Editor’s note: This is the second article about the 130-year history of the Bank of Gainesville, now Century Bank of the Ozarks. The bank will celebrate its anniversary during an open house from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday, July 26, at the Gainesville office. The bank’s branches in Ava, Bakersfield, Theodosia and Mountain Home, Arkansas, will celebrate by serving refreshments throughout the day July 26.
These days, a banker who talks about updating equipment might be referring to a massive computer system that simultaneously manages thousands of customers’ accounts online and makes statements instantly available. For Sherrill Harlin Hardcastle, remembering her family’s banking procedures in Gainesville when she was a teenager in the 1950s, an update in banking technology involved “a marble thingy” that moistened envelopes and stamps.
Before that, whenever Sherrill joined her family in the evening of the last business day of every month to prepare Bank of Gainesville customers’ statements for mailing, every stamp and every envelope had to be licked by hand, er, tongue.
The “marble thingy” was a small marble wheel resting in a heavy tub-shaped marble base that held a little water. Rolling the half-enclosed wheel through the water kept it wet. Touching a stamp or envelope flap to the wet wheel eliminated the need to lick it.
“That was a good thing,” Sherrill said recently.
A family business
For 130 years, and through scores of updated procedures and technology, banking has been at the heart of Sherrill’s family, the Harlins, since the Bank of Gainesville opened on the Gainesville square on July 24, 1894.
The bank was founded by seven stockholders, including James P. “Jim” Harlin, whose younger brother Johnny would become bank president in 1908 after Jim and another Harlin brother, Tan, moved to West Plains to open a bank there.
Sherrill, now 84 and living near Richland with Joe Hardcastle, her husband of 65 years, is Johnny Harlin’s granddaughter. She has vivid memories of how she and her older brother John Layton Harlin, who died in March 2023 at age 86, grew up in the Bank of Gainesville (now Century Bank of the Ozarks after a name change in 1996.)
Their grandfather, Johnny Harlin, was still the bank president in the 1940s and ‘50s when John and Sherrill were growing up, and their parents, Hugh Tan and Billye Key Harlin, were also bank officers. Their aunt, Madge Harlin Brown and her husband E.T., worked at the bank too during their years in Gainesville.
By then, the bank had moved out of its original, white, wood-frame store building into a more modern, business-like structure, built in 1929, that adjoined other businesses on the west side of the square. Sherrill said she and John walked to the bank every day after school (when Gainesville’s elementary and high schools were on Elm Street) and helped family members and bank employees do some of the routine paperwork and check-processing.
In John’s written memories, he noted that the bank’s bookkeeping was “a manual operation.” He wrote, “Checking accounts were posted daily on Burroughs Posting Machines. The General Ledger and Daily Statement were manually posted by hand (as in, writing with a fountain pen).”
The posting machine was a step up in banking technology, as was the “huge” Recordak camera that Sherrill remembers operating as a schoolgirl. The camera took microfilm pictures of checks. “You punched a button and took a picture of each check. Then you turned the check over and pushed the button again to take a picture of the other side. Most boring job there ever was,” Sherrill recalled. “The employees hated it, but I loved it.”
The checks were sorted alphabetically by account holder’s name into trays stored in filing cabinets. Sherrill especially liked the Recordak job (and employees, including the late Eloise Ford and Dot Luna, especially hated it) “because, to do the bottom tray of checks, you had to sit on the floor.”
While John and Sherrill helped with simple, everyday tasks during their growing-up years, those end-of-every-month, family statement-processing sessions were their most memorable banking memories.
After the bank closed on the last day of the month, “they set up long tables, and everyone had a long tray of checks. You checked off every check, one by one, on the statement,” Sherrill said. “Then you folded the statement and put it in the window envelope with the checks, licked the envelope and licked the stamp.”
She doesn’t remember what they did for supper. “You couldn’t order a pizza,” Sherrill joked in a 2023 interview.
In his written memories, John noted, “All statements were made on the last day of the month. New Year’s Eve was never a party time if you worked in a bank. Even if you finished before midnight, you were too tired to party!”
Continuous changes in bank technology
By the time John and Sherrill were helping other family members prepare customers’ statements in those evening sessions, the Bank of Gainesville was nearing its seventh decade. And while machines like the Burroughs Posting Machine and the Recordak microfilm camera were impressive advances in technology, some banking processes were still done the same way they’d been done when the bank opened in 1894.
For example, Linda Harlin, who became John’s wife in 1957, remembers coming to Gainesville when she and John were dating in the mid-50s. She recalls visiting the bank when employees and family members were processing savings account interest. “The interest was figured by hand, and I helped do that a time or two,” she said. “You would figure the interest and then add it to the savings account book. They didn’t have all the machinery back then to do it for you.”
Early banks were primarily a place where customers deposited money for security and to earn a little interest. The bank used those deposits to make loans. Thinking of those first loans and how things have changed, current Century Bank president Chris Harlin said back then “a loan would literally have been a note on one envelope-size piece of paper.” Now, he said, complicated banking regulations can make the language of a modern-day loan a mind-numbing, hand-cramping ordeal. Sometimes it seems like “customers have to sign a ream of paperwork to be able to get a loan,” he said.
While some customers’ accounts were set up so they could withdraw funds through bank “drafts,” checking accounts as we know them now didn’t exist in those early banks.
Another banking change is how money moves from bank to bank or from bank to some other recipient. These days, funds may change hands without handling cash or checks at all. It can be transferred by computers connected to the world wide web. It was a little different than the early days of Ozark County banking. Madge Harlin Brown, in her “Horse and Buggy Days” memoir, wrote, “If my father or my uncles had to send money to the bank in West Plains, my mother would wrap the money in a baby’s diaper and put it under the buggy seat and carry it safely to the bank.”
Highlights of bank history
Here are some of the other changes and highlights that occurred through Century Bank’s 130-year history:
• 1894 – The bank’s opening was not without a little drama. An item in the Ozark County Weekly News reported that resident Joe Farmer and his impressive draft horses had hauled the bank’s 4,500-pound safe to Gainesville from West Plains, presumably from the railroad depot.
Chris Harlin said the heavy safe ended up in the North Fork of the White River during the crossing at Tecumseh, but somehow it was retrieved and eventually arrived in Gainesville and was installed in the white, wood-frame building on the west side of the Gainesville square. That safe now stands near the front door of the Century Bank lobby in Gainesville.
For many years, the bank was open six full days a week, closed only on Sunday and holidays. In those days, the board of directors met “on the Saturday before the full moon in each month,” according to A History of Ozark County 1841-1991.
• 1896-1899 – While he held other jobs around the county through the years, Johnny Harlin was associated with his older brothers at the bank beginning in 1896, the same year he and Clara Layton were married. The bank went through a few reorganizations in its early years, and in 1899, it was sold to “a syndicate of seven persons,” according to the history book, but that only lasted six weeks. Ever since then, the Harlin name has been associated with the bank.
• 1908 – Johnny Harlin became bank president when Jim and Tan moved to West Plains.
• 1929 – President Franklin Roosevelt ordered all American banks to close for a “holiday” in order to reorganize during the Great Depression. Johnny Harlin refused to close the Bank of Gainesville until directly ordered to do so in a telegram from Washington.
“But before he closed the bank, he went to all the merchants to make sure they had enough cash to make it through,” John Layton Harlin said in a 2014 interview with the Times.
Later, Depression-era bank examiners ordered the bank to charge off what they considered worthless notes. Again, Johnny refused, telling the examiners, “We propose to work this out in our own way, and intend to collect the loans you consider worthless, for we have faith in our customers and in the Ozarks.”
Within three years, 98 percent of the “bad” loans had been fully repaid, John said.
• 1929 – In that same year when Wall Street crashed, the Bank of Gainesville built a new building on the west side of the square. “They were optimistic,” John Layton said in the earlier interview.
A fire earlier in 1929 had destroyed other businesses on the square, but business owners planned to rebuild. The newspaper story reporting the bank’s move noted that it had acquired one of the last available lots there. The old frame structure that had been the bank’s first home was moved a few feet north and, for a while, it housed the Gainesville post office, where Clara Harlin served as postmaster from 1929 to 1933.
When the new building was dedicated, the Times described it, in its April 11, 1930, edition, as “one of the most attractive in the more rugged portions of the entire Ozarks region.” The concrete structure had a cut-stone front that featured “large pieces of quartz crystals and grotesque stalagmite and stalactite formations” cut from the “limestone caves that are to be found almost in any part of Gainesville’s picturesque environment.”
• 1931 – On Aug. 25, 1931, the bank was “held up and robbed of approximately $3,400 by two men who used false mustaches to hide their identity,” the Ozark County Times reported. “They escaped the officers by strewing large-headed roofing nails in the road after them [which punctured the tires of those pursing them]. They forced [Mearl Harlin and his wife and Hugh Tan Harlin] into the vault and shut the door but did not lock it, giving them orders to stay in the vault until they made their getaway. They escaped in a brown Ford coupe driven by a third man who stayed at the wheel with the motor running during the holdup.”
• 1940 – The bank’s “new” building had been constructed in 1929 with reinforced concrete walls designed to withstand fire – which it did when a raging blaze on Jan. 8, 1940, again destroyed several businesses on the west side of the square. The fire occurred on John Harlin’s third birthday, and in the 2014 interview, he said he “watched it in my mother’s arms.” One of the buildings consumed by the flames was the hotel, built by B. Hogard in 1880, that had been owned and operated for a short time by John’s great-great-grandmother, Hannah Conkin, who had migrated to Ozark County from Kentucky with her husband and children in 1869. The Conkins were part of the three-family wagon train, along with the Harlins and Walkers, who migrated together
• 1940 – On Feb. 5, 1940, a month after the devastating Gainesville fire, the bank was robbed again. The Times reported that, during the night, thieves used an acetylene torch to “cut a hole in the vault door, through which a man could crawl, and then cut a plug out of the top of the safe large enough for a person to reach with his hand down into the safe and extract the bank’s money, $2,575.26.” The report said the thieves had “used a jimmy or some other instrument to force the front door of the bank, through which they entered.” Johnny Harlin and his son, Hugh Tan, discovered the theft when they opened the bank the next morning. The loss was covered by insurance.
• 1954 – More than 2,500 people attended the bank’s 60th anniversary celebration on Saturday, July 24, 1954. The Times reported that Rufus Luna “had the honor of being the first customer” that day, and T. W. Hogard was honored as the bank’s oldest customer in attendance; Hogard was also recognized as the bank’s third depositor on the day it opened in 1894.
• 1955 – Johnny Harlin died Dec. 18, 1955, at age 80 after suffering a heart attack. An estimated 1,500 people attended his funeral, the overflow crowd standing outside Clinkingbeard Funeral Home in the cold to hear the service on loudspeakers. In announcing the death, the Times called him “Ozark County’s most beloved citizen.” His son Hugh Tan Harlin became bank president.
• 1957 – The bank was remodeled, with impressive green marble added to the exterior, covering the original cut-stone front that had featured the cave crystals and stalactites. Current bank president Chris Harlin thinks the update was done, in part, to add air conditioning, with ductwork that required a drop-ceiling to be added, covering the original pressed-tin panels.
• 1969 – In the bank’s 75th anniversary year, it moved into its current location on the northeast corner of the Gainesville square. The new facility was a single-story 6,600-square foot building. The 75th anniversary brochure notes that its resources had grown to $8.3 million. By then, H. T. and Billye Key Harlin’s son, John, had joined the bank staff after he and his wife, the former Linda Fleenor, had moved back to Gainesville in 1966. John and Linda’s son, Chris Harlin, born in 1969, recalled the family story that while Hugh and Billye were away from home, attending a bankers meeting somewhere, John moved the bank into its new building, even though his parents had told him not to do it while they were gone. “And until my grandparents both passed, they would say, ‘There’s stuff we never found again,’” Chris said.
• 1971 – Hugh Tan Harlin abruptly announced that his son, John, was now president of the bank. H. T. became chairman of the board.
• 1978 – The bank opened its first branch office in Theodosia, something that previously had been prohibited by Missouri banking regulations. That same year, a 2,000-square-foot expansion was completed at the Gainesville office.
• 1983 – Another change in regulations, pushed through the Missouri legislature in 1983 as an amendment by former Rep. Garnett Kelly, allowed banks operating within third- and fourth-class counties to have two branches if the county’s population was between 7,000 and 10,000. John Harlin recalled, in the 2014 interview, that, at the time, “Missouri had 17 counties that fit that description but only one that cared.” With John and Hugh Tan Harlin’s lobbying efforts, the amendment was specifically designed to allow the Bank of Gainesville to open a branch in Bakersfield, giving it “the most far-flung branching empire in the state,” John joked.
• 1992 – After graduating from what is now Missouri State University and working three years at Boatman’s Bank in Springfield and Exchange National Bank in Jefferson City, Chris Harlin and his wife, the former Missy Workman, moved back to Gainesville, where he joined the bank as assistant vice president.
• 1994 – Another major remodeling brought the bank’s structure to 18,000 square feet and added a second story, three drive-through lanes and an ATM machine. That year’s 100th anniversary advertisement offered guests “free rides” in the town’s first elevator. In 1994, Chris’ mother, Linda, became the bank’s marketing director.
• 1995 – The Bank of Gainesville acquired the Douglas County Bank in Ava. Soon after, with facilities operating in Gainesville, Ava, Bakersfield and Theodosia, the Bank of Gainesville changed its name to Century Bank of the Ozarks. Chris’ wife, Missy, suggested the new name.
• Mid-1990s – Chris Harlin says sometime in the 1990s – perhaps 1995 –a man came into the bank and asked, “Is there a Harlin here?” Hugh Tan Harlin came out to talk to the man. “The guy said his dad was the one who held the bank up” many years earlier, Chris said. “He said, ‘My dad did this, and I’m happy to write a check for the losses.’” Hugh thanked the man but turned down the offer, Chris said. “That’s in the past,” Hugh told the robber’s son.
• 2003 – Century Bank Group is now affiliated with Legacy Bank and Trust, and the two organizations have some shared ownership. Chris Harlin serves as Legacy’s chairman of the board. In 2003, Legacy acquired the Bank of Plato, expanded into Mountain Grove and also acquired Citizens Bank of Sparta. Legacy now operates branches in Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma.
• 2006 – Another expansion added a new, freestanding two-story training and financial services building to the bank’s Gainesville headquarters, including another elevator. Connecting the new addition to the bank’s main building was a glass-walled hallway, Gainesville’s (and only) first skywalk.
• 2008 – During a national recession, the government offered bailouts to many troubled banks around the country. Chris Harlin replied in a way that surely would have made his great-granddad Johnny Harlin proud. Thanks, but no thanks, Chris said. “Century Bank is in good shape, and it still has faith in its customers and in Ozark County.”
• 2020 – The Harlins bought back the old bank building on the west side of the Gainesville square in 2020, and they’re making plans to restore the building to its appearance before the 1957 remodeling.
• 2021 – Century Bank of the Ozarks opened a new bank branch in Mountain Home, Arkansas, and a new loan center on the square in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Fayetteville office is managed by Alex Martin, husband of Chris and Missy Harlin’s daughter, Abbi.
• 2024 – From a bank that started 130 years ago in a small building with just a couple of employees, Century Bank has grown into a business with five modern offices and a total staff of around 60 people. Several bank employees have worked there for decades. Pat Funk, retired from active banking but still serving on the board of directors, recently celebrated his 50-year anniversary.
“My hope is that it’s a good culture, a good working environment where people enjoy coming to work every day,” Chris Harlin said. “Dad’s mantra was always that we’re going to do the work, but let’s make it an atmosphere where there’s fun as well.”