Farmers & Merchants NB, Lake City, SC (Charter 10681)

1902 Plain Back $5 bank note with stamped signatures of R.H. McElveen, Cashier and T.C. Cottingham, President. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions, www.ha.com

NEEDED: a contemporary postcard or photo of the bank.

Farmers & Merchants NB, Lake City, SC (Chartered 1915 - Receivership 1926)

Town History

Lake City is a city in Florence County, South Carolina. The population was 6,675 at the 2010 census. Located in central South Carolina, it is south of Florence and included as part of the Florence Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The Lake City area was originally part of Williamsburg Township, which was first settled by a group of Scots-Irish in 1736. It was first called "Graham's Crossroads" and then "Graham", after Aaron Graham, a land owner around the crossroads that now form Church and Main streets in Lake City.

In 1856, the Northeastern Railroad built its main line through the area. This brought new growth to the community. On March 4, 1874, after requests from residents, a city charter was granted to the new town of Graham. On December 24, 1883, the town changed its name to "Lake City", after the swimming lakes just north of town. This was at the request of the locally-serving Lynches Lake Post Office, since there was another post office in South Carolina known as that.

Lake City had one National Bank chartered during the Bank Note Era, and it issued National Bank Notes.

Bank History

• Organized December 26, 1914
• Chartered January 13, 1915
• Conversion of The Farmers & Merchants Bank, Lake City, SC
• Receivership October 18, 1926

In 1905, the annual report of the secretary of state showed a striking number of small banks and banking institutions were chartered. Nearly every incorporated town in South Carolina now had a chartered bank. During the year charters had been issued to banking concerns with aggregated capitalization of $966,000 and this was projected to exceed $1,000,000 by the end of the year. Among those banks was the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank of Lake City, Williamsburg County, with capital of $25,000.

In December 1914, application to convert The Farmers & Merchants Bank of Lake City, South Carolina into the Farmers & Merchants National Bank of Lake City, with capital of $100,000, was approved by the comptroller of the currency.

On January 15, 1917, stockholders elected the following directors: J.S. McClam, J.D. McClam, J.C. Young, B.W. Stewart, A.M. Parker, S.M. Askins, J.P. Matthews, T.J. Cottingham, W. Wesley Singletary. The following officers were elected: J.S. McClam, president; T.J. Cottingham, vice president; and W. Wesley Singletary, cashier.

In January 1926, stockholders elected the following directors: James E. Peurifoy, Walterboro; B.F. McLeod, Columbia; F.E. Hinnant, Columbia; J.M. Holman, St. Matthews; Edgar L. Culler, Orangeburg; E.M. Croxton, Lancaster; R.H. McElveen, Lake City; and Leon L. Rice, Anderson.

Thomas A. Early was the Receiver, auctioning off notes on the bank by November 1926.

Official Bank Title(s)

1: The Farmers & Merchants National Bank of Lake City, SC

Bank Note Types Issued

A total of $1,018,500 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1915 and 1926. This consisted of a total of 134,700 notes (134,700 large size and No small size notes).

This bank issued the following Types and Denominations of bank notes:

Series/Type	Sheet/Denoms	Serial#s	Sheet Comments
1902 Date Back	4x5	1 - 1500
1902 Date Back	3x10-20	1 - 1400
1902 Plain Back	4x5	1501 - 22175
1902 Plain Back	3x10-20	1401 - 11500

Bank Presidents and Cashiers

Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1915 - 1926):

Presidents:

• John Sidney McClam, 1915-1919
• Thaddeus Jerome Cottingham, 1919-1922
• John Calhoun Young, 1923-1926

Cashiers:

• Basil Wallace Jones, Jr., 1915-1916
• W. Wesley Singletary, 1917-1918
• Frank Hyman Daniel, 1918-1919
• Miss Eleida (Fulmore) Bowen, 1919-1919
• Robert Henry McElveen, 1920-1926

Other Known Bank Note Signers

• No other known bank note signers for this bank

Bank Note History Links

• Farmers & Merchants NB, Lake City, SC History (NB Lookup)
• South Carolina Bank Note History (BNH Wiki)

Sources

• Lake City, SC, 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
• The State, Columbia, SC, Sun., Dec. 10, 1905.
• The Wall Street Journal, New York, NY, Thu., Dec. 24, 1914.
• The County Record, Kingstree, SC, Thu., Jan. 18, 1917.
• The Watchman and Southron, Sumter, South Carolina, Sat., Jan. 9, 1926.