Andrew Dyatt

ANDREW DYATT for twenty years has had extensive interests as a banker, farmer and stock man in Norton County and has been a resident of Almena in that county for the past fifteen years. Mr. Dyatt is a man of wide experience, has lived in many states of the Middle West, and for a number of years was actively identified with some of the large mining companies around Leadville, Colorado.

He was born in Ontario, Canada, October 28, 1860. His father, Hugh Dyatt, born in County Antrim, Ireland, in 1810, came to America when about twenty-one years of age, settled on a farm in New York State, and about 1858 moved to Ontario, Canada. He owned a farm at Wellsville, New York, and one in Ontario. In 1862 he came to the Middle West, settling at Batavia, Illinois, and was a farmer there until 1874. He then returned to Ontario, where he died in 1888. He was very devout in the observance of his religious duties, and an active member of the Presbyterian Church. The maiden name of his wife was Ann Jane Edgar. She was born in the north of Ireland in 1818 and died in Ontario in 1884. They had a large family of children, noted briefly as follows: Eliza, who married William Atkinson, a stockman, and both died in Ontario; Robert, died in Ontario when a young man; Hugh was for twenty-five years engage in the mining business in Colorado, represented his district in the Colorado Legislature four years, and died in Norton County, Kansas, in 1916; W. T. S. was a farmer and stockman in Ontario, where he died; Christina, who died at Norton, Kansas, was the wife of A. N. Malcolm, a retired farmer living at Almena; James B. is an extensive stock raiser and ranch owner in Sherman County; Andrew is the seventh in the family; John is a land owner and retired farmer in Norton County, living at Almena.

Andrew Dyatt was two years of age when his parents moved to Illinois and most of his boyhood was spent at Batavia. He is a graduate of the Batavia High School and lived on his father's farm to the age of seventeen. Since then his interests have been chiefly identified with the states of Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas. He first went out to Hastings, Nebraska, and for two years sold horses. He then entered upon his mining experience at Leadville, Colorado, and was a mine manager in that locality for twenty-five years and still has some large mining interests there. For six years he was manager for the Home Mining Company and also for the Mikado Mining Company, both these companies being engaged in the production of gold, silver and lead. They were the largest employers of labor in Colorado at that time.

In 1898 Mr. Dyatt organized the Merchants State Bank of Almena. He took up his permanent home at Almeria in 1903, and in 1906 the bank was reorganized as the First National Bank. Mr. Dyatt is president and X. D. Ayers is vice president. This is one of the strong financial institutions of Northwestern Kansas, with capital of $50,000 and surplus and profits of $15,000. The bank is on Main Street.

Much of Mr. Dyatt's capital is now employed in diversified farming and stock raising. He owns two sections of farm land in Norton County. The First National Bank is a member of the American Bankers Association, the State Bankers Association, and the Federal Reserve Bankers Association. In politics Mr. Dyatt is an independent republican and is affiliated with Nepthali Lodge of Masons at Almena.

In 1900, at Almena, he married Miss Olive Burnap, daughter of Edwin and Emma (Ash) Burnap, the latter now deceased. Her father is a retired farmer and extensive land owner and a stockholder in the First National Bank at Almena. Mr. and Mrs. Dyatt have two children: Andrew Jr., born July 4, 1902, and Irving B., born June 11, 1906.