The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 56, July 1952 - April, 1953 Page: 209
641 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Samuel May Williams
A branch, established at Brownsville, carried on an extensive
business among the Mexican-American interests, and agencies
for the bank were opened in New Orleans, Louisiana; Akron,
Ohio; and New York City. An anti-bank faction in Texas, dis-
trustful of banks and paper money, bitterly opposed the bank
from its opening.9' In 1852 litigation directed against the bank's
charter was begun and continued through the rest of its exist-
ence.92
This banking enterprise, so long anticipated as an aid in the
progress of the country, seems to have engendered more vexa-
tions, anxieties, and bitterness than any other experience of Wil-
liams' life; the satisfaction of building such an institution was
dissipated in the "prosecutions and persecutions" of which he
once wrote." The family also felt the effects of these trials, and
his two sons urged Williams to give up the cares of the bank,
leave Galveston, and seek peace in the country. In January, i857,
his son Austin wrote to his brother William:
I have observed what you say of the Bank case. I hope in my next
mail to learn of its final decision. Let even the worst come, for if
there is anything I have detested, it has been the Bank's connection
with its influence on our family interests and quietude, all of which
you so well know.94
The bank lost its case in the lower court, and after Williams'
death, the Supreme Court of Texas sustained the penalty against
the bank in 1859, resulting in the closing of the bank and its
immediate liquidation. The good will of the institution passed
to Ball, Hutchings and Company, established in 1854, which
later became Hutchings, Sealy and Company, merging in 1930
with South Texas National Bank to become the Hutchings-Sealy
National Bank of today.95
ioStuart, "Some More Trite Tales of Tremont [Street]," Galveston News, January
16, 1910; Hayes, Island and City of Galveston (MS.), 385.
92Williams to Joseph P. Couthony, March 6, 1852; Eben. Allen to Col. Sam.
Williams, Prest., 1853, confidential document describing charges in three suits
together with fees to be charged for defense of the causes (MSS. in Williams
Papers).
93Williams to Joseph P. Couthony, March 6, 1852 (MS. in Williams Papers).
94Austin May Williams to William Howell Williams, January 27, 1857 (MS. in
Williams Papers).
S9Jesse A. Ziegler, "Bank Merger Recalls Early Methods of a Galveston Firm,"
Galveston News, April 6, 1930; "Hutchings, Sealy Co. and South Texas to Continue
Old Name," Galveston News, March 30, 1930.og
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 56, July 1952 - April, 1953, periodical, 1953; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101145/m1/255/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.