And then, one more line:
The holder of Account Number 0001 shall also retain ownership of the real property located at 200 Main Street, Millbrook, Iowa, and shall lease said property to Farmers & Merchants Bank for the sum of one dollar ($1.00) per year, for as long as Section 14.3 is honored.
Heartland Bancorp’s lawyers read it. They laughed. They thought it was cute. A little old banker getting sentimental about his first account.
“Sure,” they said. “Why not? It’s one account.”
They signed it.
They didn’t realize George had just made the holder of account 0001 the most powerful person in Millbrook. Or that the bank building itself, the red brick and the white columns and the empty lot where we’d stood with our shovels, belonged to that person. Not to Heartland. Not to the bank.
To us.
“Why do it that way?” I asked him. “Why not just put your name on it?”
