Commercial National Bank in Shreveport, LA (Charter 13648)
Commercial National Bank in Shreveport, LA (Chartered 1932 - Closed (Merger) 1997)
Town History
Shreveport is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, of which it is the parish seat. It extends along the west bank of the Red River into neighboring Bossier Parish. The 2020 census tabulation for the city's population was 201,573, while the Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area had a population of 393,406. In 1880, the population was 8,009, growing to 76,655 by 1930.
Shreveport was founded in 1836 by the Shreve Town Company, a corporation established to develop a town at the juncture of the newly navigable Red River and the Texas Trail, an overland route into the newly independent Republic of Texas. It grew throughout the 20th century and, after the discovery of oil in Louisiana, became a national center for the oil industry. Standard Oil of Louisiana and United Gas Corporation were headquartered in the city until the 1960s and 1980s, respectively. After the loss of jobs in the oil industry, the closure of General Motors' Shreveport Operations, and other economic problems, it struggled with a declining population, poverty, drugs, and violent crime. However, the city continues in its efforts to revitalize its infrastructure, revive the economy through diversification, and lower crime.
Shreveport is the educational, commercial and cultural center of the Ark-La-Tex region, where Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas meet. It is the location of Centenary College of Louisiana, Louisiana State University Shreveport, Louisiana Tech University Shreveport, Southern University at Shreveport, and Louisiana Baptist University. It forms part of the I-20 Cyber Corridor linking Shreveport to Dallas and Atlanta. Companies with significant operations or headquarters in Shreveport are Amazon, Regions Financial Corporation, JPMorgan Chase, Sam's Town Hotel and Gambling Hall, AT&T Mobility, United Parcel Service, Walmart, SWEPCO, General Electric, UOP LLC, Calumet Specialty Products Partners, and APS Payroll.
Shreveport was established to create a town at the meeting point of the Brown Bricks and the Texas Trail. The Red River was made navigable by Captain Henry Miller Shreve, who led the United States Army Corps of Engineers efforts to clear the Red River. A 180-mile-long natural log jam, the Great Raft, had previously obstructed passage to shipping. Shreve used a specially modified riverboat, the Heliopolis, to remove the log jam. The company and the village of Shreve Town were named in Shreve's honor.
Shreve Town was originally contained within the boundaries of a piece of land sold to the company in 1835 by the indigenous Caddo Indians. In 1838 Caddo Parish was created from the large Natchitoches Parish, and Shreve Town became its parish seat. On March 20, 1839, the town was incorporated as Shreveport. Originally, the town consisted of 64 city blocks, created by eight streets running west from the Red River and eight streets running south from Cross Bayou, one of its tributaries.
Shreveport soon became a center of steamboat commerce, carrying mostly cotton and agricultural crops from the plantations of Caddo Parish. Shreveport also had a slave market, though slave trading was not as widespread as in other parts of the state. Steamboats plied the Red River, and stevedores loaded and unloaded cargo. By 1860, Shreveport had a population of 2,200 free people and 1,300 slaves within the city limits.
Shreveport had eight National Banks chartered during the Bank Note Era, and all eight of those banks issued National Bank Notes.
Bank Notes.
Bank History
- Organized December 3, 1932
- Chartered December 5, 1932
- Succeeded 3600 (Commercial National Bank of Shreveport, LA)
- Assumed circulation of 3600
- Bank was Open past 1935
- For Bank History after 1935 see FDIC Bank History website
- Merged into Deposit Guaranty National Bank in Jackson, MS, July 14, 1997
The Commercial National Bank in Shreveport received its charter on December 5, 1932. The new bank was the result of the efforts of 14 of Shreveport's wealthiest and most successful businessmen. The chairman was F.D. Lee, well-known in business and banking circles. The president was Val H. Murrell, one of the outstanding bankers of the city. Mr. Lee and Mr. Murrell in accepting positions in the management of the new national bank continued in their same positions in the management of the Continental-American Bank and Trust Co. The new bank had capital stock of $1,000,000 paid in. and took over all deposits of the old Commercial National Bank and assumed full liability.[1]
On Tuesday, January 10, 1933, the shareholders of the Commercial National Bank of Shreveport unanimously ratified the action of its board of directors in the sale of all of its assets to Commercial National Bank in Shreveport. The sale of the bank was made by the directors on December 5, and at that time officers and directors of the new bank were elected for the year 1933. They were F.D. Lee, chairman of the board; Val H. Murrell, president; Jacob Embry, executive vice president; S.G. Sample, P.C. Willis, and L.D. Leeper, vice presidents; J.G. O'Brien, vice president and trust officer; A.O. Graves, assistant vice president; J.A. Walden, cashier; P.A. Turner, O.G. Bell, and R.F. Sebastian, assistant cashiers; F.P. Stubbs, Jr., and Guy Kolb, assistant trust officers. The directors elected were F.D. Lee, E.A. Frost, S.D. Hunter, E.G. Palmer, Jacob Embry, C.R. Minor, Val H. Murrell, J.M. Robinson, E.T. Robinson, S.G. Sample, N.H. Wheless, Sam Wiener, Jr., and Geo. D. Wray.[2]
On Saturday, February 1, 1941, the new 17-story edifice of the Commercial National Bank in Shreveport was formally opened to the public for inspection. Towering above the city's other buildings, the new structure represented the culmination of some 89 years of expansion by the bank. Special arrangements were completed to handle the large crowd. Members of the bank's official family and staff were present to greet the visitors. Every modern improvement to facilitate banking operations and increase the institution's service to the public was incorporated in the new bank, which was housed on the ground floor. Impressive columns of Italian Verte Issorie marble flanked the lobby. and, in contrast, Saint Genevieve rose marble was used about the tellers' cages. Officers' quarters were located at both ends of the banking room. The private offices of the president and executive vice president were harmoniously finished in pecan and oak paneling. Overlooking the lobby was a 5-foot clock of modernistic design. The boardroom and trust department was situated on the second floor. Harmoniously finished in native pecan, the board room was furnished with mahogany tables and chairs upholstered in light green leather. The history of Shreveport and a pictorial panorama of the area's mighty natural resources were graphically presented by five murals on the banking room's east wall. Each was 16 feet long and 8 feet high. The central mural depicted the removal of the great raft in Red River by Capt. Henry Miller Shreve in 1835-1839. Etched in the distant foreground of the mural was a prophetic vision of the city of the future. A view of an idealized cotton field symbolized the area's agricultural progress. Lumber was portrayed by one of the murals. The entire lumbering operation from logging to the dry. kilns was picturized. Another mural showed the tremendous oil development of this section and depicted oil from rotary drilling to pipeline transportation. The fifth panel portrayed the evolution of transportation from pioneer ox cart and covered wagon to streamlined train and soaring airplane. Through each flowed the Red River, Shreveport's reason for existence. It was painted in palladium, according to the artist, "to reflect the colors that life gives off." The murals were the work of J. Buck Winn, Jr., famed southwestern muralist. The building. which is one of the tallest in the South erected with Indiana limestone, was equipped with 185 miles of telephone wiring and enough electrical wiring to link Shreveport and Coushatta. The high-speed fully automatic elevators travel the length of the building in 15 seconds, and the cars automatically stop on the floor level. A special starter panel in the elevator lobby permits proper scheduling of elevators during peak hours. Automatic safety devices eliminate accident hazards. When a signal is sounded on the various floors, the approaching elevator automatically stops, and it is beyond the power of the operator to inadvertently pass a floor once the signal has been sounded.[4]
On Wednesday, February 27, 1957, Val H. Murrell, long-active banker in Shreveport, died in a local hospital. Mr. Murrell, 64, was president of Commercial National Bank and retired in 1955 as president of Continental-American Bank and Trust Co. of Shreveport. Born near Gainesville, Texas, on January 12, 1892, he was the son of George A. and Prudency Mundy Murrell. He came to Shreveport in 1920 to accept a position as a bank teller at Commercial National, progressing to assistant cashier in 1922 and a year later to cashier. In 1924 he was elected to the directorate and in 1928 he became a vice president. When the Commercial American Bank & Trust Co. was organized in 1930, he was elected its president and while serving in that capacity also was named president of Continental Trust and Savings in May 1931. He continued his association with Commercial National and in 1932 became its president, retiring in 1948 to devote his full time to the presidency of the merged Continental-American Bank & Trust Co.[5]
On January 1, 1995, Commercial National Bank completed its purchase of West Monroe-based Louisiana Bank of Ouachita Parish. In the transaction completed on New Year's Eve, Deposit Guaranty Corp., CNB's parent company, exchanged 680,539 shares of its common stock for all of LBO's common shares.[6] Deposit Guaranty Corp. had net income of $67.1 million for 1994, up from 66.6 million the previous year. It's total assets reported as of December 31st were $5.131 billion up from $4.898 billion a year earlier. The financial reports did not include the recent merger of CNB of Shreveport with West Monroe-based Louisiana Bank.[7]
On March 20, 1997, application was made to the Comptroller of the Currency, Southeastern District in Atlanta, for consent to merge Deposit Guaranty National Bank of Louisiana, Hammond, Louisiana; Commercial National Bank, Shreveport, Louisiana; and Merchants National Bank, Fort Smith Arkansas with and into Deposit Guaranty National Bank, Jackson, Mississippi. It was planned to continue to operate all offices of the named banks.[8] The merger was completed on July 14th.
In December 1997, the word in the banking industry was that the Jackson-based Deposit Guaranty Corp., the bank holding company of Deposit Guaranty National Bank, Deposit Guaranty Mortgage Co. and Deposit Guaranty Investments Inc., was on the block and attracting attention. It's stock climbed to $50.25 per share, an increase of $12 a share over a period of two weeks. William Staats, professor of banking and finance at LSU in Baton Rouge said "Louisiana now has 167 banks, down from 302 a decade ago. An the number will shrink because several mergers are pending." Possible buyers included Regions Financial Corp., NationsBank Corp., AmSouth Bancorp, South Trust Corp., SunTrust Banks Inc. and Union Planters Corp. Only Regions and Union Planters had locations in Louisiana. The Wall Street Journal estimated the cost at $2 billion and Credit Swisse First Boston Corp. estimated that sale could bring $55 per share.[9]
- 01/01/1995 Acquired Louisiana Bank (FDIC #22927) in West Monroe, LA.
- 07/14/1997 Merged and became part of Deposit Guaranty National Bank (FDIC #9784) in Jackson, MS.
- 09/01/1998 Merged and became part of First American National Bank (FDIC #4956) in Nashville, TN.
- 12/31/1999 Merged and became part of AmSouth Bank (FDIC #26800) in Birmingham, AL.
- 11/04/2006 Merged and became part of Regions Bank (FDIC #12368) in Birmingham, AL.
Official Bank Title
1: Commercial National Bank in Shreveport, LA
Bank Note Types Issued
A total of $803,370 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1932 and 1935. This consisted of a total of 102,659 notes (No large size and 102,659 small size notes).
This bank issued the following Types and Denominations of bank notes:
Series/Type Sheet/Denoms Serial#s Sheet Comments 1929 Type 1 6x5 1 - 6114 1929 Type 1 6x50 1 - 316 1929 Type 1 6x100 1 - 106 1929 Type 2 5 1 - 61070 1929 Type 2 50 1 - 1622 1929 Type 2 100 1 - 751
Bank Presidents and Cashiers
Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1932 - 1935):
Presidents:
Cashiers:
Other Known Bank Note Signers
- No other known bank note signers for this bank
Bank Note History Links
- Commercial National Bank in Shreveport, LA History (NB Lookup)
- Louisiana Bank Note History (BNH Wiki)
Sources
- Shreveport, LA, on Wikipedia
- 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://spmc.org/bank-note-history-project
- ↑ Morning World, Monroe, LA, Tue., Dec. 6, 1932.
- ↑ The Times, Shreveport, LA, Wed., Jan. 11, 1933.
- ↑ Hattiesburg American, Hattiesburg, MS, Fri., Jan. 31, 1997.
- ↑ The Shreveport Journal, Shreveport, LA, Sat., Feb. 1, 1941.
- ↑ The Shreveport Journal, Shreveport, LA, Wed., Feb. 27, 1957.
- ↑ The Times, Shreveport, LA, Wed., Jan. 4, 1995.
- ↑ Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, MS, Wed., Jan. 18, 1995.
- ↑ The Times, Shreveport, LA, Thu., Apr. 3, 1997.
- ↑ The Times, Shreveport, LA, Thu., Dec. 4, 1997.