|
|
O.W. Akerson. Taken at the Stadin Studio
in Cambridge, Minnesota on his 80th birthday, October 8, 1945.
My grandfather, Oscar William Akerson, came to Grandy, Minnesota,
about 1915 and became identified with the State Bank as cashier.
O.W., as he was called, was a widower and brought two sons with him
to Grandy: Edwin Oscar, born in 1899, who was my father, and Russell C.,
born 1901. They lived in a grey, 2-storey house at 2901 Dunkirk.
The family had lived for 15 years in the northern Minnesota mining
town of Tower, where O.W. moved from Minneapolis with his bride, Blanche
Cole in 1897. He was cashier at the First State Bank there.
Both sons were born in Tower. The Akersons left there about 1912 and
returned to Minneapolis, where Blanche died of heart disease at the age
of 49, in 1915.
O.W. had family to visit not far from Grandy. His brother, Ernest A.
Akerson, was a member of the real estate firm of Lindstrom, Akerson and
Helberg in Lindstrom, Minnesota.
Both O.W. and E.A. Akerson were born on their parent' s farm near
Lindstrom. Their father, John Akerson, emigrated from the parish of
Brakne-Hoby in Blekinge, Sweden in 1853. Their mother, Anna Peterson,
was also born in Sweden.
Grandy was a potato town
Grandy in the 1920's was a town that grew up as a railroad stop.
Potatoes were the important crop, and there were numerous warehouses
built all along the tracks where potatoes were stored and sorted before
shipping them out on the train.
The town had a telephone office, hotel, drug store, garage, butcher
shop, clothing store, hardware store, two general stores and a post
office. Where the post office is now there was a two story building with
a grocery downstairs and a meeting hall upstairs.
O.W. chases the bank robber
Grandy and vicinity were quite excitedly stirred on a Friday
afternoon in September,1931, when the word was passed that the State
Bank of Grandy had been robbed. |
|
O.W. Akerson, working as cashier, and his son
Russell, assistant cashier, found themselves confronting a large revolver
and the demand to hand over the money from the safe.
The thief then closed the vault and made a rapid exit with the money,
but did not succeed in locking the Akersons inside, as the door was set
not to lock.
O.W. sounded the burgler alarm, seized a shotgun kept in the bank, and
gave chase down the street. He fired, but the bandit was then in his car
and disappearing over the hill, and at that long range the shot was unable
to hit.
Akerson Jr. and V.M. Nelson started in pursuit in the Nelson car, but
the trail was lost after a chase of three or four miles. Sorry to say, the
robber appeared to have been successful.
This was not the first attempt on the State Bank. In 1927 Frank
"Slim" Gibson and Jack Northrup were arrested in connection with
a series of bank robberies, and admitted to chiseling through the bank
vault and obtaining $140.
The State Bank fails
The State Bank of Grandy, which was established in 1910, was liquidated
late in 1931 because of heavy shrinkage in deposits.
The bank did not experience any run by the depositors but in
consequence of depressed agricultural conditions the deposits dwindled
away gradually over a period of many months until the business could no
longer be operated at a profit.
Einar Feldheim of Grandy told me a story about my grandfather and the
closing of the bank. He said that at the time of the closing O.W. came to
Einar's father and said "I want to return to you the money you last
deposited".
He had walked out to the Feldheim place on Long Lake at night after the
bank closed. He had the Feldheim money in one pocket and money for other
depositers tucked away in other pockets all over his clothing.
In his later years O.W. sold real estate and insurance. He died in the
Braham Hospital on December 16, 1948, at the age of 83. He is buried at
Lakewood Cemetary, Minneapolis.
This was written in August, 1999 by Lynne
Akerson Leuthe, granddaughter of O.W. Akerson. Please write or call me
at:
2124 Jackson Street La Crosse, WI 54601 608/788-1151
|
Grandy,
Minnesota 55029