Railroad Town Bank Railroad Town Bank
The bank building in Railroad Town is from Kenesaw in Adams County. It was donated to the museum in 1966 by Mr. and Mrs. Max Mikkelson of Kenesaw.
In May, 1884, E. P. Gillette opened a private bank in this building at Kenesaw. In 1900, the building was purchased by Nels Mikkelson, a Kenesaw druggist and father of the donor, Max Mikkelson. Nels Mikkelson had the building moved to an adjacent lot, and erected a new drugstore on the building's former location. The old bank building was then used mostly for storage.
The present law office was only a back room of the old Gillette bank. This law office honors O. A. Abbott, pioneer Hall County attorney and Nebraska's first lieutenant-governor.
Some of the furnishings in the Railroad Town bank, such as walk-in safe and teller window partition, came from the old Nuckolls County Bank in Nelson, donated by Phillip G. Myers of Norfolk, on behalf of the Myers-Lyon families.
Mr. Myers also donated a great deal of material, including ledgers and canceled checks, relating to a Nelson real estate and insurance firm, known at various times as "Lyon, Imler & Lyon," "Lyon, Imler & Myers," and "Lyon & Myers." This firm appears to 
have involved George Lyon Jr., G. Nelson Lyon, C. R. Imler, O. C. Myers and K. A. Myers.
Bank counter was used in the real estate office of George Lyon in Nelson.
In time every railroad town would have a bank or two. Private and so-called state banks were easy to establish. All that was required was a charter from the state. Until the late 1880s there were no regulations which local bankers needed to observe. The informal character of pioneer banking is portrayed in a story from Loup City, Nebr., where a fellow rented a building, put up a sign that read "BANK," and went into business. "The first day," he said, "a customer came in and deposited $5. The second day, another fella dropped by and left $10 in an account. By the third day I had so much confidence in my bank that I put in $15 of my own money!"
National banks, on the other hand, were subject to close supervision by Federal officials. These banks were the cornerstones of the communities not only because they were sound but because they printed paper money which circulated in the community. Their only major shortcoming was that they could not lend money directly on agricultural land. While extremely helpful to local businessmen, the banks did little to meet the farmer's credit needs.