Elmer W. Dilling. Cashier
and the responsible executive of the Fletcher State Bank, Elmer W.
Dilling has had a progressive career and experience in banking, and
for the past thirteen years has been identified with different
institutions in the territory and state, having begun as a clerk at
Guthrie, and being promoted from time to time until he now has the
care of a substantial institution in the southwestern part of the
state and is well known among banking men generally.
His paternal
grandparents were German people who emigrated about 1847 and settled
in Erie, Pennsylvania, going from there to Fremont, Seneca County,
Ohio, where his grandfather was a farmer. Mr. Hilling’s father is
Martin Dilling, who was born in Erie County, Pennsylvania, in 1848,
soon after the family was established there, was reared on his
father’s farm in Seneca County, Ohio, and in 1876 removed to what was
then a frontier town, Abilene, Kansas, which only a few years before
had been the notorious center of the southwestern cattle trade. Near
Abilene he bought railroad land, and has since continued as a farmer
and stock raiser, and now has his home in Abilene. He is independent
in politics, is a steward in the United Brethren Church and is one of
the highly esteemed old timers in that section of Kansas. Martin
Dilling married Alice Scouten, who was born in Seneca County, Ohio.
Elmer W. is their first child, and the second is Orva M., who lives
on the old homestead farm at Abilene, Kansas.
Elmer W. Dilling was
born at Abilene January 8, 1880, attended the public schools of his
native city, graduating from high school in 1900, and followed that
with a business course. Coming to Oklahoma, on March 1, 1902, he
became bookkeeper in the David Telephone Exchange at Weatherford,
Oklahoma, hut after five months went to Guthrie and became clerk in
the Guthrie National Bank. He was with that institution one year, and
then entered the Logan County Bank at Guthrie and was associated with
W. H. Coyle, the well known banker, for about five years. He was
connected for a time with the American National Bank at Oklahoma
City, but in March, 1908, removed to Fletcher, Oklahoma, to accept
his present office as cashier of the Fletcher State Bank.
The Fletcher State
Bank was established in 1903 by Miles and John Kennedy. It started
with a state charter, and its home on Bateman Avenue was erected in
1905. The present officers of the bank are: W. T. Clark of Apache,
Oklahoma, president; D. W. Hogan of Oklahoma City, vice president;
Elmer W. Dilling of Fletcher, cashier; and C. H. Hogan of Fletcher,
assistant cashier. The capital stock is $10,000, and the substantial
character of the business is indicated by surplus and profits of
$20,000.
During his residence
in Fletcher Mr. Dilling has served as treasurer of the town. He is
independent in politics, is a member of the First Baptist Church, is
affiliated with Fletcher Lodge No. 363, Ancient Free and Accepted
Masons, and was formerly identified with the Modern Woodmen of
America and the Woodmen of the World.
On December 14,
1904, at Guthrie, he married Miss Emza L. Swisher, daughter of J. B.
Swisher, who is now a retired contractor and builder living at Gypsum
City, Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Dilling has one daughter, Alice Jane, born
August 16, 1913.