Greensboro, Dec. 20—The Salisbury bank cases, pending since January 1923, were over tonight except for a single indictment against J.K. Doughton and a joint one against him and M.L. Jackson. These will probably never be tried.
J.D. Norwood is under sentence of three years in the federal penitentiary but with an appeal. It was a hectic week here in federal district court.
Starting last Monday, two trials were held, resulting in a mistrial, a conviction and an acquittal, the latter by the directed verdict route. Norwood, who was chairman of the board of directors of the Peoples National Bank of Salisbury, was tried first, that lasting three days and a stubborn jury, which voted a long day through, seven to five, in favor of conviction, was dismissed for being unable to agree. The defendant was charged with abstraction of the notes of the bank.
The second trial, that of Norwood and Doughton, who was president of the bank when it failed, and who is now a business man in Raleigh, started Wednesday and came to a climax Saturday at noon, when Judge H.H. Watkins, of the western South Carolina district court, directed a verdict of not guilty in the case of Doughton. The two defendants were tried on a charge of misapplication of funds of the bank, three counts, and charges of false entry, three counts. Norwood was convicted on the first, three counts. He appealed from the three-year sentence and is out under bond of $15,000 signed by John McCanless. It was a great blow to him. His attorneys, Clyde Hoey of Shelby, A.L. Brooks of Greensboro, and Walter H. Woodson of Salisbury had confidently counted on acquittal. The jury took only one ballot, however, agreeing in one hour and one half and voting 12 to 0 for conviction.
Norwood is a broken man. He was once worth $600,000 net. That was when he was head of the Mecklenburg chain of cotton mills, comprising the Mecklenburg at Charlotte, Clyde and Newton at Newton, and Nancy at Tuckertown, Montgomery county. That is all swept away. He went to Birmingham, Alabama, to go in business after everything was in receivership, mills, bank and his private affairs, and after he had been convicted, James Simpson, Birmingham man, gave him a good name, said that he was honest and open and above board in Alabama, with many friends. Simpson joined with the lawyers in asking for clemency for Norwood. Norwood was once chairman of the North Carolina Democratic state executive committee, and as such waged the 1922 campaign.
The jury in the last trial was evidently in a mood to waste no time. The other one, where a mistrial resulted, stayed all day on the case and did not reach a decision. It was easy for the jury that convicted to agree. There was no disagreement for any time.
Since the jury directed the Doughton verdict of not guilty, it does not seem worthwhile to proceed with trial on the other indictments against him singly and jointly with M.L. Jackson, who was a director in the bank and in the Mecklenburg Mills Company. Frank A. Linney, district attorney, indicated that the cases might be dropped. They were, however, continued until the next term of criminal court here in June.
The bank lost about $500,000 in the crash, according to evidence of the receiver, Earl E. Fouts, who said that a 40 per cent. dividend had been paid depositors, and that more will be paid, but evidently not much. He said that most of the collections had been made.
From the front page of the Concord Times, Monday, Dec. 21, 1925. The word “percent” was sometimes written “per cent.” 100 years ago, which has its roots in the Latin phrase “per centum”, meaning “by the hundred, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. So, if you had $100 in this bank when it closed its doors in January of 1923, by December of 1925 you had gotten $40 back. You might get a little more, but since the receiver says most of the collections had been made, there wouldn’t be much left to distribute among people who had bank accounts there. You, the reader of this newspaper article, know what’s coming in 1929, when stock market collapsed and The Great Depression began. There was no F.D.I.C. (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) for banks or similar protection for credit unions. When a bank failed, and many did in the Great Depression, the doors closed and people lost their savings. This is why people kept money under the mattresses or hidden in coffee cans during the Depression. They no longer trusted banks. The F.D.I.C. was formed June 16, 1933. It is an independent agency created by Congress to maintain stability and public confidence in the nation’s financial system. Your deposits are insured up to $250,000 at each FDIC-insured bank. Mutual funds, annuities, life insurance policies, stocks and bonds, crypto assets, municipal securities, and the contents of safe deposit boxes are not covered. Traditional accounts like checking accounts, savings accounts, money market deposit accounts and certificates of deposit are covered.
To see a list of banks that have failed since October 1, 2000, go to Failed Bank List | FDIC.gov.
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn91068271/1925-12-21/ed-1/seq-1/
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