PRINCE, THE WATCHDOG OF THE BANK

 

ANIMALS APPEAR in a wide variety of situations and motifs on fiscal paper. Livestock and other ruminants typically serve to illustrate agricultural bounty or evoke pastoral settings. Some animals symbolize a place itself, like the otter on checks from the Bank of Otterville, Missouri. Robert Eberhard Launitz's statue of Leatherstocking, which appeared for decades on checks of the First National Bank of Cooperstown, N.Y., depicts Natty Bumppo and Hector, the hunting dog gazing up in abject adoration at his master. Otherwise, canines are often used to portray some behavior or attitude that we value in banking and finance: loyalty, protectiveness, and vigilance. Variations on the vignette of a dog, perched upon a strongbox and guarding its key, are perhaps the most characteristic expressions of these traits.

For the most part, these dogs were at best anonymous models for the engraver's art. Not so with Prince, the English bull terrier gracing this check drawn in 1906 on the Farmers Deposit National Bank of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Prince not only existed, but bestrode the lobby and corridors of that Pittsburgh bank for the better part of the 1890s. Originally a gift to the bank's cashier and later president, T. H. Given, Prince became a denizen of the bank, wandering its premises freely as a gentle friend to children and a fierce foe of enemies.

Although the dog disappeared mysteriously in 1898, the memory of Prince lived on and was indeed burnished as an icon of the bank's corporate identity. Images of Prince appeared not only on checks, calendars, stationery, and other documents of the bank, but on its stock certificates themselves. When Given had the new Farmers Deposit Building constructed in 1902, it was the tallest skyscraper between New York and Chicago. Given also made sure it was embellished with a variety of Prince-inspired ornamentation, making his new skyscraper a veritable temple to the departed dog. The bank's thrift affiliate, the Farmers Deposit Savings Bank, also made enthusiastic use of the animal's likeness in its marketing, ensuring that Prince became an internationally-recognized symbol. For a good half century after his departure, Prince represented a venerable Pittsburgh financial institution to its customers far and wide.

The origins of the Farmers Deposit National Bank lay in the founding, in 1832, of the Pittsburgh Savings Fund. This was a simple mutual savings society in which members contributed small regular subscriptions. In 1841 it incorporated as the Farmers Deposit Bank and continued that way for almost twenty-five years until it reorganized under the National Banking Act as the Farmers Deposit National Bank (charter no. 685). In 1880, Thomas Hartley Given (1851-1919) became Cashier of the bank, assuming the post of President in 1893.

Prince's story, which was recounted numerous times over the years, has the feel of a polished stone of corporate public relations. Nonetheless, there is no harm in treating the basic details of his life as if they were true. Prince, a white English bull terrier, came to the bank in the summer of 1889 from Henry Kramer, a traffic officer who worked at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Woods Street in downtown Pittsburgh (Kramer, who had just started with the force, later drove the first horse-drawn police patrol in the city and had a long career fighting crime). At the time, the bank was located at 400 Fourth Street. T. H. Given, at that time still Cashier, was a serious dog-fancier who maintained his own kennels and was active on the show circuit (a Chihuahua of his, Carlotta, won a First Place at a Pittsburgh show in 1899). In addition, during these years Given not only served on the executive committee of the Bull-Terrier Club of America, but hosted its meetings on the bank's premises.

Although Prince had no pedigree, Given took a liking to the animal, and it thereafter became a mascot and constant fixture of the bank for the next nine years. Prince's actual care was left in the hands of Chatham Gilbert, an African-American porter who in time would become the bank's oldest and longest-serving employee. It was left to Gilbert to feed Prince twice a day, and make sure that the dog got the exercise it needed. Otherwise, Prince had free range of bank's rooms and corridors. When the dog was not making these rounds in this way, he parked himself outside of the bank's steel vault. At night, Prince slept on a pillow placed in front of one of the bank's windows overlooking Fourth Avenue.

 
In this picture from about 1890, Farmers Deposit National employees pose with Prince.
Figure at the far left is probably Chatham Gilbert (Source: Historic Pittsburgh).

Accounts of Prince's temperament, handed down over the years, made much of his friendly disposition towards all customers and his particular solicitude for young children, whom he was said to shepherd while their parents were busy filling out forms and transacting business. Over two decades after Prince finally disappeared, the bank put out a twenty-page booklet entitled The Story of Prince, in which the dog was described thus: full of life and mischief, with bright intelligent eyes, always unselfish, faithful and true. Children were sure to find in him an affectionate and devoted friend. No doubt this was some publicist's florid copy. All the same, it is unlikely that a bank would've let its mascot roam like that if it did have a habit of mauling its little customers. To that extent, the story of Prince can be accepted as not disproven. Indeed, Prince comes off as something like the noble dog in Plato's Republic, gentle towards those it knows but fierce towards its enemies.

While over the years Prince kept to his routine, it was not an uneventful life. Prince stood up for himself in fights with other dogs in the neighborhood, giving as good as he got. As the bank's mascot, he represented it at various sports events when the Farmers' Deposit men would play teams from other companies. One baseball match in particular became a regular part of Prince lore. As recounted by Edward B. Coll, a longtime bank officer, it was ninth inning, two men on, two men out, one run needed to win. The player hit a fly ball to left field. Prince got away from the colored fellow that was holding him and started to run. The left fielder thought that Prince was after him, dropped the ball, and ran away—and the Farmers won the ball game.

 

Loren adds:

To read the complete article, see:
Prince, The Watchdog of the Bank (https://spmc.org/blog/prince-watchdog-bank)

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