Episode 2 of 2
Collapse of Ohio Life Insurance Branch
- When
- August 24, 1857
- Where
- New York City branch
On August 24, 1857, the New York branch of Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company suspended payments, triggering the Panic of 1857.
The president announced the suspension of payments on the morning of August 24, 1857. The company's New York offices ceased operations due to bad investments in agriculture-related businesses and fraudulent activities by management. This event marked the beginning of a financial crisis that quickly spread throughout the United States.
Sources
- Panic of 1857 Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-16
- Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company Wikipedia, revision of 2026-03-23
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.