The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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The three banks holding Highlands County’s public money all failed between February and May 1929

The dates come from an unlikely place: a private relief act passed for a county official who had public money in all three banks when they closed.

D. F. Canfield was appointed tax collector of Highlands County by the Governor in April 1921, when the county was created, and was still in office eight years later. Tax collectors deposit receipts in designated state and county depositories to clear and distribute them, and their official bond makes them personally answerable for the money. Chapter 13787, Laws of Florida 1929, sets out what happened to his deposits:[lof-1929-13787]

Bank Closed By order of Public money on deposit
Highlands Bank & Trust Company, Sebring 11 February 1929 State Comptroller $811.43
State Bank of Avon Park 16 February 1929 State Comptroller $708.72
First National Bank of Sebring 3 May 1929 national banking authorities $8,202.54

Total lost: $9,722.69 of state and county funds. On 8 June 1929 the legislature relieved, exonerated and discharged Canfield from all liability, on condition that he file proper claims and assign them to the Comptroller and the county commissioners.[lof-1929-13787]

A second act, and a bank in Tampa

Two years later the legislature had to do the same for L. T. Farmer, clerk of the circuit court of Highlands County, who lost $907.17 of tax redemption money the same way. His act adds a fourth failure and a telling sentence.[lof-1931-14858]

After the Sebring banks went,

“the same being the only legal depositories for public funds located in Highlands County,”

Farmer opened his tax redemption account with the Citizens Bank and Trust Company of Tampa, “said bank being at the time a solvent, going institution.” On 5 June 1929 the Citizens Bank and Trust Company was closed and taken over by a receiver, taking $554.93 of Highlands County’s money with it. The county clerk had gone eighty miles to find a bank and lost the money anyway, three weeks later.

The two relief acts disagree slightly on dates. Canfield’s act of 1929 puts the Highlands Bank & Trust Company’s closing on 11 February and the First National Bank of Sebring’s on 3 May; Farmer’s act of 1931 puts them on 16 February and 2 May. Where they conflict, prefer the 1929 act, which was passed within months of the events. Farmer’s act also calls the two Sebring banks “the only legal depositories for public funds located in Highlands County,” which cannot be strictly right, since Canfield’s act describes the State Bank of Avon Park as “a regularly designated State and County depository.”

Why the dates matter

Five months before the Wall Street crash of October 1929, and four years before the national banking crisis of March 1933, the three banks that held Highlands County’s public money — two at Sebring, one at Avon Park — had all closed. Whether any other bank was still trading in either town is not established; the relief acts name only the designated depositories.

This is the clearest single piece of evidence that the collapse here was a land boom collapse, not a Depression one. The order of events at Avon Park runs: freight embargo, autumn 1925; hurricane, September 1926; the city refinancing its debt with $175,000 of refunding bonds voted on 18 December 1928; the banks closing in February and May 1929; and only then the national Depression, arriving on a town that had already been broke for three years.

Canfield’s local presence. D. F. Canfield had operated a lumber business in Avon Park from at least 1918, when the state business directory listed “DeForest Canfield, lumber.” His prominence in early municipal building and civic life is reflected in Canfield Street, named in his family’s honor and indexed as one of the twenty-eight streets on the November 1920 Sanborn map prior to his appointment as Highlands County’s inaugural tax collector.[wpa-hrs-highlands]

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
single-source — One source. Treat as reported, not established.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. Legislature of the State of Florida, Chapter 13787 (No. 223), Laws of Florida 1929: An Act for the Relief of D. F. Canfield, Individually, and as Tax Collector of Highlands County, Florida (1929)
  2. Legislature of the State of Florida, Chapter 14858 (No. 220), Laws of Florida 1931: An Act for the Relief of L. T. Farmer as Clerk of the Circuit Court of Highlands County (1931)
  3. Works Progress Administration, Historical Records Survey (Florida County Histories, Series S 1284, Box 2, State Library and Archives of Florida), Historical Sketch of Highlands County / A Brief Sketch of the Creation and History of Highlands County (1939)

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