Condit, Thomas Knowles MAGA © 2000-2014
In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data and images may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or for other presentation without express permission by the contributor(s).



HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY ILLINOIS - 1915

Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.

Page 867

CONDIT, THOMAS KNOWLES, cashier of the First National Bank of Beardstown, Ill., is widely known over the state, not only for his financial knowledge and conservatism, but because of the efficiency with which he has fulfilled the duties of responsible public positions to which he has been appointed at different times. He was born at Winchester, Scott County, Ill., February 11, 1856, a son of William and Margaret (Knowles) Condit. William Condit was born at Orange, N.J., and married Margaret Knowles, who was born at Seaford, Del. She died March 30, 1872, having come to Scott County with her mother and sisters after her father, Dr. Knowles, died in Delaware. The children of William Condit and wife were: Henry F., of Kansas City, Mo.; Thomas K.; Charles H., a banker of Winchester, Ill.; William F., in the clothing business at Astoria, Ill.; Joseph V., who died in 1907; Carrie, who is Mrs. H. C. Worcester, of Roodhouse, Ill.; and Margaret, who is Mrs. W. C. Kechler, of Winchester.

The Condit family is an old one in the United States, the first of the name being found at Newark, N. J., in 1678, and Moses Condit, five generations removed from Thomas Knowles condit, was an officer in the Revolutionary war. Grandfather William Condit was born at Orange, N. J., in 1800, where he became a hat manufacturer. In 1844 his plant was burned, throwing his employees out of work. In 1845 his son William and a relative, Henry Stryker, came to Jacksonville, I., and shortly afterward to Winchester, where he was engaged in hat manufacturing from 1848 until 1872, when he added gents' furnishing goods and continued in the business until 1893, when he retired and died in 1896. He was appointed postmaster of Winchester early in 1862 and served twelve years; was collector of internal revenue from 1860 until 1872, when the office was consolidated with the Quincy district, and in 1894 was elected treasurer of Scott county.

Thomas Knowles Condit attended school until fourteen years of age, when he began clerking in a dry goods store at Winchester and received $50 for his first six months' work. He continued clerical work until 1873, when he went to Chicago and took a course of three months in bookkeeping at the Bryant and Stratton Business college and was credited with completing the course in a shorter time than had any other pupil of that old institution. Mr. Condit then accepted a position in the distributing room of the Chicago Times, taking charge of the mailing list of the country subscribers. Some weeks later he was employed as a bookkeeper by the First National Bank of Winchester, working as such from April 1, 1874, until November 4, 1874, when he came to Beardstown. here he was made cashier of the private bank of Skillings, Carter & Arenz, which position he held until April, 1877, when the bank was reorganized as the Peoples State Bank, Mr. Condit being one of the organizers, and became cashier and continued as such until February 17, 1887, when this bank was merged into the First National Bank with a capital of $50,000. The officers were: J. H. Harris, president; J. H. Hagener, vice president; Thomas K. Condit, cashier. In 1893 the capital stock was increased to $80,000; in 1903 to $100,000 and it is working with this capital, with a surplus of $125,000. and undivided profits of $10,000. There have been some changes in the offices of president and vice president, in 1890 Mr. Shultz becoming vice president and president in 1900, with A. E. Schmoedt vice president. Mr. Condit has continued cashier, while his eldest son, Floyd M. Condit, who has been associated with the bank since 1899, is assistant cashier. The latter married Edith Smith, in 1902, and they have three children: Harriet, Mary Louise and Edith Elizabeth.


Bio Index