A. H. McCarty. When the Valeda State Bank was organized at Valeda, June 1, 1915, under a state charter, the institution was given a good start not only by reason of its capital of $10,000, and by the subsequent accumulation of a surplus of $2,500, but also because of the excellent men who were its stockholders and original officers and directors. The president of the bank is A. E. Townsend, the vice president W. H. Bollman, and the cashier A. H. McCarty, all well known residents of Valeda and vicinity. The bank erected its home on Main Street in 1915.
The cashier, A. H. McCarty, was born in Des Moines County, Iowa, March 21, 1863. His ancestors were originally from Ireland, but have been in this country since colonial times, first having settled in Virginia. Isaac McCarty, his father, was born in Claiborne County, Tennessee, in 1824. Two years later in 1826 his parents took him to Indiana, in which state he grew to manhood. He then moved to Henry County, Iowa, followed farming for many years in Iowa, and in 1885 came to Oswego, Kansas, and soon afterwards to Valeda, where he continued farming until his death in 1908. He was a democrat and a member of the Baptist Church. Isaac McCarty married Margaret Ann Sharp. She was born in Indiana in 1828 and died at Valeda in 1896.
A. H. McCarty received his early education in the public schools of Des Moines County and Henry County, Iowa. Some years later in 1889 he attended a business college at Burlington, Iowa. He has been a resident of Kansas since 1885 and for thirty years has been one of the leading citizens of Labette County. For five years he served as deputy county clerk, county clerk two years, has been a member of the school board and township trustee, and through all his relations, whether as a farmer, public official or banker has given an excellent account of himself. Besides his position as stockholder and officer in the Valeda State Bank, Mr. McCarty still owns a fine farm of 240 acres a mile south of Valeda, and also has a comfortable residence on Howard Street.
He is a democrat, an active member of the Baptist Church and belongs to the Kansas Bankers’ Association. In 1891 at Oswego he married Miss Ida M. Ames, daughter of Ass Ames, now deceased, who was a Kansas farmer. Mr. and Mrs. McCarty have two children: Ira D., who was born February 21, 1897, and was graduated from the high school at Altamont in 1916; and Isaac, born February 25, 1898.