First National Bank, Nashville, IL (Charter 6524)
First National Bank, Nashville, IL (Chartered 1902 - Closed (Merger) 1992)
Town History
Nashville is located in Washington County, Illinois and was named for Nashville, Tennessee. It was originally called New Nashville, and under the latter name was laid out in 1830. It's location is approximately 55 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri. The local post office was established as Nashville in 1831.
Nashville is located on Nashville Creek, at the headwaters of Little Crooked Creek, which flows northwest into the Kaskaskia River. Just to the southeast of Nashville is the headwaters of Beaucoup Creek, which flows south into the Big Muddy River. Nashville is thus situated next to the Kaskaskia/Big Muddy divide.
Nascote Industries is an automobile parts manufacturer that is part of Magna International; its Nashville plant was established in 1985, and employs over 1000 people. Grupo Antolin owns the other auto parts manufacturing plant in Nashville, employing 522 people as of 2018.
In 1900 the population was 2,184 growing to 3,258 in the 2010 census.
Nashville had two National Banks chartered during the Bank Note Era, and both of those banks issued National Bank Notes.
Bank History
- Organized November 28, 1902
- Chartered December 8, 1902
- Opened for business January 1, 1903
- Succeeded Washington County Bank
- Bank was Open past 1935
- For Bank History after 1935 see FDIC Bank History website
- Merged into Magna Bank of Southern Illinois, Centralia, IL Mar 6, 1992.
The Washington County Bank of Hosmer, Huegely & Company was founded in 1874. The name was changed first to the Washington County Bank of Huegely, Needles & Company, and finally to the Washington County Bank of Needles, Krughoff & Company and in the last name change about 1884, Mr. T.B. Needles became president and Col. Krughoff remained as cashier. The early partnership of the two distinguished Nashville names, Needles and Krughoff, would result in the family controlling interests in the bank from its early days until 1968.
Thomas B. Needles, in addition to co-founding the First National Bank, was a distinguished public figure in the state of Illinois. He was a lawyer by profession, yet his avocation was politics and was Washington County's first Republican County Clerk. In later years he served in both houses of the State Legislature as a State Senator and as a Representative and also served a term as State Auditor. Around the turn of the century, Mr. Needles was a U.S. Marshal in the Indian Territory during the Oklahoma land rush and later would serve on the Dawes Commission.
Colonel Louis Krughoff was born in Germany in 1836 and came to the United States in 1851. He settled in Washington County, Illinois and was a clerk for Sawyer & McCracken, early merchants. In 1857 he enrolled at Jones Commercial College in St. Louis. Upon graduation he remained in St. Louis until the summer of 1861 when he enlisted as a private in the Union cavalry at Cairo. Later, while on furlough at home he was asked to recruit an infantry company of which he was elected captain. He returned home in January 1865 at the rank of Colonel and returned to his mercantile pursuits. In 1874 he joined the newly-formed Washington County Bank as cashier.
The First National Bank of Nashville opened for business on January 2, 1903. The capital was $50,000 with a $10,000 surplus. Officers were T.B. Needles, president; J.A. Watts, vice president; Louis Krughoff, cashier; A.G. Hartnagel, assistant cashier; and Paul Krughoff, teller and bookkeeper. The same officers also constituted the first board of directors.
Official Bank Title(s)
1: The First National Bank of Nashville, IL
Bank Note Types Issued
A total of $1,251,900 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1902 and 1992. This consisted of a total of 155,268 notes (124,032 large size and 31,236 small size notes).
This bank issued the following Types and Denominations of bank notes:
Series/Type Sheet/Denoms Serial#s Sheet Comments 1902 Red Seal 4x5 1 - 2250 1902 Red Seal 3x10-20 1 - 2160 1902 Date Back 4x5 1 - 6650 1902 Date Back 3x10-20 1 - 4740 1902 Plain Back 4x5 6651 - 15979 1902 Plain Back 3x10-20 4741 - 10619 1929 Type 1 6x5 1 - 2690 1929 Type 1 6x10 1 - 1438 1929 Type 1 6x20 1 - 392 1929 Type 2 5 1 - 2250 1929 Type 2 10 1 - 1422 1929 Type 2 20 1 - 444
Bank Presidents and Cashiers
Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1902 - 1992):
Presidents:
- Thomas B. Needles, 1903-1913
- James Albert Watts, 1914-1914
- Paul Krughoff, 1915-1931
- John Henry Gaebe, 1932-1935
Cashiers:
- Louis Krughoff, 1903-1907
- August G. Hartnagel, 1908-1935
Other Bank Note Signers
- James Albert Watts signed as Vice President.
- There are currently no known Assistant Cashier bank note signers for this bank.
Wiki Links
- Illinois Bank Note History
- General information on Nashville (Wikipedia)
- General information on Washington County (Wikipedia)
- General information on Illinois (Wikipedia)
Sources
- Nashville, IL, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville,_Illinois
- 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
- Nashville Journal, Nashville, IL., Thu., Jan. 8, 1903.
- The Nashville News, Nashville, IL, Thu., August 15, 1974.