The Rock Island Mutual Building, Loan and Savings Association
In the year 1880 on the invitation of the late Samuel S. Guyer, the
pioneer savings institution of Rock Island was organized. This institution
was one of the first Building Associations organized in Illinois and has
been the model for many similar associations in this and adjoining States.
During the first year the total receipts were only $4,263.70. But so
rapidly were the investing public educated in the advantages of the
Building Association, that in the year 1894 the annual receipts had
increased to $237,619.05.
How much benefit has accrued from this association to the City of Rock
Island in promoting habits of thrift and economy, in furnishing the means
whereby rent payers could become home owners; in putting life into real
estate investments generally and in stimulating all the building trades,
can hardly be overestimated.
Through the medium of this association over two thousand citizens have
been enabled to provide their families with homes on the payment of
monthly installments, no more burdensome than the monthly payment of rent.
Savings depositors have been accorded the full earnings of their moneys
and these earnings have averaged considerably above the rates that money
could be loaned for. There are no favored stockholders to absorb the major
part of the earnings. The association is purely mutual. All the earnings
are divided equitably pro rata according to the amount and the time of
investment.
The association's motto is: "The American Home is the Safeguard of
American Liberties."
Source: Historic Rock Island County, pub. Kramer & Company, Rock Island, Illinois, 1908