Thomas B Youtsey
Condensed from an article by Jim Reis in Pieces of the Past Volume 3 pages 74-76 and reprinted here with his permission.
On the morning of January 18, 1897 the First National Bank of Newport did not open. Over at the city's other two banks, Newport National and German National Bank, customers demanded their money. At some point the officials at German National Bank began stacking money by the teller cages. The implied message was that German National had plenty of cash. There was no run that day on either bank.
It was learned that a week before Dr. Henry Gunkel, a native of Germany and founder of the German Pioneer Society in Newport, and bank president of First National had retired as president and had been replace by John Trapp. A Dayton resident, Trapp was a builder, former county sheriff, an original trustee of Speers Hospital and considered one of the wealthiest men in Campbell County.
On January 19, Oliver P Tucker, a United States bank examiner, was temporarily placed in charge of the bank. He told a reporter that day the problem was bad loans and that the bank cashier, Thomas B Youtsey was involved in several of those loans. Youtsey declined comment but was seen daily working with bank examiners in the locked bank. The federal investigation went on for more than three months.
Finally on May 14, 1897, Thomas Youtsey was arrested. His attorney was L J Crawford of Newport, the attorney for Scott Jackson, who was found guilty in the murder of Pearl Bryan. After Youtsey's arrest, it was discovered that four Army officers based at Ft. Thomas were minor stockholders in the Ft. Thomas Land Co. along with Youtsey. The officers were Col. Melville Cochran, commander of the 6th Infantry; Capt. W H H Crowell of Co G; Capt. Fred W Thibaut of Co D; and First Lt. Zerah W Torrey of Co B.
The charge against Youtsey was misappropriation of funds amounting to about $300,000. First National Bank was sold in October 1897 to Newport National Bank to raise money. Youtsey's trial began November 22. The trial was postponed because of Youtsey's health. One of the attorneys, R W Nelson, went to Washington to lobby officials to drop the federal charges. Federal officials declined.
Finally in Mary 1898 Youtsey went on trial. After several days of testimony, the case went to jury on March 19, 1898. The jury found Youtsey guilty on 25 counts of embezzlement, involving 10 violations of federal banking laws. Money from savings and businesses of Youtsey's were seized and by 1909 depositors had received 87.5% of their money back.
Thomas B Youtsey, the only bank official charged in the
bank failure, returned to Newport after serving his sentence. He died at
his home, 1016 Central Ave at age 72 on Nov 10, 1915 and was buried in Spring
Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.