At the time, with one exception, she was the only woman head of a bank in the U.S.[2] Levancia Holcomb was born in Sand Lake, New York, June 23, 1841.

[1] Her parents were Hiram Holcomb and Cordelia Jane (née, Richards),[3] who removed from New York to Ohio, and then came to Illinois when Levancia was 12 years old.

She was elected vice-president of the Union National Bank of Streator, Illinois, of which her husband had been president for years.

[1] A personal friend of Frances Willard,[2] Plumb was one of the most active women in Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) work in Illinois.

[1] Since 1890, while retaining her business interests in Streator, she made her home in Wheaton, Illinois, in order to superintend the education of her four children, who were attending school there.