The First National Bank was incorporated in January 1891 as a successor to the Exchange Bank of J. H. Burnett and H.T. Goddard. The bank occupied the location on the square where the Bank of Marion now sits. In its early days, the bank occupied the bottom floor of the C.H. Denison building, a wood and brick building.

In 1906, the Williamson County Savings Bank, chartered in 1903, merged with the First National Bank.

On February 10, 1916, the bank was demolished in a fire. The city had just purchased its first engine powered fire engine which was housed in an old livery stable on East Main St. behind the Goodall Hotel. The International Harvester with its 20 HP engine couldn’t pull the hill to reach the Public Square and had turned out to be problematic in reaching fires. A follow up fire the next day finished off whatever was left. The bank reopened at the City Hall in the northeast corner of the square, the location previously held by the Marion State and Savings Bank.

On April 25, 1916, the bank awarded a contract for a new building at the same location. The cornerstone was laid on July 10^th. In the following year, on March 3, 1917, the bank moved into its new $85,000 building. The next day, on Saturday, the bank held an open house from 9 A.M. to 8:30 P.M.

The bank occupied the ground floor and part of the basement. Mark Duke operated Duke’s Confectionary downstairs.

Upstairs, Hosea Ferrel and W.O. Potter had their attorney offices. Also, P.B. Wilson, a highway engineer and Dr. Clyde Duncan, a dentist, had their offices. The fifth tenant was the Johnston City Washed Coal Company.

The exterior of the building is Indiana Bedford stone and the inside was furnished with imported marble and mahogany.

Spencer and Sons of Champaign, Illinois was the architectural firm and English Brothers of Champaign were the builders.

The bank installed a safe from Mosler Safe Company, reported to be the best safe obtainable. The walls were 18 inches thick and solid concrete with chrome steel bars with a five inch chrome steel plate inside.

The original circular vault door weighs 17 tons and was seven feet two inches across. It was pulled to the bank on a steam roller. During remodeling in the 1970’s by the Bank of Marion, a new door was installed to the vault, and rather than remove the old one, it was closed, locked and covered up with a wall.

The bank officers were as follows; Shannon Holland, President; J.B. Bainbridge, Vice President; J.C. Mitchell, Cashier; L.C. Campbell, Assistant Cashier. Directors were; Rolla Holland, A.M. Townsend, Thomas Stotlar, Joab Goodall and T.J. Binkley.

The newspaper of the day reported that A.H. Joseph was the first depositor that day, and Mrs. X. Davis was the second.

Will Westbrook was the first bank President. Holland took over in 1894. Mitchell had been cashier at the bank for 27 years in 1917.Lloyd Campbell had been assistant cashier with the bank since 1892, and Will Burkhart, had been with the bank 10 years, joining the bank after the merger with Williamson County Savings Bank.

The First National Bank as a national bank was allowed to print its own currency as evidenced by the bills shown in the photo gallery.

When the Great Depression hit in 1930, Marion was just isolated enough that the Wall Street collapse went unnoticed by the local press for over a week. At the beginning of 1930, there were 15 banks open in Williamson County, by the end of 1931 there were none. Banks in the county started failing in February and on December 1, 1930, the First National Bank failed to open.

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(Data and some photos extracted from 1905 Souvenir History, WCHS; article written by Jon Musgrave in the 1995 Marion Daily Republican History Edition; Postcards from Mike Ward Collection and one photo by Ron Emery; compiled by Sam Lattuca 02/06/2013)