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NYC EMBEZZLER JOHN C ENO AUTOGRAPHED ASTOR BANK CHECK
A rare old BUSINESS / FINANCIAL AUTOGRAPH with lots of interesting history as follows:
Old white, black & gold printed bank check (2.5 x 6”) from the ASTOR NATIONAL BANK, Astor Court, 34th Street, dated 2 May 1900, and nicely SIGNED John C. Eno. The check for $100.00 is made out to “Bearer.” There are 3 cancellation holes punched in check above the autograph but otherwise good condition.
The interesting story of Eno’s embezzlement is told in this excerpt from his 1914 New York Times obituary:
“John Chester Eno gained notoriety in 1884 when it was discovered that he had appropriated to his own uses nearly $4,000,000 of the funds of the Second National Bank. A few years previously his father Amos R. Eno, who was known as "the merchant prince," and who was said to have been worth $20,000,000, made John President of the bank though he was then in his early thirties. In the spring of 1884 the younger Eno suffered heavy losses in the stock market and used the bank's money to cover himself. When the news of his defalcations came out he fled to Canada and successfully fought extradition there. Amos R. Eno saved the Second National Bank by depositing in it $3,500,000 worth of securities and $1,000,000 in cash. Its survived a run of the day and a half, but ENO'S DEFALCATION, coming as it did all the heels of the failures of Grant & Wad and the Marine Bank, HELPED TO CREATE A PANIC IN WALL STREET. John C. Eno lived in Canada for nine years after his flight and engaged successfully in business. He returned to New York in 1893 and surrendered to the Federal authorities. He was admitted to $20,000 bail upon which he remained at liberty until the indictment against him was quashed. Nothing resulted from several other indictments against him in the State Courts.”
More about John Eno is contained in the following entry in the National Cyclopedia of American Biography (which avoids any mention of his embezzlement).
“ENO, John Chester: financier, was born in New York city, January 22, 1848, son of Amos Richards and Lucy Jane (Phelps) Eno and a descendant of James Eno, a Huguenot, who came from London, England, in 1646 and settled at Windsor, Conn., where he married Mary Bidwell. His father was a New York merchant, financier and philanthropist. Eno prepared for College at Phillips Academy, Andover, and was graduated A.B. at Yale in 1869. In his senior year his classmates voted him the wooden spoon as the most popular member of his class. After graduation he spent several years of the banking house Morton, Bliss & Co. in New York, and in 1873-74 traveled abroad. He was elected president of the Second National Bank of New York in 1879, but resigned in May 1880 [sic] and went to Quebec, Canada, where he became interested in the building and financing of Canadian railways. He was instrumental in completing the constructions of the Quebec and Lake St. John and Canadian Northern railways between Quebec and Montreal and succeeded in attracting American capital to Quebec. In 1893 he returned to New York and during the later years of his life spent much of his time abroad. A delightful raconteur, he was a man of rare personal charm and broad culture. He was married in New York city, Nov. 23, 1875, to Harriet Andrews, daughter Charles H. Christmas, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and had three daughters: Florence Christmas, wife of William Leon Graves; Mary Pinchot, wife of Hokan Bjornstrom Steffanson, and Antoinette Wood Eno. He died in New York city, Feb. 28, 1914.”
And finally, from his father’s obituary in the New York Times:
“In 1881 John Chester Eno, son of Mr. Eno, was made President of the Second National Bank. The result was a most tragic chapter in the history of Amos R. Eno's life. In May, 1884, it was discovered that the funds of the bank had been used by its President to supply the means for private speculation, and that the institution could no longer meet its obligations. A run on the bank followed at once. Through the intense mental suffering which naturally followed news so heartbreaking to a man of Mr. Eno's high sense of honor, one thought never lost its hold on him -- the bank must not fail. At the time a panic was imminent, and money was extremely hard to get. Nevertheless the doors of the bank were never closed, every depositor was paid in full, although to do it, cost Mr. Eno between three and four million dollars. The credit of the institution was saved at a time when its loss might have been final blow of the wavering commercial stability of the city. Mr. Eno never recovered from the shock of these events and of those which followed as their natural consequence.”.
Interesting and unusual old business / financial autograph on an attractive Astor National Bank check in good condition.
Price= $95.00
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