Historical Society To Audit History Of Newtown Savings Bank

Newtown Historical Society will look at the history of Newtown Savings Bank in a program presented by town historian Daniel Cruson on Monday, January 9, at 7:30 pm, in the community room of C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street.

As the Industrial Revolution took hold, society’s customs changed along with it. The economy moved from a subsistence/barter lifestyle to that of cash, and along with it the urban migration took wings. Workers could no longer save their wealth on the hoof, or by an occasional silver coin tucked into the thatch of their roofs.

But the banks of the time were designed for large-scale commercial transactions and investments; there was no place for the small-level saver. From this lack was born the mutual savings bank, owned by the depositors and dedicated to their welfare.

The movement was very popular in Britain, and began to spread to this country as its business and industry developed. It proved a popular model in Connecticut, and in 1855 it reached Newtown with the founding of Newtown Savings Bank.

The bank always had the interests of the small saver at heart, and deposits were at one time limited to $400 per year. In addition, local ownership meant that the bank’s investments would also be local; the local flavor of both the incoming deposits and the outgoing investments gave the bank a strong influence in the town’s development.

 Many of the early depositors were women, and Mr Cruson has found at least five black women among their numbers. While a bank usually is imagined as an imposing physical edifice, in Newtown’s case it operated from the treasurer’s living room for its first 32 years.

 But what would any bank, mutual or otherwise, be without the threat of bank robbers, and true to form, robbers later twice tried to break into the local bank, both times unsuccessfully, though once with enough stumble-bum mistakes to make a comedy routine, had it not been fraught with violence and danger.

 Mr Cruson will offer these and many more tidbits in his slide talk covering the 150-year history of Newtown Savings Bank. He will end with a tribute to Arthur Treat Nettleton, the dominating force of the bank for one-third of its existence, and a major influence on the town in many other ways.

In addition to being Newtown’s first official town historian, Dan Cruson is a past president of Newtown Historical Society and is on its board of trustees. He is also a past president of Connecticut Archeological Society. He was for many years a teacher of local history and anthropology at Joel Barlow High School in Redding, and has lectured extensively in the area.

He is the author of several works on the history of Newtown, including the Tercentennial publication A Mosaic of Newtown History. The publication of that book was sponsored by the historical society, and copies will be available at the program.

All Newtown Historical Society programs are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served following the program.

For further information, call 426-5937.