Citizens Bank, Woonsocket

The Citizens Bank was incorporated in May of 1851. As Q. David Bowers notes, for the first two years the location printed on its currency was Cumberland. Afterward, this was changed to Woonsocket, which was then a small but growing village within Cumberland.

Thomas Steere served as the first president and Olney Arnold was cashier. In 1853, Arnold became the cashier at the People’s Bank of Pawtucket and later founded the First National Bank of Pawtucket, among other pursuits. (Steere may be the same Thomas Steere who wrote a History of Smithfield in 1881.)

In June of 1853, the Citizens Saving Institution of Woonsocket was founded as an affiliate of the bank (not to be confused with the much larger Citizens Savings Bank of Providence).

Local historian Erik Ericson notes that the bank, “was originally located in the Pond Block (26-30 Main) [in Woonsocket] and later moved to the Fletcher Block (36-54 Main).” In 1895, “it moved to the Archambault Block (12-16 Main) and later to the Hope Block.”

According to Roger Durand, J.F. Brown succeeded Arnold as cashier. He was followed by W.H Aldrich in 1862. John Ellis replaced Steere as president in the late 1850s, and Oscar Jenckes Rathburn assumed this position around 1862. Rathburn was president of the Harris Woolen Company and Ray Rathburn & Company.

On April 1, 1865, the bank was granted charter #970 and became the Citizens National Bank of Woonsocket. According to the National Bank Note Census, it issued $2,195,630 in notes ranging in denominations from $1 to $100. 18 of these has been recorded in collectors’ hands today. At its close, $99,980 was still outstanding.

The bank was placed in receivership on September 18, 1928 after it was announced that Hormisdas J. Myette, assistant cashier, had embezzled a large amount of money. The Providence News reported that Myette had been discovered some time earlier and that his family had attempted to settle up the missing funds. Another paper reported that $185,000 was also missing from the Woonsocket Building and Loan Association. The assistant cashier then attempted suicide by inhaling carbon monoxide fumes in his garage, but survived. Afterward, he was confined to his home while the board of directors met. Ultimately, it was the decision of the Comptroller of the Currency that the institution should be closed permanently.

The front page of the Providence News, September 18, 1928, announcing problems at Woonsocket’s Citizens National Bank.