Citizens National Bank, Meyersdale, PA (Charter 5833)
Citizens National Bank, Meyersdale, PA (Chartered 1901 - Closed (Merger) 2016)
Town History
Meyersdale is a borough in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, on the Casselman River, 73 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. In the past, Meyersdale's chief industry was the mining of coal. Meyersdale is located along the Great Allegheny Passage, a multi-use recreational rail trail. At the 2010 census there were 2,184 people.
Meyersdale was first settled as early as 1776, but the growth of the town dates from the advent of the first railroad in 1871. Coal mining began in the next year. The borough was named for an early settler, Peter Meyers, a local farmer who was integral to the beginning of the town. Early names for Meyersdale included Meyers Mills and Dale City.
Meyersdale had three National Banks chartered during the Bank Note Era, and all three of those banks issued National Bank Notes.
Bank History
- Organized April 26, 1901
- Chartered May 23, 1901
- Opened for business June 3, 1901
- Succeeded Citizens Bank
- Bank was Open past 1935
- For Bank History after 1935 see FDIC Bank History website
- Merged into Riverview Bank, Meyersdale, PA Jan 1, 2016
The following history of Somerset County is from The Republic, Meyersdale, PA, Thu., Mar. 28, 1935 and is written from the perspective of the mid-1930s with additions to amplify some areas. The history and development of the Citizens National Bank of Meyersdale is so closely interwoven with that of this section of Somerset County that the two almost read as one. For 150 years, the name of Philson has been indelibly associated with the early settlement, agricultural advancement, business expansion and banking interests of this favored section of the Alleghenies.
It was in 1785 that Robert Philson, a native of County Tyrone, Ireland, where he was born in 1759, emigrated to America and settled at Berlin, at that time a cross-trails trading settlement on the route between Fort Cumberland, Maryland, and Fort Pitt, at the junction of the Ohio and Allegany Rivers. The Berlin settlement was composed almost entirely of German immigrants which accounts for the name of their village, but the young Irish immigrant saw the possibilities of the location. He engaged in the mercantile business there. Endowed with a sociable disposition and gifted with natural ability, he soon made friends of his German neighbors and became prominent in public affairs.
As early as 1795 he was a Representative to the State Legislature and in 1818 he enjoyed the distinction of being elected as the first member of Congress from Somerset County, as the Representative of the Sixteenth Pennsylvania District. Congressional Biography of Robert Philson
For twenty years this hardy and patriotic pioneer served as Associate Judge of the County. He was also Brigadier General of the Militia in Bedford, Somerset and Fayette Counties for a number of years. Until 1796, all of Somerset County was included in what was known as Brothersvalley Township, Bedford County. No picture is available for the progenitor in the country of the Philson family, father of the founder of the Philson banking interests of Somerset County.
Samuel R. Philson, founder of the banking house with which his name is so closely associated was a son of this sturdy Irish pioneer, Robert Philson. He was born in Berlin, November 11, 1812, the year of our second war with England. There were no public schools during his boyhood, but groups of citizens erected schoolhouses and employed teachers for a few months each year to teach their children spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic. Samuel Philson finished his schooling at the age of fourteen. Just 100 years ago he formed the firm of S. Philson & Co. to engage in the mercantile business in Berlin, a business which prospered under his direction for many years.
In 1866 Samuel Philson established the first banking house in Berlin Borough, known as S. Philson & Co. Although there have been changes of firm names and partnerships, the Philson interests still persist in the third generation in the banking business.
The Citizens National Bank of Meyersdale may be said to have had its birth when in 1868, in company with J.S. Black, Samuel R. Philson opened the banking house of Philson, Black & Co., on the same piece of real estate that the Citizens National Bank now occupies.
Known as Meyers Mills, and a few years later for a short period as Dale City, the present Borough of Meyersdale was a little country town, supported by a couple of tanneries and a grist mill, when this time-honored bank was established. The Pittsburgh & Connellsville and Cumberland railroad was under construction, however, and Meyers Mills was to be a station on the line. Samuel Philson always a man of vision, foresaw the development of this town and surrounding country after advent of the railroad in 1871. His foresight was fully justified; the town grew and the bank prospered as part of it.
In 1882 the elder Philson brought his son, Samuel B. Philson, over from his Berlin bank to assume charge of the rapidly growing business of the Citizens Bank, under which name it was successfully conducted for about twenty years after the firm of Philson, Black & Co. was dissolved--Mr. Black withdrawing and Mr. Philson continuing at the head of the bank.
In 1901, two years before the founder's death, the Citizens Bank was incorporated and chartered as a national bank and the title changed to The Citizens National Bank of Meyersdale. Incidentally, it is a most appropriate title as it has been the policy of the management from its inception to make this old banking house literally a citizens bank--conducted for the convenience and benefit of the citizens of Meyersdale and surrounding community as advertising for the bank states. Interestingly, Samuel R. Philson resided in Berlin, but traveled to Myersdale where in one day he signed 1600 new National Bank notes, the first signature reportedly as good as the last. At the end of the day he returned to Berlin.
Throughout it's sixty-seven years of business life during all of which time it has been intimately associated with the life and best interests of the people of this community, it has done business with the grandfathers and fathers and grandsons of its business friends of today.
It bravely and successfully rode the storm of the panics of 1873, of 1893-1896, of the flurry of 1907, that of 1914-1915 and throughout the great depression of the past four years. In fair financial weather and foul, it has been a bulwark of strength to the businessmen of the community, so dependent upon a calm hand on the tiller when the storms are raging.
The name of Philson is prominent among its officers and upon its directors. Samuel B. Philson, son of the founder and grandson of the pioneer of Berlin has long been its president. R. Harry Philson, his son, and of the fourth generation, is its vice-president. Clarence Moore has been for many years the cashier. These gentlemen, together with H. Bunn Philson, of the Philson National Bank of Berlin, John S. Weakland, a retired businessman of Meyersdale, E.L. Donges, a Sommerset County Commissioners and an old established businessman of Meyersdale, and Edison M. Hay, one of the outstanding farmers of Brothersvalley Township, comprise the Board of Directors.
The bank occupies the first floor of its own handsome stone and brick four-story and basement building, erected in 1903. Its equipment is modern and very complete throughout. The second and third floors are devoted to offices; the Masonic organizations occupy the entire fourth floor; on the roof is the Meyersdale Volunteer Fire Department's electric fire alarm, and in the basement is an up-to-date barber shop. The Citizens Bank building, located at the northwest corner of Clay and Center Streets is one of the landmarks of Meyersdale.
Official Bank Title(s)
1: The Citizens National Bank of Meyersdale, PA
Bank Note Types Issued
A total of $1,322,630 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1901 and 2016. This consisted of a total of 106,574 notes (85,028 large size and 21,546 small size notes).
This bank issued the following Types and Denominations of bank notes:
Series/Type Sheet/Denoms Serial#s Sheet Comments 1882 Brown Back 3x10-20 1 - 3660 1882 Date Back 3x10-20 1 - 5900 1882 Value Back 3x10-20 5901 - 9303 1902 Plain Back 3x10-20 1 - 8294 1929 Type 1 6x10 1 - 2522 1929 Type 1 6x20 1 - 672 1929 Type 2 5 1 - 180 1929 Type 2 10 1 - 1712 1929 Type 2 20 1 - 490
Bank Presidents and Cashiers
Citizens National Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1901 - 2016):
Presidents:
Cashiers:
- Samuel B. Philson, 1901-1901
- Eugene Robinson Floto Sr., 1902-1905
- Robert Harry Philson, 1906-1925
- Clarence H. Moore, 1926-1935
Other Bank Note Signers
- Clarence H. Moore, Assistant Cashier, (1901...1925) Signature
- There are currently no known Vice President bank note signers for this bank.
Wiki Links
- Pennsylvania Bank Note History
- General information on Meyersdale (Wikipedia)
- General information on Somerset County (Wikipedia)
- General information on Pennsylvania (Wikipedia)
Sources
- Meyersdale, PA, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyersdale,_Pennsylvania
- The Republic, Meyersdale, PA, Thu., Mar. 28, 1935.
- Don C. Kelly, National Bank Notes, A Guide with Prices. 6th Edition (Oxford, OH: The Paper Money Institute, 2008).
- Dean Oakes and John Hickman, Standard Catalog of National Bank Notes. 2nd Edition (Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 1990).
- Banks & Bankers Historical Database (1782-1935), https://bbdata.banknotehistory.com