---

National Bank Notes > North Dakota

---

---

Hope, First NB, W5893
Fr. 577 $10 1882VB
Grade: PMG Ch. Fine 15    

---

This is a $10 Value Back which is a very scarce type for the state and there are only four from this bank. This example is problem free for the grade and type and has excellent signatures of J.D. Brown, President and Morton B. Cassell, Cashier. Morton B. Cassell, of Hope, was born at Attica, Indiana, October 5, 1861. In 1882, at the age of 21 years, he came to Steele county, where he engaged in farming. After accumulating some two thousand acres, he disposed of the greater part, and invested largely in banking. Mr. Cassell was cashier of the First National Bank of Hope; president of the M. B. Cassell Abstract Company; director and secretary of the North Dakota Independent Telephone Company; and vice president of the Blabon State Bank and the Colgate State Bank. He served as register of deeds of Steele county from 1888 to 1896 and in 1898 he was elected to the House of Representatives. Hope is located in Steele County; the population was 258 at the 2010 census and a peak population of 909 was reported in 1910. The community was named for Hope A. Hubbard Steele, wife of E.H. Steele, for whom the county was named. One of the early homesteaders was L. B. Hanna in July 1881. He would reside here only a short time, moving to Page in 1882 and then to Fargo in 1889. He served as Governor of North Dakota from 1913-1916. The original town, consisting of fifty blocks, was laid out in June 1883 by A. S. Anthony, a civil engineer from Minneapolis. The Hope Pioneer was the first publication in what is now Steele County. The first issue was published on April 7,1882, with N. H. Emmons, editor. The post office had been established March 29, 1881 with Herbert Smart as Postmaster, one mile northeast of the townsite, to which it moved in 1882. It incorporated as a village in 1890, and became a city in 1904 with George A. Warner (1857-1948) as mayor. It was the first county seat of Griggs County in 1882, and after some boundary changes it became the first county seat of Steele County in 1883. Because it was not centrally located, however, it lost the courthouse to Sherbrooke in 1885.

---