Westby State Bank

The Bank of Westby located on the corner of First and Main was owned by Carl Brye and sold to Martin Bekkedal in 1902. Almost immediately Bekkedal made plans to build a new and impressive bank on the corner of State and Main streets. The original name was going to be Bank of Westby but was changed to Westby State Bank before opening day in 1904. Bekkedal Bank closed October, 1932.

Now the location of Treasures on Main, Carl Brye
had his Bank of Westby at this location

The Coon Valley State Bank was organized in 1905 by Edwin B. Knutson and twelve other investors. The first Board of Directors consisted of Edwin B. Knutson, two local businessmen and two farmers.

In 1915, the organizer of the bank, Edwin B. Knutson, moved on to a banking career in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His brother, Irvin N. Knutson ( ”INK”), came to the Coon Valley Bank as cashier and manager. Irvin had previously been affiliated with a bank in Blair, Wisconsin.  Later, Irvin became president and served in that capacity until his death in 1963.

In 1933 at the peak of the Great Depression, all of the nation’s banks were closed because of the infamous “Bank Holiday.” Many banks were destined never to reopen, including the two banks in Westby, just nine miles from Coon Valley. The Coon Valley State Bank had been given a clean bill of health, and reopened without restrictions.

Construction started in 1903 on the Unseth Bekkedal building

The people of the Westby area were seriously handicapped without the services of a bank, so a group of Westby business people approached the Coon Valley State Bank, expressing an interest in having the bank establish a branch bank in Westby. At that time, branch banking was not permitted in Wisconsin, so the legislature quickly passed a bill to allow for branch banking into “bankless” communities.

Because of the larger size of the bank building in Westby, the former state bank, the headquarters of the bank were moved to Westby in 1933 and the name became Coon Valley State Bank - Westby Station, with C.O. Veldey as the manager. In 1937 the name was changed to Westby-Coon Valley State Bank.

By Christmas 1904 a few of the businesses located in the new Unseth
Bekkedal building had opened and the remainder opened in early spring of 1905

In 1940, the FDIC was seeking new owners for the bank in Chaseburg and the Westby-Coon Valley State Bank was urged to make this an additional branch. Thus, in July, 1940, the transition took place, with Alvin Dummer as manager and Lincoln V. Knutson as bookkeeper. No depositors’ dollars were lost in this transaction.

After the death of Irvin N. Knutson in 1963, Ollie Veldey became President and served until his death in 1967. Lincoln V. Knutson, son of Irvin N. Knutson, was then elected President and served in the capacity until the bank was sold on August 1, 1992 to Fortress Bancshares, Inc. Edwin B. Knutson, son of Lincoln V. Knutson, who joined the bank in 1971, became Executive Vice President in 1986 and Chief Executive Officer in 1987 and chairman of the board in 1999.

Upon the sale of the Westby-Coon Valley State Bank to Fortress Bancshares of Hartland, Wisconsin, Jon C. Bruss was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors and Palmer “Duffy” Hoffland became President, Chief Executive Officer and a Board member. In 1993, a five-month remodeling and restoration of the bank building, built in 1905, commenced, attempting to respect the historic integrity of the building while providing efficiency, convenience and pride to customers and employees alike.  

For more than 60 years, the interior of the Westby State Bank had very few changes

The Westby-Coon Valley State Bank namesake held strong for 55 years, until the bank was sold in 1992 to Fortress Bancshares, Inc. and was officially renamed Fortress Bank of Westby in 1996. During this time the bank building in downtown Westby underwent a major restoration process and several new branches of the financial institution were opened throughout the area, including branches in La Crosse, West Salem and Prairie du Chien.

In 1994 the then Westby-Coon Valley State Bank established a branch bank location West Salem, Wisconsin. On November 30, 2003 Fortress Bank was acquired by Merchants and Manufacturers Bancorporation of New Berlin, Wisconsin, along with other two banks of Fortress Bancshares. The bank shortened it’s name to Fortress Bank in early 2005 and Palmer “Duffy” Hoffland was elected Chairman of the Board and Daniel L. Diehl was elected President & CEO in January 2005. In April 2005 the bank established a branch bank location in Onalaska, Wisconsin and will acquire an existing branch bank of another bank in Prairie du Chien in August of this year.

In 2003, Fortress Bank of Westby and all its branches were sold to New Berlin-based Merchants & Manufacturers Bancorporation MMBC, but the name Fortress Bank remained even after the merger with MMBC. That changed in 2007 when Fortress Bank was bought by BMO Financial Group, of which Harris is a part of and soon after the bank name was officially changed to Harris.

The Harris Bank branch in the village of Chaseburg, which was damaged in flooding in 2008, was officially closed by the company in 2010 and the Westby branch closed June 29, 2012. The Coon Valley branch of Harris Bank, which closed February 22, 2014, was the last of a long-standing tradition to close bringing an end to the financial institution that was the heart of Westby, Coon Valley and Chaseburg for decades. 

Organic Valley now owns the Unseth Bekkedal building