First National Bank, Shelby, NC (Charter 6776)
First National Bank, Shelby, NC (Chartered 1903 - Closed (Merger) 2013)
Town History
Shelby is a city in and the county seat of Cleveland County, North Carolina, United States. It lies near the western edge of the Charlotte combined statistical area. The population was 20,323 at the 2010 census.
The area was originally inhabited by Catawba and Cherokee peoples and was later settled between around 1760. The city was chartered in 1843 and named after Colonel Isaac Shelby, a hero of the battle of Kings Mountain (1780) during the American Revolution. Shelby was agricultural until the railways in the 1870s stimulated Shelby's development. Textiles later became its chief industry during the 1920s when production of cotton in Cleveland County rose from 8,000 to 80,000 bales a year. Cotton production peaked in 1948 with Cleveland County producing 83,549 bales, making it North Carolina's premier cotton county. In the 1930s, Shelby was known as “the leading shopping center between Charlotte and Asheville” People from surrounding counties came to Shelby to shop, since there were numerous types of local and chain stores. By 1947, Shelby was a true thriving town with the mills paying among the highest wages in the South.
Shelby had two National Banks chartered during the Bank Note Era, and both of those banks issued National Bank Notes.
Bank History
- Organized April 3, 1903
- Chartered May 9, 1903
- Succeeded B. Blanton & Co. private bankers
- Conservatorship Mar 15, 1933
- Licensed June 27, 1933
- Bank was Open past 1935
- For Bank History after 1935 see FDIC Bank History website
- Merged into Bank of the Ozarks in Little Rock, AR, August 1, 2013
On Saturday, April 4, 1903, stockholders of the new First National Bank of Shelby met and elected the directors for the first year as follows: Messrs. Burwell Blanton, H.F Schenck, A.C. Miller, J.D. Lineberger, O.E. Ford, Chas. C. Blanton, and Geo. Blanton. The. capital stock, was $100,000. Th following officers were elected: President, Chas. C. Blanton; Vice President, H.F. Schenck; Cashier, George Blanton; Assistant Cashier, Forrest Eskridge. The Directors authorized the President to invest $25,000 in U. S. Bonds to secure circulation. It was expected that all would be ready for business early in June, so the bank of B. Blanton & Co. would soon become the First National Bank of Shelby. The First National Bank's report as of June 9, 1903 showed loans and discounts of $257,790.75, U.S. bonds of $25,000, Banking house and fixtures of $1,675 with total resources of $353,869.78. The capital stock paid in was $100,000 with 1,061.17 in Undivided profits. By the end of June, $25,000 of new currency was received.
In January 1916, Mr. John F. Schenk was elected vice president to succeed is late father, Major Schenck, who died a few months earlier.
In July 1922, the officers were Chas. C. Blanton, president; Jno. F. Schenck, vice president; George Blanton, vice president; Forrest Eskridge, cashier; Roy R. Sisk and C.D. Moore, assistant cashiers. The bank had capital and surplus of $500,000 and total resources over $3 million.
On the morning of February 23, 1928, a disastrous fire originating in the Central Hotel snuffed out three lives and caused a property damage estimated at $300,000. At least a half dozen others were injured and for several hours the blaze threatened the entire business section, despite valiant work of firemen from Charlotte, Gastonia, Cherryville, and Kings Mountain aiding local firemen. On the first floor of the hotel building practically every business was damaged. These included the First National Bank, Cleveland Drug Company, Cleveland Building and Loan, A.V. Wray and Sons, and the Stephenson Drug Company. The blaze with one or two exceptions never reached the first floor but thousands of gallons of water shot on the fire created great damage on the lower floor. The hotel lobby occupied part of the first floor of the building, all of the second and third floors. Federal reserve authorities immediately upon hearing of the fire rushed emergency financial aid to the First National Bank. The bank together with the other business firms however, were not hurt to any great extent and planned to open for business in new locations. All money and papers of the bank were housed in fireproof vaults and undamaged.
On August 28, 1928, in one of the most terrible disasters ever to occur in North Carolina, eight persons were killed and twelve or more injured when three buildings in Shelby collapsed while workmen were excavating under the buildings. The six known to be dead were: Miss Oro Eskridge, Guy Green and Alex Hoyle, clerks of the First National Bank in Shelby, one of the collapsed structures; Zeb Blanton and his son, Carl, farmers who were customers at the bank; and Clyde Carpenter. There were many injured and several members of the excavating crew were thought to be in the elevator shaft of the building, although five of this group had already been brought out alive. Workmen were digging slowly through the shattered mass of brick and mortar, seeking to locate any others that might be buried beneath the debris. In the bank at the time of the disaster were fourteen of the town's most widely known people and in the cellar and under the sidewalk perhaps many more. Thousands of townspeople and curious persons from around Shelby stood outside the lines thrown about the scene of the disaster watching the workmen bring up their finds. The whole town was thrown into desolation. The collapse of the three buildings was said to be one of the greatest disasters ever to occur in this State.
On September 1, 1928, the coroner's jury returned a verdict that the "excavating work under the McKnight building was the cause of the collapse." The McKnight building, the Gardner building, and another structure collapsed, killing six and injuring a dozen persons. The First National Bank of Shelby had temporary quarters in the Gardner building, where the largest number were killed. Lack of a "building code" when the buildings were erected years ago was the cause of the collapse, in the opinion of Sherwood Brockwell, deputy fire marshal of North Carolina, who testified as an expert at the coroner's hearing. The three buildings, he asserted, were not properly braced.
Official Bank Title(s)
1: The First National Bank of Shelby, NC
Bank Note Types Issued
A total of $3,668,160 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1903 and 2013. This consisted of a total of 406,541 notes (281,892 large size and 124,649 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 3x10-20 1 - 5780 1902 Date Back 3x10-20 1 - 9700 1902 Plain Back 4x5 1 - 28232 1902 Plain Back 3x10-20 9701 - 36461 1929 Type 1 6x5 1 - 9002 1929 Type 1 6x10 1 - 5186 1929 Type 1 6x20 1 - 1354 1929 Type 2 5 1 - 18130 1929 Type 2 10 1 - 10822 1929 Type 2 20 1 - 2445
Bank Presidents and Cashiers
Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1903 - 2013):
Presidents:
Cashiers:
Other Bank Note Signers
- There are currently no known Vice President or Assistant Cashier bank note signers for this bank.
Wiki Links
- North Carolina Bank Note History
- General information on Shelby (Wikipedia)
- General information on Cleveland County (Wikipedia)
- General information on North Carolina (Wikipedia)
Sources
- Shelby, NC, 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 Cleveland Star, Shelby, NC, Wed., Apr. 8, 1903.
- The Cleveland Star, Shelby, NC, Wed., June 17, 1903.
- The News and Observer, Raleigh, NC, Thu., June 25, 1903.
- The Cleveland Star, Shelby, NC, Wed., Nov. 25, 1903.
- The Lincoln County News, Lincolnton, NC, Mon., Jan. 17, 1916.
- The Cleveland Star, Shelby, NC, Tue., Jul. 25, 1922.
- The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, NC, Fri., Feb. 24, 1928.
- The Independent, Elizabeth City, NC, Fri., Aug. 31, 1928.
- The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, NC, Wed., Aug. 29, 1928.
- The Tribune, Coshocton, OH, Sun., Sep. 2, 1928.