186 Hadden—Early Banking in Wisconsin. 
the issues of 27 Wisconsin banks, which had the name of some 
winter lumber camping place, high up on the tributaries of the 
Wisconsin or Chippewa rivers, owned by non-residents, and offi¬ 
cered by straw men. Among these banks, however, were three 
at least, which were owned wholly by bankers and brokers of 
Chicago, who thus attempted to discredit their own paper with 
the evident design of buying it in at a discount. 
On December 26, 1857, Thompson’s Bank Note Reporter 
quoted Wisconsin notes at a discount in New York city of 6^- 
per cent, and on October 3, at 10 per cent. 
In may be added that so great were the fluctuations in the 
value of all State Bank notes, that the merchant in his store, 
or the peddler on the prairies, would as soon think of doing 
business without scales, measure, or yard-stick, as without 
“Thompson’s” or some other Bank Note Reporter, of recent date, 
and a coin chart of all known coins of the world. 38 
As there was no provision in the banking law against issuing 
notes to any persons or corporations depositing the requis¬ 
ite amount of security, the Bank Comptroller, during the pre¬ 
vious year, had issued notes to any person or persons who had 
deposited the proper securities. Taking advantage of this pro¬ 
vision the State Treasurer and other officials purchased Missouri 
stocks at a discount and depositing these received about $95,000 
of notes for $75,000 of stocks, which however, were accepted 
at the market value in New York, which was considerably 
higher. Then with these notes they purchased more Missouri 
stock and the exchanges were continued and much money made 
out of the speculation. 
The Governor, commenting upon this action of the banking 
department, says: 39 “At this time the stocks or collateral de¬ 
posited, is made to represent bank capital itself; and very 
large issues of bills have been credited and put into circulation 
on this hypothesis. In numerous instances too, the banks thus 
started, with no other known capital than their collateral secur¬ 
ity, are located at places or at points without population, either 
unknown to the people of the state or the maps, or inaccessible 
38 Western Banking ; H. H. Camp. Vol. XIX Bank, and Cur. Pamph. 1879. 
39 Governor's Message and Accompanying Documents , 1858, p. 15. 
