and that year two banks were organized and opened for business in the potash metropolis. According to the figures of a local census the town had two thousand people at one time, but many of them were transients and the closing of potash works, and the burning of the mills has reduced the population until it will hardly qualify as a city of the second class, to which honor it recently aspired. Two large mills have burned and the others are now silent.

Antioch State Bank had $10,000 capital and $1,000 surplus, deposits of more than $90,000 and loans and discounts aggregating over $65,-

do not reflect the magnitude of the financial interests of that part of the county. Cattlemen have long had connections with Alliance banks, and with commission houses at Omaha, Kansas City, and elsewhere, while the big potash mills had city connections for the transaction of their extensive affairs.

The Bar

The dean of Sheridan county bar is Judge

W. H. Westover. He was pioneer attorney at

Gordon, the first county attorney, and district

judge, now these past more than twenty-five

000, with cash and undivided profits of upward from $28 000. H. A. Copsey was president; Chas. E. Brittan, of Alliance, vice president; and James P. Thomas, cashier.

Potash State Bank had $20,000 capital and $1,000 surplus; its deposits were $60,000 and loans and discounts $48,000 with cash and undivided profits of over $18,000. The officers were: W. H. Ostenberg, president; W. G. Wilson, vice president; and F. E. Vlasek, cashier. This bank later reduced its capital to $10,000 and increased its surplus to $2,000.