Merkel Landis

Landis was born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on January 5, 1875, to John B. Landis and Barbara Merkel Landis.[1] He grew up and lived his childhood on North College Street. Landis attended the local Carlisle public schools and graduated from Carlisle High School in 1891.[2] He then went to the Dickinson Preparatory School before entering Dickinson College.[3] He started at the college in 1892 for a four-year degree of Bachelor of Philosophy and graduated in 1896.[1] He then worked at the Carlisle Deposit Bank as a clerk for about a year. Landis then went back to Dickinson School of Law to get his law degree. He passed the Cumberland County Bar exam and was admitted on June 5, 1899.[3]

Landis entered the field of banking in 1901 and started working for Merchant's Bank.[4] It was incorporated and renamed Carlisle Trust Company in 1905[5] and he become their treasurer.[6] He remained in this position for many years.[7] He became their president in 1921 and held that position until he retired in 1937. Landis helped organize banks in York Springs, Landisburg, Blain and Millerstown, Pennsylvania. He also served as president of a district of the Pennsylvania Bankers Association.[8] Landis was the last surviving member of the businessmen who became the governing board of the Carlisle Hospital in 1916. He also was among the organizers of the Carlisle Chamber of Commerce.[9]

Landis was an organizer of the Carlisle Community Chest and its first president. He received the first Khwanis Club award for distinguished service to the community. He belonged to the board of trustees of Dickinson College from 1930 until 1960 and was on numerous important committees.[10] Landis was active in the affairs of Sigma Chi Fraternity. He also served as secretary and treasurer of the Sara Todd Memorial Home and was chairman of the Carlisle Red Cross Chapter for many years.[11]

Landis was a director of the Hamilton Library and Historical Association of Cumberland County since 1912, serving as treasurer for 20 years. He was treasurer of the Sesqui-Centennial Committee of Carlisle in 1901 and in 1951 he served on the historical program committee at the Bi-Centennial celebration. He contributed a number of papers and pamphlets to the library, among them "The Presidential Campaign of 100 Years Ago in Carlisle," in 1932, "Current Events of Days of Yore", "Civil War Times In Carlisle" and "The English Church in Carlisle." The Historical Association honored Landis and his wife for their contributions to local history.[12] He was a former member and vestryman of the St. John's Episcopal Church in Carlisle.[11]

Carlisle 1910 Christmas Savings Club

Christmas Savings Club booklet for Harnish's coupons, Merkel Landis signed

Carlisle Trust had the first public Christmas Saving Club and it was brought about by Landis. In December 1909, three men from the local shoe factory approached Landis with an idea. They asked if they could open a joint account under their names with the idea of making a growing account of small deposits from each of their weekly pay checks to be saved in a special place. Landis, as the bank treasurer, set up an account where they collected money from the fellow workers and deposited one cent the first week, adding a cent each deposit for the next fifty weeks, with the last weekly deposit amount being 50 cents in December. They then were going to withdraw the total amount collected over the previous twelve months and distribute proportionally among themselves in the first part of December.[13]

Landis took this idea a step further and published display advertisements in the local paper that his bank was forming a Christmas Savings Club. Starting in the first week of January 1910 club members were allowed to make weekly deposits of any amount until the week before Christmas.[14] They would get paid three percent interest on their total amount saved before being distributed as an incentive to contribute something each week.[15][16] Landis, treasurer of Carlisle Trust Company, had originated the world's first Christmas Savings Club.[17][18] He announced on January 8 that over 600 people had already opened a Club account and that over $20,000 was expected to saved by these members during the year.[19] There were 1269 total members that participated in this first savings club and over $31,000 was distributed among them at the end on December 13, 1910.[20] The concept became popular to banks across the United States and the money used for other things besides Christmas shopping.[21] The bank announced at the end of December that their next membership was open with various plans and people could open a Christmas savings account until January 9, 1911.[22]

The Christmas Saving Club Landis set into place involved a unique innovation of coupons and booklet envelopes arranged in a strategy.[23] The scheme was simple and required very little bookkeeping.[24] The patented concept was a copyrighted 14-by-14-inch coupon sheet system where a Club customer made a deposit of a nickel, dime or quarter and a coupon was given as a receipt.[25] The customer kept these little receipts in a booklet envelope. In December the customer turned them in and received a check.[26] A similar system is still used by banks and thousands of credit unions throughout the United States.[27][28] The club is often referred to by many banks as The Landis Christmas Savings Club.[29]

The Carlisle Bank has a museum piece of a 1909 savings booklet showing one of the members received $12.75 after his final payment (average savings of 25 cents per week over 49 weeks + 50 cents for fiftieth week). The savings account belonged to traveling salesman L.B. Harnish, which he opened on December 29, 1909.[30][31] Pictures of the booklet signed by Landis show it was for a Christmas Savings Club account and that it belonged to Harnish.[32]

A British-born traveling salesman bought the rights later to use Landis' idea.[33] He sold the concept to other banks throughout the United States paying Landis a royalty for coupon sheets.[25][34][26] In 1928 he purchased the Savings Club Company initiated by Landis and formed a corporation. The headquarters of the corporation is in New York City. That corporation supplied coupon books and promotional ideas to banks nationwide. That same principal has been used from the 1960s and 1970s with deposits of $1, $2, $3, $5, $10, or $20. The Club membership then ends in November or December and checks given for the accumulated amount. Most credit unions nationwide have holiday savings clubs with these type of savings accounts.[35]

Landis had an ongoing illness in his early eighties. He was 85 years old when he died on September 28, 1960.[36] His remains are interred at Westminster Cemetery in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.[37]

Landis was married twice. His first wife was Helen R. Boyd, whom he married on October 12, 1905. After her death in 1932 he then married Mary Kirtley Lamberton in the summer of 1933. He had a son, Joseph Boyd Landis, and a daughter, Katherine Gorden Landis. Landis' granddaughter is the children's book writer Lois Lowry.[38][2]

• Merkel Landis at Find a Grave
• Merkel Landis "Civil War in Carlisle"
• Dickinson College biography of Merkel Landis (1875–1960)