LAYTON -- Museum curator Bill Sanders is thrilled with all the boxes stacked on the floor and on tables in the conference room in the Heritage Museum of Layton, although it will take months to categorize their contents.
The museum has inherited historical data and items from the now-defunct Barnes Banking Company in Kaysville. and other businesses established by John R. Barnes, an early resident of Kaysville. There are more boxes and items stored in the basement of city hall; so many that it took a dump truck and Sanders' personal truck to haul everything there.
Barnes Banking Company was established by Barnes in 1891. When the FDIC took over the bank on Jan. 15, it inherited Barnes family memorabilia and history stored in the vault. Many of the historic documents date back to the early days of the bank. Some of the first checks issued by the bank are among the documents.
According to Sanders, the FDIC could only donate the items to a public institution and not to individuals, so they were given to the museum. Most of the history relates to John R. Barnes family in Kaysville, but will be stored and displayed in the Layton Museum. Sanders wants everyone to know that when Kaysville gets its own museum, these historical items will be shared with Kaysville.
"When we heard the bank was to be closed, we knew it had historical records that needed to be preserved," Sanders said as he sat in the room amid the treasures.
After being invited to go look into the vault of the main branch of the Barnes Bank in Kaysville, Sanders said, he and Dale George, a representative of the FDIC, decided the museum would only take the historical ledgers and books up until 1940.
"We knew there would still be people living after that time," Sanders said. Although no ledger books will be available to the public after that time, there are minute books from 1891 to 1945 that will be interesting for historical research.
Sanders held up the oldest of the ledgers bound in gold and red. There are the original Barnes Banking Company articles of incorporation and original stockholders and records. The early ledgers were all handwritten but later, after the advent of the typewriter, records were typed and pasted into the books.
Each person who had a loan from the bank had a page in a ledger showing the loan and payments.
"All records stored there are pertinent to John R. Barnes businesses," Sanders said.
In 1869, KCMI -- a Kaysville branch of ZCMI -- was established. The business sold all types of merchandise, including potatoes, flour, candy, and dry goods. There is evidence that the business purchased from Porter Walton Flour and from Bennett Paint and Glass. Because KCMI was a branch of ZCMI, they exchanged all kinds of things, Sanders said.
"Records show that KCMI folded in the 1920s sometime," said Sanders.
The original day book from KCMI shows all of the purchases made. "Mrs. Blood, one-quarter yard of velvet at 30 cents, Mrs. Blood, boots , $1.25." are some of the entries. Other purchases are listed as 50 pounds of sugar, 50 cents, one and a half yards of lace, 60 cents and Mr. Sheffield bought barrel bolts for $1.78. Shingles were 33 cents a piece.
"There are five day books and ledgers up to the 1920s. There is a lot of good information that identifies people of Kaysville," Sanders said.
Sanders has even discovered documents in both his aunts' handwriting and his sister's handwriting, as they both were employed at the bank.
There are records from other companies owned by Barnes: the Kaysville Canning Corporation, the John R. Barnes Real Estate Company, the Kaysville Livestock and Dairy Company, and the Kaysville Milling Company -- which was later sold to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1940, when it became Deseret Mill.
Original canceled checks from 1891 to 1918 are among the many documents. The original checks had a picture of a beehive on them, while later ones had an eagle and others a deer and a liberty flag and coin. The word "Paid" is punched into the checks.
A box full of trinkets includes Dick Gailey's quill pen with his initials on it, an old red ink well with a roller ball used to wipe off the excess ink, small tubes that were used for coins, and scrapbooks of statements of condition for every bank in the state, which include both the assets and liabilities of those banks.
When Sanders opened another book he discovered something he hadn't seen before: the front page of the local newspaper, the Weekly Reflex, printed May 23, 1912. It has the only known picture of the meeting house which was later made into the opera house, and it included all of the plans and dimensions for building the Kaysville Tabernacle.
"This is very valuable," he said. "We are not only coming across valuable bank information, but we are finding tucked away little treasures that have never been microfilmed."
There is the issue of Deseret News with the story of the 1947 Centennial, and many original old photos of presidents of the bank and of KCMI, which shared the same original building as the bank on the northwest corner of Center and Main from 1910 to 1958. There are pictures of when the bank moved to its present location on the southeast corner.
Among the memorabilia are framed pictures, small coin banks, and pictures of the six bank presidents, including the most recent: Curtis Harris, who is the first and only bank president not from the Barnes family.
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