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National Bank Notes > North Dakota

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Jamestown, James River NB & Trust Co., 2580
Fr. 1802-2 $20 1929T2
Grade: PMG VF 30    

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This 'new to the census' note is one of 1,638 Type 2 $20s that were printed and there are only six listed serial numbers. A very pleasing and high quality example. Printed signatures of J.E. McElroy, President and A.J. Rulon, Cashier. Jamestown is the county seat of Stutsman County. Jamestown is located at the confluence of the James and Pipestem rivers. The population was 15,427 at the 2010 census, making it the eighth largest city in North Dakota. The first white men known to explore the Jamestown area were Jean G. Nicolet and John C. Fremont, who traveled the James River in 1839.After the Minnesota Uprising of 1862, US Army General Henry Hastings Sibley and Alfred Sully came to Dakota Territory to trap the Sioux involved in the massacre. The Northern Pacific Railroad soon followed General Sibley to the Jamestown area. In 1871, a Northern Pacific Railroad work crew set up camp where the railroad would cross the James River, adding another section to the new northern transcontinental line. In 1872, the U.S. Army established Fort Seward on a bluff overlooking the confluence of the James River and Pipestem Creek. The fort guarded the crossing of the James by the Northern Pacific Railroad. Civilians followed, and soon a tent city sprang up below Fort Seward. General Thomas Rosser of Northern Pacific named the burgeoning community after his hometown in Virginia. In 1873, Stutsman County became the first official county within Dakota Territory with Jamestown as the county seat. By 1883, the city had two banks, two newspapers, 10 churches, a new county courthouse, a growing school system, and a population of 1000. In that year, Jamestown was incorporated into a city. Jamestown is home to the World's Largest Buffalo, a 26-ft tall and 46-ft long sculpture of an American bison. In 1881, Edward Payson Wells (Dakota territorial legislator and for whom Wells County was named) founded the James River National Bank at Jamestown. He served as president of this bank for twenty years then continued as a director. In 1896, he became president of the Russell-Miller Milling Company and in 1899 and 1901 moved to the headquarters of his financial interests from Jamestown to Minneapolis. He then became president of the Electric Steel Elevator Company.

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