---

National Bank Notes > North Dakota

---

---

Minot, Second NB, W6429
Fr. 624 $10 1902PB
Grade: PMG VF 20    

---

This was the town's third of four national banks. It was chartered in September 1902 and both of the earlier banks remain unreported. The bank issued 11,444 sheets of notes with this first title and the note here is new to the census. Purple stamped signatures of R.E. Barron, President and Henry E. Byorum, Cashier. Robert E. Barron was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, November 19, 1873. At the age of thirteen he was employed as a messenger in the German-American National Bank of St. Paul. He continued in that institution for thirteen years, being promoted from one position to another until he was advanced to the position of receiving teller. There he continued until 1901, when he resigned to become the cashier of the Great Northern Bank of Minot. The following year this bank was nationalized and the name changed to the Second National Bank. Mr. Barron continued as cashier until after the accidental death of the president. Joseph Roach, in October, 1913. In the following January Mr. Barron was elected to the office of chief executive of the bank. He was also a director of the First State Banks of Surrey and Burlington, North Dakota. Henry E. Byorum, cashier of the Second National Bank of Minot, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 9, 1872. Byorum studied at the University of Minnesota and while attending school he began working for others. He handled a newspaper, also worked for his father in the store and was otherwise employed. At the time of the gold excitement in Alaska he was about twenty-five years of age. He made his way to Alaska where he secured employment in the mines there. He continued in Alaska for three and a half years but because of his father s illness he returned to Minneapolis. The next spring he went to Northfield, MN, where he entered the Northfield National Bank, in the capacity of bookkeeper. He went to Minot in the fall of 1903 and entered the Second National Bank as teller. He was soon promoted to the position of assistant cashier and in January 1913, he became the cashier. He also was manager and secretary of the Minot Clearing House Association and commissioner of finance and revenue at Minot. He was elected and served for a number of terms as school treasurer in the Harrison district. 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.

---