State Bank Building

The State Bank had its beginning with the town. It was founded as a private bank by James M. Harper, G. Douglas and J.C. Lutz. The three partners were rated with net assets of over $200,000. Mr. Harper was in charge of the bank, the first in the new town. Mr. Dengler died early in the bank’s history, then it became referred to as the firm of Harper & Lutz. Mr. Harper later purchased the interest of Mr. Lutz and was sole owner at the time of this death in 1908 when it became the property of his widow.

The only recorded bank holdup came at 2:20 on Thursday, July 7, 1927, when three bandits took $2,140.40 from the State Bank. Cashier, Homer Hunt, was atop a ladder working on the clock and the bookkeeper, Dorothy Meils, was working at the posting machine. The bandit guard noticed T.L. Ellis peeking in the bank during the robbery and invited him in. The three were locked in the bank vault. Within a few minutes, Nettie Bolmer, telephone company cashier, entered the bank to make a deposit and released the three vault captives.

The first banking house was a block east of the present modern bank building, and later it was located just west of the Nichols building, then for several years west of the drug store. In 1922 the brick and stone building was erected and occupied.