USA > Minnesota > Otter Tail County > History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 33
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An enumeration of these clubs show a variety of names, some sug- gestive of agriculture pure and simple, and others indicating a combination of agricultural, literary and social interests. All, however, are working for the same thing. A list of these clubs follows: Aurora Literary Society. Deer Creek Get Together Club. Aastad Literary Society. Oscar Literary Society. Lake Side Society of Star Lake, Wrightstown Farmers Club, Buse Farmers Club, Aastad Farmers Club, Bangor Farmers Club. Bluffton Farm- ers Club, Carlisle Farmers Club, Compton Farmers Club, Dane Prairie Farmers Club, Erhard Farmers Club. Farmers Improvement Club of Edwards ( Friberg), Inman Farmers Club, Lyman Farmers Club. Sverdrup Farmers Club, Oak Valley Farmers Club, Tordenskjold Farmers Club, Otter Tail County Poultry Association, East Side Farmers Club, Maplewood Farmers Club. Western Farmers Club, Dalton Farmers Club, Underwood Farmers Club and Fergus Falls Farmers Club.
Some of these organizations hold annual fairs on a small scale and offer prizes for farm products. The clearing houses for the farmers of the county are the annual county fairs at Fergus Falls and Perham, which are held primarily for the farmers. Here may be found on display the best products the county can produce, the finest grains and fruits, the sleekest cattle and fattest hogs-and the fanciest fancy work of the farmers' wives. The product of the plow competes with the handicraft of the needle; the farmers' wheat is shown along with the bread which their wives make from it. The result is a stimulus to better things in every phase of life and no farmer can attend the county fair without returning home a wiser man.
Another distinct feature of the trend of things affecting the welfare of the farmer is shown in the co-operative elevators established by them in many parts of the county. Thus there are such organizations as the Farm- ers Grain and Mercantile Company of Carlisle. The Dalton Grain & Lumber
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Company, The Farmers Co-operative Association of Pelican Rapids and Erhard, the Farmers Company of Battle Lake, the Clitherall Grain Associa- tion, the Farmers Co-operative Elevator Company, of Fergus Falls, and the Underwood Grain Association. Supplementary to these organizations may be mentioned the live stock shipping associations of Otter Tail county. Five of these associations are members of The Farmers Society of Equity, .
a national co-operative association : Parkers Prairie, Richville, Dent, Per- ham and Ottertail. The remainder of these associations are not affiliated with this national association. They follow: Pelican Rapids, Erhard (branch of. Pelican Rapids), Fergus Falls, Ashby, Clitherall, Deer Creek. Amor-Maine, Underwood. Dalton, Henning, New York Mills, Heinola. These co-operative elevators and shipping organizations have undoubtedly been of great benefit to the farmers in enabling them to market their pro- ducts more advantageously.
In another chapter is given a history of the creameries and cheese fac- tories of the county. More than thirty such companies have been organ- ized and all of them have proved financial successes for their incorporators. It has been estimated that more than a million dollars a year is being milked from the patient cow by the farmers of the county. Forty years ago the farmer had no conception of the money making possibilities of the cow; then a cow was simply a cow, a handy animal to have for the children, but not dreamed of as a valuable asset. Today there are hundreds of farm- ers who can testify to taxes paid, mortgages lifted, pianos bought and auto- mobiles ridden in, all of which came out of the family milk bucket.
Another exemplification of co-operation among the farmers is shown in the many mutual fire insurance companies which have sprung up in the county. Here again may be seen the spirit of brotherly helpfulness. The result is the organization of mutual insurance companies, the losses to be met by an annual assessment. Thus it has come to pass that Otter Tail county has added another co-operative organization to its list-the insur- ance company. Today the following companies of this nature are oper- ating in the county. not a single one for profit, but for protection only : Bluffton Township Mutual Fire Insurance Company, Effiington Township German Mutual Insurance Company, Finnish Township Mutual Fire Insur- ance Company, Oscar Township Mutual Fire Insurance Company, Parkers Prairie Mutual Fire Insurance Company, Perham Township German Mutual Fire Insurance and Sverdrup Scandinavian Mutual Insurance Company. In addition to these companies authorized to do business in Otter Tail county there are three others in adjoining counties which have policy holders in Otter Tail county. viz. : Delaware Township Mutual Fire Insurance Com-
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pany, Lake Park & Cuba Township Mutual Fire Insurance Company and Parke Township Mutual Fire Insurance Company.
The county fair movement was one of the first agricultural movements in the county. Two fair associations successfully existed in Fergus Falls, their grounds being situated north of the city-one on the ground now occupied by the state insane hospital, the other immediately east of the first location. The principal feature of the first fairs was horse racing and the Otter Tail county fair suffered from the decline that affected fair interests in the eighties and discontinued. The grounds were later used as an athletic park, but fell into dilapidation and were finally sold.
A few years later Charles J. Wright, with a view of stimulating corn raising. started a corn contest, the first one with forty-four entries, being held in the winter of 1908. The corn contest was repeated in 1909 and its success led to the incorporation in the following December of the Otter Tail County Fair Association. The association held its first fair October 22, 1910, in the Fergus Falls high school building, and paid out in premiums, mainly on school exhibits and corn, the sum of two hundred ninety-three dollars and seventy-four cents. In 1911 and 1912 the fair was held as a street fair; in 1913 it was held in the city athletic park; in 1914 it was held in the new industrial high school building. In 1915 the association pur- chased thirty acres of ground north of University hill, built a track, erected buildings and became a full-fledged fair. Its growth has been steady and holds promise of greater things for the future.
The Perham fair was started as a street fair with merchandise prizes and held its first meeting on October 9, 1909. It adopted the cash prize system in 1910 and became a county fair in every sense of the term. It con- ducted excellent fairs with a steady improvement quality and quantity. In 1915 it erected buildings. Street fairs have been held from time to time in the villages of Parkers Prairie, New York Mills, Battle Lake and Pelican Rapids: Farmers Club fairs have been held by the Compton, Star Lake and Carlisle Clubs.
The unification of the various agricultural organizations has immensely furthered the work of all. The State Agricultural College has for years sent literature and institute speakers into all the counties of the state. In May. 1910, institute speakers assisted in the organization of the first farm- ers club in the county near Wall Lake.
The establishment of an agricultural and industrial department in the Fergus Falls high school, under the Putnam act, added a new element which worked in harmony with the college, the two institutions holding short courses in agriculture as joint projects. Later similar work was (20)
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started in part in several of the other schools. Perham has established a full course in agriculture and industrial work. The county fair was from the start intimately connected with the schools and this co-operation has continued.
In connection with the short course at the Fergus Falls high school, the farmers around Fergus Falls organized in the winter of 1911 the "Better Farming Association of Otter Tail County," to conduct short courses, boost agriculture, and with the idea of ultimately starting cow testing work. Some correspondence was had to gather information on the "Better Farm- ing Association" work in North Dakota, as well as the county agent work conducted jointly by the United States government and the Rockefeller Institute in the cotton belt and by the farmers' unions of Germany and Denmark.
Nothing definitely was accomplished until in May, 1912, when Sears. Roebuck & Company offered to donate the sum of one thousand dollars to the first one hundred counties that would employ county agricultural agents. This fund was offered through the Council of grain Exchanges, representa- tives of the Grain Exchanges, the United States department of agriculture. the Minnesota Agricultural College and others interested was held a meet- ing at Glenwood. on May 23-24. A plan of organization was outlined under which the federal and state agricultural departments would furnish part of the money for the support of a county agricultural agent in each county that would raise one thousand dollars a year to support the expenses of the work. As the funds were limited and only the first counties to qualify could get the county agent, haste was essential. Otter Tail county was represented at the meeting and a whirlwind campaign was commenced and a guaranty of the money to be obtained locally was made by the citizens of all parts of the county. The local committees proceeded to circulate sub- scription lists: a committee to take charge of the work was appointed and on December 5, 1912, the county agent commenced work. The Sears Roe- buck money was received as soon as the necessary amount had been guar- anteed.
F. R. Johnson, of Casselton. North Dakota, a graduate of the Minne- sota Agricultural College, was the first agent, and served successfully in the difficult task of starting the new movement. In October, 1914, Mr. John- son resigned to take further work at the university and J. V. Bopp was appointed as his successor. Mr. Bopp was reared on an Illinois farm, graduated from the Illinois Agricultural College, and had had experience at the South Dakota Agricultural College as assistant editor of the North- zeestern Farmstead. as county agent in North Dakota and as a Missouri farmer. His work in Otter Tail county has been very successful.
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The county organization in charge of the work during the first year was a committee elected by the subscribers to the funds. In May, 1913, application was made to have the county support the work by an appropria- tion. The county commissioners granted the request but the further con- tinuance of the appropriation was to be submitted to the annual township meetings in the spring of 1914. This appropriation commenced in January, 1914, and carried on the county agent work one year.
The 1914 townships meetings did not as a rule vote on the question, but of those voting, about four-fifths were opposed to county agent work. This was partly due to the fact that the work was too new to have demon- strated its value by results and partly due to the increase of taxes which was very noticeable at that time, though not in any way due to the county agent movement, as the total county appropriation for the work would only increase the tax fifteen cents on the average farm. After the county appro- priations ceased to work was financed by appropriations made by the farm- ers' clubs of the county and by subscriptions taken among the progressive farmers and business men. An organization, called the Otter Tail County Farm Bureau, was formed, composed of the subscribers to the fund and the members of the various farmers clubs co-operating in the work. This organization, through a board of directors, elected at annual conventions, together with the State Agricultural College and the United States depart- ment of agriculture, finances and manages the county agent work in the county at the present time. The Farm Bureau acts as a clearing house and bond of union between all the local, state and national organizations for agricultural work, and co-operates with them and with individual farmers in investigation of farm problems and the dissemination of information regarding better farm methods.
The county agent is co-operating with the fairs and schools in conduct- ing contests for the boys and girls in corn raising, bread making, potato growing, pig raising, gardening and canning, and in organizing clubs among them. He works with the farmers' clubs on such problems as working programs and debates.
Definite projects of farm work have been started more particularly a farm management survey of agricultural conditions at Pelican Rapids, alfalfa growing and liming experiments at Otter Tail and Pelican Rapids and potato disease control at Deer Creek and Battle Lake. One hundred and fifty farmers are using farm record books for systematizing their business in co-operation with the county agent, and several are conducting hog pas- tures and feeding demonstrations. Cow testing associations have been organ- ized around Otter Tail and Fergus Falls, and seven carloads of well-bred dairy cattle have been shipped into the county co-operatively.
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It has been shown that there are great variations in the profits made in farming, some farmers in the county making as high as fifteen hundred dol- lars a year besides interest on their investment, and others getting nothing for their work and not even coming within five hundred dollars a year of making interest. There are individual cows in the county that are returning as much as two hundred and forty acres a year to their owners in milk and the sale of their calves, and others that return as little as twenty-five dollars a year. One aim of the work is to raise the average nearer to the best records.
The records of the county agent's office show that in 1915 he made seventy hundred and seventy visits, visiting six hundred different farms; receiving four hundred and thirty telephone calls; five hundred and seventy office visits on business; traveled six thousand seven hundred and sixty-six miles by automobile; sixteen hundred and ten by train, two hundred and fifty-six by team and eight miles on foot in the course of his employment. He wrote eight hundred and fifty letters in answer to inquiries from farm- ers. The work was carried on in forty-seven of the sixty-two townships of the county. He addressed eighty-three farmers' meetings, with a total attendance of 9,710 people.
Be it remembered that to no one man or movement is the credit for the progress of Otter Tail county agriculture due. There are hundreds of individual farmers who should have mention because of the excellent work they are doing on their own farms and in the conduct of the various farm- ers organizations. The limits of this chapter would not allow the tale to be told of their work. nor can any one writer know the full list of those who would deserve to receive praise. These efforts are the forces that are driving the county forward to better things. It will be for the future his- torians of Otter Tail to trace the results of their labors and testify to the public esteem for the part they shall have had in the building of the better Otter Tail county that is to come.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
BANKS AND BANKING.
A sure indication of the prosperity of any community is shown by the amount of its bank deposits, and taking this as a criterion. it may be said that Otter Tail county is in a prosperous condition. The first bank in Otter Tail county was the First National Bank of Fergus Falls, which opened for business in 1872, only four years after the county was organized. As the county increased in population and wealth, other banks were organized and today the county can boast of no less than thirty-three banks, located in twenty-one towns of the county. For the first decade after 1872 the First National Bank of Fergus Falls was the only financial institution in the county. In 1882 the Merchants Bank of Fergus Falls and a bank in Pelican Rapids were established, the former later becoming the present Fergus Falls National Bank and the latter the J. P. Wallace State Bank. In 1883 the Citizens National Bank of Fergus Falls was organized with a capital stock of $75,000, and it remained in business until 1807. when it went into voluntary liquidation, paying all of its depositors in full.
There are now eight national banks in the county. two at Fergus Falls and one each at Battle Lake, Pelican Rapids. Henning. Parkers Prairie, Perham and Deer Creek. All of the other banks in the county-twenty-five in number-are state banks, seven of them being known as "Farmers" banks, and two others as "Farmers and Merchants" banks. It is safe to say that the prosperity of the banks of the county is largely due to the farm- ers of the county. When a village the size of Carlisle, with its population of less than a score, can support a bank and show resources of nearly $45,000 within less than three months after it was organized, it indicates that the community is prosperous to an unusual degree. The surprising thing in the banking history of the county is the rapid organization of banks since 1908. No less than sixteen banks have been started since that year. seven of which began operations in 1908, and all of these banks were paying good dividends at the end of their first year of business.
A study of banking conditions in Fergus Falls shows that the five banks of the city increased their deposits by nearly $200,000 in 1915 over the previous year. On October 31, 1914. the total deposits in the four banks amounted to $2.507,565.59: a statement on November 10. 1915, for the five banks (the Farmers and Merchants Bank was organized in 1915) showed deposits of $2,699,843.56: thus the increase in a year amounts to $192,277.97. Bankers and business men are universally agreed that this
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showing breaks all previous records and points the way toward still better conditions in the future. With this amount of money in the community it is no longer necessary for business men to seek outside capital for the promotion of legitimate enterprises.
The following table shows the banks of the county now in operation, together with the dates of their organization. In some instances the date given is not the one on which the bank began its career, since in a few cases the present corporation is the outgrowth of a former institution :
Fergus Falls-
First National Bank 1872
Fergus Falls National Bank 1882.
First State Bank
1902
Scandia State Bank
1902
Farmers and Merchants State Bank. 1915
Pelican Rapids-
First National Bank 1907
J. P. Wallace State Bank
1904
State Bank of Pelican Rapids 1912
Battle Lake ---
First National Bank
1907
First State Bank 1905 1 1
Henning-
First National Bank
1903
Farmers State Bank
1906
Parkers Prairie-
First National Bank
1903
State Bank of Parkers Prairie 1
1
1903
Perham-
First National Bank
1902
State Bank of Perham
1904
1
Underwood-
First State Bank
1908
Farmers State Bank
1916
New York Mills-
First State Bank.
1908
Farmers and Merchants Bank
1916
Deer Creek-
First National Bank 1904
Vining-
Lunds State Bank
1909
1
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Vergas-
Farmers State Bank
1905
Elizabeth-
Merchants State Bank
1907
Richville ---
Farmers State Bank
1908
Dent-
Farmers State Bank
1908
Dalton-
First State Bank
1908
Clitherall-
First State Bank
1908
Otter Tail-
Security State Bank
1908
Bluffton-
State Bank of Bluffton
19II
Erhard-
State Bank of Erhard
1913
Almora-
State Bank of Almora
1914
Carlisle-
Farmers State Bank
1915
The history of each bank in the county has been obtained from the present officials of the banks. The history of the one bank in the county which has gone out of business, the Citizens National Bank of Fergus Falls, has been written by the editor, who is undoubtedly as well if not better acquainted with the career of the bank than any other person in the county. The separate sketches of the banks are given in the order in which they appear in the above table.
CITIZENS NATIONAL BANK OF FERGUS FALLS.
The Citizens National Bank of Fergus Falls was organized in 1883, with a capital stock of $75.000. James Compton was president and Charles C. Warfield, the, cashier.
This bank continued in business until 1897, when, after a rather checkered career, it closed its doors, paid its depositors in full, while the stockholders, with one or two exceptions, were subjected to loss. The stockholder who came out of the wreck "ahead of the game" was the cashier. This cashier removed, very suddenly. to Texas, presumably taking all records of the bank with him, which makes it difficult to give exact data of the history of this financial institution. At least, the writer has been unable to find any of the records of the bank except his own deposit book.
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In 1892 the president of the First National Bank of Fergus Falls, Henry G. Page, largely interested in milling operations, failed and, with the Page Flouring Mills, went into insolvency. This failure greatly affected the other banks of the city and the president of the Citizens National Bank, James Compton. Without going into details, it is sufficient to state that these failures necessitated the resignation of Mr. Compton as president of the bank.
On January 2, 1891, J. W. Mason was elected president to succeed Mr. Compton. Mr. Mason being attorney for the Great Northern Railway Company and engaged in a very active law practice, it was understood that he was not to take any active part in the bank's management, but to act in an advisory capacity only. Charles C. Warfield was the cashier from the start to the finish, and during all of that time, a director. How he "directed" is a story never before written.
The struggle of all banks during the panic and financial depression of 1893 and 1894 has passed into history and the banks of Fergus Falls bore their full share of the burden. After matters began to ease up and the banks of the country were getting on their feet again, Mr. Warfield. in December, 1894, conceived the idea of preparing a statement of the affairs of the Citizens National Bank, giving its resources and liabilities, with a statement of its worthless paper and sending a copy of the same to each stockholder, from which they could know the exact value of their stock. Mr. Mason was to make the draft of such statement, after which it was to be printed and sent to each stockholder. Together, the president and cashier of the bank went over the books, leaving out all the paper that was deemed worthless and agreed that the actual value of the stock was from ninety to ninety-five per cent of its par value.
This statement was prepared by Mr. Mason and given to Mr. Warfield to print and mail to the stockholders. Time passed on, but no statement appeared. When asked about the delay, Mr. Warfield claimed that he was too busy to attend to it, but was always going to do so soon. The matter . thus dragged itself along until the latter part of June, 1895, when Mr. Mason again urged the printing and mailing of this statement to the stock- holders, particularly as many of the foreign shareholders had written for information as to the actual value of their stock.
At the time of this last talk about the delay of getting out the state- ment. Mr. Warfield called Mr. Mason into the back room of the bank, saying he had a proposition to make which would be advantageous to them both. He said that he had concluded not to send out the statement which had been agreed upon, but, instead, had written to some of the stockholders, and as a result of such correspondence he had bought the stock of a Mr. Smith, a
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resident of Pennsylvania, for, as the writer remembers the price, forty cents on the dollar. Having thus prefaced his "proposition" he went on to state it. It was this: Write to all the stockholders, sending them a state- ment of the condition of the bank; charge off all paper that was past due or at least doubtful, and thus bring the stock down to a value not exceeding thirty or thirty-five cents on the dollar; buy their stock at some such figure, and after thus getting possession of the stock, go at it and collect the paper thus charged off as far as possible and renew the balance; with cash realized from collections and discounting the paper at the other banks, together with the deposits on hand, pay off the depositors in full, and thus make a fine profit for themselves.
Mr. Mason declined the proposition and went at once to a director of the bank and laid the cashier's scheme before him. Being unable to impress this director with the importance of the situation, on the same day he handed to the cashier his resignation as president and director of the bank. The directors, for some reason, made no move in the premises, and Mr. Warfield carried out his plan. It is not charged that any of the directors aside from Warfield reaped any benefit from the scheme, but there was soon evidence that it was working.
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