Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Mather, Samuel Holmes

MATHER, Samuel Holmes, financier, b. in Washington, N. H., 20 March, 1813. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1834, studied law in Geneva, N. Y., and was admitted to the bar at Columbus, Ohio, in 1837. After practising twelve years in Cleveland, he organized the Society for savings in that city. The middle western states were then overrun with “wild-cat” banks, and the experiment of a conservative savings-bank on the plan of similar institutions in Massachusetts was not promising. His faith in the sober judgment of the western people was not shaken, and the bank grew stronger every year, constantly maintaining its place as a large institution, both as to deposits and surplus, equalled only by a few in New York and the New England states. He has been president of the bank for many years, and his judgment upon financial ventures and investments is considered of great value.