Shapshots of History: Citizens Bank
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Citizens Bank in Mount Ayr in 1895.
By Mike Avitt
This week’s photo was taken by J. A. McClanahan, and appears in the June 12, 1896 edition of the Twice-A-Week News, a newspaper published by brothers Randolph and Walter Beall. The building was owned by Day Dunning, Citizens Bank President. His son Clyde was the cashier when this building, located at 100 South Taylor Street, opened the first week of January 1892.
I will dedicate this article to Bill French as a recognition of his 76th year in his office located in the old Citizens Bank. And I have another item for Bill. For years we have been searching for the exact date Frank Sheldon moved his real estate, farm loan, abstract, and insurance business to the former Iowa State Bank building and I found it this week. F. E. Sheldon & Co., the beginning of Cunning Insurance and the William H. French Agency, Moved from 105 S. Fillmore to 100 S. Taylor in late June 1931. Mystery solved.
The reason we couldn’t find this info for all these years is because the news was reported in the “Personals” column of the Record-News, not a front page article and not an advertisement announcing the new location. Odd.
Citizens Bank became Iowa State Bank in 1904. When the stock market crashed in October 1929, banks were merged for protection. Iowa State Bank merged with Mount Ayr State Bank, the forerunner to Security State Bank, in April 1930. That combined business was housed in the Mount Ayr State Bank building leaving the ground floor of Iowa State Bank empty. But the upstairs and the basement remained occupied.
In the basement was a barber shop operated by a multitude of different barbers, but also some other businesses like G. E. Manners watch repair in 1935. Dalbey Lumber sold out in 1963 and Leland Dalbey opened an office in the basement in January 1964, This was mostly for collecting outstanding debt. This is the last business I know of in the basement of 100 S. Taylor.
The upstairs in 1931 was occupied by the Ringgold County Abstract Company owned and operated by the former stockholders of the now defunct Iowa State Bank. They were F. C. Smith, F. F. Fuller, E. T. Hoover, Walter Scott, and Clarence Palmer. The last advertisement I found for this business was in the January 1932 Record-News. I’m not sure what happened to this business but I know Clarence Palmer’s son Arthur had an abstract business in the real estate office of Randolph Beall at 105 E. Madison. When Arthur was drafted into the U. S. Army in 1942, Clarence ran the business in his absence.
Frank Sheldon was a busy man. As president of Mount Ayr State Bank, he reorganized that financial institution as Security State Bank in 1937. Then he sold F. E. Sheldon & Company to Clyde Lesan in 1938, the business now operating under the name of Clyde Lesan Company. Sheldon and his wife then retired to California. The Mount Ayr Record-News of August 30, 1948 reports that Bill French is on the job at Clyde Lesan Company.
The William H. French Agency is situated on the corner where a fire in November of 1889 destroyed the previous Citizens Bank building along with the first wood-frame courthouse. The courthouse had been replaced with a brick structure in 1884 and the old building was in private hands.
H.V. Greenlee laid the stone and brick on Bill’s building in 1892 and Mr. Greenlee has three other buildings still standing: 119-121 South Filmore (1891), 112 West Madison (1891) and 115 North Taylor (1890).
So, we know the former Citizens Bank edifice was well built.
Congratulations on another year, Bill, and thanks for all you’ve done!
