Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects Who's Who in 1921 & 1922 Frank Ricksher

"The Fairfield Tribune"
Thursday, December 8, 1921
Page SIX

NO. 39 (sic - should be 41)

FRANK RICKSHER

"From newsboy to mayor of Kansas City," is the career which the press agents played up in their announcement of Darius Brown, who spoke here the other night. Seemed to think that a great record of achievement and made a big noise of the rise of this man Brown.

Shucks, Brown isn't one, two, three with one of our own illustrious citizens when it comes to rising in the world. Fact of the matter is that this fellow Brown is a piker in this rising to prominence in business in comparison withour own example of rising right here at home.

With pleasure we introduce to you one Frank Ricksher, cashier of the Iowa State Savings bank, erstwhile hod carrier and section laborer. As a riser he can discount any home brew concoction of yeast and raisins that you can get together.

You who see Frank in these prosperous days driving along the street in his $10,000 Oldsmobile smoking three-for-a-dollar cigars, dressed in the best the tailors can produce, diamonds gleaming here and there over his person, will find it a bit diffucult to pucture in the humble role of section laborer. But, like Doc Fordyce, Bruce Gobble, and other of our prominent and illustrious citizens, Frank did his bit in railroad building for the Burlington road. Of course that was years ago, but even yet Frank takes particular pleasure in riding over that section of the railroad which he helped to construct. Says its the best constructed bit of road on the whole line. Frank's mighty proud of his part in railroad building.

When Parsons college had the big fire there were a lot of people who helped out the institution in various ways. Some gave a lot of money toward rebuilding, others gave a lot of sympathy, still others gave freely of advice. But Frank Ricksher wasn't content to extend any such paltry help. Frank believed in giving material assistance--the kind of assistance you could photograph. So he took off his coat and went to work. Carried hod for the bricklayers on the new buildings. There have been many factors enter into the building up of Parsons college but there are none of them showing more direct and substantial results than the hod carrying of Frank Ricksher.

Frank loves to go out to Parsons campus on a peaceful Sabbath afternoon and contemplate the imperishable monuments to his skill and industry which are erected there. Sometimes he takes his little boy along.

"Son," he will say, "in these beautiful buildings, you see before you not mere piles of brick and stone and mortar; nor does the fact that they are great temples of learning carry the full significance of their existence,. That which I would have you note and ever remember, my son, is that every brick in these beautiful buildings represents a pain in your father's back, each thread of gleaming mortar between those bricks stands for a blister on your father's hands. Son, when in the years to come you are enjoying the educational institutions of this great college, reflect that it was your father's brawn which made it possible for you."

When the boy speaks of Parson's (sic) college he refers to it as "daddy's college."

But Frank, much as he yearned to carry brick and mortar and help in the erection of beautiful buildings for a livelihood, gave up this career with a reluctant sigh, and turned his attention to juggling with figures. In this he has made even rather more of a success than he did with his college building. In fact, Frank can do more things with figures than the inventor of them ever dreamed could be done. Such trifling things as an income tax report is mere play for him. When Frank wants to rest himself from his work as cashier at the bank he makes out four or five income tax reports for some of his friends just as a matter of relaxation. Frank is so good at that job that the income tax men who come here ask him to help them out when they get in over their heads. Not long ago the farmers of the income tax law wrote to Frank to ask him just what they meant in regard to a certain part of the law. And Frank told them.

Speaking of figures, the one Frank has built is along the lines of the numeral 1. You see he has always been trying so hard to reach the top that it has stretched him out considerably. Frank hasn't broadened out very much in a physical way, but mentally he's as broad as Bill Bevering is physically. It may not be true--Doc Fordyce told it--but it is said that Frank was lying down taking a rest on the green out at the golf links one day last summer when a near-sighted golf player attempted to pick him up under the impression that he had found a missing golf club.

And, speaking of golf, Frank Ricksher goes out to the links now and then and hangs up a new record for the boys to shoot at, then goes home and reads a truckload of magazines and newspapers, smokes a dozen or so cigars and finishes the day by messing with a lot of income tax figures. That's his recreation. You will note by this that Frank Ricksher is a pretty studious, steady and industrious sort of a chap who is paying pretty strict attention to business. He's putting that same brand of energy, industry and determination into the banking business that he put into the college building business. And it might as well be noted that the Iowa State isn't lagging behind any since Frank has been cashier.

Like the rest of us, Frank has an idiosyncrasie. Frank doesn't like to go near a brick building in process of erection. When he sees a man carrying a hod up a long ladder he shudders.