The Veazie Bank

My sister, who is heavy into genealogy, alerted me to this five cent note from the Veazie Bank, a bit of family history for sale on eBay. I was fascinated and jumped at the opportunity to snap it up. I hope to frame it and hang it in a place of honor. Samuel Veazie is a great great great great uncle who lived 1787-1868 in Bangor, Maine.

According to my sister’s research, Veazie established himself as a young man in the lumbering and ship business. He built many vessels and carried on a direct trade with the West Indies, at which he was very successful. He joined the militia as an ensign where he took part in the War of 1812 and rose to the rank of general, a title he used the rest of his life. He became quite a lumber baron. In addition to mill ownership, he was sole owner of the Penobscot Log Boom (a mode of collecting transported lumber from the river), the Bangor Old Town & Milford Railroad, and was principal owner in the Veazie Bank, from which this little souvenir survives.

Apparently it was not so uncommon at that time for various private banks to issue their own currency. The U.S. Congress in 1866, in an effort to centralize one U.S. currency, taxed the notes of these currency-issuing banks at 10%. The Veazie Bank challenged this, and this challenge was defeated at no less than the Supreme Court, which makes this piece of history even more interesting!

In 1854 Samuel moved to the Town of Veazie, formerly part of Bangor, but incorporated into a town in 1853 and named in his honor.

I don’t know when the spelling of Vesey changed, but I rather like it—seems like it would be less prone to mispronunciation!

Oh, and there’s even a link to none other than Henry David Thoreau! Again, thanks to my sister’s impeccable research-- Thoreau made several trips to Maine and recorded the following regarding my ancestor’s efforts to raze the forests. Maybe my membership in the Save the Redwoods League will do something to make amends!

"The mission of the men there seems to be, like so many busy demons, to drive the forest out of the country from every solitary beaver swamp and mountainside as soon as possible." He went to see several of General Samuel Veazie's saw mills, describing one in the following manner: "Some gang saws, 16 in a gang, not to mention circular saws . . . the trees were literally drawn and quartered there . . . " Veazie owned 52 local lumber mills.

[from Maine, A Narrative History, by Neil Rolde, Tilbury House Publishers, Gardiner, ME 1990]