Charles W. Fielder

CHARLES W. FIELDER, vice president of the Wilson State Bank, is a comparative newcomer in Kansas, but brought with him a large experience as a banker and business man from the northwestern states.

Mr. Fielder was born at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, July 20, 1879. His father, Rev. William Fielder, was born at Hemil Hempstead, in the County of Herts, England, in 1853. He prepared for a career as a Methodist minister. He had come to America in 1868, living at first at Queenstown, Prince Edward Island, later in New Brunswick, and in 1877 was sent as a missionary of the Methodist Church to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He gathered about him the people of his faith, founded a church, and afterwards preached at various churches in South Dakota, also at Minneapolis, Minnesota, and for five years was president of the Fort Worth University of the Methodist Church at Fort Worth, Texas. For two years he served as vice chancellor of the Methodist Episcopal University at Guthrie, Oklahoma, and since 1913 has been president of the Snead Seminary at Boaz, Alabama. Politically he is a republican. Rev. Mr. Fielder married Susan A. Dobson, who was born at Minonk, Illinois, in 1855, and died at Cherryvale, Kansas, in 1892. She was the mother of two children: Charles W. and Susan A. The latter is the wife of Earl Ripley, a grain buyer at Hammer, South Dakota.

Charles W. Fielder attended the public schools of his native state, also the South Dakota Agricultural and Mechanical College at Brookings and in 1897 graduated from the high school at Minneapolis, Minnesota. On leaving school he spent several months in the employ of the Minnesota Loan and Trust Company at Minneapolis, and then became messenger with the First National Bank of Minneapolis, and remained with that institution for six years, being promoted to correspondence clerk. With this thorough training in a metropolitan bank he became cashier of the Bottineau County Bank at Bottineau, North Dakota, and was promoted to cashier, remaining with the bank until 1915, when he came to Wilson, Kansas, and has since been vice president of the Wilson State Bank.

Mr. Fielder has made himself a factor in local affairs in different ways, owns a good home in Wilson, is secretary of the board of trustees and superintendent of the Sunday school of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is an active republican and is a member of the Kansas and the American Bankers associations.

In 1904, at Bottineau, North Dakota, he married Miss Marian J. Ellis, daughter of A. C. and Ella Ellis, residents of Minneapolis, where her father is a fuel merchant. Mr. and Mrs. Fielder have five children: Jean M., born August 20, 1905; Charles W., born January 15, 1910; Olive E., born October 19, 1913; and Alexander R. and Albert A., born October 20, 1916.