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National Bank Notes > North Dakota

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Fargo, NB, W5087
Fr. 658 $20 1902PB
Grade: PMG VF 20    

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This bank has 13 large notes reported and this is one of just two known $20s. Excellent pen signatures of Martin Solan Hector, President and George E. Nichols, Cashier. Hon. Martin Hector, president of the Fargo National Bank, was a resident of Fargo since 1872 and was president of the city council for several years. In 1893 he was selected as a member of the board of commissioners from North Dakota to the World's Fair, and was elected president of that body. The Fargo National Bank was organized in 1897, upon which Mr. Hector was chosen president, O. J. DeLendrecies, vice president and W. C. McFadden, cashier. Its board of directors is composed of the above named gentleman, together with Seth Wright and George E. Nichols. Born in Norway around 1854, Hector was listed in the 1880 Fargo census as a saloon keeper. Hon. George E. Nichols, president of the Cass County Abstract & Guaranty Company and director of the Fargo National Bank, was born in Windham county, Vermont, March 25, 1856. On leaving home he first went to Marshall, MI, coming to Fargo in the spring of 1878. Here he was in the employ of N.K. Hubbard, proprietor of the Headquarters Hotel and was then employed as deputy county treasurer, in the fall of 1890 he was elected treasurer. In 1894, he was elected state treasurer, and was re-elected in 1896. In 1892 he organized the Cass County Abstract & Guaranty Company, of which he was president, and was also one of the organizers of the Fargo National Bank, of which he was a director. Fargo, the county seat of Cass County, is the largest city in North Dakota, accounting for nearly 16% of the state population. According to the 2010 census, its population was 105,549. Known as "The Biggest Little City in the World," Fargo is the economic center of southeastern North Dakota. The area that is present-day Fargo was an early stopping point for steamboats floating down the Red River during the 1870s and 1880s. The city began in 1871 as The Crossing, was unofficially called Tent City, and was known as Centralia until becoming Fargo in 1872. The community was named after Northern Pacific Railway director and Wells Fargo Express Company founder William Fargo. The area started to flourish after the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad and the city became known as the "Gateway to the West". It incorporated as a city in 1875 with George Egbert as mayor. During the 1880s, Fargo became the "divorce capital" of the Midwest because of lenient divorce laws. The North Dakota State Agricultural College was founded in 1890 as North Dakota's land-grant university, becoming first accredited by the North Central Association in 1915. In 1960, NDAC became known as North Dakota State University. Early in the century, the automobile industry flourished, and in 1905, Fargo was home to the Pence Automobile Company.

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