Oklahoma: A Story Through Her People

estrictions, which meant for each $100 you
had on deposit you were allowed to draw $5
out of the account. New deposits were kept
separate and handled under normal conditions.
We, of course, lost a lot of business
under this arrangement. The closing of the
banks occurred in March 1933. In order to
reduce the surplus of cotton the government
in the summer of 1933 passed a farm bill
paying the farmers so much per acre for
plowing up a percent of their cotton. A good
crop was produced in 1933 and the price that
fall rose to about 10 to 11 cents per pound.
With the money received from the cotton
plowed up, our farm customers got in shape
to pay off most of the loans due our bank and
were able to get the 5 percent restrictions
removed and to obtain FDIC Insurance and
to start operating normally again. I might add
that during 1933 when we were operating
under restrictions our salaries were reduced
by the examiners and my salary was $65 per
month. 1934 was another dry year and we
didn’t have a very good year in the bank. 1935
was a very dry year, probably the worst of the
years during the Dust Bowl days. On account
of attempting to save some cotton he was
speculating on that belonged to the bank,
Mr. Capps (president of the bank) wrote some
checks in early 1935 to keep the Oklahoma
Cotton Growers from selling the cotton when
the price went down. He did not have the
money to pay the checks and on March 25,
1935, he took his life. A few days later the
examiners closed the bank.
T. C. continues:
In order to save my job I worked out a deal
with the (Oklahoma) State Banking Department
and the FDIC to sell $10,000 in new stock
locally and to reopen the bank. I had figured
that there was just about enough old capital to
take care of the losses in the bank. There was
quite a lot of sentiment in Mountain Park to
get the bank reopened and I didn’t have
much trouble in getting the amount of stock
subscribed for, but when I contacted the
(Oklahoma) State Banking Department that
we were ready to go they made the further
requirement that we must sell the new stock
for $120 instead of $100 so that we would have
a surplus of $2,000 in addition to the $10,000
capital. I had more trouble getting the surplus
raised than I did the $10,000 capital. I finally
talked the prospective stockholders into the
additional $2,000 and we got the bank reopened
about the 15th of April with me as cashier and
the chief executive officer of the bank. I later
learned that we were the first bank to be
allowed to reorganize and start doing business
again since the FDIC had been in existence.
The above was told to Huckabay by a
bank examiner.
T. C.’s family has the suicide note left by
Capps. It is handwritten on Planters State Bank
stationary dated March 18, 1935, and it says,
I take full responsibility for the bank’s
actions. Huckabay is a good man. He simply
obeyed me. He is one of the best and
most honest men I ever knew.
Yours truly,
William G. Capps
I do this of my own free will and accord.
I am ruined financially. I will shoot myself
March 18, 1935.
William G. Capps
O K L A H O M A P A R T N E R S
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