120 THE FREEDMEN’S SAVINGS BANK 
When the commissioners were ready to pay a 
dividend, the depositors were notified through 
the press, especially through the Negro papers, 
from the Negro pulpits, and, in the large cities, 
by posters. Yet, although every means of finding 
the depositors was taken, many of them could 
never be located. When the average small de- 
positor found that he could not draw out the 
money as he wanted it, he decided that it was 
forever lost, and numbers went away from their 
old homes leaving no address and could not be 
traced. 
The reports published after several years 
showed that as a rule only the principal deposi- 
tors profited by the commissioners’ distributions. 
It was also explained that many who received 
the first dividend were under the impression that 
they had received all that had not been lost. In 
1881, after three dividends had been declared, 
it was found that of the 1875 dividend, $39,- 
248.24 due to 31,967 depositors had not been 
claimed, an average of $1.20 each; of the 1878 
dividend, $30,927.26 due to 36,078 depositors 
remained unclaimed, an average of 85 cents each; 
of the 1880 dividend, $54,539.59 due to 40,000 
depositors was not claimed. The average amount 
now due from the three dividends to each of the 
40,000 depositors was $3.40. In other words, 
most of the small deposits were not claimed but 
given up as lost, only the larger ones being called 
for.” The payment of these small claims was 
barred by an act of Congress in 1881, but later 
t Bankers’ Magazine, July, 1861; Bruce Report, p. 6; Reports of 
the Commissioners, 1874-1880.