Mount Vernon Bank, Providence
As recorded in 1880:
“The Mount Vernon Bank was situated in Foster near the Coventry line on the Plainfield Pike or stage road about two miles east of Rice City. The founders of the bank were Col. Nathaniel Stone, Pardon Holden, Elisha Fish and Peleg Place. The bank was chartered about 1824 [records indicate October, 1823] and commenced operations in the fall of 1825, with Peleg Place as Cashier and Nathaniel Stone as President. The bank was kept for a few months in the west front chamber of the two storied house, which was owned and occupied by Pardon Holden. It was afterwards removed to a stone building which had been built by Dr. Thomas Carpenter and used for a while as a store after which it was sold to Pardon Holden. This building, together with a shed, stood a short distance west of his house, and was leased by him to the bank for as long a time as it should be used for banking purposes after which it should revert to Holden or his heirs.
“Mount Vernon village, called after the bank, was a thriving village at that time. There were then two stages on the road, each driver carried a long tin horn which he blew before coming to a dwelling house. The stage house or tavern was kept by Elisha Fish, and was later sold to Moses Potter…
“Col. Nathaniel Stone was the first president and Pardon Holden was the second, the latter served until his death, which occurred in 1831. The next was Samuel Tillinghast. Peleg Place was the first cashier and a stockholder. He filled that office for eleven years when, becoming infirm from age, Charles M. Stone was chosen to take his place, which he held for eight years, when in the spring of 1844, he removed to Providence to take charge of an agency connected with the bank, a large amount of the business being done in the city. Raymond G. Place was the next and last cashier.” — “Recollections of Mount Vernon Bank, Written By Rachel Knight Budlong, About 1880,” Rhode Island Historical Society Collections, Vol. XV, No. 4, October 1922, p. 98.
“The Mount Vernon Bank… moved to Providence about 1855, and was located four or five years at 87 Westminster street. Its capital at that time was $100,000. During the four or five years Henry Whitman and Joseph Belcher were successive presidents, and R. G. Place and Stephen C. Arnold were cashiers.” — Richard M. Bayles, ed. History of Providence County, Rhode Island, Volume I. New York: W. W. Preston, 1891.
What the entry above so artfully avoids mentioning is the fact that the bank failed in 1859.
