444 



SAVINGS BANKS. 



Georgia Historical Society, Masonic Temple, Odd and Lastcrn or New England .Stall's, they nre now 

 Fellows' Hull, Savannah Hospital, the Catholic most numerous anil huvu reached their highest per- 

 Ciitht-dml, the Independent Presbyterian Church, fectiou in tliose localities. The mobt reliable data 



St. John's (Episcopal) Church, niul the synagogue obtainable, from both official and uuollicial sources, 

 of Mickva Israel. Suvanmih has -2 national and :H show the number of savings banks in op. ration in 

 State banks atul some private hanks, a Hoard of 1S8C>-1S87 to have IKM-II i;s|. The number in eacll 



SUI- 



TABLE I. SAVINGS BANKS, 1886-87. 



Trade and Cotton Exchange, u' daily and 4 weekly State, together with their aggregate capital 

 newspapers. There are MtogetiMT 30 churches, plus and deposits, is given in Table I. 

 13 of which arc used by colored people. Besides 

 some private academies of high reputation, the 

 county provides public school*, in which instruc- 

 tion is given to whites and Mar!.- separately. 



The city has street-rail wa\s, gas, and electric 

 lights, a good system of water supply, and a paid 

 fire department. The buildings are chiefly of brick, 

 and many private residences are of handsome archi- 

 tecture. The industrial works comprise iron foun- 

 dries, saw and planing mills, rice and Hour nulls. 

 cotton compresses, a cotton mill, paper mill, ice 

 factory, furniture liictory, and a lithographic cstab- c'onnectlcu"' 

 lihniciit. 



The railroads are the Central of Georgia with New Jersey 

 2050 miles, and the Savannah, Florida and Western, Maryland '. 

 B34 miles, the latter connecting at Tampa, Florida, {?'"' ofColiimbla 

 with a steamship lino to Cuba. Steamships also ' QJjj"^ 

 ply regularly from Savannah to New York, Phila- 

 delphia, Baltimore, and Boston. As a cotton port 

 Savannah ranks second in the Union, first in the 

 rosin and turpentine trade, and second in the rice 

 trade. It also ships largely lumber, fruit, and iron 

 ore brought from Alabama. The exports in lssr> 

 amounted to $45,100,000, and the total trade was 

 estimated at 890,000,000. 



Savannah was founded in 1733 by Gen. James 

 Oglethorpe. It was incorporated as a city in 1789. 

 In the Revolutionary war it was captured by the 

 British Dec. -J9, 177S, and evacuated .Inly 11,'lTs;!. 

 In the civil war it was captured by Gen. \V. T. 

 Sherman, Dec, 21, 1804. Its population in 1880 was 

 30.709, and in 1886 by a city census 4.">,482, of whom 

 18,817 were colored. " (j. H. E.) 



SAVINGS BANKS. The first savings bank in 

 the I'nited States was organized in 

 Philadelphia under the title of the " Phi- 

 ladelphia Savings FundSoctety." It was 

 a voluntary non-corporate association, 

 composed of a few benevolent and phi- 



8e Vol. 



ftep.). 



* Only M >af IDK baolti report capllal. 



While it was purely in the spirit of philanthropy 

 that savings banks were originally organized nnd 



lanthrnpic gentlemen who associated together for the operated formally years alter their introduction 

 purpose of receiving and caring for the small accu- il" tb< ! United States, they no longer are confined 

 mulations of surplus moneys of poor persons. This in their operations and inlluences to the limited 

 society commenced I he. receiving of de|isits in I)e- l>'ld first assigned to them. In late years they have 

 ceinher, 1816 ; sulwequently, in th- year 1:-<19. it was proved attractive depositories for the surplus mon- 

 granled a corporate franchise by the State of IVnn- '.V of all classes, and every eflbrt liy legislation or 

 sylvania. otherwise, to restrict them to dealings with the 



poor alone, has failed. The widening of the area 

 of their operations so as to embrace a higher order 

 and greater number of beneficiaries has had a salu- 

 tary eflect; yet in many States measures have been 

 adopted lending to prevent ouch expansion and 

 more closely confine them to their original purposes, 

 but the interests of the banks have proved stronger 



Th State of Massachusetts, however, was first to 

 give legislative sanction to the organi/ation of sav- 

 ings banks; this it did in the \<-.ir 1*17. Other 

 States that at early dates granted"^ charters for such 

 institutions were '.Maryland in 1818, New York, 

 Pennsylvania, Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode Isl- 

 and in 1819, New Hampshire in 1823, Ohio in I*::], 

 Delaware in 1832. New Jersey in ls:ianl Vermont in 

 the year 1846. At subsequent periods charters were 



granted to savings banks by most of the other States. 

 For many years all such institutions were created 



than restrictive laws, and the savings bank systems 

 of the several States have grown and become strong 



largely through the patronage of those whom it was 



sought to exclude. Experience has demonstrated 



by special acts of the respective State legislatures, that those institutions lose none of their efficiency as 

 but the tendency of recent legislation has been to promoters of industry, sobriety nnd thrill among 

 provide for their organization and management by the poorer classes for the reason that others more 

 general laws. fevored are allowed to share in their benefits. As a 



Excepting the so-called capital stock savings consequence they came to be regarded less as dcpos- 

 banks, the main features of those institutions arc jtories than as organized me, limns through which 

 very similar strikingly so, considering the f:u t investments in clearly defined securities may be ad- 

 that the savings bank system of tho United Slates vantageously made. 

 U uot a connect ive syhtcii), itibjcct to the super- , In the year 1834 the State of Massachusetts en- 



