Cash flowed into Chariton --- but there was no bank

Wilberforce Coles was a lad of 10 when he arrived in Chariton (founded just four years earlier) with his parents, Robert and Lydia, on the 16th of May 1853. His father had just been appointed registrar of the federal land office in Chariton, recently relocated from Fairfield as settlers spread across the south of Iowa.

During the next four years, the senior Mr. Coles would supervise the sale of roughly two million acres of public land at the rate of $1.25 per acre.

There was no bank in Chariton --- or much of anything else --- when the land office opened in a log building on the south side of the square and commencing that summer a great deal of cash flowed steadily into the land office as settlers paid for their purchases after staking out claims.

On the 16th of May, 1913, marking the 60th anniversary of his arrival, Wilberforce share with friends the following story of how money was handled during those long-ago days --- when direct deposit and online banking had not yet been dreamed of. His story was shared as follows in The Chariton Leader of May 22, 1913:

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"Sixty years is a long time," said Wilberforce Coles last Friday while sitting in front of Baker's cigar store conversing with a group of his friends. "It was 60 years ago today that we arrived in Chariton. Father Coles has been appointed registrar of the land office by President Pierce and he moved from Eddyville here to take up his duties.

"Chariton was but a straggling village then. There was an old log courthouse and but a few primitive business houses about the square. Coyotes scampered about and one day I saw a pack of a half a dozen within a block or two of the "business center."

"At that early day there were no banks or burglar proof safes in which to guard public funds and the money poured into the land office in considerable quantities, because land at even $1.25 per acre netted quite a sum  when thousands of acres were selling readily with the old  entry plan in force.

"Many of the transactions were made in silver and when a quantity had been cribbed up in the land office it was dumped into a wagon and hauled across the country to the depository in one of the Mississippi river cities. Men must have been more honest in those days than now because the "cash wagon" was never molested. Let it be known now that a wagon load of coin was to be hauled to Davenport without armed guard and see what would happen.

"Men coming to the land office took care of their money in peculiar and original ways. Once I remember an  old carpet bag that was kicked about the land office when one day a man came in, the owner, who had made the selection of his entry, hunted up the old carpet bag, dug out a rusty key from his pocket, opened it, took out the money and paid for his land. You don't find old carpet bags full of currency kicking around bank corridors these days.

"At another time a fellow came in and leaned an old muzzle loading shot gun in the corner and went away about his business. After a time he returned, took some wadding out of the muzzle and poured a heap of coin on the floor. He had secured coins just the right size to fit the bore of the gun and felt safe; besides it was convenient to carry. I have an idea that had a  highway man attacked him with that gun on his shoulder he would have blowed a hole through him, sent a good section of the United States Mint through the opening and then leisurely gathered up his scattered ducats over the prairies after the funeral."

"Old things pass away and new ones take their place."

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Wilberforce had less than a year left after telling this story, passing to his reward on April 10, 1914, just a few days before his 71st birthday. An honored Civil War veteran and charter member of Iseminger Post, G.A.R., he also was a charter member of the Chariton Volunteer Fire Department.

He was survived by his widow, Sarah (Boswell) Coles --- a cousin of mine --- and their six children.