First Banks in Wisconsin. 
163 
capital had been paid in. This bank commenced operations on 
December 30, 1837, but issued no notes until later. The Miner’s 
Bank of Dubuque and the Bank of Milwaukee were also chartered 
and in operation about this same time. No more inauspicious 
period could have been chosen for launching these four institu¬ 
tions into the business world, for scarcely were they in opera¬ 
tion, when they were struck by the panic of 1837, and together 
with scores of older and stronger banks in other states were 
overwhelmed in financial ruin. 
On June 9, 1837 the Wisconsin Democrat of Green Bay con¬ 
tained the following: “Most of the banks of the United States 
have suspended specie payment. The present state of affairs is 
the natural effect of over issues of bank paper, over trading and 
speculation. The Bank of Wisconsin in common with other 
banks has suspended specie payment for the present. ” 
The banks of Lexington, Kentucky, suspended on May 19, “as 
a matter of policy rather than necessity, “for it is to be re¬ 
marked that perhaps specie was never more abundant in the 
banks and with the farmers than at this time.” 7 The Wisconsin 
Democrat , above quoted, also contains an interesting account of 
the incidents connected with the suspension of the western banks. 
Eastern banks, suspending in May, dispatched runners to the 
west with quantities of western bank bills to be exchanged for 
specie. But the western banks, seeing the approaching storm, 
suspended a few days before the runners arrived, and the result 
was that the latter carried back with them in exchange for 
western notes not gold and silver as they had expected but in¬ 
stead only eastern currency. 
All the New York banks, including the deposit banks, had 
suspended specie payments on May 10, 1837, for one year with¬ 
out violation of their charter. There was a convention called 
on February 28, 1838, and the bankers decided to resume specie 
payments on or before May 10, 1838. The Pennsylvania banks 
did not resume before January 16, 1841. 
From 1837 to 1841 there was terrible distress throughout the 
country, particularly in the well settled eastern states. Prices 
7 Milwaukee Sentinel , June 27,1837. 
