BANKER STEALS FAMILY FORTUNE!

      This past week I had the pleasure of visiting and interviewing the most lovely and interesting lady,  Mrs. Lois Randolph, a longtime resident of Williamsburg, Iowa. It is about a story concerning her husband's grandfather during the depression. I have rewritten the story from a prited copy that was written by Bill's mother, Lucille.

THE STORY OF THE BROKEN BANK

      There was a man long ago who owned a bank in a little town of Ladora. He suddenly decided he was rich and could just as well have a big bank. So he got busy and built the finest bank you ever saw. Floors of marble, pillars, big vaults, it was just beautiful. Then he moved in and everything was just lovely. 

      Then one day all of a sudden the banks started to break and people lost everything they had. My husband's father had a lot of money in the Marengo bank and was scared to death he would lose it.  So he went to talk with him and just then the telephone rang. It was the Ledora banker who knew my father-in-law very well. He said: "Now you just bring your money right up here and I will take care of it for you," which he did. 

     The next day the bank was closed and nobody could find the money my father-in-law, the banker or anything and to this day they haven't found the money or anything.

     But I heard rumors that he went to Canada, took the money with him and living high at that time. My husband and I and two children were living in an old shack and my poor father-in-law came to live with us the rest of his life. 

     Now, one of the strange things of the story is that my son and his wife(Lois) bought this beautiful bank. It had not been used for years just sitting there full  of junk people threw in it. They went in and it looked terrible but they could see the beauty again. 

      There was a young fellow trying to clean it up a little so my folks (son and wife) saw the door open and went in. The man said he owned it o they made him an offer and got it. Now it is back to its old beauty again. They made a drapery factory out of it-the best in the state and they just loved it. 

      Lois recalls that they owned it and worked there until she was eighty years old and in later years has been a restaurant and brewery.  One can still see the bank sitting on the north side of the town of Ladora. Check it out sometime driving on old highway 6 between Grinnell and Iowa City.