Bankruptcy Question

There were a number of financial "panics" during the 1800's, any one of which could have wiped out your banker. Check out http://thehistorybox.com/ny_city/panics/panics_article9a.htm
or google panic of 1819, 1832, 1836, 1837, 1857, 1869, 1873, 1893, etc. Begining to get the idea? If you think the last few years have been unsettled, just be glad you didn't live in the days before the FDIC.

Many people lost money and entire fortunes on "speculations" that were nothing but scams. In the days before government oversight and widespread news coverage, lots of people fell for what were nothing more than pyramid schemes. A lot of them revolved around railroad schemes in other countries. So people in the UK got taken in by people running railroad schemes in the US, where the railroad was never going to be built. In the US, people got taken in by swindlers who claimed to be building railroads in resource-rich South America or Africa.

Forget corporate takeovers, that is 20th century stuff. Most of the 19th century panics were caused by speculation, either in real estate of gold. Some dealings were downright fraudulant, in other cases large numbers of people simply got over extended on credit (like now). A lot of banks failed in 1857 when there was a run on deposits and a large shipment of gold sank in a hurricane.

A bank failure would be appropriate.
No matter how cautious and prudent your character was, nothing would have protected him if the bank he'd stored the money in had failed.