50 Dollars Bank of Monroe - Michigan

Chartered by the Legislative council March 29, 1827. Closed in 1830. Then reopened again in 1835–1838. Capital $100,000. Located on Front Street. Named for President James Monroe.
The Bank of Monroe was owned by the Mormon Church in 1837 and Oliver Cowdery (bank president) was a scribe of Joseph Smith in writing the “Book of Mormon”.

President James Monroe visited Frenchtown (original name of Monroe) in the Michigan Territory just after the War of 1812. The village was then renamed in his honor and many of the wildcat notes from here have the portrait of Monroe on them. Also some notes show Lewis Cass, the governor of Michigan Territory on them.

The first post office was in Detroit but the second one was located at Monroe on March 21, 1815 with Laurent Durocher as the first postmaster of Frenchtown and the post office was renamed to Monroe on July 24, 1824.

The Battle of the River Raisin occurred Jan. 22, 1814 when the British captured the Kentuckian under U.S. General James Winchester after a bloody battle. Winchester surrendered and moved his troops further south leaving behind the wounded and the Indians proceeded to scalp 60 Americans. The largest battle ever to occur on Michigan soil left at least 280 Americans dead and over 600 taken prisoner. British losses were 24 dead, 160 wounded and the Indian casualties were unknown.

The Bank of Monroe has the distinction of being the only Michigan bank to ever have been associated with the Mormon church. Oliver Cowdery was president of the bank and also a scribe for Joseph Smith Jr., the Mormon prophet, while the Book of Mormon was being translated. On Jan. 31, 1837 Wilford Woodruff wrote in his diary that the church had purchased the charter of the Bank of Monroe with capital of $100,000. Cowdery’s signature was found on notes dated as early as July 1, 1836, and he was the only Mormon connected with the bank. His signature only appears on the $1, $2, $3, and $5 notes.

The Toledo War of 1835 involved Monroe in that it was necessary to collect taxes from residents in the Toledo strip and enforce the “Pains & Penalties Act” which stated that only Michigan residents could exercise official jurisdiction in the Toledo Strip. This caused, on one occasion, for a 200 man posse to march to Toledo in September 1835. It was a good thing that the belligerents were not there to find and the group returned home. They were defending Toledo, Michigan! Sounds funny to say Michigan after Toledo but that’s what it was. In order to gain statehood we gave up Toledo in exchange for the western U.P.

George Custer spent his boyhood days living with his half-sister in Monroe in the 1840s. There is a monument erected here on his behalf after his death at Little Big Horn in Montana on June 26, 1876.