IRC

BACK TO ESTES PARK - AFTER 65 YEARS

by Gabriel Kirkpatrick, CUNA Archivist

The story is a familiar one. Recurring anniversaries recreate the images and words of the conference at Estes Park with some of the same fervor and zeal with which the originals established the Credit Union National Association in August 1934. The pioneers were acutely conscious that they were making history and were determined that the event would be remembered and celebrated again and again as a reminder of what they had done there to finish the work of the Credit Union National Extension Bureau.

It began in Boston in 1921 when Edward A. Filene and Roy F. Bergengren met at 5 Park Square to decide how best to give substance and structure to the credit union movement. Bergengren spent the next thirteen years putting the plan into action, getting the laws, finding the leaders and organizing credit unions. During that time, the goal of the national association was never far from his mind. His correspondence, his articles, his editorials in The Bridge reiterate the pressing importance of a national association to direct and coordinate the growth of credit unions and to give assistance, to represent and to educate.

Filene, too, made frequent references to the growth of the movement. On one of his frequent cross-country trips in the spring of 1933, Filene emphasized the maturing of the movement in his credit union speeches and spoke of getting on with the job. Privately, he discussed the problem of financing the movement and his hope that it would soon be self-supporting.

When the Illinois Credit Union League met in Chicago on March 17, 1934, President Timothy J. O'Shaughnessy of the Rock Island Line Credit Union invited credit union leaders from eight states to attend. Among them were Edward A. Filene, Roy F. Bergengren, Thomas W. Doig of the Minneapolis Postal Credit Union, and Claude R. Orchard, organizer of credit unions in the branches of the Armour Meat-Packing Company. In the evening, O'Shaughnessy launched a discussion of the national association. The response was enthusiastic. One after another, meeting participants presented their views. Filene spoke strongly in favor of a meeting to draw up a constitution and bylaws. Bergengren, with his usual zeal, urged an immediate decision.

Finally, Claude Orchard proposed that they call a meeting for August at a national park since most of the delegates would be taking vacation time to attend. He had spent many vacations there and loved it. Bergengren found the site on his map "about three inches to the Pacific Coast and six inches to the Atlantic. We felt that this location would give the Far West a break." The suggestion carried, and the meeting was set for the week of August 5. O'Shaughnessy promised to arrange for extra Pullman cars to run from Chicago to Denver on the Rock Island Line for the convenience of those delegates converging on Chicago. This would encourage preliminary discussion enroute to the meeting.

Fifty-two delegates, representing twenty states and the District of Columbia, arrived at the campsite by August 8 when the first meetings were held. Many of the names are as familiar as the site, three women among them - Dora Maxwell, Louise McCarren and Agnes Gartland. Benjamin F. Hillebrandt, president of the Missouri League, was elected chairman of the conference.

Meetings were long, sometimes running into the small hours of the morning. Discussions were heated, particularly over such items as dues versus revenues for support of the association and the powers of the managing director. Many times the committees disbanded to cool off on the porch of the lodge before resuming debates.

But there were light moments as well. The intensity of the meetings made the brief recreational periods most welcome. By late afternoon, the company often came to an impasse, and meetings broke up so minds could be cleared and refreshed by hiking, horseback riding or playing baseball. Lillian Schoedler spent a whole day climbing Long's Peak. Claude Clarke remembered a horseback ride along Thompson's Canyon. But Brice Martin, the reporter from The Decatur-Herald in Illinois, was disappointed that he was never able to go on a promised trout-fishing trip with Filene.

The final meeting was held in the early afternoon of Friday, August 10, and the last details of the bylaws were put into place. As Bergengren put it "the miracle had been accomplished." Then the group gathered for the famous photograph, taken by Fred Clatworthy, Jr., a local photographer, recording Bergengren's "historic moment." Afterward, he and his wife scoured the local print shops for "a piece of parchment" since he felt an historic document must "like the Magna Carta" be printed on parchment. They found something that passed for parchment which the delegates signed.

The final evening included a farewell banquet with "a short speech by EAF and a long one by RFB, with the presentation of a cup from the credit union group to Dr. Herbert Evans who directed the camp." Bergengren described the cup as "the size of a bathtub" and he often wondered what Evans did with it. Lillian Schoedler recalled the singing that followed the meal as "raucous and enthusiastic." They sang "credit union songs" fitted to popular tunes.

Oh the old loan shark, he ain't what he used to be
Since the credit union came along.
(Old Gray Mare)

There was one with many verses,composed by Bertram Fowler and sung to the tune of "Hinkey-Dinkey Parley-voo":

Charges, rates and usury,
The way ahead makes historee, parley-voo…

And the "Estes Park Theme Song" courtesy of Mrs. P.D. Holmes, sung to the tune of "The Man on the Flying Trapese":

This fellow from Boston, the home of the bean,
Has a wit and a mind that is sparkling and keen,
He works day and night to show folks the light,
First seen by the great man - Filene!

By all reports, Filene loved it and sang with the same gusto as everyone else.

With the work finished, history made, photo taken, signatures dry, and the songs sung, the delegates left the next day to begin the hard work of selling the concept of the national association to their respective credit unions. They carried with them the spirit of the Estes Park meeting, which was probably best described by Brice Martin years later. In a letter to E.K. Watkins, the editor of The Credit Union Bridge, Martin wrote:

I shall not try to relate details of the discussions at Estes Park, for I cannot remember them. But I can remember vividly the spirit of the meeting; the enthusiasm, the inspiration, the evangelistic fervor that motivated us. . . . There was vigorous give and take in our discussions. There were sessions that ran into the small hours, more often than not. I know that I felt with many others that we were engaged in a momentous endeavor. The years have attested to the validity of our feeling.

It is well to remember Estes Park for the spirit that prevailed there as much as for what was accomplished there. It is well to renew the spirit and enthusiasm of our beginnings.

Copyright © 2008 - Credit Union National Association, Inc.