A-bank.htm  

BANKING ENTERPRISE  (Petersburg, Monroe Co. History)
Pages 43-45:
      The village of Petersburg was without a bank until around 1890.
Before this time financial loans were made by private individuals
who had better than average resources.  H.C. McLachlin, a prominent
 citizen of this community, and A.D. Gilmore, of Blissfield, formed
 a partnership in finance and founded the first banking institution
under the name H.C.McLachlin & Company.
     Henry C. McLachlin came here in the 1840's as a small boy
with his parents, when this area was still a frontier.  He established
a general store in Deerfield and in 1867 married Harriet Allshouse,
daughter of Daniel Allshouse, the harness maker at Petersburg.
     In the 1870's Mr. McLachlin moved his general store to Petersburg,
where, along with the sale of dry goods and groceries, he became a private
money lender.  In 1890 the partnership with Gilmore was formed and
the bank was set up in the back of the store.  The McLachlin Store is now
the location of a recent addition to RK&J Restaurant, after serving as
Petersburg Sun Office for more than 30 years.  As business increased
in the private bank, a move was made south a few doors into a very small shop,
which is the north half of an enlarged store currently serving as Web's Barber Shop.
     With continued success, in 1903, the banking institution had a building
erected on Center Street, adjoining the newly built Elder Store.
This entire building, including the east section constructed in 1923 as
George Peters Grocery, is now occupied by Vanhaerents Gamble Store.
      In 1910, the private bank was organized as a state bank, titled
H.C. McLachlin and Company State Bank.  At first there were six directors
named to serve the bank: H.C. McLachlin, A.C. Gilmore, Frank Borgmeier,
Lewis Crosby, Arthur C. Gradolph, and Oliver T. Rose.
     Following the death of Mr. Gilmore, four new names were added
to make nine directors: ALFRED ELDER, Edgar Burton, Horace A. Logan,
and Dr. W.A. Smith.  Henry C. McLachlin died in 1911 and the bank
he founded continued under the directors who had invested in it.
     In 1923 the directors purchased the Exchange Hotel property from
Walter C. Averill as location for a new bank.  Dismantling of the hotel
began in April of that year, and open house was held in the new building
on December 10, 1923.  This building presently serves as the Petersburg
Branch of Monroe Bank & Trust.
   ....In the 1940's the name of the bank was simplified at the
request of Cashier, Carl Koppelman, to read Petersburg State Bank.
  During the banking holiday, when the financial depression became
a great burden to the banks, the Petersburg bank never closed, remaining
open each business day for the transaction of banking business.
Assets of the bank during those crucial times had dwindled to about $370,000.00.
When the Petersburg State Bank was sold in 1957, the assets were over $5,000,000.00.
      In the privately kept journal of an old Petersburg resident, George Mead, the following observation regarding the bank was recorded.  "Panic on lots of the banks.
Toledo, Monroe, Erie, and Ida banks closed.  The Irish Bank at Petersburg
won't let them have their money they have on deposit.  I've seen three or
four panics--this is the worst."  A later comment added this fact,
"Petersburg and Deefield didn't close."
    In another entry, Mr. Mead, a former blacksmith, listed himself as
the first to deposit in the new building on December 10, 1923.
   The closing of other banks had been observed by the community, and
a measure of panic did sweep the county.  The Petersburg Bank came
under pressure to meet the demands of withdrawals and a shifting of
mortgages became a necessity to keep the bank from closing.  To further
complicate the local financial problem, people came here from out of
town to cash their weekly paychecks when their own banks failed, and
trips into Detroit to redeem the checks were necessary on occasion.
    The depositors were not denied their money, however, as Mr. Mead
had observed, but many of them were persuaded to accept mortgages
as security.  Their faith in the sincerity of the directors caused them
to accept such an offer and the result of their faith kept the bank open.
    With the depression easing a new threat came to the bank.
As the 1930's were ending, word came from the County Sheriff's office
that a robbery was expected at the Petersburg Bank from big gangster
elements out of a nearby city.  Warnings were issued to people on the
streets and several local citizens, who served as county deputies, took
up posts overlooking the bank.  The upper floor of Elder's Store had
guns at each window, as did the Masonic Lodge above Lawerence
Wittman's Grocery, now the Petersburg Department Store.
Men were posted upstairs at Gradolph's Hardware and in the Town Hall
across the corner from the bank.  Entrance to the bank was well covered
from every direction.  Nothing came of the scare, but word filtered back
through the original tipster that the town appeared to be too quiet and
the robbery was called off.
     The reasons for alarm were not unfounded.  On June 15, 1924
Mead's Journal relates: "C.J. Wittman automobile store was robbed of
about $200.00" And on January 20, 1932: "L.W. Wittman Grocery store
held up by one man.  Robbed the cash register of $100.00, took Kyser car,
went out west, tipped over at Pete Trombley's corner by the railroad."