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National Bank Notes > North Dakota

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Buxton, First NB, 10814
Fr. 1802-1 $20 1929T1
Grade: PMG Ch. VF 35 EPQ    

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This lovely Type 1 $20 is crispy, well centered and new to the census. One of 12 small notes reported. Signatures of Oliver Sigvard Hanson, President and Albert Leonard Hanson, Cashier. Leonard Hanson was killed in 1931 during a robbery of this bank. Oliver S. Hanson, president of the Scandinavian American Bank of Grand Forks, was born in Hanover township, Iowa, June 3, 1862. His parents were Hans A. and Maren Hanson, both of whom were natives of Norway. He came to to Hillsboro, ND in November, 1881, and spent three years in the position of bookkeeper for the Hillsboro National Bank. He went to Buxton in January, 1884, at the age of twenty-one years, and established the Bank of Buxton and became cashier. He purchased the business within a few months and conducted it as a private bank. In 1890 it was reorganized as the State Bank of Buxton, and he was president of the institution until 1907, when he moved to Grand Forks. Albert Leonard Hanson was born at Waukon, Iowa, December 8, 1883. He was united in marriage with Miss Lura Bock January 17th, 1909. The young couple went immediately to Buxton, ND. Mr. Hanson was for twenty years the cashier of the Buxton bank and was connected with other interests there. Mr. Hanson was fatally shot during a bank robbery in 1933. The bank had been robbed once before, in 1928. The following is a contemporary newspaper report of the event, from the Albert Lee Evening Tribune, published May 17, 1933: BANK CASHIER FATALLY SHOT DURING RAID Three Heavily Armed Bandits Rob Bank at Buxton, N. D., of Between $700 and $800 in Cash Buxton, N. D., - Fatally shooting the cashier and threatening the lives of two other employees, three heavily armed bandits escaped with between $700 and $800 in cash after robbing the First National Bank of Buxton at 10:10 a.m. today. Leonard Hanson, the cashier, was fatally wounded. He was shot through the chest with a .45 automatic revolver when he disobeyed the command of the bandits to "stick 'em up." He was hit as he raced for the rear room of the building. As he fell he released the tear gas valve filling the bank with choking fumes. Hanson died at 10:20 a.m. from the wound. Buxton, in Traill County, is part of the Grand Forks metro area; the population was 323 at the 2010 census. Buxton was founded in 1880 as a townsite along the Great Northern Railroad. The post office began operating in November of that year. At that time the only construction on the town site was a sod shanty homestead owned by a Norwegian family. By November 2, 1880, a store had been built, operated by John Newberry and Randolph Roberts. During these same months a two-story station and a section house were built by the railroad. The section house was operated as a boarding house, rooms being rented to railroad section crews and their families. The original promoters of the town site were T. J. Buxton, President of the City Bank, Minneapolis and Charles McCormick Reeve, bank cashier, among others. As the surrounding farming community recognized the development of the town site, Buxton became the first grain market between Grand Forks and Fargo. It was incorporated as a village in 1922, and a peak population of 410 was reached in 1930. Chester Fritz (1892-1983), the famous businessman, financier, and UND benefactor, was born here.

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