than a year and a half before being declared insolvent and closed by state banking officials. A successor institution, the Fruit Growers State Bank, was organized in 1909 with "Doc" Bricker, C. C. Jones, George Thurman, John Byers, and E. E. Adams as officers and directors. This bank conducted its business from the substantial concrete block building at the northwest corner of Broadway and State Street. It too fell victim to speculative loans on overvalued real estate and was forced to close in 1917. The Commercial and Savings Bank, organized during the 1920-21 oil boom, was later renamed the Commonwealth Bank and survived until the 1933 "bank holiday."168 The Castle Valley Banking Company opened its doors in October 1913 in specially designed quarters in the new Miller Mercantile building in Huntington, with officers and directors including Peter Nielson, George and Mina Miller, W. A. Guymon, Jr., Edward G. Geary, and Mount Pleasant banker Rasmus Anderson. The bank was never able to attract sufficient deposits to make it a viable financial institution and requested a cancellation of its charter after only four years of operation. It did, however, manage to pay all depositors in full before c10sing.l~~
The First World War The entry of the United States into the European conflict in April 1917 was to have a significant effect on life in the county. All men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty were required to register for the draft in June, and the first group of thirteen were inducted into the army in August (some had volunteered earlier). Before the end of the war, several dozen Emery County men enlisted or were drafted, and eleven lost their lives, three dying from combat injuries and the remainder from disease and accidents. On the home front, the declaration of war brought the organization of a county Council of Defense and several committees to encourage production and reduce waste, the motto being "Produce and Conserve." New food crops were planted, including a substantial acreage of pinto beans. Local LDS Relief Societies sold their stored wheat that had been accumulated by gleaning. A local chapter of the American Red Cross was organized and enlisted county women in making bandages. Another chapter at Green River produced 4,442
