Central National Bank, Ellsworth, KS (Charter 3447)
Central National Bank, Ellsworth, KS (Chartered 1886 - Receivership 1931)
Town History
Ellsworth is a city in and the county seat of Ellsworth County, Kansas. Known as a cow town in the 1870s, when the Kansas Pacific Railroad operated a stockyard here for shipping cattle to eastern markets, in the 21st century, it serves as the trading center of the rural county. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 3,066. In 1880 the population was 929, growing to 2,072 by 1930.
Once called "The Wickedest Cattletown in Kansas", the city is named for Fort Ellsworth, which was built in 1864. Due to speculation on imminent railroad construction, the population of Ellsworth boomed to over two thousand by the time it was incorporated in 1867. It has since been said, "Abilene, the first, Dodge City, the last, but Ellsworth the wickedest".
Ellsworth was a bustling cattle town for a time during the late 1860s, when the Kansas Pacific Railroad had a stop and stockyards there. Cattle were driven up from Texas to this point and then shipped to major markets. Often cowboys had the run of the town. In 1875 Kansas Pacific closed its cattle pens, moving to another location. The cattle trade dwindled to almost nothing by the mid-1880s.
Wild Bill Hickok ran for Ellsworth County Sheriff in 1868, but was defeated by veteran Union Army soldier E.W. Kingsbury. Lawman Wyatt Earp claimed to have served in Ellsworth for a short time. He also later claimed to have arrested gunman Ben Thompson there. But Thompson was arrested by Deputy Ed Hogue after his brother Billy Thompson accidentally shot and killed Ellsworth County Sheriff Chauncey Whitney in 1873. Billy Thompson fled, fearing that he would be lynched for the death of the popular sheriff. Thompson was eventually captured and put on trial, but was acquitted in the shooting.
In 1888, the Kansas Midland Railway Company built between Wichita and Ellsworth. The line was purchased in 1900 by the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (the "Frisco").
Ellsworth had two National Banks chartered during the Bank Note Era, The First National Bank (Charter 3249) and The Central National Bank (Charter 3447), and both of those banks issued National Bank Notes.
Bank History
- Organized January 13, 1886
- Chartered February 1, 1886
- Succeeded Farmers & Merchants Bank
- Receivership March 30, 1931
In February 1873, D.W. Powers, J.W. Powers, and D.B. Powers operated D.W. Powers & Co., bankers of Salina, Kansas.[4] In March they came up to Ellsworth from Salina to look at the town.[5] In April J.W. Powers rented a part of Nunamaker's jewelry store for Powers' Bank which would move to Ellsworth the first of May.[6]
In February 1883, the officers of the Powers Bank were E.A. Powers, president; I.W. Phelps, vice president; J.W. Powers, cashier; and W.F. Thompkins, assistant cashier. The directors were E.A. Powers, I.W. Phelps, J.W. Powers, W.F. Tompkins, M. Gray, John L. Bell, and D.B. Long.[7]
In June 1884, J.W. Powers decided to retire as president of the Powers Bank. I.W. Phelps, the vice president, was advanced to president with W.F. Tompkins, secretary.[8] On September 11, 1884, The First National Bank of Ellsworth received its charter succeeding The Powers Bank.
On Monday, November 3, 1884, the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Ellsworth commenced business with the following officers: M. Gray, president; J.W. Powers, cashier; and L.B. Hall, assistant cashier. Mr. Hall, although a young man, had considerable experience in the banking business having been connected with the Stockgrowers National Bank of Pueblo, Colorado for several years.[9]
In December 1885, the shareholders of the Farmers & Merchants Bank increased their paid-up capital to $50,000 in preparation for organizing a national bank to be known as The Central National Bank of Ellsworth. This bank commenced business about a year ago in a modest way and by careful management, gradually increased their business commensurate with the growing interests of the city. They would soon occupy an elegant new two story bank building on the corner of Douglas Avenue and First Street.[10]
On February 1, 1886, Valentine P. Snyder, Deputy and Acting Comptroller of the Currency, authorized the Central National Bank to commence the business of banking.[11] The directors were H. Rammelsberg, C.F. McGrew, G.P. Peale, L.B. Boggs, M.S. Powers, G.W. Clawson, and J.W. Powers. The officers were C.F. McGrew, President; H. Rammelsberg, vice president; and J.W. Powers, cashier. The bank had paid-in capital $50,000 and authorized capital of $100,000.[12]
The funeral of B.S. Westfall, who died Tuesday, June 9, 1908, at 8:15 o'clock in Kansas City, was held on Friday afternoon the 12th at 2 o'clock at the home on Eighth street, Ellsworth. Burial was in Ellsworth Cemetery. Benjamin S. Westfall was an Empire state man, having been born at Phelps, New York, January 20, 1865. The first 18 years of his life were passed on a farm near Phelps. He was orphaned at the age of fourteen. At Phelps he attended the common schools and the high school. Later he took a commercial course at the Rochester Business College. Thus equipped for life's battle he came west at the age of eighteen. He spent two years in Michigan, where he farmed during summer and taught school during the winter. Coming further west he located at Clyde, Kansas, in 1885, where he had employment during that year as bookkeeper in the Bank of Clyde. Toward the end of that year he and his brother, M.P. Westfall, established a bank at Glenelder. In June, 1886, they sold this bank and a short time later organized the Wilson State Bank of which Mr. Westfall became president, a position which he held at the time of his death. The following year the Bank of Holyrood was organized. This was disposed of to Holyrood parties the next fall. In January 1889, Mr. Westfall and associates secured the controlling interest in the Central National Bank of Ellsworth and his brother, M.P. Westfall was made president until his death in 1891. In 1892 the Sylvan Grove State Bank was established; in 1904 banks were organized and placed in Dorrance, Frederick and Brookville. Mr. Westfall was a member of the Knights Templar and the other Masonic bodies of Ellsworth, having filled all the principal offices in the several bodies. In 1889, when the Westfall's assumed management of the Central National Bank of Ellsworth, this whole section of Kansas was at its lowest ebb in a business way because of the long series of crop failures and the great depression resulting from the collapse of our boom. It requires a stout heart and a firm conviction and faith in the future to assume financial responsibilities of the magnitude of those undertaken by Mr. Westfall.[13]
On Wednesday, March 25, 1931, the Central National Bank of Ellsworth, one of the oldest financial institutions in the central part of the state, failed to open for business. George T. Tremble, former vice president of the Fidelity National Bank and Trust Company of Kansas City for 13 years, was president of the institution. In 1927 he became half owner of the 3,000-acre Arcola Ranch near Salina. A notice posted on the bank's doors read, "Closed by order of the board of directors." The notice was signed by W.H. Donahue, national bank examiner. Irwin D. Wright, chief national bank examiner in Kansas City said the Central National Bank was closed because of its inability to liquidate agricultural loans. "The Central National was an agricultural bank operating over a wide territory," according to the examiner, "so naturally was crippled by the present agricultural depression." The report of September last showed a capital of $100,000, surplus $50,000 and deposits of $1,030,000.[14][15]
On June 21, 1931, James Whitehead Powers died at his home, 121 East Scott Street in Gainesville, Texas. He was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, April 18, 1844. He was of an early colonial family of English extraction, being descended from John Powers, who was born in Culpepper County, Virginia in 1755, who was a soldier in the revolutionary army. His great grandfather in the maternal line also served in the revolutionary army, and his grandfather fought in the war of 1812. Mr. Powers moved with his parents to Andrew County, Missouri in 1848, and his father dying when he was only 14 years old, the management of the farm and the support of his mother and the younger children devolved upon him and an elder brother. He entered upon his business career in the early sixties by embarking in the freighting business with the firm of Powers, Newman & Company, with headquarters at Leavenworth, Kansas, of which his uncle was the head, and which was the largest overland transportation firm of that time. During the Civil War and a few years after, he operated wagon trains to Denver and all the forts in western Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Fort Sill, Indian Territories. He was wounded in several pitched battles with the Indians but never lost a man or wagon. In 1870 he opened a bank in Salina, Kansas and in 1873 moved the bank to Ellsworth, Kansas. His bank in Kansas went through the panic of ‘73 without suspending payment. On the advice of his physician, he sought a change in climate and moved to Springfield, Missouri and organized the Central National Bank. Later he organized banks in Mountain Grove and Thayer, Missouri, and Newport, Arkansas. In 1892 he moved to Gainesville, Texas and was engaged in the cotton business. He was one of the largest local buyers in this area.
Official Bank Title
1: The Central National Bank of Ellsworth, KS
Bank Note Types Issued
A total of $372,770 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1886 and 1931. This consisted of a total of 29,902 notes (27,676 large size and 2,226 small size notes).
This bank issued the following Types and Denominations of bank notes:
Series/Type Sheet/Denoms Serial#s Sheet Comments 1882 Brown Back 3x10-20 1 - 1987 $10s with Abnormal Border Variety 1902 Red Seal 3x10-20 1 - 450 1902 Date Back 3x10-20 1 - 1800 1902 Plain Back 3x10-20 1801 - 4482 1929 Type 1 6x10 1 - 295 1929 Type 1 6x20 1 - 76
Bank Presidents and Cashiers
Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1886 - 1931):
Presidents:
- George W. Clawson, 1886-1888
- Myron P. Westfall, 1889-1890
- Henry Rammelsberg, 1891-1893
- Benjamin S. Westfall, 1894-1907
- George T. Tremble, 1908-1931
Cashiers:
- James Whitehead Powers, 1886-1886
- Edward Hall Tenney, 1887-1887
- Marion Kellogg Brundage, 1888-1888
- Benjamin S. Westfall, 1889-1893
- George T. Tremble, 1894-1907
- Bert Leroy Gardanier, 1908-1908
- Henry S. Buzick, Jr., 1909-1909
- Bert Leroy Gardanier, 1910-1915
- William Homer Holt, 1916-1931
Other Known Bank Note Signers
Bank Note History Links
Sources
- Ellsworth, KS, on Wikipedia
- Don C. Kelly, National Bank Notes, A Guide with Prices. 6th Edition (Oxford, OH: The Paper Money Institute, 2008).
- Dean Oakes and John Hickman, Standard Catalog of National Bank Notes. 2nd Edition (Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 1990).
- Banks & Bankers Historical Database (1782-1935), https://spmc.org/bank-note-history-project
- ↑ The Salina Journal, Salina, KS, Sun., May 27, 1979.
- ↑ Ellsworth Reporter, Ellsworth, KS, Thu., May 15, 1873.
- ↑ Ellsworth Reporter, Ellsworth, KS, Thu., June 12, 1930.
- ↑ Ellsworth Reporter, Ellsworth, KS, Thu., Feb. 6, 1873.
- ↑ Ellsworth Reporter, Ellsworth, KS, Thu., Mar. 13, 1873.
- ↑ Ellsworth Reporter, Ellsworth, KS, Thu., Apr. 17, 1873.
- ↑ Ellsworth Reporter, Ellsworth, KS, Thu., Feb. 15, 1883.
- ↑ Ellsworth Reporter, Ellsworth, KS, Thu., June 19, 1884.
- ↑ Ellsworth Reporter, Ellsworth, KS, Thu., Nov 6, 1884.
- ↑ Ellsworth Reporter, Ellsworth, KS, Thu., Dec. 31, 1885.
- ↑ Ellsworth Messenger, Ellsworth, KS, Thu., Feb. 11, 1886.
- ↑ The Wilson World, Wilson, KS, Thu., Feb. 25, 1886.
- ↑ Ellsworth Messenger, Ellsworth, KS, Thu., June 18, 1908.
- ↑ The Belleville Telescope, Belleville, KS, Thu., Apr. 2, 1931.
- ↑ The Mercury, Manhattan, KS, Wed., Mar. 25, 1931.