First National Bank, Oxnard, CA (Charter 9481)
First National Bank, Oxnard, CA (Chartered 1909 - Liquidated 1922)
Town History
Oxnard is a city in Ventura County, California, on California's South Coast. It is the most populous city in Ventura County and the 22nd most populous city in California. Incorporated in 1903, Oxnard lies approximately 60 miles west of downtown Los Angeles and is part of the larger Greater Los Angeles area.
It is at the western edge of the fertile Oxnard Plain, adjacent to agricultural fields with strawberries, lima beans and other vegetable crops. Oxnard is also a major transportation hub in Southern California, with Amtrak, Union Pacific, Metrolink, Greyhound, and Intercalifornias stopping there. It also has a small regional airport, Oxnard Airport (OXR). The town also has significant connections to the nearby oil fields, Oxnard Oil Field and the West Montalvo Oil Field.
Oxnard's population was 202,063 as of 2020,and is largely Latino. It is the most populous city in the Oxnard–Thousand Oaks–Ventura, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Henry T. Oxnard, founder of Moorhead, Minnesota-based American Crystal Sugar Company who operated a successful sugar beet factory with his three brothers (Benjamin, James, and Robert) in Chino, California, was enticed to build a $2 million factory on the plain inland from Port Hueneme. Shortly after the 1897 beet campaign, a new town emerged, now commemorated on the National Register of Historic Places as the Henry T. Oxnard Historic District. Oxnard intended to name the settlement after the Greek word for "sugar", zachari, but frustrated by bureaucracy, named it after himself. Given the potential growth of the town of Oxnard, in the spring of 1898, a railroad station was built to service the plant, which attracted a population of Chinese, Japanese, and Mexican laborers and enough commerce to merit the designation of a town. The Oxnard brothers, who never lived in their namesake city, sold both the Chino and the giant red-brick Oxnard factory in 1899 for nearly $4 million. The Oxnard factory with its landmark twin smokestacks operated from August 19, 1899, until October 26, 1959. Factory operations were interrupted in the Oxnard Strike of 1903.
Oxnard was incorporated as a California city on June 30, 1903, and the public library was opened in 1907. Prior to and during World War II, the naval bases of Point Mugu and Port Hueneme were established in the area to take advantage of the only major navigable port on California's coast between the Port of Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay, and the bases in turn encouraged the development of the defense-based aerospace and communications industries.
Oxnard had one National Bank chartered during the Bank Note Era and it issued National Bank Notes.
Bank History
- Organized June 15, 1909
- Chartered July 19, 1909
- Conversion of The Bank of Oxnard
- Liquidated June 30, 1922
- Absorbed by Los Angeles Trust & Savings Bank, Los Angeles, California
In February 1911, A.C. Martin, Los Angeles architect, was in Oxnard to consult with officials. He would draw the plans for a new brick building to be erected in the rear of the old bank building on the northwest corner of B and North Fifth Streets and extending to the alley in the rear of the Courier office. The contract was let on March 14th for the erection of a two-story brick building to be an addition to the First National Bank. The new improvement cost approximately $4,000 and would make it one of the largest buildings in the city.
On May 2, 1922, a refinancing plan looking toward a merger of eighteen banks in southern and central California, was announced by Henry M. Robinson, president of the First National Bank of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank and the First Security Company. The merger, which Mr. Robinson said would follow the re-financing plan, will affect nine state or savings banks, and seven national banks in addition to the First National Bank of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank. The banks involved, in addition to the two named, were the Bank of Santa Maria; the Commercial Trust and Savings Bank, Santa Barbara; the Fidelity Trust and Savings Bank, Fresno; the First National Bank of Hollywood; the Hollywood Savings Bank; the Alhambra Savings and Commercial Bank; the First National Bank; the Redlands Savings Bank; the National Bank of Tulare; the Savings Bank of Tulare; the First National Bank of Visalia; the Producers Savings Bank of Visalia; the First National Bank of Oxnard; the Oxnard Savings Bank; the City National Bank of Long Beach, and the Lindsay National Bank.
On June 30, 1922 the eighteen mergers became effective under the Pacific Southwest chain of institutions headed by the First National Bank of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank, and the First Securities Company. The First National Bank of Oxnard and Oxnard Savings Bank became First of Oxnard branch, Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank. Under the merger terms, the stock of all institutions was pooled and certificates issued to all stockholders giving each a pro rata ownership in all of the merged institutions.
Official Bank Title(s)
1: The First National Bank of Oxnard, CA
Bank Note Types Issued
A total of $466,100 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1909 and 1922. This consisted of a total of 56,944 notes (56,944 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 - 5850 1902 Date Back 3x10-20 1 - 4580 $20s with duplicated Chas. H. Treat signatures 1-3900 1902 Plain Back 4x5 5851 - 8190 1902 Plain Back 3x10-20 4581 - 6046
Bank Presidents and Cashiers
Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1909 - 1922):
Presidents:
Cashiers:
Other Known Bank Note Signers
- No other known bank note signers for this bank
Bank Note History Links
- First National Bank, Oxnard, CA History (NB Lookup)
- A Unique Error and Great Rarity (FNB Oxnard, CA) (SPMC PM#117)
- California Bank Note History (BNH Wiki)
Sources
- Oxnard, CA, 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
- Huntoon, Peter, Plate Errors on National Bank Plates and Notes, Chapter N6. This chapter is from The Encyclopedia of U. S. National Bank Notes published jointly by the National Currency Foundation (www.nationalcurrencyfoundation.com) and Society of Paper Money Collectors (www.spmc.org)
- Huntoon, Peter, "A Unique Error and Great Rarity," Paper Money No. 117, pp. 114-115.
- Oxnard Courier, Oxnard, CA, Fri., Feb. 17, 1911.
- Oxnard Courier, Oxnard, CA, Fri., Mar. 17, 1911.
- Visalia Times-Delta, Visalia, CA, Wed., May 3, 1922.
- The Fresno Morning Republican, Fresno, CA, Fri., June 30, 1922.