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Watsontown History by Major Fred H. Knight, 1915 |
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 26 April 2005 |
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Page 10 of 17
With civic betterment came business efficiency and March 27, 1872, found the Watsontown State Bank chartered, with an original capital of $100,000, subsequently increased to $120,000, with Ario Pardee as President and DeLa Green as Cashier. This was the nucleus of the present Watsontown National Bank, into which the State Bank was merged June 17, 1880, changing the capital at that time to $60,000. Their first home was in the Miller Building, now the Municipal Building, from where they subsequently moved to Third and Main Streets, where they are now just completing the erection of one of the best appointed banking houses in this section of the State.
This enterprise was shortly followed by a competitor known as the private banking house of Piper, Holden, Lentz and Sallada, who opened a banking institution in what was then the old Vincent Building, situated where the Central Restaurant is now located, and was soon abandoned as unprofitable. As the town grew, however, there grew with it a demand for greater banking facilities and in 1886 the Farmers National Bank of Watsontown was organized with a capital of $50,000, and from that time to the present has been doing a successful business, making money for its stockholders, and establishing confidence and credit among its depositors, and for this work and reputation credit is due largely to a Watsontown boy, Mr. E.D. Deitrick, its Cashier.
These developments were followed successively by the Watsontown Car Shops, promoted by A. Pardee, Joseph Hollopeter, Levi Lynn, A.T. Goodman, John Goodman and S.M. Miller, comprising a plant covering the ground from Fourth to Seventh Street, between Ash Street and the Pennsylvania Railroad. Although built in 1873 they were owing to the panicky condition of the country brought about by Jay Cocke's failure, not operated for several years, and later through the efforts of William Field Shay, Esq., and A.R. Stebbins, a new Company was formed which began building cars in 1882, under the management of Henry F. Snyder, and after his death under the management of S.B. Morgan, and continued a prosperous industry until the death of Mr. Pardee in 1892, shortly after which the plant was destroyed by fire.
The table industry which has become such an important factor of our community was launched by the father of our industries, Joseph Hollopeter, who associating with him Charles and James McLain, first made tables in the car shops. This subsequently became the Bower and Miller plant which, after numerous vicissitudes, is the present West Branch Table Company, on Main Street, opposite the Watsontown Table and Furniture Company, organized in 1893, by G.W. Rombach, T.G. Caldwell, William Follmer, Charles B. McLain and others, and under the efficient management of Howard W. Rombach, pays larger dividends than any industrial enterprise in Central Pennsylvania.
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Watsontown History 
