Pioneers

Agnes Gartland was hired in 1928 by Roy Bergengren as his assistant. She then became manager of the League Central Committee, the forerunner of CUNA Supply Cooperative. When CUNA moved to Madison, Wisconsin, Agnes followed. There, she served as manager of CUNA Supply Cooperative. In 1938, Agnes returned to Massachusetts where she became the managing director of Massachusetts CUNA, retiring from her position in 1959.

After retirement, Agnes continued to assist other credit unions and leagues. She continued correspondence with Roy Bergengren when he retired to Vermont where he still helped to organize credit unions. This correspondence is one of the main sources of information we have on the progress of the credit unions in the early years.

Dora Maxwell began her work with credit unions in New York state. In 1932 she was appointed head of the CUNEB branch in New York City. In 1934, she was chosen as a delegate to the Estes Park conference. Over the next several years she represented CUNA in the eastern part of the country and promoted CUNA Mutual Insurance. Dora was known as the best person to help groups who desired to start a credit union, providing guidance and assistance in coordinating with the corresponding state credit union leagues.

Despite resistance from intimidating bankers, Dora secured charters for 120 credit unions throughout the United States over the course of her career. In 1946, she became Director of the Organization & Education Department of CUNA In recognition of her many accomplishments,

CUNA annually awards the Dora Maxwell Social Responsibility Award to credit unions for social responsibility projects in their communities.
Note from Roy Bergengren to Dora, May 1952

Dear Dora,
During the thrilling days, when the going was tough and there were no leagues and there were only three credit union field workers in North Carolina, you were one of the three, a truly great organizer who contributed mightily to the crusade.

Gratefully,

Roy Bergengren
Montpeilier, VT
May 27, 1952

Louise Herring, an Ohio native, began working for the Kroger Company after graduating from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in business. During her work at Kroger in the 1930s, Louise saw how debt and desperation affected people. She heard about Edward Filene who was working to launch a new type of financial institution - the Credit Union. Realizing the benefits of such an organization, Herring set up 13 credit unions to serve Kroger employees. Louise was only around 23 years old at the time.

As the credit union movement began to take hold, leaders decided it was time to establish a nationwide umbrella organization and called for a meeting in August 1934 in Estes Park, Colorado. Organizer Roy Bergengren asked each credit union organization to send a delegate. The Kroger Company sent Louise Herring.

Delegates from the eastern states gathered in Chicago, where they all boarded a train to travel together to Colorado. During the journey, Bergengren had his staff account for the delegates aboard. They could find all—except one.

Bergengren’s secretary reported she’d been through all the train cars and had been unable to find Herring. She’d asked everyone, she said, except “that college kid sitting over there.”

Herring, sitting within earshot of this conversation, informed them she was the person they were trying to find. “I don’t think I have ever seen a man so mad,” she wrote in a letter years later, remembering the day she met Bergengren. “He was insulted (that) the Kroger Company would send a young brat to such an important meeting.”

But Herring soon proved her worth to everyone, including Bergengren. In fact, she ended up serving as secretary for the Estes Park conference, which went on to create the organization now known as the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), the trade association for all U.S. credit unions.

Back in Ohio, Herring helped create the Ohio Credit Union League, which selected her to represent Ohio on the new CUNA board.

Herring became the first managing director of the Ohio Credit Union League. In that role, she traveled all over Ohio to help people start their own credit unions. During her career, she helped organize at least 500 credit unions in Ohio. She was a firm believer in economic
democracy—equal and fair access to quality financial services. She felt credit unions could provide for people of all walks of life.

Indeed, helping others succeed was what Louise Herring was all about. As an elderly woman, Herring underwent open-heart surgery. At first, she didn’t recognize the doctor who was to perform the surgery. But he recognized her. Years before, Herring had approved a credit union loan that enabled him to finish medical school.

In 1976, Herring was recognized by the Ohio General Assembly as “the mother of the credit union movement in America.” In 1983, Louise Herring was inducted into the National Cooperative Business Association’s Cooperative Hall of Fame.

Her name lives on in the Louise Herring Award for Philosophy in Action, awarded by CUNA which recognizes those credit unions which “demonstrate the exceptional effort to integrate credit union philosophy” (not for profit but for service) into the daily operations of their credit unions and recognize their commitment to superior service to their member/owners. The Ohio Credit Union System awards the Louise McCarren Herring Lifetime Achievement Award to those individuals who have demonstrated a lifetime dedication to the advancement of the credit union movement in Ohio.
Herring family. Louise is pictured in the center.

Angela Melville was born in 1886 in Jamaica. She began her career with credit unions as a field representative for the Credit Union National Extension Bureau (CUNEB) in the 1920s. Angela traveled extensively in the south, primarily in Kentucky and Tennessee, often on horseback. She focused her work on using the power of credit unions to improve people's lives. She helped women's groups, miners, postal workers, railroad workers, and other laborers to organize credit unions.

Angela wrote the first guide to credit union procedures, Some Hints as to Usual Credit Union Practice, which ran through many editions and was the only publicity item for the movement for years.

After her work with CUNEB, she spent several years working in education before retiring in Jamaica where she continued to promote credit unions. She passed away in Jamaica in 1977.
Angela on her horse, Pearly.

Rose began her career in the credit union movement in Illinois as a found member of St. Mary's Credit Union (later known as Catholic and Community Credit Union) in 1938.The credit union was started as a way to help members of the parish community. Rose started the credit union in the parlor of her parents nome. Rose organized the credit union with only $90. At the time of her death, the credit union had $8 million in assets. Rose served the credit union first as founder and manager, board member. and eventually gave up a law career to serve as CEO. Overall, Rose would be involved with the credit union movement for 51 years, until her death in 1989.

In addition to serving on the board of St. Mary's, Rose also served as a director for Southern Illinois Directors Credit Union and Belleville Community Credit Union and as a chapter volunteer for 20 years. She held a variety of chapter board positions and served as league director for the Southern Illinois Chapter from 1953 to 1973. In her spare time, Rose helped organize at least three credit unions in the Southern Illinois Chapter: St. Mary's, Belleville Community and Southern Illinois Area Credit Unions.

For half a century, Rose Nevener devoted her life to the credit union movement as an employee, volunteer and friend. She was a unique human being with a burning passion for credit unions.And in the true spirit of "people helping people," Rose donated her body to medical science when she died in 1989.
Clipping from The Belleville News-Democrat, Belleville, Illinois, March 9, 1988.