The Superior Express -

Mixed in with all the local newspaper stories about the failure of Superior’s First National Bank in January of 1914, there were a few bright economic lights shining.

J.C. Burnett general freight agent for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad was in Nuckolls County in February of 1914 investigating farming conditions, crop and cattle production and general freight conditions in Nuckolls, Clay and Hamilton counties. He returned to Topeka on Feb. 19 amidst what was said to be well-based rumors the railroad would  soon begin surveying a route to extend the line  which then terminated in Superior to Aurora. It was expected the right-of-way would extend from Superior through Nelson and on to Edgar although there was a possibility of the platting of a new town near the Clay-Nuckolls County border. Entering Clay County the road was expected to pass through Alma Junction and on into Hamilton County through Harvard and Aurora. However, Hastings interests were trying to induce the railroad to swing the line west to their community.

If that line was built and the company gained a foothold in southern Nebraska, it was expected the company would push on east to Lincoln and possibly Omaha. The line was never built but a thriving grain business developed in Superior because of the market access of competitive freight rates offered by the railroad.

Until the merger with the Burlington Northern, Superior was only Nebraska town served by the Santa Fe system. The railroad’s competitive freight rate helped Superior elevators draw grain from a wide area. Because of the Santa Fe some people termed Superior as Nebraska’s Grain Funnel and the Superior Chamber of Commerce slogan for decades was “Nebraska’s Gateway to the South.”

The Santa Fe was not the only railroad with plans for Superior in 1914.

Representatives of the Burlington Route were in Superior that February making arrangements for the construction of a new depot. Construction was expected to begin in June,  

Several locations were considered including one that would have closed the Central Avenue vehicle crossing. In exchange for locating the depot west of Central, the city agreed to close the National and Commercial street crossings.

The company was also looking for better water for its engines and the new depot A large test well was to be put down just east of the company’s ice house.  The City of Superior was also looking for better water and had tested the water in the city well, the Northwestern railroad well, the Feller Springs, the E. S. Jones Springs west of town  and from the river above the dam. The water above the dam was thought to be of the best quality.

In February of 1914 Superior was one of 18 Nebraska towns to make formal application to host a new reformatory, and railroads were delivering carloads of machinery for the cement manufacturing plant being built west of town.

In the continuing saga of the failure of Superior’s First National Bank in early 1914, The Express printed the following story on March 5:

It was hoped that no further questionable paper would show up in the First National Bank but the developments of the last few days indicate that is has.

George Carter, one of the well-to-do farmers living on the Valley Road east of Superior, received a notice this week that the bank held a note given by him for $3,000. He was asked to please call and attend to it. This was a complete surprise to Mr. Carter, as he has no such note in existence bearing his genuine signature. He thought it strange that one showed up in the bank. It was dated April 24, 1913, and due in 90 days, thus making it long overdue. Mr. Carter said the note was supposed to have been sold to someone outside the bank, but that he had no notice of it until Tuesday.

In conversations with Mr. Carter, he declared the note was pure forgery. Of course, Carter was very much incensed over it, and thought he may be obliged to make a defense and prove he gave no such note and that it does not bear his real signature.

Just how much more of this sort of paper was to show up was not surmised as the papers and affairs of the bank had been gone over. Would more notes come to light which were supposed to exist?

The writer of the story suggested the bank employed a loose and criminal method of doing business and that the depositors of the bank had not only lost their deposits and were placed at great inconvenience, but must defend worthless and forged notes which would cost them a great deal of money. There was not an authentic estimate placed upon the final and total cost to the community by the bank failure  Many thought with the amount of deposits, the expense related to legal proceedings, etc, that $500,000 might come near representing the total loss. In 2024 dollars the loss would exceed $15 million.

(To be Continued Next Week)