Citizen's Bank History of Safe

From Frank Myers Lucasctyan, Dec 5, 2018

A vintage Russell bank and the beast in the basement

You never know where interesting stuff is going to turn up --- like this postcard view of a building still standing on the north side of Russell's main street that began life in 1916 as Citizens State Bank. I found the image at Digital Grinnell, a Grinnell College service that you may access here if you'd care to browse yourself. Look under "Historic Iowa Postcards" for more like this.

If you look carefully at the building you can see in the front window at right this safe, which I call the "beast in the basement," now located at the Lucas County Historical Society Museum in Chariton. And, yes, the publisher of the postcard misspelled "Russell."

Citizens State Bank went belly-up during 1931 and its assets were sold. Lucas County acquired the safe and moved it to the courthouse for use by the county treasurer. In 1983, it came to the museum and was installed in the lower-level Coal Mine Gallery. The beast weighs a ton, literally --- I can't imagine how much effort it took to move it, or consider ever moving it again.

This little account of the bank and its building begins with a report found under "Russell News" on Page 5 of The Chariton Leader of Feb. 24, 1916: "C.S. McKinley has sold his vacant lot just west of his store building for the sum of $1,000. On this site will be erected the Citizens State Bank which will be a one-story brick building 25x60 feet with basement. This will be quite a desirable location and the work will begin soon."

The new bank opened its doors for the first time on Saturday, July 8, 1916, as noted on the front Page of The Leader of July 20:

CITIZENS' STATE BANK

"The new Citizens' State Bank at Russell has opened for business and has erected a brick building of its own and equipped it with all the modern furniture and equipment necessary to be abreast of the times. This is one of the most prosperous communities in Iowa, and this financial institution has a good business future. P.F. (Percy) Sprague, cashier, and Atlee Winsor, his assistant, are alert in business activity and the institution has good men behind it. The officers are: President, E.G. Latham; vice-president, W.A. Elliott; cashier, P.F. Sprague; assistant cashier, Atlee Winsor. The board of directors are the president, vice-president, cashier, together with H.D. Calvin, Sherman Lockridge, J.A. Vinsel and C.S. McKinley."

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The bank did indeed prosper for more than a decade, then those times it was attempting to remain abreast of caught up with it. The Leader of June 2, 1931, reported as follows:

RUSSELL BANK CLOSED TODAY

Citizens State Bank Now in Hands of State Banking Department

"The Citizens State Bank of Russell was voluntarily closed this morning, and its affairs are now in the hands of the state banking department. D. L. Johnson of the state department went to Russell this morning to assume charge of the bank's business.

"Frozen assets was given as the cause of the closing of the institution, and it was stated this morning that in all probability the bank would pay out with very little losses to the depositors. W.A. Elliott was president of the closed bank, and P.F. Sprague was cashier."

The process of dismantling the bank and paying dividends to depositors in small increments continued until September of 1934 when Chariton attorney Darl Ambelang bought for $720 more than $30,000 in outstanding bills receivable as well as the remaining furniture and fixtures. It appears that the safe already had been sold and I couldn't determine just how much the failed bank ended up losing. After that, the old Citizens State building was turned to other uses.

No, there's nothing in the safe now. And, yes, we do have the combinations written down --- somewhere.