Charles G. Royer, whose father was one of the men chiefly identified with the early history and upbuilding of Winchester in Jefferson County, is cashier of the Citizens State Bank of that town.
Mr. Royer entered the bank in 1907 as cashier, and had been continuously in that post since the day the bank was first opened for business on August 22, 1907. Throughout the ten years this bank had stood representative of strength and a wholesome influence and helpfulness in that farming community. It had a capital of $25,000 and surplus of $6,000, and its service is such as to furnish a helpful medium for the transaction of business and the couservation of capital. The bank is on Winchester Street. The officers are: J. K. O’Neil, president; N. W. Everett, vice president; and Charles G. Royer, cashier.
Mr. Royer is descended from ancestors who were originally natives of Germany. From there the family immigrated to America and settled in Pennsylvania in Colonial times.
Charles G. Royer was born at Indianapolis, Indiana, June 4, 1866. His father J. B. Royer, living with his son Charles at Winchester, was born in Carroll County, Maryland, in 1838. He grew up there and in 1861 enlisted in the Sixth Maryland Regiment of Infantry and saw active service throughout the war. In the battle of Gettysburg he was shot through the leg. Following the war he removed to Indianapolis, where he followed his trade as a carpenter and in the spring of 1869 came to Kansas and identified himself with the pioneer locality of Winchester. He not only helped build the town in the sense that he was carpenter of many of its first buildings, but also in a constructive civic way. A number of years ago he retired from active work. He is a republican and a member of the German Lutheran Church and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. J. B. Royer married Mattie E. Erhart, who was born in Maryland in 1831 and died at Winchester, Kansas, in 1897. Charles G. is the oldest of their four children. Gertie is the wife of Ephraim Bristow, a section foreman living at Easton, Kansas. Frank, who died at the age of thirty-five, was clerk in a store at Winchester. Jesse died when two years of age.
Charles G. Royer had his first conscious recollections of life at Winchester. He attended the public schools there and acquired the equivalent of a high school training. He took up the trade of his father, a carpenter, and worked at it for twenty years and for eleven years was in business as an employee of hardware stores. From that he entered the bank and had given his principal time to that work.
Mr. Royer served three years as township assessor. His home, which he owned, is loeated on Grasshopper Street in Winchester. He is a republican, a member and deacon of the Christian Church, is clerk of Winchester Camp No. 1301, Modern Woodmen of America, and belongs to the Knights and Ladies of Security at Winchester.
At Memphis, Tennessee, in December, 1892, Mr. Royer married Miss Alice Tolan, who was born at Columbus, Indiana. They have four children: Carl H., born February 7, 1896, is a carpenter by trade but is now training for army service in the Military School at Fort Riley, Kansas. C. J. Royer, born March 7, 1898, is a clerk in the Starr Mercantile Company at Winchester. Lester, born September 9, 1902, attends the Winchester public schools. Evan Tacoma was born August 8, 1904, at Tacoma, Washington, where his father spent a year in a hardware establishment. This youngest child is also a student in the public schools.