Merkel Landis was an American lawyer and banker. A native resident of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he was the treasurer and president of Carlisle Trust Company in Pennsylvania. During that time he started the Christmas club savings program, now used by many banks nationwide.
Early life and education
Landis was born at Carlisle on January 5, 1875, to John B. Landis and Barbara Merkel Landis. 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. He then went to the Dickinson Preparatory School before entering Dickinson College. He started at the college in 1892 for a four-year degree of Bachelor of Philosophy and graduated in 1896. He was 21 years old when he graduated. 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.
Mid life and career
Landis entered the field of banking in 1901 and started working for Merchant's Bank. It was incorporated and renamed Carlisle Trust Company in 1905 and he become their treasurer. He remained in this position for many years. Later 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. He was a former member and vestryman of the St. John's Episcopal Church in Carlisle.
Christmas Savings Club
Carlisle had the first Christmas Saving Club and it was brought about by Landis. The concept came about when one Saturday in December 1909 three men from the local Carlisle shoe factory came to Landis' office with an idea. They asked if they could open a joint account under their names. Landis, as the bank treasurer, set up an account where they were going to collect money from the fellow workers and deposit one cent a week for the first week and continually add a penny to the total amount collected for the next fifty weeks, with the last deposit of 50 cents in December. They then were going to distribute the amount obtained, just before Christmas. 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. They would get paid three percent interest on their amount saved before being distributed. Landis, treasurer of Carlisle Trust Company, had originated the world's first Christmas Savings Club. The television game showJeopardy! once posed the question, "Bank president Merkel Landis founded this in Pennsylvania?" The answer: "What is The Christmas Club?" The Christmas Saving Club Landis set into place involved a system of coupons and booklet envelopes. The system was simple and required very little bookkeeping. It was a coupon-sheet system where a Club customer made a deposit of a nickel, dime or quarter and a coupon was torn off a 14×14-inch coupon sheet as a receipt. The customer kept the coupons in a booklet envelope. In December the customer turned in their coupons and received a check. A similar system is still used by banks and thousands of credit unions throughout the United States. The club is often referred to by many banks as The Landis Christmas Savings Club. A British-born traveling salesman bought the right later to use Landis' idea and sold the concept to other banks throughout the United States. 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 and checks are mailed from the local bank to the depositors for Christmas shopping. The state of New York usually has the most memberships, with Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and California next in line. These four states produce about 50 per cent of all Christmas Club depositors.
Landis had an ongoing illness in his early eighties. He was 85 years old when he died on September 28, 1960. His remains are interred at Westminster Memorial Gardens in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Personal life
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.
