The Bank

Lowry State Bank circa 1955 with Lee's Barber Shop to the north

You might think a staid old small town bank would be an unlikely source of high drama and tragedy, but ... you would be wrong.

Lowry State Bank was first organized in 1899 but wasn’t officially chartered until December 26, 1907.  Andrew Jacobson was the Bank’s first president. He served in that position until January 1926 when Iver M Engebretson succeeded him. Iver was a pillar of the community.

From the 1908 Minnesota Who's Who:

ENGEBRETSON, Iver Martin, banking; born at Ben Wade, Minn., March 11, 1877; son of Pedor and Anna (Ronning) Engebretson; educated in district schools of Pope Co., Minn., and state high schools of Glenwood, Alexandria and St. Cloud. Unmarried. Began in banking business Oct., 1899 and is cashier of Bank of Lowry; director and treasurer Lowry Telephone Co.; director Lowry Hardware, Furniture and Machine Co., Northwestern Mortgage Security Co. of Fargo. Was first Sgt. Co. M, 13th Minn. Vol. Inf., Spanish-American war and in the Philippines; treasurer village of Lowry; ex-president village council. Member Norwegian Lutheran Synod, M. W. A., Court of Honor. Address: Lowry, Minn. 
[Editor note: Iver married Sarah Jane Andrew in 1910]

Lowry State Bank survived the depression era when bank closings were the rule rather than the exception with conservative management, but, in 1932, was willing to take over the accounts of the failed Farmers & Merchant's Bank down the street. F &M later became Hank Bosek's Grocery. Hank slept in the old vault. Iver M served as bank president from 1926 until his death in 1957. His brother Herman then assumed the presidency. Herman had been a bank employee since 1920.

The cautious approaches continued well past the depression days. As an example, in 1952 my father was seeking a home loan. Our family had owned a business in Lowry since 1916. Dad was 7 years working for the family business after having served 4 years in the Pacific during WWII and was the son of a stockholder in the bank. Not good enough.  Poor risk.  Loan application denied. (The VA finally acceded to loan him $13,000 at an outrageous interest rate - 2% I think.)

As a 10 year-old, I had my very own LSB savings account complete with a little brown leather-covered passbook showing deposits and withdrawals - and the pennies of accrued interest. The money I received for my birthday went into this account - after the Sunday School tithe of course.  I always went to Maggie McIver's teller window. I'm afraid I blew my allowance on baseball cards.

When I was to get my new 24” Schwinn from the hardware store, my parents, to teach me character, had me go to the bank by myself and withdraw the $39 from my savings account - out of the $50 or so balance - and take the hard cash over to the hardware to pay Martin. (He might have given me a break on the price.) Not sure I learned the intended lesson. Seemed like a fabulous use of the money to me. And of course, the bank called my home to verify before they handed over that wad to a kid.

In the late 50's the bank was the scene of tragedy. The Engbretsons had sold controlling interest in the bank to Stanley Billey and his son Arthur. In late June, 1959, Margaret McIver, a 50 year bank employee, arrived at the bank to find both Stanley and Arthur dead from gunshot wounds. Initially, thought to be a robbery gone bad, it soon became apparent that it was a family dispute gone horribly wrong and the deaths were ruled murder/suicide. I was 12 years old and I recall sitting on my bicycle looking through the glass block windows to see the bodies, one on the floor the other in an office chair. This was simply unfathomable in a small town - or anywhere else for that matter. Ghoulish of me. Maggie McIver retired shortly thereafter.

Shortly thereafter the Billey estate sold their controlling interest to John Pardun of Rochester. Less than 2 months after assuming control of the bank, the FBI arrested Mr. Pardun for embezzlement from the Rochester Bank, and found indications of similar behavior at the Lowry bank.

Cliff Mork - center

Jinxed. Who would be willing to operate such a bank? Happily a fellow from Morris came along, Clifford E. Mork, who took over the bank and brought much needed calm. Cliff ably ran the bank for 26 years until his retirement in 1987, when Chuck Thompson became President. When Chuck retired in 2000, Cliff Mork's son Robert became President.

The bank is still a Lowry cornerstone.





Copyright © 2018 Dave Hoplin