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National Bank Notes > North Dakota

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Hatton, First NB, W6743
Fr. 616 $10 1902DB
Grade: PMG VF 30 Net    

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Hatton actually had two national banks. This bank was organized on April 1, 1903 and only printed 2,288 sheets of large size notes, followed by a miniscule 45 sheets of small size, of which none are known. This is a beautiful example that is one of only two notes reported. There are remnants of mounting marks on the back that could have been professionally removed. Beautiful pen signatures of Marthius F. Hegge, President and Abraham Hanson, Cashier. Mr. Hegge also owned a general store in town. A rarity for Traill County. PMG notes: previously mounted. M. F. Hegge was one of the drafters of the North Dakota Constitution and a pioneer of Hatton, having come to that place in 1882. He was born in Norway, November 27, 1856; when he was 20 years old, he came to America and settled in Wisconsin. He then came to Hatton and entered trade as a general merchant. He was president of the First National Bank of Hatton and one of its largest merchants and businessmen. Hatton is located in Traill County; the population was 777 at the 2010 census. The community was established in 1881 in anticipation of the arrival of the Great Northern Railroad, which reached here in July 1884. The post office was established December 19, 1881 with Lawrence O. Fisk as Postmaster, who requested the name Garfield for the recently martyred President. This name was rejected due to duplication, and instead named for Frank Hatton (1846-1894), Assistant as Postmaster General at the time and later the Editor of the Washington Post. Mr. Hatton named several post offices in the country for himself, this being one of five that still exist; he is considered to be the inventor of special delivery service. The village incorporated in 1885, and it became a city in 1901; a peak population of 991 was reached in 1950. Hatton calls itself "The City of Action." Hatton is the birthplace of 20th century Arctic explorer and pilot Carl Ben Eielson, born here in 1897. Eielson's flying skills made him a legend in his own time, and his career pinnacle came when he piloted the explorer Sir George Hubert Wilkins on an epic 2200-mile flight over the Arctic Ocean from Point Barrow, Alaska, to Spitsbergen in arctic Norway in 1928. He was the first pilot to land on floating ice and the first to fly airmail in Alaska. He also was the first to fly an airplane in Antarctica, making initial flights there in 1928.

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