5 #6 Abraham Place 49y M Farmer $1200

Nabby 54y F

Lydia 83y F $12

Fanny Card 10y F

#6 #7 James W Phillips 20y M Farmer {no $ amount recorded}

Susan E 23y F {not in school}

Whipple VB 16y M Farmer {has attended school}

Abby E 10y F {has attended school}

Mary E Stanton 38y F

#7 #8 George Place 57y M Farmer

Giffey 58y F

#8 #9 Sally Place 63y F

Jason G 29y M Farmer $9000

Rhoby A 23y F

Leander T 11y M Connecticut

#9 #10 Albert Foster 47y M Farmer $1000

Cynthia 47y F

John C 22y M laborer

Meelrum M 19y M laborer

#11 Otis Foster 42y M Farmer $1000

Rushee 50y F

Fanny 19y F

Angeline 18y F

Louise 14y F

Oliver 12y M

{Below is a portion for the next page included to show the proximity of Casey B Tyler to the Phillips orphans}

{in the margin is a "3"}

#19 #21 Casey B Tyler 30y M merchant $0

Betsey 28y F

#20 #22 Dean Burgys 48y M Farmer $700

Dolly 45y F

Jared H 22y M black smith

Job G 24y M stone mason

#23 Esther Jenks 68y F

Julia 38y F

1. Dwelling house numbered in the order of visitation.
2. Families numbered in the order of visitation.
3. The name of every Person whose usual place of abode on the first day of June, 1850, was in this family.
4. Age
5. Sex
6. Color (all were white listed)
7. Profession, Occupation, or Trade of each Male Person over 15 years of age.
8. Value of Real Estate owned.
9. Place of Birth, Maning the State, Territory, or Country.
10. Married withing the year
11. Attended School within the year
12. Persons over 20 years of age who cannot read or write.
13. Whether deaf and dumb, blind, pauper, or convict.