Ghost Stories: Money in the bank

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s been said that a bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.

I also like the famous quote from Mark Twain – or Samuel Langhorne Clemens, if you prefer – “The lack of money is the root of all evil.”

I suppose that it true. Money does come in handy. So does cash.

And, no, they are not one and the same. My lovely wife, Helen, and I were driving along the Chicago Skyway and Interstate 90 last week on a business trip to Wisconsin, and I began to sweat as I paid $2.50 at one toll, four bucks at another and we kept stopping at one toll booth after another as folks held out their hands for certain amounts of cash – something of which I had just enough as we left the state of Illinois.

On the way home, however, we encountered a toll as we were about to enter I-90 where there was no attendant. The machine that lifted the gate required 60 cents – cash, no bills – and thankfully Helen was able to scrape together two quarters and a dime from her purse.

Real riches may be the riches possessed inside, but money makes the tollbooth gates go up!

As a longtime journalist, I love reading newspaper articles from long ago, and during this “Ghost Stories” series, I’ve had an opportunity to wade through a bunch of ’em over the past few months.

I enjoy the advertisements, too. There was one that caught my attention from an edition that came off the presses more than a century ago.

The 2-column ad read: “A Hold Up: Of course if your wife demands a little money it is sometimes a good thing to have a little coin handy, but even then she will usually accept a check on the bank and be glad to get it. But suppose some real ‘hold up’ man should some time stick a gun under your nose and demand ‘Hands up.’ What then? If you are in the habit of carrying around much money in your clothes right then you will wish you were one of those prudent men, the modern kind, who keep their money in the bank and pay by check. We invite you to open an account with us. The Hillsboro Bank and Savings Co.”

By golly, I really love old-school ads.

In the days of Highland County pioneer George Washington Barrere, who was born in 1770 and passed away in 1838, money was scarce and most things had to be obtained by barter. But as the 1800s progressed, that began to change. In fact, one of his sons became a prominent figure during the early days of the banking system in Hillsboro.

Benjamin Haley Barrere was born at the Barrere Tavern and Inn in New Market on Feb. 25, 1812.

Like his siblings, he received a common school education and after that, started in business in Hillsboro in 1827 as a clerk for Benjamin Johnson. Several years later, he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, D.H. Murphy (who married his sister, Melissa) and ran a business in New Market beginning in 1834.

Ben Barrere and Murphy moved to Ripley to start another business in 1845, and three years later, Barrere returned to Hillsboro and continued in the mercantile business until 1853.

More than 162 years ago, Ben Barrere, his brother Nelson Barrere (the attorney and Congressman) and J.A. Smith started a private bank under the name Barrere & Company.

In 1865, the bank became the Hillsborough National Bank, the first national bank in Hillsboro, with Smith as president and Ben Barrere as cashier.

Barrere became vice president in 1872 and then president of the bank in 1875 at the age of 63, a position he held until he resigned in 1883 at the age of 71.

Ben Barrere originated the system of bank bookkeeping used in the banks of Hillsboro and was identified with the business interests of Hillsboro for more than 40 years, and his entire business life spanned 60 years. During the Civil War, while not in the field, he rendered valuable services at home as a member of the war and relief committees. In 1836, he married Mary E. Carlisle, of Lancaster, Ohio, and they raised six children.

Mary Barrere died the day after Christmas Day in 1885 at the age of 72. Her husband passed away on the Fourth of July in 1889 at the age of 77.

His obituary read, in part, “This week we are called upon to record the death of one of Hillsboro’s substantial citizens, that of Benjamin Barrere. To the younger portion of our people the presence of Ben Barrere was as old as the town itself. During his years of active life, which terminated but a short time ago, if was safe to predict that Ben Barrere could be found at his place of business. Mr. Barrere was a man of strong convictions, and those convictions were always on the side of good citizenship and morality. He had reached the ripe old age of nearly four score years.”

The funeral services were held at his late residence on West Walnut Street on a Sunday afternoon. The following scripture from the book of Hebrews was read: “And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

The man who read the verse, Dr. McSurely, spoke pointedly and with feeling as to what caused the fear of death, and then pointed to Christ as the only power to remove that fear.

Following the services, Benjamin Barrere was interred in the Hillsboro Cemetery.

Let’s pause for now and we’ll continue next week.

Steve Roush is a vice president of an international media company and a columnist and contributing writer for The Highland County Press. He can be reached by email at roush_steve@msn.com.