Let’s set the scene. It is 1872 in America.
In the upcoming November elections, Ulysses S. Grant will defeat Horace Greeley to become President of the United States. Suffragist Susan B. Anthony will defy men and the law, and cast a female vote for the first time in a national election. The Homestead Act brings thousands of settlers to Kansas. Eight years earlier, the city of Ottawa was founded, based on a gift from the Ottawa Indians. In Ottawa, local real estate developer and land agent, one George W. Hamblin, originally of Guernsey, England, is busy funding the construction of building after building. It was a very good year for Hamblin, revealed by the fact that he reported an income of $7,000 to the internal revenue assessor (today’s dollars, about $140,000).
The Peoples National Bank
In Ottawa, Franklin County, on January 1, 1872, The Peoples National Bank opened its doors. L.W. Shepherd was its president and H.H. Luddington vice-president, B.C. McQuesten was cashier. The original bank was located on the next block in the Shepherd and McQuesten building at 205 S. Main. The Peoples National Bank was popular name for banks in the United States. Ottawa’s Peoples National Bank is one of the older ones.
There were other signs of progress in Ottawa. Four years earlier, electricity came to downtown Ottawa. So had the railroad. (L.W. Shepherd, president of the Franklin County Railroad Committee, had a hand in accomplishing this feat.) And Ottawa’s telephone company had seventeen subscribers.
But horses still walked the streets. And men wore long pants and jackets, and smoked cigars; women long dresses.
Old images from the Kansas Historical Society, and Franklin County Historical Society, new image from Google Maps.
While the building at the corner of Second and Main has the date 1879, this three story building was not built until 1895. George P. Washburn was the architect. On February 9, 1895, a devastating fire destroyed the Hamblin House Hotel and other buildings along the same block.
This was the occasion for the “new” bank building.
Abandoned, old, and interesting Kansas 