If you think today’s bankers take too many risks, you might faint at the exploits of Santa Barbara’s first banker, Mortimer Cook. Of course, there’s a difference between the banker who takes chances with YOUR money and the banker who takes chances with his own. Cook was definitely of the latter type.
Born in 1826, the Ohio native enlisted at age 17 to serve in the Mexican War. After a five-year stint in Mexico, Cook rushed to Northern California to participate in the Gold Rush. Unlike nearly all of his peers, Cook actually struck it rich. This, however, was only the first of several rags-to-riches experiences for Mortimer Cook.
Ever restless, Cook left California to operate a toll bridge in British Columbia, try his hand at sheep farming in Ohio, and then build another toll bridge in Topeka, Kansas. One night, while Cook and his wife were away at a wedding reception in Topeka, their home caught fire. Cook returned and rescued two of his daughters from the inferno before collapsing from smoke inhalation. He awoke to learn that his third daughter died in the blaze. With a near-manic sense of mourning added to his natural restlessness, Cook headed west to a small town he had visited on the way to San Francisco in 1849. In 1871, Cook rowed ashore in Santa Barbara with a second-hand safe and $40,000 in gold. Let us repeat that: he rowed ashore carrying an iron safe with $40,000 in it. Stearns Wharf had not yet been built, so big ships anchored beyond the breakers and passengers rowed to the beach in small boats. Would you carry a bank safe in a rowboat?
Cook rented a small space near the corner of De la Guerra and State Streets to launch “Mortimer Cook’s Private Bank.” At the time, Santa Barbara’s total population was just over 1,500 people, over half of whom spoke only Spanish. Cook taught the locals to trust paper money and how to use checks to transact business. Paper money was still viewed with suspicion by locals who well remembered the era before statehood – and even before annexation from Mexico. Likeable, hardworking Cook provided the reliability and stability people needed in a banker.
As the bank and its owner prospered, Cook built a large, Italian style house at 1407 Chapala Street. His bank manager, Amasa L. Lincoln, built a boarding house on the adjacent lot, facing De La Vina Street. Today’s local residents better know that property as the Upham Hotel. The popular banker served two terms as Santa Barbara’s mayor, in 1874 and 1876. He was also active in local real estate, constructing the Cook Building at the corner of State and Carrillo Streets in 1875. The building featured the town’s first clock tower. It also featured ornate iron decorative trim, which unfortunately led to Cook’s bankruptcy.
The first shipment of ironwork interfered with the cargo ship’s compass, causing the ship to lose its way in a dense fog and run onto the rocks at Point Arguello. Insurance did not cover the full loss, and Cook was bankrupted by the cost of replacing the iron castings. He sold his bank and his Victorian mansion on Chapala Street, ending the Santa Barbara chapter of Mortimer Cook’s life. But this was not the end of the colorful entrepreneur’s adventures. From Santa Barbara, Cook moved to the Washington Territory where he made a fortune with a cedar shingle mill. He then promptly lost that fortune investing in Olympic Peninsula farmland. Ever willing to explore new opportunities, Cook moved his family to the Philippines just before the outbreak of the Spanish-American War. There, he made yet another fortune harvesting mahogany in the forests of Panay.
Soldier, prospector, banker, investor and entrepreneur Mortimer Cook died at the age of 72, in November of 1899. In fiction and the popular imagination, bankers have been regarded as extremely conservative individuals (until recently, anyway). But a bank, like any entrepreneurial enterprise, is an exercise in managing risk, not avoiding it. Through the example of his life, Mortimer Cook reminds us that fortune favors the brave – those willing to take chances to build. Yes, he lost several fortunes, but he made at least one more than he lost. The greatest failure would have been to stop trying. This article was based on a chapter from Walker A. Tompkins’ Santa Barbara History Makers (McNally & Loftin, 1983).