Frank B. Gannon Biography


	This biography appears on page 1469 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	FRANK B. GANNON, president of the First National Bank of Aberdeen, 
was born in Genoa, Ottawa county, Ohio, on the 21st of October, 1851, 
being a son of William and Sarah A. (Compton) Gannon. The mother died in 
1893. The father is a farmer by occupation, and still resides at Genoa, 
Ottawa county, Ohio. The subject secured his early educational training 
in the common schools, and when but fifteen years of age began to depend 
upon his own exertions in defraying the expenses of his school work. He 
continued to attend the public schools two and one-half years and also 
was for a short time a student in the Lebanon Normal School at Lebanon 
Ohio. At the age of nineteen he began teaching in the district schools 
of Ohio, and through this means accumulated two hundred dollars, which 
practically served as the nucleus of his present fortune. In 1874 Mr. 
Gannon engaged in the meat-market business in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, 
continuing this enterprise five years, and being thereafter engaged in 
the boot and shoe business in the same town, for three years, at the 
expiration of which, in November, 1882, he came to Jamestown, Dakota 
territory, and shortly afterward located in Ellendale, both places being 
now in the state of North Dakota. In the latter village he engaged in 
the banking business under the title of Gannon, Smith &:Company. In 1891 
the institution was reorganized as a state bank, and was thereafter 
conducted under the firm name of F. B. Gannon & Company, until November, 
1902, when it was reorganized as the First National Bank of Ellendale, 
our subject being elected president at the time and still being 
incumbent of this position. On the 7th of March, 1899, he became 
associated with J. H. Stuttle in purchasing a controlling stock in the 
First National Bank of Aberdeen, and of its institution he has since 
been president, having been a resident of Aberdeen since 1899. 

	In 1902 Mr. Gannon was one of the organizers of the Aberdeen 
Wholesale Grocery Company, of which he is treasurer, and this has become 
one of the leading commercial enterprises of this thriving city. Mr. 
Gannon has also been for a number of years prominently interested in the 
cattle business in North Dakota, and in company with his brother, W. H., 
he is the owner of one of the finest herds of full-blooded Herefords to 
be found in this section of the northwest. In politics he has ever 
maintained an independent attitude, giving his support to the men and 
measures meeting the approval of his judgment, but having no political 
ambition in a personal way. Mr. Gannon is a Mason, belonging to the blue 
lodge, the chapter, commandery, consistory and the Shrine. He is also a 
member of the Odd Fellows fraternity, holding membership at Ellendale, 
South Dakota. 

	On July 2, 1873, Mr. Gannon married Sarah Cook, of Sandusky 
county, Ohio. They became the parents of two sons: Deak, who died aged 
four years and eight months; and Ralph, who died aged eight months.