Weppners.org

Generation III · Son of Arnold Weppner

Edward Albert Weppner

The cashier who saw the German-American Bank through the run of 1904

15 Mar 1867 – 28 Jan 1914

Facts

Born
15 Mar 1867, Buffalo, New York
Died
28 Jan 1914, Buffalo, New York
Work
Cashier and director of the German-American Bank, later Liberty Bank; secretary of the Buffalo Clearing House Association; earlier assistant cashier of the German Bank
Schooling
St. Louis parochial school; St. Joseph's school; Bryant & Stratton Business College

Their story

Unlike his brothers, who stayed in meat packing, he went into banking. In 1904, as cashier of the German-American Bank, he exposed a Boston promoter's use of its money, saw it through a run and was reinstated by the directors at the depositors' demand. He was the father of Elmer Kraus Weppner.

WikiTree gives his death as 29 January 1914. The Buffalo Express and the Buffalo Times of 29 January both say he died the day before.

A banker at sixteen

The son of Arnold and Blandina, he went to St. Louis parochial school and St. Joseph's school and took a commercial course at Bryant & Stratton Business College. He went to work in a bank at sixteen and was made an assistant cashier at twenty-one, said to be the youngest in the city. The 1900 directory lists him as assistant cashier of the German Bank, living at 1040 Ellicott Street. By 1904 he was cashier of the German-American Bank at Main and Court streets.

The run of 1904

That year a Boston promoter, Arthur E. Appleyard, bought control of both the German-American Bank and the German Bank and made Richard Emory president of both. Edward watched the bank lend about $230,000 on the securities of Appleyard's speculative trolley companies and send $200,000 more to Appleyard's other banks. He took the loans to the state superintendent of banks, who called them unwise and had them taken up, and he got the $200,000 back. Then he resigned. In his letter to the directors he wrote that his “duty to the directors, the depositors and myself, called upon me to take instant and firm measures to rehabilitate this bank and to compel the management to undo the reckless things which they had done.”

Reinstated

On 1 December 1904 depositors ran on the German-American Bank and took out about $400,000 in a single day. The president and vice president blamed Edward for the run, but his lawyer published the letter of resignation. The Buffalo clearing house examined the bank, found it sound and agreed to back it, and Appleyard's men were pushed out. On 11 December the directors voted unanimously to bring Edward back as cashier, and more than $300,000 in withdrawn deposits came back with him. The New York Times reported it the next day under the headline “Elect Dismissed Cashier.” The German Bank, also under Appleyard's control, failed. Family tradition holds that he was given a stake in the bank for saving it. The 1931 history doesn't mention shares, but by the end of his life he sat on the bank's board as well as serving as its cashier, and he was secretary of the Buffalo Clearing House Association.

Family and faith

On 29 April 1891 he married Delia Elizabeth Kraus, the daughter of John Kraus, a dry-goods merchant at 446 Main Street, and Caroline (Riehl) Kraus. They had two sons, Elmer Kraus and Raymond John, and a daughter, Caroline Delia. He was a Democrat, a Roman Catholic and a trustee of St. Louis Church.

His death

He died of cancer on 28 January 1914, at forty-six. The Buffalo Express wrote that he “made as gallant a fight to save himself from death by cancer as he did to preserve the German-American Bank.” The Buffalo Times said: “By honesty and faithfulness to duty he won for himself the undying gratitude of the thousands of bank depositors and the admiration of a city.” Four years later the German-American Bank renamed itself Liberty Bank.

Their lifetime

  1. 1867Edward Albert Weppner is born on 15 March.
  2. 1870German Jesuits found Canisius College. Buffalo
  3. 1891Edward A. Weppner marries Delia E. Kraus on 29 April.
  4. 1893Elmer Kraus Weppner and Mary Louise Herger are born.
  5. 1896The Ellicott Square Building opens, the largest office building in the world at the time. Buffalo
  6. 1897Raymond John Weppner is born.
  7. 1900Edward A. Weppner is assistant cashier of the German Bank.
  8. 1901The Pan-American Exposition; President McKinley is shot at the Temple of Music. Buffalo
  9. 1903Caroline Delia Weppner is born.
  10. 1904Cashier Edward A. Weppner exposes a Boston promoter's use of the German-American Bank. After a run on 1 December the bank survives, and on 11 December he is reinstated; The New York Times reports it the next day.
  11. 1904The German Bank, controlled by the same Boston promoter, fails in December. Buffalo
  12. 1914Edward Albert Weppner dies on 28 January, mourned by the city's newspapers.
  13. 1914Elmer K. Weppner graduates from Cornell University; two years later he completes the University of Buffalo's law course.