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One of the prosperous banking institutions of Canyon county, Idaho, is that of the Fruitland State Bank at Fruitland, of which Jesse O. Scritchfield was one of the organizers and since its incorporation has been cashier and one of its leading spirits. Though his identification with Idaho and with this community dates back but to 1909, he has in the very short intervening period since then become recognized as a careful financier, conservative yet progressive and as a citizen of worth and high principles.
He is a Hoosier by birth, born in Creston, Lake county, Indiana, August 29, 1873. William T. Scritchfield, his father, a native of Kentucky, moved into Indiana during the '60s and for about fifteen years was a successful farmer and merchant in that state. In 1876 he changed his residence to Kansas and passed away at Westmoreland, Kansas, at the age of sixty-four. As a private in the Seventeenth Ohio Infantry, William T. Scritchfield gave three years of loyal service to the Union cause during the Civil war, participating with Sherman on the latter's memorable march to the sea, as well as in other campaigns of lesser note. He was married in Indiana to Laura J. Thompson, a native of that state, and to their union were born four sons. The mother died in 1886.
Jesse O. Scritchfield, the youngest of these sons, grew up in Kansas and by his own diligence and perseverance secured a good education. His earlier training was acquired in the public schools of Kansas and Nebraska and later he became a student at the Fairfield Normal Collegiate Institute at Fairfield, Nebraska, supplementing this course by a period of business training in the Lincoln Business College, Lincoln, Nebraska. He took up independent activity at the age of twenty-two, when he settled on a government claim in Garfield county, Oklahoma, near Enid, and for eight years he followed farming there very successfully. Disposing of this claim, he changed his residence to Oklahoma City and became a commercial traveler for the Moline Plow Company, continuing in this line of activity seven years. In the fall of 1909 he came to Idaho and located at Payette, where he assisted in organizing the Fruitland State Bank, of which he became cashier. That position he has since filled most acceptably, to all concerned, with credit and benefit to the institution and to the community to which it gives financial service. Associated with him in the management of the bank are C. H. Sargent, president; E. E. Hunter, vice-president; and H. R. Russell, assistant cashier. Its board of directors include the same gentlemen with the exception of Mr. Russell and the addition of A. H. McConnell and C.W. Young. The deposits, which in April, 1910, were not quite $17,000, are now approximately $100,000, and this alone gives an estimate of how the bank has grown in volume of business and in the confidence of the people of Fruitland and its vicinity. Besides these financial interests Mr. Scritchfield is much interested in horticulture and is operating several fruit farms in Canyon county, Idaho, and in Malheur county, Oregon. He has always been a staunch Republican and prior to his removal to Idaho was quite active in political affairs. He is a member of the Fruitland Commercial Club, and fraternally is a member of the Fruitland camp of the Modern Woodmen of America. In church faith and membership he is a Methodist.
At Enid, Oklahoma, on September 27, 1897, Mr. Scritchfield was married to Miss Minnie Humphreys, who is a daughter of L. C. Humphreys and was born in Illinois. They have one son, W. Earl Scritchfield, born at Enid, Oklahoma, October 17, 1898. When asked for his opinion of Idaho Mr. Scritchfield replied, "I am more than satisfied with Idaho and have even no desire to travel east of the Rockies."