James Richardson, Napoleon B. Van Slyke, and Timothy Brown dealt in banking and real estate. They organized during the 1850s the firms of Richardson and Van Slyke, the Northwestern Land Agency, joined as James Richardson and Company, and, with others, organized the Waupaca County Bank in 1858. According to the History of Dane County, Wisconsin, published in 1880 by the Western Historical Society of Chicago, Van Slyke and Richardson owned the Dane County Bank (later the First National Bank) of Madison which opened its doors as a private bank on January 1, 1854. In September, 1854, according to this history, ownership changed to Van Slyke, Levi B. Vilas, and Leonard Farwell. Little correspondence relates to this bank except insofar as Richardson, for more than a decade, seems to have had unlimited credit from it to finance his land transactions. Many letters are found in the collection from Farwell, but they relate mainly to real estate transactions and personal matters.
Before the Civil War, all Wisconsin banks were required to deposit with the State Bank Comptroller $25,000 in bonds of the United States or of some state. The practice was to buy depreciated bonds of southern states which would deliver a high rate of interest on the money invested. Since the bonds fluctuated in value, it was advisable for out-state bankers to have an agent in Madison who could also advise them on legislation, financial trends, and collect interest coupons. By a statute of 1861, every bank was required to maintain an agent at Milwaukee or Madison authorized at all times to redeem the bank's paper. [This information was secured from Merk's Economic History of Wisconsin, 187-219.]
In this situation Richardson had a thriving, if not too profitable, business as a bank agent from 1856 to 1864. The firm cooperated with similar agencies in the state, particularly Washburn and Woodman of Mineral Point and Catlin and Williamson of Madison. Towards the end of the decade members of the firm engaged in banking operations, organizing or affiliating with or serving as agents for banks in Madison and elsewhere in the state and in northern Illinois. The National Bank Act of 1863 killed this business, and, beginning in 1864, the correspondence shows a much greater emphasis being placed on the land business. As an agent for eastern investors, Richardson bought lands, filed bounty claims, and redeemed and paid taxes on lands (usually in local government orders which he was able to purchase at a discount). Included in the collection of papers is a large group of Charles Doty material relative to Doty's real estate holdings and correspondence with Catlin and Williamson of Madison. This material dates from 1836 to 1856, and includes early land deeds.
In 1868, Richardson sold his Madison business to George B. Burrows and moved to Buffalo, New York.
George B. Burrows was born in Springfield, Vermont, October 20, 1832, to Baxter and Lydia Boynton Burrows. In 1858 he moved to Sauk City, Wisconsin where he managed a bank for several years. Burrows moved to Madison to purchase the Richardson business and expanded it to include the entire northern part of the state in its operations. Among his other business activities, Burrows was president of the Iron Mountain Furnace Company and was president of the Chippewa County Drywood Lumber Company. Active in Republican Party politics, Mr. Burrows served in the State Senate, 1878-1882, and in 1895 in the State Assembly where he was speaker.
Mr. Burrows was married to Alma Thompson, January 13, 1857. He died in 1909.
