Fred Harrison and Carl Bruce of Herrin, who with a small group of men had been successful in organizing a bank in Herrin which opened May 15, 1937, became interested in Marion.
Finally, after several preliminary meetings, an application for permission to organize a State chartered bank was signed by Dr. Alonzo N. Baker, Virgil Bowman, Carl Bruce, Harry L. Cox, Fred Harrison, Oscar Schafale, and David Warford, and forwarded to the Auditor of Public Accounts in Springfield for approval. A permit to organize was granted on September 15, 1937, which provided for a location in the present Hotel State building. This site was changed to the former First National Bank Building before the bank was opened.
Clyde Keltner, who had been contacted as the proposed Cashier and Ed Longbons who had been urged to accept the Presidency, did the leg work in selling the stock which proved to be an extremely difficult assignment. It really was the enthusiasm of Fred Harrison who finally put the organization over. He had committed himself to purchase all the stock that could not be sold in Marion and finished the subscription by purchase of 130 shares.
By October 16, 1937 the 500 shares had been sold to 36 stockholders at a price of $125 per share, making a total capital account of $62,500. At a meeting of the stockholders on October 18, 1937, the first Board of Directors was elected, namely Dr. A.N. Baker, Virgil N. Bowman, Carl Bruce, Harry L. Cox, Fred Harrison, Edward Longbons and Oscar Schafale. The new board then selected the following officers and staff: Ed Longbons, president; Dr. A. N. Baker, vice-president; J. C. Keltner, cashier; Harold Pangborn, assistant cashier; and Miss Clara Campbell, bookkeeper.
On December 4, 1937, Examiner Hal Clarida of the State Auditor’s office verified the actual cash from the sale of the stock at The National Stock Yards Bank and delivered Charter No. 1686 to the officers. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation commitment to insure the depositors of the new bank was also received at this time and on December 15, 1937; The Bank of Marion became a reality.
The acceptance of the bank by the public was excellent from the very beginning and its growth has been phenomenal. The bank grew slowly at first. Many of those men who organized the bank did not think they would ever reach the first million. Then in 1985, The Bank of Marion passed the 100 million dollar mark in total assets.
At the time of this writing, the Bank of Marion had multiple locations, drive-up windows, 24 hour banking services, as well as being one of the safest banks in Illinois.
Numerous businesses have clustered their selves around the bank building over the decades. In the late 1950’s the Bank was able to buy up all of the small businesses on the north side to Union Street and around 1960 finally had room to install a drive through service.
In August 1972, the Bank expanded its facilities to fill out the space on the square previously occupied by the C.W. Hay building to the west and beyond to the side street. The bank also went through changes in its exterior look when the top of the building containing lots of fancy detail from the First National Bank was covered up with flat slabs and the building was made to look shorter, while the additional building on the west was made to appear taller. This gave the impression of tying in the newly added building to the old building and at the same time reduced liability of falling masonry or ice buildup.
In December of 2103 and January of 2014, public notices were posted in the newspapers of the intent to merge the Bank of Marion with First Southern Bank. The merge changed the names all of the Bank of Marion facilities to First Southern Bank in 2014.
The old main bank building located on the square was vacated in 2021 and sold to the City of Marion for $460,000, well below its market value so that the City of Marion could create a new City Hall out of the building. After spending over two years and $4,200,000 in renovations to the building, City Hall was moved from the old W.T. Grant building to the bank building in September 2023. An agreement with First Southern Bank allowed the drive-thru space in the rear of the building to continue to be used by First Southern bank in a lease agreement.
(Extracted from 1989 Sesquicentennial History, WCHS; supplemented by Sam Lattuca on 03/05/2013-Revised on 9/19/2023)