FCS Financial: One Hundred Years July 2016 | Page 44

The Federal Land Bank of St. Louis celebrated its new building at
1415 Olive Street in St. Louis with an open house held on July 22, 1966.
An article in the St. Louis Globe Democrat the following November noted
the bank’s success over nearly fifty years, saying the twelve Federal Land
Banks across the country “have not only paid off all their debts prior to
1947 but have piled up fat surpluses through good business management.”
Chartered on March 8, 1917, the net worth of the St. Louis bank alone
stood at more than $58 million. Part of that “good business management”
included the bank’s responsiveness to the needs of the farmers they served.
“We also permit repayment at anytime without a penalty,” Ralph Nowlan,
president of the St. Louis Federal Land Bank said. “Interest rates are the
same to the small as to the large borrower. In good times the farmer can
pay into an interest-paying fund to be applied to his loan in leaner times.”

Don Kuester and two staffers at the
Jefferson City office in the mid-1960s.
Teens from around the state
attended the Careers Seminar held
in Sedalia on October 21, 1966.

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Selected References