A Trip to the Rockies - Public Domain

About A Trip to the Rockies - Public Domain

The writer was authorized by Mr. Blanchard to select a party of bankers and business men of New York and Brooklyn to attend the annual convention of the “American Bankers’ Association,” to be held in Kansas City, September 24th and 25th. To add to the growing interest, already manifested in the trip by the elect, a telegram was received, as follows: “Hutchinson, Kansas, July 23d. Each guest will have a section, and is cordially invited to bring his wife.—Ben Blanchard.” This telegram was the keystone to the arch. Had the Pullman Company been able to furnish a larger car, our number would have been doubled. As the car was too long to go over the B. & O., via Washington, Harper’s Ferry, and Cumberland Gap, on account of the short curves, we went via Pennsylvania through Harrisburg, Johnstown, and Altoona.

[8]The ever-watchful reporter was on hand, and the following description from the Brooklyn Standard-Union was a very good report of our car and company as we left Jersey City, September 23d.

“A large party of Brooklynites crossed Fulton Ferry early this morning, most of the men carrying gripsacks and the ladies satchels. It was evidently a party of tourists; and the wide-awake wage-workers, who were crossing the ferry at the same time, recognizing some of the best-known people of the ‘City of Churches’ in the party, wondered what was going on. They dismissed the subject from their minds eventually, arriving at the conclusion that they were a small party off on a little pleasure trip. In one respect they were right. The party was off on a pleasure trip, but it was not a little one. In fact it was a very large one, and the Standard-Union reporter learned all the particulars. He ascertained that the American Bankers’ Association hold their annual convention at Kansas City on Wednesday and Thursday next, and the party who started from Brooklyn were bound for there. Among the party were Ben Blanchard, President of the Empire Loan and Trust Company, of Hutchinson, Kan.; Hon. Darwin R. James and Mrs. James; Hon. John Jay Knox, President Bank of the Republic, late Comptroller U. S. Currency, accompanied by his two daughters, Miss Carrie and Miss Bessie Knox; Edward[9] Merritt, President Long Island Loan and Trust Company, and Mrs. Merritt; Hon. D. O. Bradley, President Tarrytown National Bank, and Mrs. Bradley; Capt. Ambrose Snow, President New York Board of Trade; Frank W. Shaw, M.D.; Crowell Hadden, President Long Island Bank, and Mrs. Hadden; Miss Louise I. Shannon, Miss Jeanie S. Corwin, Miss Jennie S. Brush; Major B. R. Corwin, Eastern Manager Empire Loan and Trust Co., and Mrs. Corwin, and others.