That Time There Was A Bank Riot In Ansonia

photo:ethan fryAn angry mob, thousands strong, gathers. So do police.

Angry words fly back and forth. Then all hell breaks loose.

Los Angeles, 1992? Seattle, 1999? No — Ansonia, 1915.

The scene was Sept. 16 at 117 Main St., a stately stucco building built 15 years before as the new headquarters of the Savings Bank of Ansonia.

The bank’s treasurer was Franklin Burton.

Born in Stratford, Burton had risen from humble beginnings as a Bridgeport drug store clerk and bank teller in Derby to secretary and treasurer of the Ansonia bank in 1888.

He was, in short, a ​“man of progress,” according to ​“Men of Progress,” a compendium of biographical sketches of the Nutmeg State’s business leaders published in 1898.

“This position of trust and responsibility is one of the many evidences of the confidence and esteem which he enjoys among his fellow citizens, and another was his election in November 1897, as Mayor of the City of Ansonia,” Burton’s bio reads.

But Burton was a better banker-clerk than he was an investor in real estate, an enterprise in which he lost what money he had amassed for himself and his family.

So he stole $36,000 from the bank’s depositors over the course of about 15 years.

Things came to a head Sept. 16, 1915, according to a front-page report in The New York Times a day later, ​“following the announcement that State Bank Commissioner Everett Sturges had taken charge of the affairs of the Savings Bank of Ansonia.”

Article continues after document.

Ansonia Bank Riot, NY Times

A crowd of about 5,000 people, many of them ​“foreign depositors,” the Times noted, threatened to break into the bank, ​“and there were threats made of lynching Mr. Burton.”

Then-Mayor John Schumacher pleaded with the crowd, threatening to ​“sound the riot call.”

The mob wasn’t having it, jeering the mayor with cries of ​“WE WANT BURTON!”

“The police, with drawn revolvers, were unable to cope with the situation,” the Times reported.

Mayor Schumacher called out the fire department, which arrived quickly thanks to the department having recently bought two motorized fire engines, a first for the city.

The firemen were ordered to turn a hose loose on the crowd, ​“but were unable to follow out orders, for hundreds of persons seized the hose and took it away from them.”

Article continues after clip of volunteer firefighter and former Alderman Eugene Sharkey reading a brief account of the riot during an April 2012 event at the Ansonia Fire Museum on Howard Avenue.

Unable to cope with the mob, ​“the police used their clubs freely, and there were many fist fights,” according to the Times.

At the height of the pandemonium, officials ​“feared for Mr. Burton’s safety,” so he was hustled out of a back window and escorted by two cops to nearby City Hall.

General mayhem ensued for about two hours, after which ​“the police regained control of the situation, and the crowd melted away.”

Burton confessed to the theft, and after a subsequent examination of the bank’s books, he was charged with embezzlement.

The next morning, as Burton was arraigned, several hundred people gathered at the bank, ​“but there was no disorder,” according to the Times, perhaps because 50 firemen had been sworn in as special police to prevent rioting.

“Depositors were admitted to the bank one by one, where they were met by Director (W.A.) Nelson, who redeemed the passbooks, paying full value,” the Times reported. ​“Despite Mr. Nelson’s announcement last night that he was willing to do this, many of the depositors, it was said, had sold their books on the street for 90 cents on the dollar.”

In February 1916 Burton was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison following guilty pleas to embezzling funds, forging false notes and mortgages, and making false entries in the bank’s books.

Thanks to Nelson’s heroics, the bank survived, and eventually moved to another building, at the corner of Main and Kingston streets, renaming itself ​“The Great Country Bank.”

In 1995, the bank would be bought by Waterbury-based Centerbank, which was trying to establish a stronger presence in the lower Naugatuck Valley.

Centerbank merged with First Union Bank two years later. In 2010, it merged with Wells Fargo, a branch of which operates in the building at Main and Kingston streets.

The bank’s old neoclassical building at 117 Main St. still stands today, where it is known as the Obsidium building, and houses professional offices.

No riots have been reported there recently.

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