William Bowman Oral History
Dublin Core
Title
William Bowman Oral History
Creator
Churchill County Museum Oral History Project
Publisher
Churchill County Museum Association
Date
January 29, 1994
Format
Analog Cassette Tape, Txt File, MP3 Audio
Language
English
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Duration
Recording 1, 1:02:53
Recording 2, 17:46
Recording 2, 17:46
Bit Rate/Frequency
Recording 1, 128 kbps
Recording 2, 128 kbps
Recording 2, 128 kbps
Transcription
CHURCHILL COUNTY MUSEUM & ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
an interview with
WILLIAM H. BOMAN
Janaury 29, 1994
OH
Born
This interview was conducted by Eleanor Ahern; transcribed by Glenda Price; edited by Norine Arciniega; final by Pat Baden; index by Gracie Viera; supervised by Myrl Nygren, Director of Oral History Project, Churchill County Museum.
Preface
I was greeted with a firm handshake from a youthful-looking William Boman, who is eighty years of age and in excellent health.
Mr. Boman tells of living in Hazen, Nevada and describes his commute to Fallon, by train, to attend Churchill County High School. Having served thirty-seven years in the banking business, he gives an excellent insight into some of the activities of the banking business and how some of it has changed over the years in Fallon and nationwide.
Although Mr. Boman suffers from an eye condition known as macular degeneration, he has no problem getting around the house.
Reading and other activities that require sharp vision are not possible. Mr. Boman confesses that he sometimes falls while doing chores outside, but he just picks himself up and continues with what he was doing. This seems to be his philosophy--pick yourself up and continue with your life.
Interview with William Boman
This is Eleanor Ahern of the Churchill County Museum Oral History Project interviewing William Boman at his house 1500 Drumm Lane, Fallon, Nevada. The date is Saturday, January 29, 1994.
AHERN: We are sitting in the kitchen of Mr. Boman's house. The time is 1:15. Hello, Mr. Boman. How are you?
BOMAN: Fine, thank you, and how are you?
AHERN: I'm fine. Would you please give me your full name.
BOMAN: William Herbert Boman.
AHERN: Could you tell me where and when you were born?
BOMAN: I was born in Napa, California, June 12, 1914.
AHERN: Could you tell me a little bit about your parents? First of all, your father's name.
BOMAN: Father's name was William Clayton Boman, and he was a lifetime, almost a lifetime employee, of Southern Pacific Railroad.
AHERN: Where was he born?
BOMAN: He was born in Michigan.
AHERN: Do you remember what brought him out to the West?
BOMAN: Frankly, I think he ran away from home back there. (laughing) He wanted to come West. He was a very young man at the time, and he came West to Washington and Oregon originally and stayed about two years up in that area and then moved to California.
AHERN: Where in California?
BOMAN: He was located in the Napa Valley.
AHERN: Do you recall what he was doing in the Napa Valley then?
BOMAN: No, I really can't tell you. That's kind of intricate (laughing) history.
AHERN: What about your mother?
BOMAN: She was born in Napa, California. Her folks were Scotch people who both came across the Atlantic and they landed in Nova Scotia, and they spent some time-I can't tell you how long--there, but they were waiting
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for immigration entry into the United States, and then when that came, they moved to Napa and the San Francisco area.
AHERN: And your mother's name?
BOMAN: Was Jessie McKenzie.
AHERN: Do you know how your parents met?
BOMAN: No, I really couldn't tell you how they met. At that time Napa was very much smaller than it is at the present time. It now stretches from Napa to the end of Vallejo and all that area around the bay, and you can't tell when you're in one and out of the other one. So that's as near as I can tell you. I can't recall family history there or what he was engaged in. He didn't stay there too long. He moved to Nevada and went to work for the railroad.
AHERN: What was your father doing for the railroad?
BOMAN: He was in what was called the Water Service. He and his crew maintained the diesel pumps and gasoline pumps that pumped the water into the railroad tanks for the locomotives to take water periodically and every so many miles. His location was, well, I think he went east as far as Elko and west of Sparks, north to Alturas [California] and that country around Susanville [California] and south to Mina. They were on the move constantly as they did a little repair work and then whatever.
AHERN: Does that mean he was away from home a lot?
BOMAN: Yes. Um-hum. He was home weekends unless he was doing work at home locally in Hazen and the immediate vicinity.
AHERN: Did you miss seeing your father during the weekdays?
BOMAN: Well, not particularly. No. We had to behave ourselves in those days because you never did know what
day he'd hit home. (laughing) 'Course always on the weekends, but he would have to go through.
AHERN: Were there any other children in the family besides you?
BOMAN: One brother.
AHERN: His name and his birthplace?
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BOMAN: His name was George McKenzie Boman. He's now living in Las Vegas.
AHERN: Where was he born?
BOMAN: He was born in Reno, Nevada.
AHERN: So that meant there was just your mother and you and your brother at home?
BOMAN: Right.
AHERN: Did you help your mother a lot?
BOMAN: We sure did. We thought we did, at least. (laughing)
AHERN: Were you living on a ranch?
BOMAN: No. We lived in Hazen which had at least pretty close to two hundred people at that time, and we had a two-room school. First through fourth grades and fifth through the eighth, and then when it came time to go to high school,_we came to Fallon and commuted daily then from Hazen.
AHERN: Where did you first attend school?
BOMAN: I attended the first grade of school in Lovelock, Nevada for one year, and then my father took a leave of absence from the railroad at that time, and we moved to California, and he went into business for a short while with his brother in the dairy business, and that was dairy processing. They didn't milk the cows. They bought the milk and delivered it He stayed with his brother for about approximately a year, and then he came back up and resumed his job with the railroad.
California wasn't for him. (laughing)
AHERN: When you went to school in Lovelock, that's where you lived for a while, in Lovelock, your family?
BOMAN: Well, no. Frankly, we lived in another wide spot on the road. A little place between Hazen and Lovelock called Parran, which, incidentally, was in Churchill County. (laughing) It was about half way between Hazen and Lovelock. Then when his traveling on the road was more centralized, they discovered if a family moved to Hazen, he had access to branch lines and railroad out of Hazen. That was the reason for moving to Hazen. The job was still the same.
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AHERN: Your address in Hazen?
BOMAN: We didn't have addresses there except a post office box. (laughing) They had a little post office in Hazen. The streets weren't named at that time to my knowledge. They actually weren't streets, just roads.
AHERN: What did your mother do when your father was gone? Was she a homemaker?
BOMAN: Homemaker, yes. Um-hum.
AHERN: Were you somewhat self sufficient? Did you have any chickens or . . .
BOMAN: Nearly everyone had their flock of chickens in those days and a small garden for fresh vegetables. Not for
in the commercial sense. Just for family use.
AHERN: You had a garden, some chickens. Any goats?
BOMAN: Nope. No animals.
AHERN: Being only two boys in the family, did you end up helping your mother with some housework?
BOMAN: Oh, yes, that was customary in those days. (laughing) You got in the wood and the coal. There was always dishes to do. We had a very pleasant childhood.
AHERN: What was pleasant about your childhood?
BOMAN: Just everyday growing up was pleasant in those days. They weren't troubled with gangs or . . . (laughing) Everybody behaved themselves, and we just had a good time growing up.
AHERN: Was your mother the disciplinarian in your family since your father was gone most of the time?
BOMAN: Not necessarily, no. She was the chief reporter (laughing) and when the weekend came if we'd been out of line, why, my father immediately knew about it, but she maintained good discipline through the week, also.
AHERN: Did your father have to deal out any harsh discipline when he came home?
BOMAN: No, no. (laughing)
AHERN: You eventually went to Churchill County High School?
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BOMAN: Right.
AHERN: You had to commute from Hazen to Churchill. What was your means of transportation from Hazen to Churchill?
BOMAN: Well, in those days a train--a passenger train and freight train mixed--came from Hazen to Fallon. Over in the morning, back in the evening, and the fact that nearly all of us were railroad kids it didn't cost us anything for transportation, so the first couple of years, three years as a matter of fact, I think we hopped a train about seven o'clock in the morning and came to Fallon. The train left the depot in Fallon for Hazen at three-thirty in the afternoon.
AHERN: Where was the train depot in Fallon located?
BOMAN: Right where Taylor Street crosses the railroad tracks. Where the hospital is on farther across, and the depot was right in the area where they are now considering a garbage dump--or, temporary. (laughing)
AHERN: Now, when you'd get off the train in Fallon, then you'd have to walk to school? Was it a long walk?
BOMAN: No. You mean in Lovelock?
AHERN: No, when you caught the train from Hazen to Fallon.
BOMAN: Oh, to Fallon.
AHERN: Yeah. Did you have to walk from the depot to school, or was there transportation from the depot to take you?
BOMAN: Oh, no. It was all by walking.
AHERN: Was it a long walk?
BOMAN: Yes, we considered it so. In actual miles, it wasn't a great distance, but we were here early in the morning, I would say, leaving Hazen at seven o'clock, approximately a half hour by train in those days. It was probably a good mile from the depot down to Maine Street and Maine Street south to what is now junior high school, used to be the high school, so that's quite a little, and we thought it was quite a bit a ways. We were all athletically inclined because the school day in high school ended at 3:20, and we had ten minutes to deposit our things in the lockers and take our homework books out and run as fast as we could from the high school to try to catch the train.
Occasionally we missed. (laughing) Such things as
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that, then we walked, and that was a long ways. That
was sixteen miles. (laughing)
AHERN: When you missed the train, did anybody ever come to pick you up?
BOMAN: Well, we so-called hitchhiked, but there wasn't much action between Hazen and Fallon. (laughing) I would judge possibly ten, twelve cars would pass us, and someone living in the county and been to town shopping here in Fallon they were all very kind about giving us rides, but they didn't go too far. When they came to their house, why we bailed out and continued to walk.
AHERN: Did you take any special classes in school to prepare you for adult life?
BOMAN: Uh, not special classes. I took lots of math in those days. Standard things. Math, English, science, chemistry and physics, two years of foreign language. That's about it.
AHERN: What did you do after you graduated from high school?
BOMAN: That was in 1932, and that was the tag end of the Depression back in the thirties, and it really hit this locality then about the time school was out, and it ended in 1932 the year itself. I went to work for the I.H. Kent Company, and I stayed there for seven years.
AHERN: What type of work were you doing for Mr. Kent?
BOMAN: Working in the grocery store as a grocery clerk and delivery man. And one fine day my ex-principal of the high school came through the store and asked me if I
intended to sell groceries all my life. (laughing) I told him no, but employment was a must right then and we were all used to eating three times a day, so had to stick to the job. But, anyway, he told me that his understanding that the local bank wanted to hire a young man, and, just as if I was still in school, he says, "I want you to go down and apply for that job," which I did, and I think between the bank manager and the old principal, why, I think they had it cooked up anyway.
AHERN: Who was the principal and the bank manager?
BOMAN: The principal was George McCracken who was well known in this area for many, many years, especially those early years, and the bank manager, his name was Haworth. So from 1939 till I retired I worked at the
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bank.
AHERN: From 1939 until?
BOMAN: I was hired in 1939, yes, got to 1976. Middle of 1976 I retired.
AHERN: When you first started out at the bank, what did you do?
BOMAN: I was bank bookkeeper and a teller. Both at the same time. I was later promoted to an officer's position which, was in those days, we were called assistant cashiers which we were lending officers, actually. Over the years I went as far as a vice-president and manager which was my capacity at the time I retired and for, oh, possibly six, seven years prior to that.
AHERN: What was the name of the bank that employed you?
BOMAN: At that time, it was First National Bank of Nevada, and we had offices in all the principal cities in Nevada. Shortly after I retired the name of the bank was changed to First Interstate Bank of Nevada. It was a name change only.
AHERN: Were there both men and women tellers at the bank?
BOMAN: When I first went to work for the bank, no. The only women employees were girls who ran bookkeeping machines and a secretary, and now these days it's pretty hard to find a male in the bank except--and I shouldn't say
except" because the ladies are taking over in all capacities.
AHERN: When you were first employed, was there a reason why there were only men tellers?
BOMAN: No. No, no reason. That's quite a few years ago, and it was just custom, I guess. As far as being tellers are concerned. Wasn't too many years till we had a lady teller. From there, why, we had lots of them. (laughing)
AHERN: When you started what was your salary at the bank?
BOMAN: It'll make you laugh. Being interviewed for employment, he said, the manager at that time, said that I was well recommended, and he said, "Incidentally, what kind of a salary are you getting where you are?" and I told him. He said, "Oh, my goodness," he says, "we couldn't pay you anything like
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that." Said, "Let's see. The best we could do would be eighty-five dollars a month," and I was making quite
a bit more than that where I was. (laughing)
AHERN: How much more?
BOMAN: Well, I think, if my memory serves me correctly, from sixty-five dollars a month I'd worked my way to a hundred and twenty-five a month, so the difference between a hundred and twenty-five and eighty-five was pretty serious in those days. However, my wife was employed at the time, too, so we talked things over and thought we had nothing to lose, so give it a try.
AHERN: Going back a bit, you mentioned that you talked it over with your wife. How old were you when you got married?
BOMAN: Oh, let's see. Twenty-two.
AHERN: And your wife's name?
BOMAN: Melba.
AHERN: Her maiden name?
BOMAN: Her maiden name was Rogers.
AHERN: Was she from Fallon, also?
BOMAN: Yes, she was born and raised--well, she was born a quarter of mile from this house and never left Fallon.
AHERN: You've known her since high school?
BOMAN: Yes.
AHERN: How did you meet her?
BOMAN: I don't know. In school, first thing you know everybody knew everyone else. Only thing I can say.
AHERN: Let me put it this way. Why did you choose her?
BOMAN: Why? Well, (laughing) that's a . . . some people fall in love and get married. Standard practice. Just like we still do today. I'll say one thing more about that salary deal. The manager told me that eighty-five dollars a month was the most that they could pay, but he says, "If you're here six months, we will review your case, and if you're satisfactory, we'll give you a nice raise." Well, that sounded fair enough, and when the six months were up, why, I was called into his
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office, and he said, "You know, I told you at the end of six months that you'd get a raise. We're very happy to give you that raise now." In those days, the bank paid twice a month. First and the fifteenth, so that nice raise was five dollars a month. So, I then made ninety dollars a month, but the raise was five, and that was two dollars and a half for each payday. On the other hand back then a dollar was really a dollar so everything being relative why it wasn't that
serious. We ate well and were able to afford a car. Just like folks live today.
AHERN: Did you have any children?
BOMAN: Yes. We had one son. Presently, he lives in Palm Springs [California].
AHERN: His name?
BOMAN: His name is also William. He was named William Rogers Boman. The Rogers being my wife's maiden name, and, incidentally, this right here at the intersection as you drove in is Rogers Road and Harrigan Road, so the Rogers name came from my wife's folks. They were really old timers in here. They came to this area or to Fallon really before the Lahontan Dam was completed, and they homesteaded eighty acres. By the time they got the brush off the land which they grubbed by hand, the Dam was finally completed and water in the ditches and everything worked out fine.
AHERN: During your years working in the bank, you've seen Fallon grow. Was there any part where it grew immediately or real fast, or just slowly, gradually?
BOMAN: Well, there was a period right in those 1930's the growth was slow then, but there's been a lot of changes in Fallon since those days.
AHERN: In your capacity as a lending officer, was there any time when you wish you could have done otherwise or given a different answer to someone who came to you with a request for a loan?
BOMAN: You mean a different answer from either yes or no? (laughing)
AHERN: I'm sorry. A different answer rather than no. If you had your way, you would have said yes to someone asking for a loan but instead you had to say no. Were there times like that?
BOMAN: 10
Oh, yes, yes. There are still today. People asking for loans fill out an application and various financial statements, and, of course, the manner in which they made their payments is part of their record and usually part of the decision was, if we didn't know them personally it was a matter of checking on their references and so on, and sometimes the results were (laughing) elemental. You either got the loan, or you didn't. You can't very well say yes to every applicant. I think at that time, once again, we were the only bank in Fallon. Now there must be, banking institutions, there must be seven or eight. That's counting savings and loan. They act like a regular bank anymore, so you can see we have grown considerably from one bank to that many and all those banks have to operate on deposits of the people, so they all have to leave deposits.
AHERN: Were there a lot of deposits back then?
BOMAN: It was a matter of relativity. There were a few that had little more than what we considered as individuals. They weren't bordering on rich, but they had very healthy incomes. That's no different than present times.
AHERN: When you made a decision, did you make it alone, or were there more than one person deciding upon a loan applicant?
BOMAN: In those days, lending officers and the managers who were from our headquarters were given lending limits and we could act on those limits without approval from headquarters. If the loan application was in excess of that amount, then the application and everything had to be forwarded to our head office and their other officers made the decision.
AHERN: What was the limit without headquarter's okay?
BOMAN: Well, that's very difficult. I think I could tell you
that now without there being any telling tales out of school (laughing), but they operate differently today than we used to. When I was manager of this office, let's see, I could loan secured loans a hundred thousand dollars without asking anyone. I mean, that was my approved lending limit. Nowadays that's all changed; the lending officers have very little to say. They take the application, and the information is fed into a machine, and the machine says yes or no when it comes back in about ten minutes.
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AHERN: Did you have any serious problems about people paying back the loan?.
BOMAN: Naturally, you do. That's the business you're in, so, therefore, you have good ones, and you have some that are not so good. I could tell you one thing, but, now again without telling tales out of school, but way back I had a little woman, Indian woman, who lived quite a number of miles from Fallon, at least a hundred miles, and she lived on a reservation. The way they operated the members of the tribe all had allotted land that they operated as a farm, and they all had their few head of livestock, and their procedure was the individuals owned the livestock and then they had an association that owned the bulls, and then they had lots of range rights, so they needed a few dollars living expenses periodically, but this nice old lady became a constant annual borrower. The sum of two
hundred dollars. (laughing) Big loan. Anyway, then when they sold their cattle in the fall, she marched in and paid their obligations, and everything was fine. That went on for several years, and this poor old lady didn't show up one year when the loan was due, and she didn't pay too much attention to letters that were written and didn't pay any attention as a matter of fact. As time went on, in those days we went through a national bank examination twice annually, and first thing I knew that two hundred dollars was delinquent over sixty days, so we had a little conference with the national bank examiner, and he thought I should charge it to losses, and I argued with him for quite some time. That is, of the chief who had examined us. I finally convinced him that this lady had done business with us for many years, and it looked pretty bad to have to charge a two hundred loan to losses especially
with her record. "Well," he says, "you've talked me into it. We'll only come back next time. You'd better have collected that," and when they came back the next time, this little lady hadn't paid her two hundred dollars, so, boom, it went down the tube charged to losses. Then, about a year from that time, I looked up from my desk one day, and here's my little customer out there, and she was all smiles. She says, "I come to pay my bill." Two hundred bucks. We'd charged it to losses by then, and that's serious then. Big old black mark laid up on the wall. She couldn't borrow anymore. Anyway, she paid her loan just like she said. She came to pay, and she'd had some unfortunate experience on the reservation. Illness and lost a few head of her cattle and when she finally got on her feet she came to pay. Very honest folks. Then the next year she came to get her two-hundred dollar loan again, and at that
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time why the regulations were having a loss I was not supposed to make her a loan again, but she couldn't understand that. She says, "I always pay my bills." In any event at the end of the conversation she got her two-hundred dollar loan again and never another problem, but it was always paid off by the time the bank examiners came again, so they couldn't see a
repeat there. (laughing) But there were good times, and there were unfortunate times in the business. Ups and downs. But I thought, even at that time, even though it was amusing that she intended to pay her bills fact that the rules and regulations were can't do it that way, but we did it anyway occasionally. I would rather imagine she's long since deceased. She wasn't a young woman. She raised quite a little family all by herself. Her husband had passed away years before. There's always some humor in any business.
AHERN: What did you do for recreation?
BOMAN: Recreation? Well, I was an avid sportsman. I love to hunt and fish and camp out, and so free time usually went in that area, and my wife, also, loved to fish and camp, so that was our recreation primarily.
AHERN: Tell me about this incident where you had gone arrowhead hunting one day.
BOMAN: (laughing) That has a little humor in it, too. We had just bought a brand-new automobile. Took delivery of it Saturday afternoon. In those days the bank was open half a day on Saturday and only closed Sunday, and we had planned an arrowhead hunt for that particular Sunday, and we took a nice lunch with us. Took off with two friends of ours who were also avid arrowhead hunters, and, unfortunately, it was in the spring of the year and sudden storms come up here, and we were quite a number of miles out in the desert and came a cloudburst, and the water came everywhere, and the first thing we knew why we were stuck. The water had flowed for miles on these dry lake bed; flats, we call 'em, and I think the nearest we could see the following day which was Monday (laughing)--we spent the night in the cars, and when the storm quit, the nearest land was about, I'd say, three-quarters of a mile from the car. Everything was water and sea gulls (laughing) swimming around. We had to leave the cars, of course, 'cause we had nothing more to eat, and we were a long ways from home. When we left the cars, the water had risen so it was running into the floor boards of the car when we left, and so we waded out. We got to the land. It was pretty muddy. 'Course we were missed so there was
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quite a search. 'Course we were down there three days and nights, and they had a couple of search parties after us. From that point on we were very careful. If it looked like it was going to storm, we came home quick. (laughing) Our cars stayed there in the water for over thirty days, and we finally talked to an adventurous local character, and he said, "I'll go get those cars for you," and we made a small engagement with him, and I think he took a great big piece of cheese and some bread with him, and he had four semi-mustangs and a hay wagon, and he probably took along with this big cheese and the bread, he probably, I would venture to say, he took a gallon of whiskey with him, and he went down, and he was gone three or four days, and he got them out. Trouble was our brand new car wasn't worth a damn. (laughing) He got our car out first, and then when he got the other one out with his horses and got the other one to dry land, he tied a chain to the front and rear bumpers, and he used our car to pull the other guy's car back to where there was good road, and the crankcase, of course, was full of alkali water and, needless to say, the motor never was the same. That was a one-day old car. (laughing)
AHERN: How much did that new car cost?
BOMAN: Well, let's see. The one we had before that was the first car we ever owned, and we bought that car for six-hundred dollars. It was a two-door, and I think that was, in those days you could do this. The car dealer and his wife took us down to Richmond, California, and arrangements were made with the Ford plant down there, and we watched our car become a car from the assembly line. We followed it all the way. Upstairs, downstairs, every part of it was done, and when it came off the end, why they filled the car with gasoline, and we got in it and drove it home. That way you saved another hundred bucks or better for freight on the car. That was two years later. I think we paid right around eight hundred dollars for that car.
AHERN: And what year was this?
BOMAN: That was in 1938, because the car was brand new. I'll never forget that. (laughing) That was the model.
AHERN: Who was this person that pulled your car out of the water?
BOMAN: You know, I can't think of his name. Since I've told you, I've been racking my brain, and I just cannot remember his name, but he lived here all his life, I
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think. I don't think he was married. He may have been. I thought he was a single man. Still can't remember his name.
AHERN: Most of the loan requests, were they for farming or . Is that what the loans were mostly for?
BOMAN: Oh, yes. Well, our general, a lot of automobile financing. Those, of course, were installment loans where you paid monthly and loans to improve your property on monthly payments. The other categories, of course, were loans on livestock, to buy more livestock, or to feed, or crop loans.
AHERN: Was there unusual request for a loan that you thought was unusual?
BOMAN: Well, there are always some, yes, (laughing) but I can't recall any of them during those years. You have requests that are good requests and legitimate, and there's always a few fly-by-nighters. A lot of people used to come in and borrow money to put a new roof on their house, and instead of that they went to Hawaii for a vacation. (laughing) Those things are humorous, but those things went on. Didn't used to make us happy, as bankers, when we found out about it, but they all worked out as a rule.
AHERN: Did you enjoy being in the banking business?
BOMAN: Yes, I must say I did. It's a good profession. It's a business unto itself. A little different from farming.
AHERN: Your bank was the only one in town?
BOMAN: At that time.
AHERN: Do you recall, what was the second bank to appear in town?
BOMAN: The bank that opened an office in Fallon was Security National, and then they later dropped the name of National. They became a state bank instead of a national bank. They dropped their charter as a national bank, and they had two offices in Fallon, and then Security sold out to Valley Bank, and it's sold again, and their holdings are now Bank of America.
AHERN: How did you feel about the second bank coming to Fallon?
BOMAN: Well, mixed emotions. We unknowingly for quite a
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number of years had a monopoly, and you become concerned when somebody is moving in next door on a competitive basis, but everybody's gonna do some business, and so that's during one of the growth periods of the community. There was room for two banks, and we each, of course, have two offices. I say "we". I've been retired for eighteen years, but my relationship was a happy one with the bank, so I'm still considered one of the family of the bank's. They treat their retired personnel very well.
AHERN: Was there at any point in time serious competition
between the two banks, or you felt there was enough for both?
BOMAN: Well, of course, naturally, we were competitors, but they had to operate in the same Federal regulations that we did, so, mostly, a case of personalities of our personnel and theirs 'cause we both had the same services to offer.
AHERN: But, did you do anything different like offer anything extra to keep your customers or to attract new customers?
BOMAN: Well, there's always little things that you try to do that it doesn't take competition long to catch on and then they do it. It's reciprocal. If they happen to think of a gimmick or two first, why then when we caught on why we offered the same thing.
AHERN: What were some of the gimmicks that were being used?
BOMAN: Well, (laughing) interest payments for one thing. Interest on loans or the maximum that as a minimum that had to be observed and Saturday closings, for example. Even those were pretty well agreed upon that one wouldn't be open five days a week, and your competitor five and a half, so we could, but they thought they'd lose a lot of business that way, so everybody kind of keeps in line. It's a highly regulated business
really. National banks, the Federal boys are looking over your shoulder at all times to see that you are making loans that are legitimate. When the loans are made, they naturally must be paid off, so those things are part of the regulations. Everyone operates by those regulations. The savings and loan people, of course, if you will recall or know, they went wild, and they didn't have the proper supervision, and many, many people, thousands and thousands of people lost billions of dollars through their shaky actions.
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AHERN: Do you recall any large businesses making a loan and, unfortunately, it didn't survive, and they had to close and leave Fallon?
BOMAN: That's a little difficult to answer. A business loan is made with a very big concern on their current assets and cash flow and the whole thing, so you just don't gamble too much on so called business loans. They make them every day, but they're usually pretty well
secured. And, that again, is under Federal
regulations. Some things they can do, and some things they can't.
AHERN: During your years in Fallon, were there any natural disasters?
BOMAN: We had a series of earthquakes here. Nevada was prone to earthquakes way before my time. There was after the San Francisco earthquake 1906, 1905, somewhere in
there, there was a very serious, a rough earthquake, but I don't believe there were any lives lost because they were all country people then, and no big tall buildings to speak of. That was a real hard quake, and then we've had small ones over the years. In the fifties, we had some good stiff jolts. One was, I think the hardest we had was 7.2 on the Richter scale which is close to devastating. It did a lot of damage in here, yes.
AHERN: Do you remember that?
BOMAN: Oh, yes.
AHERN: Where were you when it happened?
BOMAN: Well, (laughing), this house has been completely remodeled since our younger days when my wife and I lived here, so we were right at home here. 7.2 was a real shaker. You would swear you were on the inside of a cement mixer. You tried to get out of bed on one side, and it would throw you over on the other side, and then, lo and behold, you'd end up back not on the floor on either side, so it was just a matter of getting a hold of something real solid to hang onto.
AHERN: Did any of the walls crash in or windows break?
BOMAN: Yes, we had a lot of glass. A lot of things came off shelves, and the glassware was broken. If you look right in here, when the house was remodeled, we completely rebuilt it except for this room right here. We considered it a pantry, and my wife and mother-in-
17
law had all those shelves filled with canned fruit. Peaches, pears, apricots, and it has a concrete floor. The walls are about a foot thick. Even the roof was concrete, and those shelves were emptied.. The canned food just kept, the glass, everything was broken, yes. It took us a good day shoveling up the glass. It was a very pungent odor in there, of course, because (laughing) a little of everything that was all mixed together. Canned fruits a total loss. But it took quite a little work. A lot of damage to roads here. I don't think if you're referring to a quake out in Dixie Valley, I don't know . . . There's a fault that runs the whole length of Dixie Valley. You're familiar with it, I trust. That goes clear up almost to Winnemucca, and it's had its share of earthquake, and we feel all of them, too. Did a lot of damage in town, yes. A lot of homes were shaken off their foundations, but we
survived all right. No one was killed.
AHERN: Besides earthquakes, were there any major floods?
BOMAN: Well, before my time they used to have floods on the Carson River which ends down in that same area that we were talking of our cars being stuck down there, but since the Dam was built, Lahontan Dam, it cuts off the spring floods. Good snowpack in the mountains and then a rainstorm on top of that, I mean a warm rain, a big one, and the water's gotta go somewhere. It comes right down the Carson, but in recent years it's been controlled very well.
AHERN: Besides working at the bank, were you active in any other community projects, or on committees?
BOMAN: I couldn't name them, but there's always a part of country living you get involved in and all local projects. Not everyone, but that gives everyone something to do.
AHERN: Did you belong to a number of committees?
BOMAN: You serve on committees, usually, for a certain length of time, and either the job is done that you're, gets finished in good style and is successful then you're released. I did spend six years on the Nevada State Tax Commission as a commissioner representing banking. It took a little time away from my job, but the bank ran just the same whether I was there or not, (laughing) and our banking people were very gracious about the time off that it took. We'd meet two or three days at a time, either in Carson City or Las
Vegas with the problems of the taxes. Just like our
18
sales tax and all those were handled through the Tax Commission. That was very interesting work. I enjoyed that very much. And then in my capacity as a commissioner representing banking, my duties were general on the commission but at the same time I was supposed to be the one who was concerned about banks in the state. I was on the commission representing livestock, for land and businesses and everything. I think when I got off of that I think it was a seven-man board at that time.
AHERN: You said you found it interesting. What was
interesting about your being on the Tax board?
BOMAN: The Tax Commission?
AHERN: Yes.
BOMAN: Well, no one likes to pay taxes (laughing) and there are always folks who, businesses, be it, or whatever, that get in trouble with their taxes when they don't pay them, so it was also our jobs to hear their cases. They would come before us as a commission, and our duties were very similar to a jury. We sat as a body, and the people who were involved brought their attorneys.
AHERN: Is there any one case that stands out in your mind?
BOMAN: Yes. I probably shouldn't mention it, but cigarettes. There's federal taxes on every package of cigarettes and there's state and there's county and everything. Everybody gets a whack at it. And about the time you think everything's running smoothly, why somebody figures a way, and the various Indian reservations dug into things from way back history and found that they were not subject to certain taxes, so they promptly all opened up smoke shops and sold cigarettes without the state tax being put on them, and, needless to say, they
won. That was a big one. (laughing) But, you can't win them all. Then, perhaps, that is justified. I wouldn't want to say personally about that, but that was quite a struggle there for a long time till they finally got the right decisions. We had many hearings and trials on that. Their attorneys did a lot of research and sure enough those old laws were still in effect, so we have a smoke shop here.
AHERN: Do you recall what year it was?
BOMAN: No, I really don't, I'm sorry to say. Seems like it was in the 1960's. I may be wrong, but it was right in
19
there. I had an interesting experience. It wasn't particularly. banking. Connected with banking, though. It was with the Navy department. (laughing) See, I was a manager,--I can't recall if I was a vice-president then or not, but it doesn't matter, but I was invited by the Secretary of Navy on a cruise of the Pacific on an aircraft carrier for, supposed to be ten days, two weeks, something like that. There were twelve of us from all over the United States on that particular cruise. We were over three hundred miles at sea yet when President Kennedy was assassinated, and they immediately flew us off the deck of the carrier into San Diego [California]. No one knew what--it was a terrible crisis at that time, but I must say that I certainly enjoyed the cruise up to that point. Saw many things that I'd never hoped to see. Life on board a carrier is a lot different from riding on a ferry boat somewhere. (laughing) They're complete and independent cities unto themselves.
AHERN: What was the purpose of the cruise?
BOMAN: Public relations, I suppose. I don't know on what basis we were chosen, but I was friendly at that time with the captain at the base locally here, and the cruise itself happens to all carriers. This particular carrier was getting ready for its cruise to the Orient, and all the squadrons that were on board had to qualify landings and takeoffs on the carrier twenty-four hours a day, night and day, so that was the purpose of the cruise, and we were just excess baggage. It was a little different from Navy League cruises which are constant. This one came as an invitation from the Secretary of Navy, and before we could go on board, they collected out of our pockets so much for
breakfast, so much for lunch, so much for dinner in the evening for the time we would be out there. It didn't cost the government much, and we had to handle our own transportation from various places. Some were from the east coast, midwest. I think there were four from Nevada. I don't know how come, but it just happened that way. There was a school teacher, a superintendent. The prime reason, though, was for public relations between the Navy and the civilians. They sure eat well on board those things, I'll tell you that. (laughing)
AHERN: Well, Mr. Boman, on behalf of the Churchill County Museum, I would like to thank you for having me interview you. Thank you.
WILLIAM BOMAN Index Page 14,
Banking experiences 6, 12,
Birth 1
Boman, George McKenzie 3
Boman, Jessie McKenzie 2, 4
Boman, Melba Rogers 8
Boman, William Clayton 1, 2
Boman, William Rogers 9
Earthquakes 16-17
Family life 4
First National Bank of Nevada 7
Hazen experiences 3, 4-5
I. H. Kent Company 6
McCracken, George 6
Nevada State Tax Commission 17-19
Recreation 12-13, 19
Schooling 3, 5-6
Security National Bank 14
15-16
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
an interview with
WILLIAM H. BOMAN
Janaury 29, 1994
OH
Born
This interview was conducted by Eleanor Ahern; transcribed by Glenda Price; edited by Norine Arciniega; final by Pat Baden; index by Gracie Viera; supervised by Myrl Nygren, Director of Oral History Project, Churchill County Museum.
Preface
I was greeted with a firm handshake from a youthful-looking William Boman, who is eighty years of age and in excellent health.
Mr. Boman tells of living in Hazen, Nevada and describes his commute to Fallon, by train, to attend Churchill County High School. Having served thirty-seven years in the banking business, he gives an excellent insight into some of the activities of the banking business and how some of it has changed over the years in Fallon and nationwide.
Although Mr. Boman suffers from an eye condition known as macular degeneration, he has no problem getting around the house.
Reading and other activities that require sharp vision are not possible. Mr. Boman confesses that he sometimes falls while doing chores outside, but he just picks himself up and continues with what he was doing. This seems to be his philosophy--pick yourself up and continue with your life.
Interview with William Boman
This is Eleanor Ahern of the Churchill County Museum Oral History Project interviewing William Boman at his house 1500 Drumm Lane, Fallon, Nevada. The date is Saturday, January 29, 1994.
AHERN: We are sitting in the kitchen of Mr. Boman's house. The time is 1:15. Hello, Mr. Boman. How are you?
BOMAN: Fine, thank you, and how are you?
AHERN: I'm fine. Would you please give me your full name.
BOMAN: William Herbert Boman.
AHERN: Could you tell me where and when you were born?
BOMAN: I was born in Napa, California, June 12, 1914.
AHERN: Could you tell me a little bit about your parents? First of all, your father's name.
BOMAN: Father's name was William Clayton Boman, and he was a lifetime, almost a lifetime employee, of Southern Pacific Railroad.
AHERN: Where was he born?
BOMAN: He was born in Michigan.
AHERN: Do you remember what brought him out to the West?
BOMAN: Frankly, I think he ran away from home back there. (laughing) He wanted to come West. He was a very young man at the time, and he came West to Washington and Oregon originally and stayed about two years up in that area and then moved to California.
AHERN: Where in California?
BOMAN: He was located in the Napa Valley.
AHERN: Do you recall what he was doing in the Napa Valley then?
BOMAN: No, I really can't tell you. That's kind of intricate (laughing) history.
AHERN: What about your mother?
BOMAN: She was born in Napa, California. Her folks were Scotch people who both came across the Atlantic and they landed in Nova Scotia, and they spent some time-I can't tell you how long--there, but they were waiting
2
for immigration entry into the United States, and then when that came, they moved to Napa and the San Francisco area.
AHERN: And your mother's name?
BOMAN: Was Jessie McKenzie.
AHERN: Do you know how your parents met?
BOMAN: No, I really couldn't tell you how they met. At that time Napa was very much smaller than it is at the present time. It now stretches from Napa to the end of Vallejo and all that area around the bay, and you can't tell when you're in one and out of the other one. So that's as near as I can tell you. I can't recall family history there or what he was engaged in. He didn't stay there too long. He moved to Nevada and went to work for the railroad.
AHERN: What was your father doing for the railroad?
BOMAN: He was in what was called the Water Service. He and his crew maintained the diesel pumps and gasoline pumps that pumped the water into the railroad tanks for the locomotives to take water periodically and every so many miles. His location was, well, I think he went east as far as Elko and west of Sparks, north to Alturas [California] and that country around Susanville [California] and south to Mina. They were on the move constantly as they did a little repair work and then whatever.
AHERN: Does that mean he was away from home a lot?
BOMAN: Yes. Um-hum. He was home weekends unless he was doing work at home locally in Hazen and the immediate vicinity.
AHERN: Did you miss seeing your father during the weekdays?
BOMAN: Well, not particularly. No. We had to behave ourselves in those days because you never did know what
day he'd hit home. (laughing) 'Course always on the weekends, but he would have to go through.
AHERN: Were there any other children in the family besides you?
BOMAN: One brother.
AHERN: His name and his birthplace?
3
BOMAN: His name was George McKenzie Boman. He's now living in Las Vegas.
AHERN: Where was he born?
BOMAN: He was born in Reno, Nevada.
AHERN: So that meant there was just your mother and you and your brother at home?
BOMAN: Right.
AHERN: Did you help your mother a lot?
BOMAN: We sure did. We thought we did, at least. (laughing)
AHERN: Were you living on a ranch?
BOMAN: No. We lived in Hazen which had at least pretty close to two hundred people at that time, and we had a two-room school. First through fourth grades and fifth through the eighth, and then when it came time to go to high school,_we came to Fallon and commuted daily then from Hazen.
AHERN: Where did you first attend school?
BOMAN: I attended the first grade of school in Lovelock, Nevada for one year, and then my father took a leave of absence from the railroad at that time, and we moved to California, and he went into business for a short while with his brother in the dairy business, and that was dairy processing. They didn't milk the cows. They bought the milk and delivered it He stayed with his brother for about approximately a year, and then he came back up and resumed his job with the railroad.
California wasn't for him. (laughing)
AHERN: When you went to school in Lovelock, that's where you lived for a while, in Lovelock, your family?
BOMAN: Well, no. Frankly, we lived in another wide spot on the road. A little place between Hazen and Lovelock called Parran, which, incidentally, was in Churchill County. (laughing) It was about half way between Hazen and Lovelock. Then when his traveling on the road was more centralized, they discovered if a family moved to Hazen, he had access to branch lines and railroad out of Hazen. That was the reason for moving to Hazen. The job was still the same.
4
AHERN: Your address in Hazen?
BOMAN: We didn't have addresses there except a post office box. (laughing) They had a little post office in Hazen. The streets weren't named at that time to my knowledge. They actually weren't streets, just roads.
AHERN: What did your mother do when your father was gone? Was she a homemaker?
BOMAN: Homemaker, yes. Um-hum.
AHERN: Were you somewhat self sufficient? Did you have any chickens or . . .
BOMAN: Nearly everyone had their flock of chickens in those days and a small garden for fresh vegetables. Not for
in the commercial sense. Just for family use.
AHERN: You had a garden, some chickens. Any goats?
BOMAN: Nope. No animals.
AHERN: Being only two boys in the family, did you end up helping your mother with some housework?
BOMAN: Oh, yes, that was customary in those days. (laughing) You got in the wood and the coal. There was always dishes to do. We had a very pleasant childhood.
AHERN: What was pleasant about your childhood?
BOMAN: Just everyday growing up was pleasant in those days. They weren't troubled with gangs or . . . (laughing) Everybody behaved themselves, and we just had a good time growing up.
AHERN: Was your mother the disciplinarian in your family since your father was gone most of the time?
BOMAN: Not necessarily, no. She was the chief reporter (laughing) and when the weekend came if we'd been out of line, why, my father immediately knew about it, but she maintained good discipline through the week, also.
AHERN: Did your father have to deal out any harsh discipline when he came home?
BOMAN: No, no. (laughing)
AHERN: You eventually went to Churchill County High School?
5
BOMAN: Right.
AHERN: You had to commute from Hazen to Churchill. What was your means of transportation from Hazen to Churchill?
BOMAN: Well, in those days a train--a passenger train and freight train mixed--came from Hazen to Fallon. Over in the morning, back in the evening, and the fact that nearly all of us were railroad kids it didn't cost us anything for transportation, so the first couple of years, three years as a matter of fact, I think we hopped a train about seven o'clock in the morning and came to Fallon. The train left the depot in Fallon for Hazen at three-thirty in the afternoon.
AHERN: Where was the train depot in Fallon located?
BOMAN: Right where Taylor Street crosses the railroad tracks. Where the hospital is on farther across, and the depot was right in the area where they are now considering a garbage dump--or, temporary. (laughing)
AHERN: Now, when you'd get off the train in Fallon, then you'd have to walk to school? Was it a long walk?
BOMAN: No. You mean in Lovelock?
AHERN: No, when you caught the train from Hazen to Fallon.
BOMAN: Oh, to Fallon.
AHERN: Yeah. Did you have to walk from the depot to school, or was there transportation from the depot to take you?
BOMAN: Oh, no. It was all by walking.
AHERN: Was it a long walk?
BOMAN: Yes, we considered it so. In actual miles, it wasn't a great distance, but we were here early in the morning, I would say, leaving Hazen at seven o'clock, approximately a half hour by train in those days. It was probably a good mile from the depot down to Maine Street and Maine Street south to what is now junior high school, used to be the high school, so that's quite a little, and we thought it was quite a bit a ways. We were all athletically inclined because the school day in high school ended at 3:20, and we had ten minutes to deposit our things in the lockers and take our homework books out and run as fast as we could from the high school to try to catch the train.
Occasionally we missed. (laughing) Such things as
6
that, then we walked, and that was a long ways. That
was sixteen miles. (laughing)
AHERN: When you missed the train, did anybody ever come to pick you up?
BOMAN: Well, we so-called hitchhiked, but there wasn't much action between Hazen and Fallon. (laughing) I would judge possibly ten, twelve cars would pass us, and someone living in the county and been to town shopping here in Fallon they were all very kind about giving us rides, but they didn't go too far. When they came to their house, why we bailed out and continued to walk.
AHERN: Did you take any special classes in school to prepare you for adult life?
BOMAN: Uh, not special classes. I took lots of math in those days. Standard things. Math, English, science, chemistry and physics, two years of foreign language. That's about it.
AHERN: What did you do after you graduated from high school?
BOMAN: That was in 1932, and that was the tag end of the Depression back in the thirties, and it really hit this locality then about the time school was out, and it ended in 1932 the year itself. I went to work for the I.H. Kent Company, and I stayed there for seven years.
AHERN: What type of work were you doing for Mr. Kent?
BOMAN: Working in the grocery store as a grocery clerk and delivery man. And one fine day my ex-principal of the high school came through the store and asked me if I
intended to sell groceries all my life. (laughing) I told him no, but employment was a must right then and we were all used to eating three times a day, so had to stick to the job. But, anyway, he told me that his understanding that the local bank wanted to hire a young man, and, just as if I was still in school, he says, "I want you to go down and apply for that job," which I did, and I think between the bank manager and the old principal, why, I think they had it cooked up anyway.
AHERN: Who was the principal and the bank manager?
BOMAN: The principal was George McCracken who was well known in this area for many, many years, especially those early years, and the bank manager, his name was Haworth. So from 1939 till I retired I worked at the
7
bank.
AHERN: From 1939 until?
BOMAN: I was hired in 1939, yes, got to 1976. Middle of 1976 I retired.
AHERN: When you first started out at the bank, what did you do?
BOMAN: I was bank bookkeeper and a teller. Both at the same time. I was later promoted to an officer's position which, was in those days, we were called assistant cashiers which we were lending officers, actually. Over the years I went as far as a vice-president and manager which was my capacity at the time I retired and for, oh, possibly six, seven years prior to that.
AHERN: What was the name of the bank that employed you?
BOMAN: At that time, it was First National Bank of Nevada, and we had offices in all the principal cities in Nevada. Shortly after I retired the name of the bank was changed to First Interstate Bank of Nevada. It was a name change only.
AHERN: Were there both men and women tellers at the bank?
BOMAN: When I first went to work for the bank, no. The only women employees were girls who ran bookkeeping machines and a secretary, and now these days it's pretty hard to find a male in the bank except--and I shouldn't say
except" because the ladies are taking over in all capacities.
AHERN: When you were first employed, was there a reason why there were only men tellers?
BOMAN: No. No, no reason. That's quite a few years ago, and it was just custom, I guess. As far as being tellers are concerned. Wasn't too many years till we had a lady teller. From there, why, we had lots of them. (laughing)
AHERN: When you started what was your salary at the bank?
BOMAN: It'll make you laugh. Being interviewed for employment, he said, the manager at that time, said that I was well recommended, and he said, "Incidentally, what kind of a salary are you getting where you are?" and I told him. He said, "Oh, my goodness," he says, "we couldn't pay you anything like
8
that." Said, "Let's see. The best we could do would be eighty-five dollars a month," and I was making quite
a bit more than that where I was. (laughing)
AHERN: How much more?
BOMAN: Well, I think, if my memory serves me correctly, from sixty-five dollars a month I'd worked my way to a hundred and twenty-five a month, so the difference between a hundred and twenty-five and eighty-five was pretty serious in those days. However, my wife was employed at the time, too, so we talked things over and thought we had nothing to lose, so give it a try.
AHERN: Going back a bit, you mentioned that you talked it over with your wife. How old were you when you got married?
BOMAN: Oh, let's see. Twenty-two.
AHERN: And your wife's name?
BOMAN: Melba.
AHERN: Her maiden name?
BOMAN: Her maiden name was Rogers.
AHERN: Was she from Fallon, also?
BOMAN: Yes, she was born and raised--well, she was born a quarter of mile from this house and never left Fallon.
AHERN: You've known her since high school?
BOMAN: Yes.
AHERN: How did you meet her?
BOMAN: I don't know. In school, first thing you know everybody knew everyone else. Only thing I can say.
AHERN: Let me put it this way. Why did you choose her?
BOMAN: Why? Well, (laughing) that's a . . . some people fall in love and get married. Standard practice. Just like we still do today. I'll say one thing more about that salary deal. The manager told me that eighty-five dollars a month was the most that they could pay, but he says, "If you're here six months, we will review your case, and if you're satisfactory, we'll give you a nice raise." Well, that sounded fair enough, and when the six months were up, why, I was called into his
9
office, and he said, "You know, I told you at the end of six months that you'd get a raise. We're very happy to give you that raise now." In those days, the bank paid twice a month. First and the fifteenth, so that nice raise was five dollars a month. So, I then made ninety dollars a month, but the raise was five, and that was two dollars and a half for each payday. On the other hand back then a dollar was really a dollar so everything being relative why it wasn't that
serious. We ate well and were able to afford a car. Just like folks live today.
AHERN: Did you have any children?
BOMAN: Yes. We had one son. Presently, he lives in Palm Springs [California].
AHERN: His name?
BOMAN: His name is also William. He was named William Rogers Boman. The Rogers being my wife's maiden name, and, incidentally, this right here at the intersection as you drove in is Rogers Road and Harrigan Road, so the Rogers name came from my wife's folks. They were really old timers in here. They came to this area or to Fallon really before the Lahontan Dam was completed, and they homesteaded eighty acres. By the time they got the brush off the land which they grubbed by hand, the Dam was finally completed and water in the ditches and everything worked out fine.
AHERN: During your years working in the bank, you've seen Fallon grow. Was there any part where it grew immediately or real fast, or just slowly, gradually?
BOMAN: Well, there was a period right in those 1930's the growth was slow then, but there's been a lot of changes in Fallon since those days.
AHERN: In your capacity as a lending officer, was there any time when you wish you could have done otherwise or given a different answer to someone who came to you with a request for a loan?
BOMAN: You mean a different answer from either yes or no? (laughing)
AHERN: I'm sorry. A different answer rather than no. If you had your way, you would have said yes to someone asking for a loan but instead you had to say no. Were there times like that?
BOMAN: 10
Oh, yes, yes. There are still today. People asking for loans fill out an application and various financial statements, and, of course, the manner in which they made their payments is part of their record and usually part of the decision was, if we didn't know them personally it was a matter of checking on their references and so on, and sometimes the results were (laughing) elemental. You either got the loan, or you didn't. You can't very well say yes to every applicant. I think at that time, once again, we were the only bank in Fallon. Now there must be, banking institutions, there must be seven or eight. That's counting savings and loan. They act like a regular bank anymore, so you can see we have grown considerably from one bank to that many and all those banks have to operate on deposits of the people, so they all have to leave deposits.
AHERN: Were there a lot of deposits back then?
BOMAN: It was a matter of relativity. There were a few that had little more than what we considered as individuals. They weren't bordering on rich, but they had very healthy incomes. That's no different than present times.
AHERN: When you made a decision, did you make it alone, or were there more than one person deciding upon a loan applicant?
BOMAN: In those days, lending officers and the managers who were from our headquarters were given lending limits and we could act on those limits without approval from headquarters. If the loan application was in excess of that amount, then the application and everything had to be forwarded to our head office and their other officers made the decision.
AHERN: What was the limit without headquarter's okay?
BOMAN: Well, that's very difficult. I think I could tell you
that now without there being any telling tales out of school (laughing), but they operate differently today than we used to. When I was manager of this office, let's see, I could loan secured loans a hundred thousand dollars without asking anyone. I mean, that was my approved lending limit. Nowadays that's all changed; the lending officers have very little to say. They take the application, and the information is fed into a machine, and the machine says yes or no when it comes back in about ten minutes.
11
AHERN: Did you have any serious problems about people paying back the loan?.
BOMAN: Naturally, you do. That's the business you're in, so, therefore, you have good ones, and you have some that are not so good. I could tell you one thing, but, now again without telling tales out of school, but way back I had a little woman, Indian woman, who lived quite a number of miles from Fallon, at least a hundred miles, and she lived on a reservation. The way they operated the members of the tribe all had allotted land that they operated as a farm, and they all had their few head of livestock, and their procedure was the individuals owned the livestock and then they had an association that owned the bulls, and then they had lots of range rights, so they needed a few dollars living expenses periodically, but this nice old lady became a constant annual borrower. The sum of two
hundred dollars. (laughing) Big loan. Anyway, then when they sold their cattle in the fall, she marched in and paid their obligations, and everything was fine. That went on for several years, and this poor old lady didn't show up one year when the loan was due, and she didn't pay too much attention to letters that were written and didn't pay any attention as a matter of fact. As time went on, in those days we went through a national bank examination twice annually, and first thing I knew that two hundred dollars was delinquent over sixty days, so we had a little conference with the national bank examiner, and he thought I should charge it to losses, and I argued with him for quite some time. That is, of the chief who had examined us. I finally convinced him that this lady had done business with us for many years, and it looked pretty bad to have to charge a two hundred loan to losses especially
with her record. "Well," he says, "you've talked me into it. We'll only come back next time. You'd better have collected that," and when they came back the next time, this little lady hadn't paid her two hundred dollars, so, boom, it went down the tube charged to losses. Then, about a year from that time, I looked up from my desk one day, and here's my little customer out there, and she was all smiles. She says, "I come to pay my bill." Two hundred bucks. We'd charged it to losses by then, and that's serious then. Big old black mark laid up on the wall. She couldn't borrow anymore. Anyway, she paid her loan just like she said. She came to pay, and she'd had some unfortunate experience on the reservation. Illness and lost a few head of her cattle and when she finally got on her feet she came to pay. Very honest folks. Then the next year she came to get her two-hundred dollar loan again, and at that
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time why the regulations were having a loss I was not supposed to make her a loan again, but she couldn't understand that. She says, "I always pay my bills." In any event at the end of the conversation she got her two-hundred dollar loan again and never another problem, but it was always paid off by the time the bank examiners came again, so they couldn't see a
repeat there. (laughing) But there were good times, and there were unfortunate times in the business. Ups and downs. But I thought, even at that time, even though it was amusing that she intended to pay her bills fact that the rules and regulations were can't do it that way, but we did it anyway occasionally. I would rather imagine she's long since deceased. She wasn't a young woman. She raised quite a little family all by herself. Her husband had passed away years before. There's always some humor in any business.
AHERN: What did you do for recreation?
BOMAN: Recreation? Well, I was an avid sportsman. I love to hunt and fish and camp out, and so free time usually went in that area, and my wife, also, loved to fish and camp, so that was our recreation primarily.
AHERN: Tell me about this incident where you had gone arrowhead hunting one day.
BOMAN: (laughing) That has a little humor in it, too. We had just bought a brand-new automobile. Took delivery of it Saturday afternoon. In those days the bank was open half a day on Saturday and only closed Sunday, and we had planned an arrowhead hunt for that particular Sunday, and we took a nice lunch with us. Took off with two friends of ours who were also avid arrowhead hunters, and, unfortunately, it was in the spring of the year and sudden storms come up here, and we were quite a number of miles out in the desert and came a cloudburst, and the water came everywhere, and the first thing we knew why we were stuck. The water had flowed for miles on these dry lake bed; flats, we call 'em, and I think the nearest we could see the following day which was Monday (laughing)--we spent the night in the cars, and when the storm quit, the nearest land was about, I'd say, three-quarters of a mile from the car. Everything was water and sea gulls (laughing) swimming around. We had to leave the cars, of course, 'cause we had nothing more to eat, and we were a long ways from home. When we left the cars, the water had risen so it was running into the floor boards of the car when we left, and so we waded out. We got to the land. It was pretty muddy. 'Course we were missed so there was
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quite a search. 'Course we were down there three days and nights, and they had a couple of search parties after us. From that point on we were very careful. If it looked like it was going to storm, we came home quick. (laughing) Our cars stayed there in the water for over thirty days, and we finally talked to an adventurous local character, and he said, "I'll go get those cars for you," and we made a small engagement with him, and I think he took a great big piece of cheese and some bread with him, and he had four semi-mustangs and a hay wagon, and he probably took along with this big cheese and the bread, he probably, I would venture to say, he took a gallon of whiskey with him, and he went down, and he was gone three or four days, and he got them out. Trouble was our brand new car wasn't worth a damn. (laughing) He got our car out first, and then when he got the other one out with his horses and got the other one to dry land, he tied a chain to the front and rear bumpers, and he used our car to pull the other guy's car back to where there was good road, and the crankcase, of course, was full of alkali water and, needless to say, the motor never was the same. That was a one-day old car. (laughing)
AHERN: How much did that new car cost?
BOMAN: Well, let's see. The one we had before that was the first car we ever owned, and we bought that car for six-hundred dollars. It was a two-door, and I think that was, in those days you could do this. The car dealer and his wife took us down to Richmond, California, and arrangements were made with the Ford plant down there, and we watched our car become a car from the assembly line. We followed it all the way. Upstairs, downstairs, every part of it was done, and when it came off the end, why they filled the car with gasoline, and we got in it and drove it home. That way you saved another hundred bucks or better for freight on the car. That was two years later. I think we paid right around eight hundred dollars for that car.
AHERN: And what year was this?
BOMAN: That was in 1938, because the car was brand new. I'll never forget that. (laughing) That was the model.
AHERN: Who was this person that pulled your car out of the water?
BOMAN: You know, I can't think of his name. Since I've told you, I've been racking my brain, and I just cannot remember his name, but he lived here all his life, I
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think. I don't think he was married. He may have been. I thought he was a single man. Still can't remember his name.
AHERN: Most of the loan requests, were they for farming or . Is that what the loans were mostly for?
BOMAN: Oh, yes. Well, our general, a lot of automobile financing. Those, of course, were installment loans where you paid monthly and loans to improve your property on monthly payments. The other categories, of course, were loans on livestock, to buy more livestock, or to feed, or crop loans.
AHERN: Was there unusual request for a loan that you thought was unusual?
BOMAN: Well, there are always some, yes, (laughing) but I can't recall any of them during those years. You have requests that are good requests and legitimate, and there's always a few fly-by-nighters. A lot of people used to come in and borrow money to put a new roof on their house, and instead of that they went to Hawaii for a vacation. (laughing) Those things are humorous, but those things went on. Didn't used to make us happy, as bankers, when we found out about it, but they all worked out as a rule.
AHERN: Did you enjoy being in the banking business?
BOMAN: Yes, I must say I did. It's a good profession. It's a business unto itself. A little different from farming.
AHERN: Your bank was the only one in town?
BOMAN: At that time.
AHERN: Do you recall, what was the second bank to appear in town?
BOMAN: The bank that opened an office in Fallon was Security National, and then they later dropped the name of National. They became a state bank instead of a national bank. They dropped their charter as a national bank, and they had two offices in Fallon, and then Security sold out to Valley Bank, and it's sold again, and their holdings are now Bank of America.
AHERN: How did you feel about the second bank coming to Fallon?
BOMAN: Well, mixed emotions. We unknowingly for quite a
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number of years had a monopoly, and you become concerned when somebody is moving in next door on a competitive basis, but everybody's gonna do some business, and so that's during one of the growth periods of the community. There was room for two banks, and we each, of course, have two offices. I say "we". I've been retired for eighteen years, but my relationship was a happy one with the bank, so I'm still considered one of the family of the bank's. They treat their retired personnel very well.
AHERN: Was there at any point in time serious competition
between the two banks, or you felt there was enough for both?
BOMAN: Well, of course, naturally, we were competitors, but they had to operate in the same Federal regulations that we did, so, mostly, a case of personalities of our personnel and theirs 'cause we both had the same services to offer.
AHERN: But, did you do anything different like offer anything extra to keep your customers or to attract new customers?
BOMAN: Well, there's always little things that you try to do that it doesn't take competition long to catch on and then they do it. It's reciprocal. If they happen to think of a gimmick or two first, why then when we caught on why we offered the same thing.
AHERN: What were some of the gimmicks that were being used?
BOMAN: Well, (laughing) interest payments for one thing. Interest on loans or the maximum that as a minimum that had to be observed and Saturday closings, for example. Even those were pretty well agreed upon that one wouldn't be open five days a week, and your competitor five and a half, so we could, but they thought they'd lose a lot of business that way, so everybody kind of keeps in line. It's a highly regulated business
really. National banks, the Federal boys are looking over your shoulder at all times to see that you are making loans that are legitimate. When the loans are made, they naturally must be paid off, so those things are part of the regulations. Everyone operates by those regulations. The savings and loan people, of course, if you will recall or know, they went wild, and they didn't have the proper supervision, and many, many people, thousands and thousands of people lost billions of dollars through their shaky actions.
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AHERN: Do you recall any large businesses making a loan and, unfortunately, it didn't survive, and they had to close and leave Fallon?
BOMAN: That's a little difficult to answer. A business loan is made with a very big concern on their current assets and cash flow and the whole thing, so you just don't gamble too much on so called business loans. They make them every day, but they're usually pretty well
secured. And, that again, is under Federal
regulations. Some things they can do, and some things they can't.
AHERN: During your years in Fallon, were there any natural disasters?
BOMAN: We had a series of earthquakes here. Nevada was prone to earthquakes way before my time. There was after the San Francisco earthquake 1906, 1905, somewhere in
there, there was a very serious, a rough earthquake, but I don't believe there were any lives lost because they were all country people then, and no big tall buildings to speak of. That was a real hard quake, and then we've had small ones over the years. In the fifties, we had some good stiff jolts. One was, I think the hardest we had was 7.2 on the Richter scale which is close to devastating. It did a lot of damage in here, yes.
AHERN: Do you remember that?
BOMAN: Oh, yes.
AHERN: Where were you when it happened?
BOMAN: Well, (laughing), this house has been completely remodeled since our younger days when my wife and I lived here, so we were right at home here. 7.2 was a real shaker. You would swear you were on the inside of a cement mixer. You tried to get out of bed on one side, and it would throw you over on the other side, and then, lo and behold, you'd end up back not on the floor on either side, so it was just a matter of getting a hold of something real solid to hang onto.
AHERN: Did any of the walls crash in or windows break?
BOMAN: Yes, we had a lot of glass. A lot of things came off shelves, and the glassware was broken. If you look right in here, when the house was remodeled, we completely rebuilt it except for this room right here. We considered it a pantry, and my wife and mother-in-
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law had all those shelves filled with canned fruit. Peaches, pears, apricots, and it has a concrete floor. The walls are about a foot thick. Even the roof was concrete, and those shelves were emptied.. The canned food just kept, the glass, everything was broken, yes. It took us a good day shoveling up the glass. It was a very pungent odor in there, of course, because (laughing) a little of everything that was all mixed together. Canned fruits a total loss. But it took quite a little work. A lot of damage to roads here. I don't think if you're referring to a quake out in Dixie Valley, I don't know . . . There's a fault that runs the whole length of Dixie Valley. You're familiar with it, I trust. That goes clear up almost to Winnemucca, and it's had its share of earthquake, and we feel all of them, too. Did a lot of damage in town, yes. A lot of homes were shaken off their foundations, but we
survived all right. No one was killed.
AHERN: Besides earthquakes, were there any major floods?
BOMAN: Well, before my time they used to have floods on the Carson River which ends down in that same area that we were talking of our cars being stuck down there, but since the Dam was built, Lahontan Dam, it cuts off the spring floods. Good snowpack in the mountains and then a rainstorm on top of that, I mean a warm rain, a big one, and the water's gotta go somewhere. It comes right down the Carson, but in recent years it's been controlled very well.
AHERN: Besides working at the bank, were you active in any other community projects, or on committees?
BOMAN: I couldn't name them, but there's always a part of country living you get involved in and all local projects. Not everyone, but that gives everyone something to do.
AHERN: Did you belong to a number of committees?
BOMAN: You serve on committees, usually, for a certain length of time, and either the job is done that you're, gets finished in good style and is successful then you're released. I did spend six years on the Nevada State Tax Commission as a commissioner representing banking. It took a little time away from my job, but the bank ran just the same whether I was there or not, (laughing) and our banking people were very gracious about the time off that it took. We'd meet two or three days at a time, either in Carson City or Las
Vegas with the problems of the taxes. Just like our
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sales tax and all those were handled through the Tax Commission. That was very interesting work. I enjoyed that very much. And then in my capacity as a commissioner representing banking, my duties were general on the commission but at the same time I was supposed to be the one who was concerned about banks in the state. I was on the commission representing livestock, for land and businesses and everything. I think when I got off of that I think it was a seven-man board at that time.
AHERN: You said you found it interesting. What was
interesting about your being on the Tax board?
BOMAN: The Tax Commission?
AHERN: Yes.
BOMAN: Well, no one likes to pay taxes (laughing) and there are always folks who, businesses, be it, or whatever, that get in trouble with their taxes when they don't pay them, so it was also our jobs to hear their cases. They would come before us as a commission, and our duties were very similar to a jury. We sat as a body, and the people who were involved brought their attorneys.
AHERN: Is there any one case that stands out in your mind?
BOMAN: Yes. I probably shouldn't mention it, but cigarettes. There's federal taxes on every package of cigarettes and there's state and there's county and everything. Everybody gets a whack at it. And about the time you think everything's running smoothly, why somebody figures a way, and the various Indian reservations dug into things from way back history and found that they were not subject to certain taxes, so they promptly all opened up smoke shops and sold cigarettes without the state tax being put on them, and, needless to say, they
won. That was a big one. (laughing) But, you can't win them all. Then, perhaps, that is justified. I wouldn't want to say personally about that, but that was quite a struggle there for a long time till they finally got the right decisions. We had many hearings and trials on that. Their attorneys did a lot of research and sure enough those old laws were still in effect, so we have a smoke shop here.
AHERN: Do you recall what year it was?
BOMAN: No, I really don't, I'm sorry to say. Seems like it was in the 1960's. I may be wrong, but it was right in
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there. I had an interesting experience. It wasn't particularly. banking. Connected with banking, though. It was with the Navy department. (laughing) See, I was a manager,--I can't recall if I was a vice-president then or not, but it doesn't matter, but I was invited by the Secretary of Navy on a cruise of the Pacific on an aircraft carrier for, supposed to be ten days, two weeks, something like that. There were twelve of us from all over the United States on that particular cruise. We were over three hundred miles at sea yet when President Kennedy was assassinated, and they immediately flew us off the deck of the carrier into San Diego [California]. No one knew what--it was a terrible crisis at that time, but I must say that I certainly enjoyed the cruise up to that point. Saw many things that I'd never hoped to see. Life on board a carrier is a lot different from riding on a ferry boat somewhere. (laughing) They're complete and independent cities unto themselves.
AHERN: What was the purpose of the cruise?
BOMAN: Public relations, I suppose. I don't know on what basis we were chosen, but I was friendly at that time with the captain at the base locally here, and the cruise itself happens to all carriers. This particular carrier was getting ready for its cruise to the Orient, and all the squadrons that were on board had to qualify landings and takeoffs on the carrier twenty-four hours a day, night and day, so that was the purpose of the cruise, and we were just excess baggage. It was a little different from Navy League cruises which are constant. This one came as an invitation from the Secretary of Navy, and before we could go on board, they collected out of our pockets so much for
breakfast, so much for lunch, so much for dinner in the evening for the time we would be out there. It didn't cost the government much, and we had to handle our own transportation from various places. Some were from the east coast, midwest. I think there were four from Nevada. I don't know how come, but it just happened that way. There was a school teacher, a superintendent. The prime reason, though, was for public relations between the Navy and the civilians. They sure eat well on board those things, I'll tell you that. (laughing)
AHERN: Well, Mr. Boman, on behalf of the Churchill County Museum, I would like to thank you for having me interview you. Thank you.
WILLIAM BOMAN Index Page 14,
Banking experiences 6, 12,
Birth 1
Boman, George McKenzie 3
Boman, Jessie McKenzie 2, 4
Boman, Melba Rogers 8
Boman, William Clayton 1, 2
Boman, William Rogers 9
Earthquakes 16-17
Family life 4
First National Bank of Nevada 7
Hazen experiences 3, 4-5
I. H. Kent Company 6
McCracken, George 6
Nevada State Tax Commission 17-19
Recreation 12-13, 19
Schooling 3, 5-6
Security National Bank 14
15-16
Interviewer
Eleanor Ahern
Interviewee
William H. Bowman
Location
1500 Drumm Lane Fallon, Nv 89406
Geolocation
Files
Collection
Citation
Churchill County Museum Oral History Project, “William Bowman Oral History,” Churchill County Museum Digital Archive: Fallon, Nevada, accessed May 2, 2024, https://ccmuseum.omeka.net/items/show/174.
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