This week on History’s Attic. A bank that had to get rid of the word German. The German American Bank that sits on the west side of Burke’s main street was one of the town’s first buildings, getting established soon after the 1904 opening. The time is now 1918 and anti-German sentiment was high, churches banned German services, schools banned language classes, and here sat a bank with the word German in its name. What to do?  Erase the name and risk backlash?

Halloween was close and the directors hatched a plan to paint out the name German on Halloween nite. And that is exactly what they did. The next day dawned outhouses all over the countryside were turned turtle, buggies and wagons out in the middle of the street, and the German American Bank was suddenly the American State Bank!! Those dastardly kids were blamed. But the name never went back to German until 75 years later. The building was close to being razed. I stepped in with a small loan from the Burke Development group and restored the building to the glory you see today. And yes the German even came back. As you can see the pictures show the before and after restoration. Next week on History’s Attic we will explore a well known Photographer from Gregory that had a connection to the famous Painter Norman Rockwell. Only in History’s Attic will you read the untold story.

Author Richard Papousek