The Nation, and Tenino, was gripped by the Great Depression
in 1931, and money was scarce. The Independent in November of that
year advocated editorially that scrip be used to meet the currency
shortage. Then on December 5, 1931, the matter of emergency struck
home with the failure of the Citizens Bank of Tenino. Joel Gould,
now of Olympia, came over from Buckley to act as liquidator. This
tied-up the accounts of the depositors while the affairs of the
defunct bank were being adjusted. Thus the shortage of money became
acute.
The Tenino Chamber of Commerce met to meet the emergency and
agreed to issue scrip to permit the depositors to assign 25% of
their bank accounts to the Chamber. The printing press at the
Independent office was soon running out of assignment forms and
depositors signed for definite amounts of money within the 25%
limitations. The printing of $1.00, $5.00 and $10 denomination
scrip was done on engraved pieces the size of paper money then in
use. The 25 cent denomination was the yellow bond paper without any
fancy border. Trustees of the Chamber of Commerce Committee, F.W.
Wichman, D.M. Major and A.H. Meyers, signed each piece. They agreed
to redeem the certificates “During the Process of Liquidation of
the Citizens Bank of Tenino.” This scrip printed in December, 1931
totaled $3,255, of which $1,279 was circulated. Eventually the
Chamber redeemed $1,079.75 of this scrip.
Some samples of “slice wood”, a new printing material, had been
received from Albert Balch of Seattle, who was promoting it for
Christmas cards and other items. This was made in a special machine
at Aberdeen by a man named Eckersley. Sitka Spruce and Port Orford
and red cedar were used. The first pieces were flimsy sheets of
1/80th of an inch thick. The 25 on hand were sufficient to put
Tenino in the wooden money business. Later the slices were
sandwiched with a paper in between. One issue of a thousand even
carried a “watermark” reading “Confidence makes good; Money made of
wood”, which could be seen by holding it up to the light. This was
supposed to guard against counterfeiting.
The publicity of Tenino Wooden Money began to snowball in
February, 1932, the old Seattle Star carrying the story early that
month, followed by the Tacoma News-Tribune, Oregonian, Seattle P-I
and others. The Halls of Congress heard of the unique method of
meeting the money shortage and in March it was featured in the
Congressional Record. Thousands of stories and comments appeared
over the world in newspapers and magazines. Orders from collectors
and souvenir hunters came in increasing demand and eight issues
were printed through 1933, mostly in 25 cent denominations, but
also in 50 cent and $1.00. In all $10,308 worth of wooden money was
issued of which about $40 was redeemed by the Chamber of Commerce.
In April, 1935, business people used small wooden fifth cent tax
tokens due to a state shortage of tokens. Like the original wooden
money, they are now quite valuable.
Congradulations Mr. Plaidguy on getting your 3000th milestone
here at my little cache.