First National Bank, Millville, PA (Charter 5389)

The old First National Bank of Millville, Pennsylvania, ca2020. Located at the corner of Rohrsburg Road and State Street, the building was home to an office of the Central Susquehanna Community Federal Credit Union at the time the photo was taken. Courtesy of Google Maps

First National Bank, Millville, PA (Chartered 1900 - Closed (Merger) 1979)

Town History

A 1927 Advertisement for the First National Bank of Millville with officers and sketch of the bank.

Millville is a borough in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. Millville is served by Pennsylvania Route 42 and Pennsylvania Route 254. PA 42 leads north 27 miles (via US 220) to Laporte and south 10 miles to Bloomsburg, the Columbia County seat, while PA 254 leads east 6 miles to Rohrsburg and southwest 4 miles to Jerseytown. As of the 2020 census Millville had a population of 976. It is part of the Bloomsburg–Berwick Micropolitan Statistical Area.

John Eves, a native of Ireland living in Mill Creek Hundred, Delaware, is thought to have been one of the men to visit the Greenwood Valley and Little Fishing Creek area in 1770. (One account of this visit indicates that he purchased a sizable portion of the land he explored in the area from the Indians who had served as his guides on his journey.) Although he returned to Delaware after this initial visit, he returned the following year with his son Thomas and built a log cabin on the property. The entire Eves family arrived the next year, in 1772, and began tilling the fields adjacent to the cabin as soon as they could be cleared.

In 1774, the Eves family received a deed for their 1,203-acre property in the valley, the largest land holding at the time in what would later become Columbia County. Title for the land, originally obtained by William and Elizabeth McMean in 1769, was passed to Reuben Haines, and then to John Eves.

An Indian uprising, the Battle of Wyoming, in mid-summer of 1778, caused the Eves family to flee their home in the valley and take refuge at a stockade near Washingtonville. Upon their return in 1785, they found their cabin burned and their fields overgrown, but immediately set about to recreate their homestead. When the Eves family returned in the mid-1780s, they were determined to make the settlement permanent. They were accompanied or were soon followed by several other families, including Masters, Kisner, Battin, Parker, Lundy, Lemon, Oliver, and Rich. With 17 children and 104 grandchildren, John Eves looked after the building of homes for the family, a gristmill that was to stand for 100 years, and later a sawmill and several other essential structures. The town was named Millville because of the gristmill.

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

Bank History

Organized April 19, 1900
Chartered June 2, 1900
Bank was Open past 1935
For Bank History after 1935 see FDIC Bank History website
Merged into Northern Central Bank in Williamsport, PA, May 14, 1979

On July 1, 1900, the First National Bank of Millville opened its doors for business with capital of $25,000 and a surplus of $5,000.

On Tuesday, January 14, 1908, the stockholders of the First National Bank at Millville elected the following directors: William Masters, Joseph W. Eves, William M. Eves, Josiah Heacock, Ellis Eves, John Eves, J.W. Bowman, H.S. Christian, W.W. Eves, and C.R. Henrie.

On September 11, 1925, robbery of the First National Bank of Millville was frustrated Jay Derr, a young clerk in the institution. Instead of obeying the command of two masked men to throw up his hands, Derr dropped to the floor behind the counter and turned on a burglar alarm. This frightened the would-be robbers, who ran from the building, jumped into an automobile and escaped. Passing pedestrians who attempted to halt them were threatened with pistols. Police quickly started in pursuit but no trace of the men was found.

By March 1926, $2,000 without a claimant for six mouths was an unusual situation that followed the arrest and conviction of the three youths on charges of attempting to hold up and rob the First National Bank at Millville. Shortly after the attempted robbery the bank offered the reward for the arrest and conviction of the men responsible. C.M. Eves, cashier of the bank, said that no ono had put in a claim for the money and that no one had talked to him about it. The reward had not been paid, but Mr. Eves said the money would be paid to the state police fund since the state troopers were not permitted to accept rewards for their services. In January 1926, Joseph Koslauski, Port Carbon, was sentenced by Judge Charles C. Evans of the Columbia County Court to imprisonment in the Eastern Penitentiary for a period from four and a half to none years at separate and solitary confinement and hard labor, as well as to pay a fine of $500 and costs of the prosecution.

In Columbia County Court at Bloomsburg on February 5, 1926, Albert Kumites, third of the alleged bandits who attempted to hold up the First National Bank at Millville last September, was sentenced to from seven to fourteen years in the penitentiary and fined $1,000. Kumites was blamed by Sheriff Pettit of Columbia County for three jail break plots frustrated since the first of the year.

In March 1927, the officers were J.W. Bowman, president, and C.M. Eves, cashier. The directors were J.W. Bowman, Charles Eves, C.R. Henrie, C.M. Eves, A.W. Eves, J.L. Eves, Grant Johnson and W.C. Swartz. Since 1914, the bank occupied its own commodious banking home. The bank had Capital, Surplus and Undivided Profits of over $128,000 while deposits exceeded $600,000.

On Tuesday, January 8, 1935, no change was made in the organization with officers and directors all re-elected. The directors re-elected were J.W. Bowman, C.R. Henrie, A.W. Eves, P.L. Eves, Charles Eves, J.L. Reece, Grant Johnson, and W.C. Swartz. The board organized with the election of John W. Bowman, president; C.R. Henrie, vice president; J.C. Derr, cashier; Roy Ikeler, assistant cashier; and Carl Flack, teller.

On July 11, 1978, Shareholders of Northern Central Bank, Williamsport, and the First National Bank of Millville approved a joint plan of merger agreed upon by directors of both institutions. Under the approved plan, the two banking offices of the First National Bank of Millville, in Millville and Clarkstown, would be merged with Northern Central Bank under its corporate charter and title. The merger brings the total banking offices of the combined financial institution to 18. Applications for merger will now be filed with the appropriate federal and state regulatory agencies. As of Sept. 30, Northern Central Bank bad total assets of $284,484,945, and the First National Bank of Millville listed total assets of $17,680,924, for a combined total of $302,165,869.

The merger of the First National Bank of Millville with Northern Central under its corporate charter was completed in the spring of 1979. As of June 30, 1979, Northern Central had total assets of about $311 million.

Official Bank Title(s)

1: The First National Bank of Millville, PA

Bank Note Types Issued

1882 Brown Back $10 bank note with pen signatures of C.M. Eves, Cashier and William Masters, President. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions, www.ha.com

1929 Type 1 $20 bank note with printed signatures of C.M. Eves, Cashier and J.W. Bowman, President. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions, www.ha.com

A total of $507,230 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1900 and 1979. This consisted of a total of 40,894 notes (34,112 large size and 6,782 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 - 2000
1882 Date Back	3x10-20	1 - 2230
1882 Value Back	3x10-20	2231 - 3192
1902 Plain Back	3x10-20	1 - 3336
1929 Type 1	6x10	1 - 778
1929 Type 1	6x20	1 - 192
1929 Type 2	10	1 - 813
1929 Type 2	20	1 - 149

Bank Presidents and Cashiers

Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1900 - 1979):

Presidents:

Cashiers:

Other Bank Note Signers

There are currently no known Vice President or Assistant Cashier bank note signers for this bank.

Wiki Links

Sources

Millville, PA, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millville,_Pennsylvania
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 Morning Press, Bloomsburg, PA, Wed., Jan. 15, 1908.
The Morning Call, Allentown, PA, Sat., Sep. 12, 1925.
The Daily News, Mount Carmel, PA, Thu., Jan. 14, 1926.
Pittston Gazette, Pittston, PA, Sat., Feb. 6, 1926.
The Morning Press, Bloomsburg, PA, Tue., Mar. 2, 1926.
The Morning Press, Bloomsburg, PA, Tue., Mar. 1, 1927.
The Morning Press, Bloomsburg, PA, Wed., Jan. 9, 1935.
The Daily Item, Sunbury, PA, Thu., Oct. 26, 1978.
The Morning Press, Bloomsburg, PA, Wed., Aug. 29, 1979.