 According to company legend, Budd started Boatmen's Savings Institution to help the working class; many of whom worked on riverboats on the Mississippi.The bank received its state charter on February 16, 1847, and offered 3 percent interest on deposits and invested the first $1,000 in a city bond that paid 6 percent.Its early history was marked by deadly citywide disasters in 1849 of a cholera outbreak that killed more than 1,000 and the Great St. Louis Fire of 1849 of May 17–18 that destroyed 23 steamers and at least 430 buildings.