ABSTRACT
In 1900, small town America was very much within the realm of Jefferson’s America. Small town governance was quite limited. Towns were quite compact. There were few paved roads because connection to the outside world was by river, railroad or interurban. The Internet, radio and television did not exist. Instead, communication was by the newspaper, telegraph or telephone. Cell towers, smartphones, notepads and laptops were the stuff of science fiction or comic strips. There was no such thing as multinational offshore banking. When a financial panic occurred, the small town resident did not have the Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae and the FDIC to be asset proactive. Small town banks, chartered by the state and with few outside audits, could easily fail, placing the community in a downward economic spiral. Generally, small towns in 1900 were isolated and autonomous places in the countryside. Their residents were connected tenuously to the outside world.
