QuarryMans State Bank

Fred Dennie organized the Quarryman’s Bank in Sandstone around 1900. The business grew steadily and in January,1902, he asked Mathew Bullis to help him organize a State Bank. The two men organized Quarryman’s state bank in temporary quarters in June and the bank was incorporated on July 22,1902.

The new bank officers were Fred Dennie, president; John A. Smith, vice president; Mathew Bullis, cashier; and Richard Colvin and Jack Crimmons, directors. A new sandstone bank building, located at 306 Main Street, was completed in early fall of 1902. The bank proposed, paying its stockholders 15 percent annually, until another bank opened in sandstone in 1906. Evidently, Henry Webb and other businessmen were not pleased with some with some of the banks policies and decided sandstone needed another bank. Bullis wrote about the competing banks affect on the Quarryman’s state bank in his autobiography.

That year Mr. Dennie decided to take a trip to Egypt. We had a fine sendoff for him and Mrs. Dennie at John Lynd’s home. All the town was there, including Fred’s beloved friend, Henry Webb. On the day the Dennie’s were to sail from New York, a report, like an exploding cannon, came out around town that Webb was opening a new bank, the sandstone state bank. In direct opposition to the Quarryman’s State Bank. In a state of shock, we wired Fred in New York. He answered, Can’t do anything now, do the best you can.

The Dennie’s were gone for three months. Webb and A.S. Dean, his cashier, put on a campaign for business and management to get about half of the Quarryman’s state bank accounts. Because of the drop in business and revenue, Mr. Dennie moved to Minneapolis coming to sandstone once a week. He left Ole Frederickson and me to run the bank. We did the best we could, continuing to pay 10 percent dividends to stockholders. The bank sold to A.M. Schanke, Minneapolis, in 1915.

The Quarryman’s State Bank, which later became the secretary State Bank of Sandstone, was purchased by Ray W. Barstow on July 10,1936. He sold it to First National Bank of sandstone once December 11,1936. The bank rented the building to several businesses until 1973 when Arnold and Millie Beneke purchased it for a law office