asked, "Could we swap you some maple-sugar or some beeswax for some blue denim and hickory shirting?" In this way the business developed into what was known as "barter” more than "cash."

In this way the following native products became current in the trade at the store: Furs of all descriptions, dry hides, maple-sugar, honey, beeswax, eggs, ginseng and feathers. A month after opening the store I hired a team with which I hauled an assortment of the above described products of the country to Des Moines, and with what money I had was enabled to liquidate my indebtedness to Messrs. Keyes & Crawford, who then trusted me for a larger bill of goods. Thus my credit was fully established with that firm.

My business increased, but the country was new and the settlers had but little that I could make use of to exchange for goods.

Hence it became, of necessity, a study with me what I could do to encourage the production of something which would sell for cash. I began to urge the farmers to raise corn and hogs for market, saying I would be in a position to pay cash for live hogs the following year. In the fall of 1860 I got a contract to buy fat hogs for a party at $1.75 per hundred pounds, for which I received a commission of ten cents per head. I succeeded in buying over six hundred head.

The same fall I bought two car-loads of dry, fat cows off grass, paying ten dollars per head regardless of weight or condition. With a young man to help, we drove these cows to Iowa City, the nearest railway, 150 miles away and shipped them to Chicago. I made no money in this new venture, but I learned one thing to my advantage in future cattle deals: that a 700 pound cow would not bring as much in the market as a 1,200 pound cow would.

Early in 1860 a vacancy occurred in the village postoffice and though not yet of age I was appointed by President Buchanan's administration to be the "Nasby" to preside at this cross-road. It was said at the time the reason for my appointment was that no Democrat could be found in the vil lage who could read and write.

Postage-stamps then as now were cash on delivery. But perplexing as this was to my customers who brought in some barter but had no cash, their letters must have stamps, and the first question to settle in the trade was, "I must have stamps for these letters out of it." This was a hardship on the postmaster, but they had to come. Domestic postage was then three cents and foreign forty-two cents. As frequently happened double-weight unpaid letters came to the office from Europe, which would be eighty-four cents to collect in gold. Then during the civil war when gold was at two hundred per cent. premium the amount would be two dollars and fifty-two cents.

In the fall of 1860 I took a contract from Messrs. Hand & Cusey of Humboldt county, Iowa, to buy hogs at from $1.50 to $2.00 per hundred pounds according to weight. My commission was ten cents per head. In those days hogs were only fatted for winter market. During September I went out among the farmers and made written contracts for the number of hogs they had to sell, to be delivered December 1st. On that day Jesse Funk, of Bloomington, Ill., came out to receive them, bringing the money in his satchel to pay for them. I weighed in 1,500 head in two days. These had to be driven on foot to Otter Creek (now Chelsea) in Tama county, a distance of ninety miles, that being the terminus of the Chicago & Northwestern railway at that time.

By this time business had increased beyond my expectations, so that I had to build a store twenty-five by sixty feet and later added to its length. I also built a new residence the following year. I had now taken up the question of butter-making and the marketing of the same. Prior to this time there was no sale for butter. It required firkins to pack the butter in, which held one hundred and ten pounds. We had no coopers in the country and all these things had to be provided for. I sent men into the timber to fell trees, cut them into proper lengths, split into staves and made a drying kiln to season them. I also sent other men to cut hoop poles. I sent east for a cooper and soon had a supply of firkins on hand and sent out word about a week before the day I was ready to take in butter.

I placed four firkins and a barrel in a row and as the butter came in it was sorted according to color, freshness and quality to make each firkin as near uniform in quality and color as possible.

Few people had any conveniences for, or any experience in farm dairying, and at first some of the butter went into the barrel which was labeled "soap grease." You can easily imagine the difficulty that would arise in the grading of the butter among a dozen women, all present at the same time! But there was no one else in the country buying butter, so I could be independent.

This branch of the business soon developed into large proportions and also practically doubled my merchandise sales. On account of the civil war, prices of every commodity began to advance rapidly. I began to buy certain lines of staple goods far in advance of my needs, which proved to be very profitable.

In 1864 I formed a partnership with Joseph F. Alexander in buying and shipping live stock. We were quite successful and for several years it was said we were the largest shippers on the C. & N. W. railway in Iowa. In the spring of 1867 I made the mistake of my life, and I mention it here only to show that "honesty is the best policy." Two stock buyers from a northern county came down and proposed a partnership with Alexander & Ericson in order to handle and ship live stock on a large scale. We had known them for some years. They owned farms and were apparently wellto-do, so we entered into partnership with them.

Each of the four partners put in what money he could and the firm borrowed the rest as needed, until we had purchased twelve hundred head of steers (an investment of about sixty thousand dollars). We herded these on the prairies between the Des Moines river and Sioux City through the summer, intending to sell in the fall to the feeders. Unfortunately for us an early frost and the grasshopper plague came and ruined the corn crop to such an extent that no one in northwestern Iowa could feed cattle that year. Prices on cattle dropped one-half in a short time. We had sold some on contract, but the ones who contracted for them failed to

take them. So we had to ship them to Chicago as rapidly as possible, at a great sacrifice. When all were sold we still found ourselves in debt in the sum of twenty thousand dollars.

In trying to arrange for the payment of this large indebtedness I soon discovered that instead of four of us as paymasters, it devolved on two only. I pleaded and reasoned with our new partners to stand with us and do what they could and act honestly and we could all save our credit and pay our debts. But I could make no impression on them. Their wives owned the farms and the sons owned the personal property and they owned nothing! Soon after they sold their farms and emigrated to Kansas, but never prospered. This was a tough lesson at twenty-eight years of age; but it served to bring out all the energy and determination I possessed to get from under this load, and in due course of time it was all paid and my credit maintained.

In 1868 I built five schoolhouses in Dodge township, Boone county, receiving school orders bearing 10 per cent. interest in payment, there being no money in the school treasury. It was nine years before all the orders were paid. The houses were all built of native lumber kiln dried, basswood (linden) siding, white walnut finishing lumber, hard maple flooring and oak shingles, doors and window-sashes made by hand.

About this time I admitted one of my clerks, Mr. Swen M. Ferlien, to a partnership in my store, he having clerked for me about ten years. In 1870 Jackson Orr received the Republican nomination for Congress. He was at that time conducting a general store in the city of Boone. Meeting him on the street one day, he said, "Charley, I want to sell you my stock of goods." I said, "I have not thought of coming to Boone. I have a good business where I am.' But he insisted, so I spent about four hours in his store going over his stock and making an approximate estimate of its value; after which I said I would think about it. He said, "I make my opening campaign speech in Jefferson to-morrow afternoon. You come down and see me in the morning." I did so and offered to pay his merchandise bills to a certain amount, give him a house and lot and two hundred acres of land that would

make good farms, provided he could get the water off of it, for his stock just as it was. We walked to the depot together and as his train whistled he said to his young son who was with us, "You tell Chris. Meidell (his head clerk) to give Charley the key to the store!" Thus a five thousand dollar trade was made without the payment of a dollar down or the scratch of a pen to show for it.

The store in Ridgeport was then sold to my cousins, P. A. & A. M. Swanson, the first having clerked for me for several years, and the firm of Ericson & Ferlien continued in business in Boone successfully for five years, when the business was disposed of to L. D. Cook & Co.

Upon the organization of the First National Bank of Boone, No. 2051, in 1872, I became one of the stockholders and was elected its first vice-president. Three years later, when failing health necessitated the retirement of the cashier, Mr. Vincent Wood, I was elected to take his place and as cashier entered upon active duties in the bank. In 1878 we voluntarily surrendered the government charter and reorganized as a private bank under the name of "The City Bank" with the same stockholders and officers.

In 1880 the president, W. F. Clark, died and from this time the management devolved on the cashier. The second president of the bank, Mr. Frank Champlin, passed away June 20th, 1905. Whereupon, I was elected to succeed him as president and Mr. C. E. Rice is my successor as cashier.

We started with a capital of $50,000.00, which was later increased to $100,000.00, and in addition we now have $150,000.00 surplus.

I am now the only surviving charter member of the bank; which as it is the oldest bank in the city, has always been the leading bank. It has successfully gone through panics and hard times in all these years and retains the confidence and good-will of the people.

What little success I have attained in business I attribute to three things: First, honest and fair dealing with every man; second, refraining from speculations and investments in outside enterprises, but attending strictly to my own business; and third, making my word as good as my bond.