Milberne G. EASTMAN

EASTMAN, GRAHAM, PRIMEAUX, CHAPMAN

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 8/26/2008 at 10:37:19

MILBERNE G. EASTMAN, cashier of the Commercial State Bank of Crawford, Nebraska, is well known in the banking field in Dawes county and equally well known and esteemed in commercial life in other sections of the United States and even in the Orient. It has been his good fortune to see many parts of the world, in which he has honorably and adequately represented a department of the national government.

Milberne G. Eastman was born at Clarion, Iowa, July 3, 1868, the eldest of five children born to Oliver K. and Henrietta (Graham) Eastman. His mother was born in Michigan and now resides at Crawford. His father, a native of New York, died at Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1913. For fifty years he was in the banking business. In 1886, he engaged in the mercantile business at Crawford, in partnership with E. F. Doerr, some years later moving to Ardmore, South Dakota, where he established a bank, in later years returning to Crawford. The brothers and sister of Milberne G. Eastman areas follows: H. O., who is vice-president of the Com Exchange National Bank of Omaha; L. M., who is manager of the Handcraft Furniture Company of Lincoln; G. S., who is state bank examiner, lives at Crawford, and Bessie E. Chapman, who is assistant cashier of the Commercial State Bank of Crawford.

Mr. Eastman attended the public schools of Webster City, Iowa, completing the high school course, and was nineteen years old when he came to Dawes county, Nebraska, and became manager of the post trader's store at Fort Robinson, a position he filled for several years. Upon being oppointed (sic) a commissary agent under the United States government, he thoroughly prepared himself for such a responsible office, which took him to Alaska, Japan, China, and other far eastern countries. Before returning to the United States he spent several years in the Civil service in the Philippine Islands. In 1910, Mr. Eastman came back to his old home at Crawford, at the time becoming assistant cashier of the Commercial State Bank in which office he continued until February, 1919, when he became cashier of this institution, his only sister succeeding him as assistant cashier. The Commercial State Bank of Crawford, Nebraska was established in 1886, with a capital of $15,000. The first home of the bank was in a lumber office. It is now housed in a magnificent building of its own, of pressed brick construction, situated in the business center of the city, and its resources exceed $1,000,000. Its first officers were: Leroy Hall, president, and Fred A. MaComber, cashier. Its present officers are: Leroy Hall, president; Andrew Vetter, Frank L. Hall and Claire E. Hall, vice-presidents; M. G. Eastman, cashier, and Bessie E. Chapman, assistant cashier. Practical business men control and manage this bank.

On April 25, 1911, Mr. Eastman was united in marriage to Miss Edith Primeaux, a daughter of Antoine Primeaux, an early merchant of Crawford. Mrs. Eastman died August 6, 1918. Their only child died in 1915, aged three and a half years. In politics he has always been a Republican, and from 1894 to 1898, while his father was serving as county cleark (sic) of Dawes county, he served as deputy county clerk. He is a Thirty-second degree Mason.

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA & ITS PEOPLE, Volume III, pages 674-675