Edward Decker and the Bank of Ahnapee

Dollars are the principal medium of exchange for goods and services in the U.S. today. Even though events of recent years question banking practices and ethics, it is difficult to imagine the movement of money without such a vehicle. Just as the rest of the country did in its frontier days, Wolf River and Ahnapee, after the renaming, carried on without a bank. Then things changed.

Transactions in the early days involved little real money. Farmers brought their produce to be exchanged for needed merchandise. As cheese factories came into existence, farmers were usually paid once a year and most of that went to pay off accumulated charges at the stores. Laborers were low paid and generally compensated once per month. Merchants had cash but when drafts were presented, they would be held until the merchant made a trip to a larger city, something happening few times per year.

Ahnapee's bank began as a private venture owned by businessman Edward Decker who by 1900 was involved in banks throughout Kewaunee, Door, Manitowoc and Brown counties. During the Great War, it was Decker's little pasteboard "shinplasters" that made up the principal medium of exchange. The shinplasters were accepted in place of government money, at least in Ahnapee. Counterfeit money frequently appeared in the state, prompting the Enterprise to print and reprint warnings. Greenback dollars had been introduced in February 1862.

DeWayne Stebbins served as Decker's first cashier. During the early days Stebbins could be found anywhere in the village as there was no real need for regular banking hours. Later, the bank incorporated and was governed by a board of directors. Stationery dating to July 1883 indicates the bank was called Banking House of E. Decker. "D.W. Stebbins - Cashier"  was inscribed just below the firm's name. Stationery dated November 1884 indicated the bank was called Bank of Ahnapee. Later letterheads were inscribed "Bank of Ahnapee - Est. 1881."

Decker's first bank location was on the 2nd floor of the Record building, now 213 Steele St. (far right), built in 1878. What is now the east side of Clay on Steele - and Kohlbeck's Clothiers before that (middle section) - was built as Decker's second bank location. Decker's bank eventually became Citizens Bank before merging with the Bank of Algoma to become Community State Bank in 1933.

 The original Citizens Bank is shown here on a postcard postmarked in 1913. Algoma's current Citizens Bank sits on approximately on the same site as the first, near the southwest corner of 2nd and Steele Streets. Though the names are the same, the banks do not have a corporate connection. Bank of Algoma also appears in a postcard dated 1915, the same year in which the interior, above,of Citizens Bank card was postmarked.

 

The postcard was sent to someone in Chicago.

 

 

 



Note: Decker's ad was found in an 1878 edition of the Ahnapee Record. The first bank locations is taken from the 1903 Kewaunee County Plat Map and postcards are from the author's collection.