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National Bank Notes > North Dakota

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Minot, Union NB, W7689
Fr. 616 $10 1902DB
Grade: PMG VF 25    

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This Ward County bank was chartered in April 1905 and issued 12,361 sheets of large size National Bank Notes from which there are currently 12 reported. A pleasing note with excellent pen signatures of Edard S. Person, President and Jas. S. Flatland, Cashier. Edward S. Person, the president of the Union National Bank was a native of Minnesota, he was born at Zumbrota, March 7, 1872. When he reached the age of eighteen years he started out in the banking business as a clerk, securing a position in October, 1890, in the old Bank of Zumbrota, with which he was connected for three years. He was afterward elected assistant cashier of the First State Bank of Zumbrota and in 1900 was advanced to the position of cashier, continuing in that position until January, 1907. At that date he arrived in Minot and accepted the position of cashier in the Union National Bank, which position he lled until 1909, when he was chosen vice president of the institution and was later elected to the presidency. Minot is the county seat of Ward County and is home to the North Dakota State Fair and Minot State University. With a population of 40,888 at the 2010 census, Minot is the fourth largest city in the state. Founded in 1886 during the construction of the Great Northern Railway, Minot is also known as "Magic City", commemorating its remarkable growth in size over a short time. It was named for Henry Davis Minot (1859-1890), a director of the Great Northern Railroad who was killed in a train wreck. The post office was established February 12, 1887 with Patrick H. McNamara as Postmaster. It incorporated as a city in 1887, replaced Burlington as the county seat of Ward County in 1888. The Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (Soo Line) later built a line from Valley City to Canada, reaching Minot in 1893. When Prohibition arrived in the 1920s the city was nicknamed "Little Chicago", as it was a supply hub of Al Capone's liquor smuggling operations. Smugglers used a network of underground tunnels (some of which were previously built for heating or deliveries) to transport and conceal the illicit cargo entering from Canada. This border crossing from the Canadian border to Minot became known as "Whiskey Gap". Notable people from Minot include: Herro Mustafa, diplomat, senior adviser on the Middle East to Vice President Joe Biden, two North Dakota Governors: Ragnvald A. Nestos, 13th Governor and John Hoeven, 31st Governor, and famous actor Boris Karloff.

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