Cultivating Capital: Country Bankers and the Transformation of the Central Great Plains, 1870-1940

Abstract

Bankers in the Central Great Plains region of western Kansas played a significant part in transforming their communities from frontier outposts into components of a modern region. Between 1870 and 1940, country bankers came to see themselves as reformers and advisors in the process of transforming their towns into viable parts of a regional economy, and their influence was considerable. This dissertation contextualizes bankers’ multiple functions within rural communities and adds nuance to popular portrayals of predatory moneylenders. Bankers representing towns typically less than 5,000 in population served as economic, social, and political leaders instrumental in their development. The decisions they made shaped the fortunes of a specific set of rural communities as they navigated severe economic, social, and political challenges, but this story of country bankers driving development efforts while balancing the cultural and social traditions of rural America replicates trends from around the U.S. West and the nation. Contrary to the reputation of businessmen as heartless usurers, these bankers operated instead as cultivators of economic, political, and social power within their communities and the region. They shared the interests of farmers and other rural businesspeople in facing the changes of a modernizing nation.