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ANDREW M. YOUNG
Vol. 3, p. 1194-1195

The financial history of Oklahoma would be incomplete without a
sketch of the above subject, as he has been identified in an active
executive way with banking interests since 1892. Mr. Young has become
a prominent and influential figure in connection with financial
operations in the Southwest. He had the distinction of serving as the
first state bank commissioner of Oklahoma after the admission of this
commonwealth to the Union, has continued to wield large and
distinctive influences in banking and other capitalistic circles. He
is now general convention man and special representative in the South
and West for the Mechanics and Metals National Bank of New York City.
When Oklahoma was admitted to statehood, in 1907, the Hon. Charles N.
HASKELL, of Muskogee, was elected the first governor of the new and
ambitious commonwealth, he realized that he had a difficult problem
in selecting the right man for bank commissioner; so after several
months of deliberation and having before him some of the very best
bankers of the state to select from, time proved that he manifested
marked discrimination by appointing Mr. Young, who at that time was
cashier of the Bank of Commerce of Muskogee, Oklahoma. His confidence
was fully justified by the vigorous and sagacious administration
given by Commissioner Young. In this connection it may be well to
note that Mr. Young has always contended that it was the large number
of undesirable banks and bankers who were permitted to come under the
new guarantee law, which caused so much trouble and loss. Subsequent
events prove he was correct. It is not too much to say of him that
his positive, aggressive and rapid manner in dispatching business was
so noteworthy that he attracted the attention of representative
financiers throughout other sections of the Union, which to a large
extent accounts for his splendid New York connections. Concerning his
work the following significant statements have been written; "Within
his administration the principal bank failure within his jurisdiction
was that the Columbia Bank and Trust Company of Oklahoma City, an
institution that had deposits of $2,900,000. Under the provisions of
the guaranty law Commissioner Young paid all depositors in full, and
when the state examiner and inspector, Fred Parkinson, after a
thorough and searching investigation of affairs of the institution,
declared its every asset had been fully accounted for. The examiner's
report further shows that during Mr. Young's entire term of office as
bank commissioner a discrepancy of only $5 was found in his accounts.
More than 100 state banks were correspondents of the Columbia Bank
and Trust Company, but under the careful and far-sighted
administration of Commissioner Young not one of them failed. A
further mark of his efficiency and his mature judgment is shown in
the fact that of the large number of banks that he approved charter
for, there were only two that failed in the proper performance of
their official duties. In handling the affairs of the Columbia Bank
and Trust Company, it may not be out of place to say that Mr. Young
was subjected to severe criticism, but looking at past history with
an impartial eye, it must be, and is, admitted by the best financiers
of the country that a man of less judgment, ability and
aggressiveness is handling the critical situation would have wrecked
the guarantee law of this state in its infancy.

Mr. Young was born in Lauderdale County, Alabama on the 25th of
July, 1858, and is a son of William B. and Mary (POWERS) Young, his
father having been a thrifty, prosperous and progressive
agriculturist and a citizen who always commanded unqualified popular
confidence and respect. He was a native of North Carolina, was for a
time a resident of Tennessee, but both he and his wife passed the
closing period of their lives in Alabama. Of the other surviving
children the following brief data may consistently be given: Dr. J.
E. Young is engaged in the real-estate and farm-loan business at
Ardmore, Oklahoma; Samuel H. Young is a successful dealer in live
stock at Florence, Alabama; Mrs. Mattie E. ROACH is a resident of
Purcell, Oklahoma; Mrs. John SIMPSON maintains her home at Florence,
Alabama; and Mrs. Emma P. MAY lives at Cloverdale, Alabama.

After due preliminary training in the public schools Andrew M. Young
completed a course in the Goodman Business College at Nashville,
Tennessee, in 1875, and at the age of nineteen years he assumed a
position in the hardware establishment of O. Ewing & Co. of that
city. Then but twenty-two years of age he became a partner in the
hardware firm of BRANSFORD & Co. of Nashville. This advancement
indicated his rapidly developing acumen as a business executive, for
at the time he was the youngest man in the South to be admitted as an
interested principal in a firm of such importance and substantial
order. Later Mr. Young was a traveling representative of the Simons
Hardware Company of St. Louis, for which extensive wholesale concern
he was a successful and valued salesman through a wide territory in
Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi. Finally impaired health caused
him to sever this association, and he established his residence at
Manchester, Tennessee, where, in 1892, he became president of the
Coffey County Bank and initiated his successful career as a financier
and bank executive. Within the ensuing few years he and his partner,
J. G. WILKINSON, established several banks in Tennessee, Alabama and
Mississippi, and all of which were successful. The two interested
principals then extended their activities into the Southwest and
became the founders of prosperous banking enterprises in Texas and
Oklahoma. In 1904 Mr. Young established his residence at Muskogee,
Indian Territory, where he became cashier of the Bank of Commerce, a
position which he retained until the admission of Oklahoma to the
Union, in 1907, when, as before stated, he accepted the important and
exacting office of state bank commissioner, being the first incumbent
of this position under the state regime, which he resigned to become
associated with the Mechanics and Metals National Bank of New York
City as general convention man and special representative in the
South and West. At that time eastern capitalists manifested a
distinct reluctance to making investments to securities in the new
State of Oklahoma, and it is undoubtedly due to Mr. Young in greater
degree than any other one man in the state that this skepticism was
removed and that from other eastern sources millions of dollars have
been invested in Oklahoma securities.

Though not imbued with ambition for political office, Mr. Young
accords unswerving allegiance to the democratic party and is
essentially liberal and public-spirited as a citizen of broad views
and utmost loyalty. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and
both he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South.

At Florence, Alabama, on the 28th of December, 1878, was solemnized
the marriage of Mr. Young top Miss Ollie HOUSE, and they have six
children, concerning whom brief record is given in conclusion of this
review: Earline is the wife of George S. RAMSEY, a representative
member of the bar of the City of Muskogee, Oklahoma; Orville is first
assistant in the office of the state insurance commissioner of
Oklahoma; Milton is cashier of the Exchange National Bank of
Muskogee; Dr. Andrew M. Young, Jr., is a leading physician and
surgeon in Oklahoma City; Henry is engaged in the insurance and farm-
loan business in Oklahoma City and Edward S. is assistant cashier of
the First National Bank of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Typed for OKGenWeb By: Earline Sparks Barger, October 26, 1998.