Sunday, November 23, 1997
Reporter's Notebook
Roy A. Jones II, Regional Editor -- Daisy Lantrip, a spry 87-year-old
who still does custodial chores at the Hawley Post Office, knew
a story in Friday's Reporter-News was in error.
The story reported that ground had been broken on Wednesday
for "Hawley's first local financial institution."
Knowing that Hawley wasn't incorporated until 1970 and didn't
have paved streets until 1988, I didn't question the statement
in a news release from a public relations firm hired by the new
bank.
Next time I'll know to check such things with Mrs. Lantrip,
Hawley's unofficial historian.
Mrs. Lantrip was there when every building in the little settlement
of Hawley burned to the ground in 1924, and she remembers one
of the buildings was the First National Bank of Hawley.
The bank had been founded about 1913, as a branch of First
National Bank of Abilene, she said. It rebuilt a nice stone building
after the fire, and continued to operate until the stock market
crash of 1929, when it failed, she recalled.
In fact, the present City Hall is in the building which was
constructed as First National Bank of Hawley, Mrs. Lantrip said.
That was before bank deposits were insured, she said, adding
that her father, W.A. Carter, lost only a few dollars on deposit
in the bank.
"He was a mail carrier and they didn't pay them very much,"
she said.
Did Mrs. Lantrip lose any money in the failure?
"Oh, law," she said, explaining that she and G.L.
Lantrip married in 1927 and were still trying to make a living
farming when the bank failed.
"We didn't have anything to lose. I'll tell you for sure,"
she said.
---
JEFF HUTTON, Assistant City Editor -- Almost every day the
newsroom receives at least one call from the wintry tundra of
Minnesota. Because the Reporter-News' 1-800 number is similar
to that of a television station's number in Minneapolis, it's
inevitable that someone from Eden Prairie, Bloomington, Shakopee
or Chanhassen will call.
But this past week, after the weather in the Big Country turned
to more milder temperatures, it was a surprise to hear from a
caller claiming it had snowed several inches in her hometown of
Minnetonka.
"How many inches did you folks get there?" the woman
asked thinking she was calling Minneapolis.
None, of course, noting that the temperature in Abilene was
60 degrees at the time, to which she replied, "Where in Minnesota
are you?"
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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