OPINIONS & EDITORIALS » CONNECTIONS

Written by Mary Bauer, 07/22/2010

Early in the 1900’s the Union State Bank of La Porte City ran an ad in the Progress Review announcing capital of $50,000 with a surplus of $16,000. The going interest rate was four percent on time deposits and you could rent a deposit box for $1 a year. The bank president was Henry Weise. The ad proclaimed "Our Stockholders Number Forty-two Substantial Persons Whom You Know." The business was established July 1, 1884, and was housed in the building on the corner of Main and Commercial now owned by Jerry and Jan Erdahl. By 1889 the business became locally competitive when the First National Bank opened its doors on Main Street. In 1913 a third bank opened, the Farmer’s Savings Bank. LPC was on a roll!

What fueled three banks in a miniscule town with dirt streets? The answer is the rich earth that surrounded the community. The capital of those banks wouldn’t make the down-payment on a new combine for the upcoming harvest season in 2010! The cost of transporting a crop from the field to the grocery store shelf in today’s world would have been unimaginable back then. What difference does any of this make? Another ad, this one from a group of Waterloo home builders in a 1954 ad queried, "What about the builders of the next 100 years? What about 2054?"

I don’t know about 2054. I do know that the name Union is hopefully a lifetime tag for this community. It tags our schools; it offers refreshment just across the corner from the original bank at everybody’s favorite stop…Union Station. It speaks of the co-operation between our church groups and civic organizations. It silently sets a goal for 2054: continued co-operation as individuals, businesses and government entities as we work pridefully toward all things that better this community. The heart of this community is "Substantial Persons Whom You Know."

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