Not on a Thursday Afternoon: The Optimism and Dangers of Small-Town Monticello

Submitted by Rebekah Sheats Roughly one hundred years ago, on March 27, 1925, two local banks (the Bank of Monticello and the Farmers and Merchants Bank) informed the Jefferson County public: “Commencing Thursday afternoon, April 2nd, and until further notice, the undersigned banks will close at 12:00 o’clock” on each succeeding Thursday afternoon. This notice was nothing new in Monticello. Local businesses had been closing their doors most Thursday afternoons since the start of World