The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1921-01-21

vived and prospered with the same
men who founded and managed it at
the start, still at the institutions helm,
and its success. it's rise in BUSINESS
affairs, and its development have been
remarkably rapid.
1t is doubtlessly safe to state that
neither Mr.. r. M. or John M. Lewis
even in their most sanguine moments,
dreamed of the accomplishment in so
short a time of such a monument to
success as the institution which now
holds forth at the corner of First
Avenue South and Fifth Street.
With that part of Montana which
we call Valley county, little better
than discovered, and with nothing ex-
istent at that time but the wide open
prairie extending for miles in every
direction. it is quite possible that the
founders of the First National Bank
of Glasgow now look back upon the
accomplishment of the present as mar
velous beyond the bounds of all opti-
mism.
At the time of its founding, the
bank was the only financial institu-
ton between the cities of Spokane and
Minot on the Great Northern main
line, and served a territory, which al
though it was hundreds of miles in
radius, included few more than a single
thousand inhabitants.
The entire business of the bank
which was operated as a private bank
ing house in the earliest days of it's
existence, was conducted entirely by
Mr.. R. M. Lewis, who is now vice
president of the institution. This he
did, together with looking after the
bookkeeping for the general store
which was located in the same build
ing, and he often waited upon Gus
toners, and sold them merchandise
when necessity demanded the same.
The first %depositor in the bank was
James w. Wedum. who was then asso-
clated with John M. Lewis in the gen
eral store business. Mr.. MEDIUM is
still a depositor in the bank, and is also
now a member of it's board of directors.
His first deposit was $22O.OO, which
represented the sum and total of his
wealth at that time.
In 1891 the city of Glasgow consti-
tuted about twenty to thirty new log
shacks which housed all of the inhabi-
eoiiSo. ooLlC VI Vic BUSINESS places
on Front street possessed board fronts,
but they were all the typical structures
of the time-the time when the good
natured cowpuncher was wont to come
Unexpectedly up the street in a cloud
of dust and with a din of hilarity. It
is said that two Great Northern box
cars would then have completely OBJ
structed the view of the town from
either side.
Havre did not yet exist, but of
course, in the early nineties it sprang
with rapid pace from the prairies as
a result of the activities at Fort As
s%inniboine, and the greater amount of
railroad activity at that point. Never
theless, in 1891 there was little or
nothing at what is now known as the
city of Havre. The main line of the
Great Northern had reached there
and the yards were then being
put in. The entire population consis-
ted of a construction camp populated
mainly by rough ~frontiersmen and ad-
v%enturers.
Many mushroom towns sprang I'D
both east and west of Havre in the
early nineties, but practically all of
these had passed out of existence be-
fore the new and permanent centers
came.
Starting a bank in those days when
the small population that existed was
composed of Indians, cowpunchers, cat
tlemen, a few railroad men and nu-
merous outlaws, was, it is needless to
state a precarious undertaking, but the
bank of Lewis Brothers came through
the ordeal with flying colors.
In 1900 the bank found it's old head
quarters too small and a one story
brick building was built, and this
housed the institution until the year
1915 when the present metropolitan
structure was erected.
With the beginning of the second
decade of it's existence, the bank began
to very rapidly advance resultant
from the influx of new settlers to the
territory and the development of the
lands adjacent to the Great Northern
east and west Of Glasgow. In 1902 a
complete reorganization was formed
under the name Of Bank of Valley
County. The directors of this organ
ization were: Messrs. John M. Lewis.