As John K. Galbraith noted, "every location large enough to have a church, a tavern, or a blacksmith shop was deemed a suitable place for setting up a bank. These banks issued notes, and other, more surprising enterprises, imitating the banks, did likewise. Even barbers and bartenders competed with banks in this respect" (Flaherty, 1997: http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/E/usbank/bank03.htm). .
Backgrounder.
This last statement might seem surprising to some readers, but it is far less outlandish when one digs back a little bit in pre-19th century US history. Before achieving independence, there were no commercial banks. The first commercial bank, the Bank of North America, was established in 1781. "British merchant banking houses stood at one end of a long chain of credit that stretched to the American frontier. They gave short-term (less than a year) credits to American merchants who then extended them to wholesalers of their imports, and the wholesalers passed them on to both urban and rural retailers - country stores and wandering peddlers" (Foner/Garraty, 1991: 191). .
After the Constitution was enacted in 1789, the Bank of North America was chartered along with two state banks in Massachusetts and New York. Not surprisingly, following in the merchant traditions of previous years, the primary function of these banks and their followers was to make short term loans. They did this through the issuance of their own bank notes and/or by issuing a deposit account to the individual borrower and providing them with checks useful for withdrawl. Naturally, the issuance of bank notes was tantamount to the promise to pay specie to the bearer upon his demand. This meant that banks were responsible for keeping sufficient reserves to cover all demands. Maintaining sufficient reserves, however, was a very complicated task which ultimately forced many banks into bankruptcy because they had overexteded their loans and discounts(Foner/Garraty, 192).