More: WWI nurse returns home as Utica hospital head nurse: This week in Mohawk Valley history (The deposits the bank's first year total $27,607.) The charter says the amount of money any one person can deposit is limited to $2,000. Nicholas Devereux is one of the trustees. John Devereux is listed as president and Thomas Walker as vice president. The Devereux brothers eventually decide to ask the state for a bank charter and it is issued this year on April 26. It is the informal beginning of the Savings Bank of Utica. When the amount of money grows to a large sum, Nicholas Devereux decides to invest the money and give all interest it earns to the laborers. ![]() So many Irish laborers turn to the brothers who allow them to leave their saving in the strong box. Now the Devereux brothers have in their store something no other store for miles around has - a theftproof, iron strong box. A small number of the settlers are of questionable character. But where can they put their savings? There always is the danger of fire in their frame houses and the number of thefts in the village has been increasing as more and more settlers from New England heading west are staying overnight in Utica's many hotels. Many of them, for the first time, have money to save. The brothers are from Enniscorthy in Wexford County in Ireland and are well liked and trusted by villagers, especially the fast-growing number of Irish laborers in the region. Hurley works for John and Nicholas Devereux, whose brick and fireproof dry goods and grocery store is on the west side of Bagg's Square. (The bank no longer exists, but a building it erected in 1899 still stands at Genesee and Bank Place and its gold dome continues to be a landmark in downtown Utica.) It is May 18 and the new Savings Bank of Utica is open for business. ![]() Sitting there is Stalham Williams, a tall, thin, dignified-looking man who says, "Congratulations, John. in Utica - on the south side of Bleecker a half block from Genesee Street - and plunks down $100 on a desk near the front door. A 24-year-old Irishman from Boonville named John Hurley enters an office at 10 Bleecker St.
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