REMINGTON ARMS COMPANY
Rasbach, John A. Banking Documents of John A. Rasbach, Some Dealing with E. Remington & Sons of Herkimer, New York. Folio manuscript collection. Mostly 10 x 8 inches. Letterhead Sheets. 29 pp. total. Folds, light browning, small tears at folds.
Archive comprised of 16 pp. with the American Exchange Bank, and 12 pp. relating to the Albany City Bank, Frankfort Bank, Herkimer County Bank, Bank of Central New York, Agricultural Bank, Onondaga County Bank, Mohawk Valley Bank, and H.J. Miner's Bank. There is also a 1 p. letter from Berry P. Churchill to J.A. Rasbach, Little Falls, February 18, 1856.
Collection of hand written banking documents with apparent relevance to the Remington Arms Company on letterheads of various historical banks in upstate New York. Most are addressed to J.A. Rasbach who was John Adam Rasbach (1805-1892), an attorney and cashier of the American Exchange Bank in Ilion, New York. Herkimer County history notes that: "In 1852 Ilion became an incorporated village. The person whom history credits as most entitled to be remembered because of this move was John A. Rasbach, a lawyer recently come to the community from Herkimer who spent his own money to help finance the necessary steps for incorporation.”
John A. Rasbach had attended Fairfield Academy after going through the local schools and then became a merchant in Herkimer while studying law on the side. Admitted to the bar, in 1852 he came to Ilion to attend to some of the legal business of E. Remington and his Remington Armory.
"E. Remington" was Eliphalet Remington who founded Remington Arms Company in 1816 in Ilion, New York, as E. Remington and Sons. It is the oldest company in the United States which still makes its original product and is the oldest continuously operating manufacturer in North America. A document from February 9, 1856, "...we have rec'd from W. McKee the note of E. Remington & eight others...payable on demand for twenty thousand dollars...."
Many of the documents refer to various transfers of money between banks and are signed by the cashiers. One particularly interesting example, is signed by "Geo. S. Coe", who is Vice President of The Americana Exchange Bank, the letter dated February 1, 1856, which reminds Rasbach that "Your a/c with us has gradually increased until it now stands DR $20,000 about half of which is made of notes redeemed. We cannot consent to go on with this account constantly accumulating debit balance, and you must therefore remit for the protection of your notes, and also abstain from drawing any checks upon us until the a/c be made good."
The letter from Benj. P. Churchill, a farmer in Little Falls, to J.A. Rasbach, Little Falls, February 18, 1856, asks Rasbach for patience in repaying his line of credit and hopes to repay two months at once. He further asks to pay interest on the loan on a yearly basis.
In the period soon after these papers, following 1856, E. Remington & Sons supplied a large proportion of the small arms used by the United States government in the Civil War.
Sources: Hardin, George A. AA HISTORY OF HERKIMER COUNTY NEW YORK, Syracuse, 1893, for Rasbach see pp. 89-90. For Remington see p. 475 with numerous references.