---

National Bank Notes > North Dakota

---

---

Finley, First NB, W7324
Fr. 587 $5 1902RS
Grade: PMG VG 10    

---

This was the only national bank in this Steele County community. It was chartered in June 1904 and started by issuing 1,050 sheets of Red Seals. This piece is the only known Red Seal and there are also four Blue Seals recorded. The note looks like it has traveled far and wide, and that may be so, but it was also part of the Ella Overby hoard that was discovered around 1970 in or near Starbuck, Minnesota. The Cashier, Elmer E. Taisey, has penned his name while the stamped signature of C.L. Grandin, President is faint. Finley is the county seat of Steele County; the population was 445 at the 2010 census. A peak population of 809 was reached in 1970. The community was founded in 1896 as Walker but changed its name to Finley and absorbed its rival adjoining townsite of Gilbert in January 1897. It was named for W.W. Finley, a Great Northern Railroad official. The post office was established January 29, 1897 with Alfred Kenning Cochrane as Postmaster. The village incorporated in 1903, and it became a city in 1926 with Benton J. Long as first mayor. The county seat for Steele County was moved to Finley from Sherbrooke in 1919 after a vote of the county residents. Previous county seats were Hope from 1883 to 1885 and Sherbrooke from 1885 to 1919. Since 1919, the county seat has been Finley. Peter O. Sathre (1876-1978), a Justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court and North Dakota Attorney General began his law career here, and Harvey B. Knudson (1903-1979), also a Justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court, was born here.

---