The Crates: T.W. Harvey Author

The Crates

By T.W. Harvey

August 17, 1993, 7:00 P.M.                         

Cleveland Heights, Ohio

          Right around 2:15 P.M. this afternoon, Tuesday, August 17, 1993, there was a knock on the door of my study. You see, I am working at my parents’ house since they have moved to Judson Manor, a retirement community in the University Circle area of Cleveland. They wanted me to prepare the house for sale, so I just brought my computer and work files to the Cleveland Heights home while the work to empty the house went on.

          Three years ago, I started a small consulting company, Value Concepts, Inc., to help small-to-medium-sized banks improve their productivity and profitability and was working, this afternoon, on a report for the Savings Bank of Utica, a client in upper New York state. My career to this point had consisted of five years with a small firm, Educational Dimensions, Inc., which had two large contracts for a social science textbook series for Grades 7 through 12. And, then, after taking my M.B.A. in Finance at Case Western Reserve University, I accepted a position in the Finance Division of Union Commerce Bank which was merged into Huntington Bancshares five years later. It was time I found a “real job” my father had lectured, so it was a perfect fit.

          After the merger into the Huntington, which I managed by the way, I took an offer from Society Corporation to develop and implement strategies for acquiring and merging in other banks which we did quite well, buying banks in Dayton, Canton, Toledo, and two in Cleveland. That ended in 1990 – 1991 when Society became part of Key Corp, and I was out of a job again. It has always struck me as interesting that I put myself out of work twice, once at Union Commerce and the other at Society. But then, it was time to become an entrepreneur, and I formed Value Concepts, Inc. The Savings Bank of Utica was my first client and, obviously, a very important one.

      So, there I was this afternoon, diligently typing away on my Commodore PC, and there’s a knock on the door. I invited whoever it was to come in, and in walks Pete Zanetti, one of the men who was helping discard things that we didn’t want or need as we were getting ready to sell the house. He told me that there were two crates down in the basement and asked what I wanted to do with them. Beats me, I said. So, we went down the stairs and through the kitchen to the basement stairs. When I got down there, Pete’s associate, Norm Fassbender, was looking at the crates, each one 18 inches long, 9 inches wide, and 12 inches in height. Oddly, on the side of one, in large, faded black, cursive lettering were the words “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too.” Now, I kind of remembered from history classes that this was the slogan of some president back in the mid-19^th century but really didn’t pay too much attention to it. But, it was a sign.

          Norm asked me what I want to do with them. My response was to open them up and see what’s inside. So, he took out a claw hammer and screwdriver and broke into one of them, breaking the cover in two. The crate had been nailed shut with 3-inch square heads. He handed a couple of them to me. They sure were old. Looking inside the crate, it was full of paper, old paper I could tell by picking one document up.

          Being a history buff as well as a finance guy, I was curious to find out what the documents were and noticed that they were mostly letters in their envelopes. One postmark said “Libby Prison, Richmond, Va.,” and the envelope was addressed to a “Miss Francis P. Porter.” Well, I had no idea who that was and asked Pete and Norm to seal the crate up and then take both of them out to the garage. I wanted to take them to our summer cottage on a lake in Ashtabula County, Ohio, to look at later. Right now, the Savings Bank of Utica was first and foremost on my mind. It was paying the bills.

          But, before they sealed the crates and carried them to the garage, I opened the envelope to Miss Porter and unfolded the letter inside. It was handwritten, friendly enough, dated July 28, 1863, and was from a Thomas S. Armstrong. Now, I am really curious for my father’s middle name was Armstrong and am wondering what else was in those crates. I would have to wait until the work with the Savings Bank of Utica was complete to find out.

To see the Paula B. And Thomas W. Collection of Civil War Letters at Ohio Wesleyan Unversity's online archive, click here!

About Dr. Harvey

Dr. T.W. Harvey is retired Associate Professor of Finance at Ashland (Ohio) University. He has published two books, Quality Value Banking: Effective Management Systems that Increase Earnings, Lower Costs, and Provide Competitive Customer Service, with Janet L. Gray, and The Banking Revolution: Positioning Your Bank in The New Financial Services Marketplace. Further, he had articles published in both practitioner and academic journals.

Dr. Harvey has always been fascinated by the history of the United States and was grateful to have the opportunity to study it in detail while researching and writing Seeing the Elephant: One Man’s Return to the Horrors of the Civil War.

He was born and raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He graduated from Hillsdale College with a BA in English, from Case Western Reserve University with an MBA in Finance, from Cleveland State University with a doctorate in management and strategy. He and his wife, Paula, reside in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.