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Note: AMERICAN STATE BANK. Berwyn. The American State Bank of Berwyn was organized as the Twenty-second Street State Bank in September, 1922, by Frank C. Topinka with a capital of fifty thousand dollars and surplus of twelve thousand 'five hundred dollars and was opened for business on the 18th of November following. Its officers were : Frank C. Topinka, president ; Joseph Z. Klenha, vice president ; Albert Novotny, cashier; and Charles E. Zitnik, assistant cashier. In January, 1923, Albert Novotny was made active vice president and Charles E. Zitnik the cashier. In October, 1925, the Twenty-second Street State Bank increased its surplus to twenty thousand dollars. At the time its name was changed to the American State Bank of Berwyn, the capital was increased to one hundred thousand dollars and the surplus to sixty thousand dollars. When the institution opened its doors for business there were no other buildings within a mile. Deposits, which were twenty-nine thousand dollars on the opening day, have grown to more than five hundred thousand dollars despite the fact that only about one 214 FINANCING AN EMPIRE hundred and fifty dollars per year has been expended for advertising. The American State Bank has been housed from the beginning in a modern bank building which it erected at No. 6721 West Twenty-second street in Berwyn. Its business is derived principally from the Chicago following of Mr. Topinka. The directors of the institution are as follows : Frank C. Topinka, Albert Novotny, Charles E. Zitnik, Joseph Z. Klenha, Albert Hlavka, Albert Krch, Frank A. Mazanec, M. E. Holpuch, A. J. Razim, James J. Hejna and Charles H. Lang. The new building of the American State Bank on the southwest corner of Oak Park boulevard and Twenty-second street in Berwyn will cost approximately one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars and is rapidly nearing completion. PRANK C. TOPINKA. Frank C. Topinka, president of the American State Bank of Berwyn, which he organized as the Twenty-second Street State Bank in September, 1922, is also at the head of the Oakwyn State Bank of Berwyn, which he organized in July, 1924. He is a native of Bohemia, born on the 4th of April, 1885, and arrived in Chicago about the year 1897, when a youth of twelve. In the acquirement of an education he attended the public schools and also an evening college of the city. His initial experience in the business world was gained as a bookkeeper in the employ of Frank Kirchman, a Chicago realtor, with whom he remained until 19 03. In that year he resigned his position to enter what is now the Lawndale National Bank, then conducted as a private bank by Frank G. Hajicek, having charge of the institution as cashier for eleven years. During this period he handled funds to the amount of eight hundred thousand dollars and was never under bond. In 1912 Mr. Topinka turned his attention to the real estate and building business, operating in Chicago. Cicero and Berwyn and handling more than six hundred real estate loans during the succeeding ten years. On the expiration of that period, in September, 1922, he organized the Twenty-second Street State Bank, now the American State Bank of Berwyn, and has since remained at the head of this sound moneyed institution. He is also the organizer and president of the Oakwyn State Bank at the corner of Roosevelt road and Oak Park boulevard. On the 20th of August, 1904, Mr. Topinka was united in marriage to Anna Krch, daughter of Albert S. Krch, a native of Iowa. They are the parents of one daughter, Viola A., who is nineteen years of age and is attending St. Mary's Col- lege in Knoxville, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Topkina make their home in Berwyn. The former is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with the Masons, belonging to the blue lodge, chapter, council and Eastern Star. Mr. To- pinka is a man of broad vision and progressive ideas, with a nature to which all pretense is foreign, and has adopted as the guide-posts of his life those principles which never fail to command admiration and respect.
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