L. P. Axtell, Esquire, director of
the First National Bank of Painesville, Ohio, in 1889 in an interview with E.
L. Kelley, a bishop of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints said he knew Joseph Smith and his followers, having lived in Lake
Country since 1830, . . . Enid S. DeBarthe, “A
Bibliography on Joseph Smith III the Mormon Prophet-Leader” [M.A. Thesis;
Northern Illinois University, July 1969], 50)
Q.—How was it that people
did not like them? Were they not good citizens?
A.—Yes, they were as good
citizens as those of any society. It was the fanatics in religion that tried
to drive those men out. There were a great many conservative men in our country
at that time who held these fanatics back and if it had not been for this they
would have gone in and killed them all. But our intelligent and honorable
citizens prevented this.
Q.—What about the Kirtland
Bank swindle? Mr Axtell, you are a banker, and know how that was, do you not?
A—Yes, I know about that
bank; they started in Kirtland. These parties went into the banking business as
a great many others in the State of Ohio and other states. They got
considerable money our at first and their enemies began to circulate all manner
of stories against them and as we had a great many banks then that issued what
was known as “wild-cat” money, the people began to get alarmed at so many
stories, and would take the other hanks’ issue instead of the Kirtland; and so
much of it was forced in at once that the bank was not able to take it up. Had
the people let these people alone there is no reason that I know of why the
Kirtland Bank should not have existed in this time, and on as stable a basis as
other banks.
Q.—Then you think it was
the fault of the enemies of the bank that it failed?
A.—Yes, I do; and it was
not the only one that failed either by a good many, and with which Smith had
nothing to do with it. (“From
Painesville, Ohio,” Saints’ Herald 27, no. 6 [March 15, 1880]: 85)
