NORTH CARROLLTON - Just entering People's Bank & Trust Co. on Main Street here is a backward gallop into the early 1900s.
The trip into those times is being illustrated more completely through the collection of photographs bank president George Shackelford began organizing in 1999. It's a permanent exhibit already including about 25 scenes from Carroll County history, well worth the trip down nostalgia lane.
Just a few of the subjects are:
- The old metal-rigged bridge across the Big Sand Creek linking the two Carrolltons.
- Seasoned worthies and dandies gathered in front of a store in North Carrollton; a snapshot of gigantic logs being hauled near Vaiden.
- A post-bear hunt scene at Leflore.
- The Ernest Duke family out for a buggy ride in 1907.
The old narrow metal bridge, which went out of use in the late 1940s, is depicted from the North Carrollton side. It was a character in its own right, about which old-timers share tales to this day. As with similarly constructed bridges, there was only one lane of traffic. While it might be reasonable to wonder what major difficulty it could have presented during the early part of the 20th century, especially since the view from one end of the bridge to the other was clear, difficulties did arise.
Harry Holt Lott, 86, whose father, H.A. Lott, was the bank's first cashier when it opened Dec. 5, 1918, recalls traffic jams on the old bridge. Sometimes, drivers simply wouldn't wait their turn to start across. Sometimes, a single vehicle would get crossways.
"Traffic would get tied up for hours," Lott, who lives on the north side of the Big Sand, said.
Viewing the bank's exhibit links past and present. Some of the photos are of old times associated directly with People's Bank, such as one from 1934, which captures images not long after People's Bank, like many others across the country, was fighting its way out of failure during the Depression. Portrayed are Eula Marshall, Charles Ray and James Shackelford (the father of George and current vice president Pate Shackelford and the husband of current assistant cashier Mayfred Shackelford).
Pictures of the late president W.C. Neill, who for decades was the bank's guiding light, already figured in the permanent decorating scheme.
The bank's first officers were G.T. Lee, president, and L.S. Hemphill, vice president. Now, in addition to the Shackelfords, there are Jerry Beckwith, assistant vice president, and George "Snooky" Lee, cashier.
Impetus for the project is owed to Lott and to the North Carrollton centennial, which was celebrated to great fanfare in 1999, George Shackelford said. Kay Slocum, a former president of the Carroll Society for the Preservation of Antiquities, came up with some of the old photographs, but other individuals contributed, too.
Pieces in the exhibit come from a variety of sources, Shackelford said, and the collection's not complete.
The "biggie" - "Poultry and Egg Day" - is at the framer's. There are four separate photos depicting the crowds in "Old Town" Saturday, June 16, 1917, Shackelford said. Old Town is one way of referring to the Carrollton south of the Big Sand, which was laid out in 1834.
Another hallmark snapshot showing the first Billups service station, Red Star, where 4-K is now at the west end of the North Carrollton business district, is on the schedule, also.
The walls of the lobby-turned-photo gallery are less bare these days, but the bank president-turned-curator says even when the shots being prepared for hanging are up, the exhibit's still not necessarily complete.
No strict guidelines exist, but Shackelford said the pictures that are going up, "are probably community-oriented."
