American Exchange Bank (Georgetown)

City: Georgetown

State: District of Columbia

By 1852, an institution calling itself the American Exchange Bank, Georgetown, was reportedly operating in the District of Columbia, although a newspaper report was skeptical of its actual existence. In August 1856, Charles Maitland James and Alfred Hyde were arrested in Chicago for possessing and circulating paper money of the bank, which was alleged to exist in name only. Newspaper reports variously described the pair as progenitors of the bank and Hyde as its former manager, however the bills they purportedly circulated listed S. H. Keith as cashier of the American Exchange Bank and Z. Pierson as president, and Hyde maintained that he had nothing to do with the operation of the bank. James and Hyde claimed to be innocent and argued that the bank did indeed exist; both men were found guilty in the Chicago Recorder’s Court of possessing fictitious bank notes.

Weekly National Intelligencer (Washington, DC), 9 October 1852, 8:6; The Daily Union (Washington, DC), 9 August 1856, 3:4; Evening Star (Washington, DC), 9 August 1856, 3:1; 5 March 1857, 3:3; Chicago Daily Tribune (IL), 16 January 1857, 1:3; Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, DC), 17 January 1857, 3:5; The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (NY), 19 January 1857, 2:5; The Sun (Baltimore, MD), 29 January 1857, 4:4; Illinois Department of Corrections & Predecessor Agencies, Register of Illinois Prison Records, Illinois State Prison (Alton), 4:317, 330, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Illinois Department of Corrections & Predecessor Agencies, Register of Illinois Prison Records, Illinois State Prison (Joliet), 1:12, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Alfred Hyde to Abraham Lincoln.