Gem City Business College - Yearbook (Quincy, IL)

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Views in the Actual Business and Banking Department G. C. B. C. 20

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ID Actual Business and Banking Department The Largest, Best Equipped, and Most Suc- cessful Department of the Kind Conducted by any Business College in America PROFESSOR J. H. CRAFTON, who pre- sides over this department, has been an instructor of this school for over thirty years. He is also a director of the Illinois State Bank and of the Gem City Building and Loan Association both of this city. He endeavors at all times to keep his department thoroughly practical and up to date, and with his long and successful experi- ence in this work, together with his practical experience in the business world, he has built up a great actual business department. There is nothing in the country quite equal to this department and it is necessary for one to take the work to appreciate its scope and magnitude. Two able assistants, besides the principal, devote their whole time to this department. Here the student puts into actual practice the knowledge acquired from his text books and class instruction, and after com- pleting the required work he is qualified to fill acceptably any bookkeeping position. The Actual Business department presents an interesting and lively scene to the visitor. It is a veritable bee hive of industry. Here the students are conducting on their own account and with each other the various lines of business embraced in the course. Whole- sale dealers are filling orders from retail merchants. They in turn are selling to their customer ' s or, learning of a better market elsewhere, are shipping goods away to a conj-; : mission merchant, who sells them and returns the proceeds. The transportation company is busy hurrying shipments to purchasers; insur- ance agents are writing policies on property; real estate dealers are effecting sales; bank tellers are receiving deposits or paying checks; merchants are borrowing money at bank, or discounting the notes received from their customers; bank clerks are collecting notes and drafts; stenographers are taking dictation — and all the business activities of a great city are here going on at once, each student striving to make a success of his own work. This department is a miniature business world in itself. It is fitted up in regular counting-house style, no expense having been spared in providing modern equipment, and it is certainly the most elegant and best appointed Actual Business and Banking de- partment in America. There are four large banks, two commission houses, two wholesale houses, a real estate office, insurance office, express office, and freight office — each elegantly furnished and conveniently situated for the transaction of business, together with desks for two hundred retail merchants, located throughout the body of the room, each representing a separate business in a different town. The lines of business followed embrace wholesaling, retailing, commission, insurance, transportation, banking, etc. The Actual Busi- ness Course is carefully graded. The student first begins as a single proprietor, and after advancing sufficiently in the work he admits a partner, and the business is conducted in this form for another period, when he finally incor- porates the business and conducts it on this plan until the course is completed. Each student, on entering the department, is furnished by the principal with his capital in college currency, when he at once leases a store, pays a month ' s rent, and proceeds with 1 business as in the great outside world. He deposits his money in the bank; buys and sells goods; draws checks, notes, and . ..drafts; discounts notes at the banks; opens % ' and closes his books at regular periods, and in this way he not only learns to transact business correctly, but he also keeps his own books, which are made up entirely from his own transactions with the other members of the department. Merchant and Bookkeeper. Each student is thus both merchant and bookkeeper, and as he passes through the several grades of this department he receives a thorough, practical knowledge of business transactions and book- keeping that would require many months of practice in every-day life to obtain; and when he has finished his course he is competent to transact any general business, or to keep any set of business books. Our banks are conducted on the modern plan, and are fitted up in first-class style with every convenience necessary for properly systematizing and filing the details of a regular banking business. The system of bookkeeping adopted conforms to that used by the best national and private banks. The volume of business transacted in these banks is as great as that of any well-regulated bank in the great business world. The Variety and character of the transactions correspond to those of the best banks, and the student who successively fills the office of messenger, collection and discount clerk, teller, cashier, and general bookkeeper, is qualified to perform the same duties in any banking house of the country without further practice or appren- ticeship. Practice in Dictating Letters. Each stu- dent who takes the Business Course gets a very beneficial and practical drill in dictating his business letters to a stenographer, who transcribes them on the typewriter and re- turns them for the student ' s signature. Stu- dents in this department also learn to use the adding machine and other practical office de- vices. The Actual Business and Banking depart- ment belongs to, and is a part of the Business Cou rse of this institution, and the students are therefore entitled to its advantages without -payment of additional tuition: it is included in the Life Scholarship.

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LEE LA FEENEY Manager Texas City Refining Co. Texas City, Texas Dear Professor Musselman: I completed the short combination course in April, 1909, and I at once took a trial position with the Federal Trust Company, St. Louis, Missouri, at $30 per month. The second month I received $75, and at the end of five months I resigned to take a position with the Texas City Refining Company as bookkeeper at $100 a month. I worked for them ten months in that capacity, and September 1st, they made me assistant treasurer and office manager at a salary of $125 a month. I quit stenographic work November 1st, last. However, I find it very convenient in- my work at the desk. I have almost dropped bookkeeping also — my duties being such that all my time is taken up with directing others. I find it very convenient to haye Geni City Busi- ness College students in the officer and I expect always, as we employ help continually,, to. get one of the Gems if possible. Very truly yours, LEE LA FERNEY. On November 26th the college received the following telegram from Mr. La Ferney: We are in need of a first class young man who knows bookkeeping and shorthand. Can you refer or furnish us with one ? Answer by wire. Will pay $75 per month to good man. In response to this message we sent Mr. Vincent Grainger, a combination graduate. Mr. Grainger had been a poor boy and was obliged to earn his board while in school by working during spare hours. To show that he is giving satisfaction, we received a letter from Mr. La Ferney on March 1st, 1911, in which he states Mr. Grainger is giving us very satisfactory service. Mr. La Ferney also states that his own responsibilities have been increased, and that he has been promoted twice since writing the foregoing letter. IN QUINCY BANKS ALL the banks of Quincy recognize the efficiency of young people trained in the Gem City Business College, as is clearly shown by the following list, which embraces nearly every position in a bank, from clerk to president: In the State Savings, Loan Trust Co., Thos. Burrows is Assistant Cashier; Miss F. J. Lubbe is Private Secretary to the President; Theo. Wand, Cash- ier Branch Bank; T. L. Tushaus, Assistant Cashier of the Bank; J. T. Pickard, Receiving Teller; Miss Kate Mulcahy, Stenographer; Edgar Schanz, Bookkeeper; Nicholas Malambri, Collection Clerk; Emma Luthin, Clerk. In the Ricker National Bank, A. H. Vandenboom is Receiving Teller; Theo. F. Awerkamp, Paying Teller; H. B. Broemmel, Bookkeeper; E. J. Luegering, Note Clerk; Ferd J. Sohm, Remittance Clerk; Robt. Heintz, Remittance Clerk. In the Quincy National Bank, W. T. Duker is President; G-. G. Arends, Vice-President; Simon Duker, D. L. Musselman, Frank Osborn, Directors ; John L. Duker, Teller; Henry Damhorst, Bookkeeper, and Miss Goldie Caldwell, Stenographer. In the Mercantile Trust and Savings Bank, John Soebbing is President; Harvey G. Riggs, Cashier; W. L. Jansen, Assistant Cashier; John H. Sieckmann, Teller; Robt. J. Soebbing, Remittance Clerk; Robt. W. Hagenbruch, Clerk; and Mrs. Pauline Waldin, Stenographer. In the State Street Bank, Henry G. Sprick is Cashier; Walter A. Heidbreder and Harry E. Heid- breder, Clerks; Harry Schaefer, Bookkeeper; Geo. Bauman, Bookkeeper. In the Illinois State Bank, W. J. Singleton is Vice President; J. H. Crafton and Will Heintz, Direc- tors, and W. V. Martin, Bookkeeper. R. A. SCOTT Cashier and Private Secretary, Federal Trust Company St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 11, 1911. Dear Mr. Musselman: Knowing that you ever retain a friendly interest in former students, and in their progress after leaving school, I am writing you privately to tell you some- thing of myself and my progress. After the short time spent in Peoria in stenographic work, I came to St. Louis, and have been associated with the Federal Trust Company for considerably more than a year, beginning as stenographer. At present I am cashier of the company, and am acting as private secretary to the president. My appreciation of the training which I received in your institution is very deep and I can assure you I attrib- ute my progress in the commercial world to the thor- ough instruction received in your school. I trust that the Gem City is prospering. R. A. SCOTT.