This is a story of a bank.
More than that, it is the story of people who staked their claims and gambled their livelihoods on farming and enterprising on the rough prairielands of north central Kansas --which was to become the geographical center of a bulging country straining to unite and conquer.
And it is the story of a struggling band of settlers who in early years overcame the frontier ravages of fires, pestilence and droughts to develop into an ambitious, vibrant community with a proud heritage. We like to think of it as a conquering spirit of hardy pioneers which will be kept alive by succeeding generations in coming decades -- a promising period destined for domination by advancements in speed, electronics and more amazing scientific discoveries.
Principal characters are a banking family which came to Kansas in 1886 from Iowa to take over a private money-lending business and give the fledgling community its first full-service bank. The family is that of J.P. Fair, who together with his son and grandson owned and operated the Bank of Mankato for more than 90 years.
An undisputed claim is that J.P. Fair, the founder, was the oldest active banker in Kansas, probably, at time of his death in 1943, four months after the Mankato community and friends throughout the state helped him observe his 100th birthday.
Woven into this span of years are the people -- some prominent and others not so prominent -- and the events which give body to the history of Jewell County, organized in 1870.
It involves a more recent significant event in the life of the bank -- the takeover by another prominent family noted also for its longevity in banking -- the Lull family of neighboring Smith County. A romantic twist: Floyd Lull started his banking career working for J.P. Fair in the Fair Bank at Burr Oak.
Through the years and three generations, the Fair and Lull families had friendly acquaintanceship and common interests in serving the people of northcentral Kansas.
This story of the bank, the banking families, and of the Mankato community is based on the record of unfolding history and accomplishment.
Chapter I:
Putting Roots down on
the Kansas Prairie
We begin our story in the early 1880s in Mankato, where the First National Bank in Mankato put down its first roots spawning a steadily growing business.
Jewell County was organized in 1870, only a few months after the last Cheyenne Indian raid in the area on May 10, 1870. Small herds of buffalo still roamed.
The county was named after a Civil War hero, Lt. Col. Lewis R. Jewell, who had attempted to settle in eastern Kansas as a farmer and stock raiser but was swept up in the recruiting for the Civil War. He died of wounds received in the battle of Cane Hill, Arkansas.
First meeting of the newly appointed county commissioners was held Aug. 22, 1870 at Jewell City, the main settlement at the time.
Mankato was settled in 1872 with the name of Jewell Center because it was the center of the county. It was started by a town company with the idea of making it the county seat. Immigration to Jewell Center was rapid and by April 1, 1873, the ambitious founders challenged Jewell City for location of the county seat.
Jewell Center won the first election held May 13, 1873. The contest continued and a second election was held June 28, 1875. Jewell Center won again and has held the county seat designation since.
The name of the town was later changed, so not to be in conflict with Jewell City. It is said to be named Mankato after Mankato, Minn., from where came one of the early settlers of Jewell Center. Minnesota’s Mankato sent a delegation to help its Kansas namesake celebrate its Centennial in 1972.
The first railroad, the Missouri Pacific, had been built across the county, southeast to northwest, in 1878 to 1879. Mankato got its first hotel in 1876 -- the Commercial House -- a substantial three-story structure. Next came the Central House, opened by W.O. John, who later opened and operated John’s House.
Population of the Mankato community was given as 506 in 1880.
An article in the Jewell County Monitor of July 25, 1883, listing the various businesses in Mankato gave a population figure of 700 to 800. The Monitor had been established in 1874, the first newspaper of record in Jewell County.
Among the business listings were “two banks.” Advertising in the newspaper under the heading “Loan Brokers” listed: Robinson & Goodrich, and Case, Bishop and Co.
Robinson & Goodrich, a private banking firm, served as the forerunner of the “Bank of Mankato,” later named the “Mankato State Bank,” and eventually becoming the First National Bank in Mankato.
Other businesses listed in the newspaper article included: five general stores, three drug stores, a book and shoe store, three newspapers (two Republican and one Antimonopoly), a music-book-and notions store, two blacksmith shops, a wagon shop, furniture store, two millinery stores, a meat market, two lumber yards, two livery barns, tailor shop, several lawyers, two large hardware stores, and real estate, loan and insurance agents.
Also listed were two churches -- “the Presbyterians had a meeting house and the Methodist were building” -- a billiard hall, “but no saloon in town and a drunken person is scarcely seen.”
D.J. Vance had been appointed first postmaster of Mankato, March 1, 1880, with an annual salary of $12. The building where he presided was a small one-story frame building located on the corner of the Vance homestead. One historic account said: “the post office itself was a cigar box in the corner of a room in which the Vance family lived.”
Vance had immigrated with his family to Jewell County from Fairfield, Iowa, in the spring of 1872. A part of the Vance homestead became part of the town of Mankato.
This was the setting on the plains of early-day Kansas in the winter of 1886 which faced J.P. Fair as he left a hardware business in Iowa to push westward and buy a loan firm, establishing the Bank of Mankato.
A news story in the Monitor that year referred to the “Bank of Mankato kept by J.P. Fair” and predicted it “will in the future build up a profitable business here.” His business, the story said, is located between the county clerk and the county treasurer’s office and R.H. Gold’s butcher shop. This is approximately one block south of the present bank building.
Advertising in the newspaper’s summer editions that year showed: “Bank of Formoso -- does a general banking business, Foreign Exchange, and tickets sold. Insurance written. J.P. Fair.”
It was interesting to note that advertising of that day also included: “Mankato Hotel -- room $1 a day and 25 cents meal.”
Chapter II:
J.P. Fair comes to Kansas
J.P. Fair, the Iowa hardware merchant, first came to Kansas in the Fall of 1885. He wanted to get into the banking business and heard there might be a loan business for sale in Mankato.
It was a windy day when he arrived in a spring wagon, he recounted years later to a newspaper reporter interviewing him on the occasion of his 100th birth anniversary.
He had come from his home in Gladbrook, Iowa, by train and when he reached Hardy, he was told he could get to Mankato from Superior in a spring wagon that carried mail and passengers.
When the wagon pulled up in front of the hotel, John’s House, Sam John the proprietor came out to greet his new guests.
“It was so windy when I alighted from the wagon my hat blew off and I had to grab hold of the lamp post to keep my footing. Later in the evening someone’s implement house was blown down the street and passed in front of the hotel.”
While in Mankato that fall, Fair tried to make a deal with Robinson & Goodrich for the purchase of the bank, a private institution. Failing to make a deal, he left for the return trip to Iowa, but he had definitely made up his mind to return to Kansas.
The next winter, on Feb. 22, 1886, Fair again landed in Mankato, this time during a snow storm. He had to make his way in an alleyway shoveled through the snow to reach the Robinson & Goodrich place of business. This was where the Shamrock Tavern was later located. This is across the street north of the Jewell County Record office.
Wind and snow storms apparently held no terrors for the courageous business man. He bought the loan business and established the “Bank of Mankato,” then set about making arrangements to move his family from Iowa.
J.P. Fair -- he rarely used the name John officially in business -- was born June 15, 1843, on a rocky timber farm on Chestnut Ridge, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. He helped his father pile up staves and shingles and with the aid of an old horse “snaked out” railroad ties for the Pennsylvania Railroad.
John Porter was the fourth of six children, born of parents of German descent. When we was 14 his father moved the family to Stephenson County, Illinois. Here J.P. was able to receive more schooling and when he was 18 he qualified as a teacher. He received a certificate to teach school in Illinois and for a short time followed that profession.
When there was an urgent call for soldiers to defend the Union in the Civil War, J.P. asked the school board to release him so he could join up. The board said he could be released provided he found a substitute. He found the substitute, got in a red spring wagon and drove to Freeport. On June 2, 1862, he enlisted in the C.H. 67th Volunteer Infantry. From there he went to Chicago where he was mustered in. He took four months training and guarded prisoners at Camp Douglas. On account of ill health and expiration of his enlistment, he was given an honorable discharge.
Following his discharge from the army, Fair returned to teaching in the winters and assisted on the family farm during the summers.
In 1864, Fair attended Bryan Stratton College in Chicago, a business institution where he and a friend had an attic room and did their own cooking.
Some of his most vivid remembrances as a youth, Fair recounted later, were connected with life of Abraham Lincoln. He first saw Lincoln at Freeport at the famous Lincoln-Douglas debate in 1858, and his first vote for president was cast for Lincoln in 1864. He helped escort the remains of the martyred president from the Chicago depot to the courthouse following the assassination, and he had his last glimpse of this great leader as he lay in state at the courthouse.
Fair was married to Miss Mattie E. Montague Nov. 3, 1870. Three children were born to them in their Illinois home -- Charles in 1872, Newell Montague in 1874, and Gracie in 1875. Later they moved to Gladbrook, Iowa, where he went into the hardware business. They had the tragic experience of having two of their three children die in infancy.
Newell came to Kansas with his parents and became associated with his father in the banking business. He was cashier of the Mankato bank from July 1, 1889, until his death in 1924.
Upon Newell’s death, the next Fair in line was his son, Forrest R. Fair, who had started his college attendance but was called back to the bank to help grandfather J.P.
Chapter III:
Construction boom hits Mankato
J.P. Fair’s timing in establishing the Bank of Mankato was excellent. The fledgling institution participated in the construction boom which struck the community in 1887 and which was significant in the early life of the blooming Mankato.
The county courthouse was under construction in the public square. New business buildings were underway, including an imposing “Clay Center Block” which was to house much of the “financial district” of that day in Mankato. And a second railroad was coming into town, the Rock Island.
The Bank of Mankato was to take its place in the Clay Center Block -- so called because the construction development was being backed by a group of developers from Clay Center, Kan.
A newspaper early in 1887 blazed across its front page in the largest headlines yet seen: “BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! -- the great Rock Island R.R. is here and the Santa Fe is coming -- Messrs. Morgan, Hanna and Cody will lay out a beautiful park in their addition to donate it to Mankato.”
The railroad story further shouted “The Cars Are Coming! Mankato is to be the division of two lines of the Rock Island which meet here -- round house and machine shop are ours!”
Other stories on “blooming opportunities” declared “Mankato is the mecca for which all the great railroad lines are reaching out.”
The newspaper of May 20, 1887, gave a generous roundup of stories on business developments in Mankato and Jewell County.”
Foundation was being laid for a new courthouse with a picture of the new building.
Summaries were given on agriculture production in Jewell County, boasting of the rapid advancements being made in this sector of the economy.
Enumerated three large building blocks being constructed by L.M. Butts, L.D. Reynolds and C.D. Brown.
“There will be four large and handsome bank buildings built on the four corners of Commercial and Jefferson streets this season.”
The issue listed two newspapers, the Review and the Monitor, and three banks -- Bank of Mankato, the Jewell County Bank, and Case & Bishop & Co. (which had recently organized into a national bank).
When it is remembered that Mankato only has a population of 1,000, the stupendousness of the growth is more fully apparent, and added to this is the fact that the county was out of debt, something no other county in the state can say.
Population of the county at that time was given as 21,000.
When the group of investors from Clay Center completed their brick building on the northeast corner of the intersection of Commercial and Jefferson streets, the Bank of Mankato rented this new building.
Meanwhile, Fair was building a home for his family, an imposing structure which became a showplace among the Mankato residences.
The bank remained in the rented building until in 1893, when a disastrous fire burned out much of the Clay Center Block, including the bank. But the records were saved in the vault and the bank moved across the street to resume business in the building recently occupied by Dr. John Tyler.
The original First National Bank of Mankato was not a Fair bank. When the 1893 fire destroyed the building containing J.P. Fair’s bank, the original First National bank had been liquidated. No one knows if its demise was caused by building a costly and imposing edifice on the northeast corner of Commercial and Jefferson. If it was, the bank’s loss was Mankato’s gain because that unique First National Bank building is now in the National Register of Historic Places.
It also was J.P. Fair’s gain because he rented and then purchased the First National Bank building from the latter bank’s creditors.
The building was completely refurbished in 1971 in time for Mankato’s Centennial celebration in 1972. According to an account in the Jewell County Record of June 26, 1975:
“The L. Cook Co. of Rapid City, S.D. did an excellent job of restoring the appearance of the building to its original look. Natural stone was sandblasted, red cement applied to the brick, wood trim painted and cornices repaired.”
Another milestone in the life of the bank was the obtaining of a state charter. On June 9, 1889, it received its first charter as the Mankato State Bank. The six directors listed were: J.P. Fair, N.M. Fair, Martha Fair, David Woods, F.M. Horn, and Guy H. Fuller. The bank gave its capital at $50,000.
This period was termed “The Golden Years” in an eloquent review by Dick Judy in the Jewell County Record of Sept. 29, 1977, on the occasion of the Fair family relinquishing ownership of the First National Bank. He wrote:
“For a clever banker like J.P. Fair, the 1880s were golden years in Mankato. The Missouri Pacific Railroad pushed through town and onward to Burr Oak in 1880. In 1887, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific made Mankato a two railroad town. The flood of new settlers brought Jewell County’s population to its historic peak before the end of the 19th century. Building and business boomed. Capital was scarce. Interest rates of 24 percent per annum and more were common. They were good years for a good banker. The Mankato State Bank flourished.”
Chapter IV:
Prosperity continued as the 20th Century began.
J.P. Fair’s son, Newell M. Fair, was graduated from the University of Chicago and returned to enter the family banking business.
In 1903, a national charter was obtained and the Fair bank was renamed the Mankato National Bank. Its business was spreading throughout the county. In 1905, the Fairs organized the State Bank of Burr Oak. The bank continued under Fair ownership until 1981. Some years later, in 1936 and 1937 respectively, the Fair bank in Mankato acquired the business of the Union State Bank of Formoso and the Montrose State Bank. Also about the time of WWI the Fairs organized the Citizens State Bank of Superior, then sold it five years later.
A son, Forrest R. Fair, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Newell Fair in 1904.
In 1923, the Fairs renamed their bank the First National Bank in Mankato. The next year tragedy struck the family. Newell died unexpectedly. He was 50 years old and had a sudden attack of appendicitis. He was taken to the hospital at Belleville. The appendix broke with disastrous results.
Son Forrest was in his second year of studies at Washburn College, Topeka. His grandfather summoned him to come home to help fill the void left at the bank upon his father’s death.
J.P. Fair was then 80 years old and presumably near the end of his banking career. The presumption turned out to be quite wrong; the bank’s founder worked on actively in the business until the autumn of 1943. He died four months past his 100th birthday, working daily at the bank until the very end. So for many years, Forrest worked faithfully and respectfully in the family bank in the shadow of his illustrious grandfather.
The historical review by writer Dick Judy gave a good description of conditions in the country during the depression of the 1920s and the “dirty thirties.” and how they affected Agricultural America and Jewell County. The following paragraphs borrow liberally from Judy’s article:
World War I is often described as a watershed in the history of Western Civilization. In Europe, things were never the same after the “Fall of the Eagles,” the collapse of the Hapsburg, Hohenzollern and Romanov dynasties and the rise of Bolshevism.
In agricultural America, things were never the same. The wartime boom in the prices of crops, cattle and land turned to peacetime bust. Disaster struck farmers who had overextended themselves to borrow heavily in the period of prosperity. Loans couldn’t be repaid; mortgages were foreclosed; farms were lost. Businesses failed. So did many banks.
Before rural America could enjoy more than the modest recovery from the post World War I depression, the “twenties” were followed by the “dirty thirties.” The stock market crash of 1929 terminated an urban boom that had never spread to the country.
The impact of the crash of ‘29 was felt slowly in Jewell County. There were no skyscrapers from which ruined farmers could jump. Farm prices were not high anyway and they did not plummet immediately. No one could anticipate that the speculator’s bursting bubble in New York would eventually bring economic crunch to every corner of America.
Forrest Fair recalled returning home with his grandfather from a Formoso bank meeting in the autumn of 1929. They stopped at the farm of Elza Jacobson near Montrose to examine some steers.
“Mr. Fair,” asked Elza, “what do you think that New York stock market crash will mean for us out here?”
“I don’t know,” replied J.P., “but I guess we will find out soon enough.”
By 1933, the effect of depression combined with the drought was all too clear. Farmers and merchants tried to hang on by mortgaging what they had to pay the bills.
Things went from bad to worse. J.P. Fair is reported to have said that more people lived in the state of bankruptcy than in any other state in the nation.
Banks failed in droves. The number of banks operating in the country dropped from about 32,000 in 1921 to 16,000 in 1934. Banking fortunes evaporated and depositors’ lifetime savings were lost. But not at the First National Bank in Mankato.
During the reigns both of J.P. Fair and Forrest Fair, the First National Bank followed a conservative banking philosophy. The Fairs though that neither their customers’ nor their bank’s interests would be well served by easy credit. This conservative philosophy, born of adversity, was unquestionably the First National Bank’s secret of survival through the time of troubles. 1920-1941.
World War II ushered in another age. Wartime inflation was followed by peacetime inflation. Government intervention intensified in the banking business, agriculture and in the economy as a whole.
Expansionary federal expenditure policies produced more of less constant economic growth and inflation. A technological revolution transformed agriculture and rural society. New machines, chemicals and hybrids made one farmer do the work of ten. The size of an economically efficient farm unit grew dramatically. The scale of farms grew as the number of farms shrank.
All this brought a demand for more capital in farming. In order to buy the neighboring quarter section and a bigger tractor, the ambitious farmer needed more credit. The conservative philosophy that brought the First National Bank through the depressions of the 20s and 30s seemed to be inappropriate to the 50s and 60s.
Forrest Fair was one of the first to acknowledge that things were changing rapidly.
In the 70s when he was thinking of retiring, Fair reflected:
“Television and instant world wide communications have made the average man aware of events around the world,” said Fair who simultaneously watched four television sets to keep himself abreast of a fast changing world. Books numbered by the thousands lined the walls of his Mankato home and peered down upon this remarkable effort to stay current.
“Television has made every man crave consumer goods beyond his ability to pay for them. This, combined with the security cushion placed under him by government welfare programs has made every man willing to borrow too much to satisfy his cravings.”
Farmers also have forgotten the lessons painfully learned in the past, Fair thought.
“Five dollar wheat made fools out of a lot of farmers. They rushed to buy overpriced land and $50,000 tractors thinking it would last forever. There is no way that they can make it on $2 wheat. The only difference from the past is that now they holler for the federal government to save them. Before Roosevelt, people had to guts to live with the consequences of their own folly and greed.”
Commenting on farmers’ abilities as managers, Fair said, “most farmers are not afraid of hard work and they deserve credit for that. Some are good managers but too many are not.
“Most are like builders without blueprints. The pioneer tradition is to work hard physically but to be impatient with books and record keeping. Farmers still tend to jump in when it looks good and hope that they luck out. A lot of them don’t even know they are losing money until it is too late. Lack of financial management is the farmer’s big weakness.”
(To be continued)
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