Scidmore, W. A.

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

W. A. Scidmore. The center of the financial interests of the Town of Tescott is the Bank of Tescott, an institution that had been holding up the financial credit and stability of the community for many years.

It was founded by Mr. F. F. Scidmore in 1887. At the present time the bank had a capital stock of $50,000, surplus and profits of $10,000, and its deposits average $160,000. The two story brick structure on Main Street which was built and owned by the bank in 1911, is the most conspicuous business building in the town. The present officers are: F. F. Scidmore, president; H. H. Heath, vice president; W. A. Scidmore, cashier; and F. E. Scidmore, assistant cashier.

F. F. Scidmore, the president, was born at Grass Lake, Jackson County, Michigan, April 2, 1856, a son of Abram Scidmore. Abram Scidmore was a pioneer farmer in Jackson County, Michigan, where he died. F. F. Scidmore grew up and married in his native county and in early life had experiences as a worker in stores and for a time was postmaster at Grass Lake, Michigan. In 1887 he came to Kansas and was identified with the beginning of the Town of Tescott, where not long afterward he established the bank and served it long and faithfully as cashier. He was elected president in 1914.

F. F. Scidmore also owned some of the fine farm lands of Ottawa County to the amount of 563 acres. He is a republican and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The maiden name of his wife was Mary Armstrong. She was born in Canada in 1858. Their children are three in number: Floyd, who died at Tescott in 1907 while assistant cashier of the bank; W. A., cashier, and F. E., assistant cashier of the Bank of Tescott.

W. A. Scidmore was born at Tescott, Kansas, June 30, 1888. He received an education in the public schools, spending two years in high school and two years in the State Agricultural College at Manhattan. In 1908 he finished business training in the Kansas Wesleyan Business College at Salina, and applied the knowledge he acquired there to his duties as assistant cashier of the Bank of Tescott. He had held the office of cashier since 1914, having succeeded his father.

W. A. Scidmore is a republican, a member of the Tescott Lodge of Odd Fellows and had many other interests that substantially identify him with the community, being president of the Tescott Telephone Company and owner of one of the comfortable homes of the town. In 1910, at Tescott, he married Miss Fern Ayres, daughter of Mr. J. W. Ayres. Her mother is now deceased and her father lives on a farm near Tescott. Mr. and Mrs. Scidmore have one son, Keith, born March 28, 1913.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

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