First National Bank, Zeigler, IL (Charter 12097)
First National Bank, Zeigler, IL (Chartered 1922 - Open past 1935)
Town History
Zeigler is a city in Franklin County, Illinois. The population was 1,484 at the 2020 census. In 1920, the population was 2,338, peaking in 1930 at 3,816. Zeigler incorporated in 1914 and was named for Levi Zeigler Leiter, the father of Joseph Leiter, the founder of the Zeigler Coal Company.
Zeigler had one National Bank chartered during the Bank Note Era, and it issued National Bank Notes.
Bank History
- Organized May 21, 1921
- Chartered January 17, 1922
- Bank was Open past 1935
- Changed Institution Name to Boatmen's Bank of Zeigler on March 18, 1986
- Merged and became part of Boatmen's Bank of Benton (15517) in Benton, IL, May 18, 1992
On January 17, 1922, The First National Bank of Zeigler, capital $35,000, received a national charter.
Since November 1, 1926, Miss Madge M. Lockwood had detected 12 spurious $20 gold certificates. Having been deceived by the first one, she said that was a lesson that allowed her to rapidly detect 9 counterfeit bills while flipping through a pile of $2,000. Miss Lockwood entered the bank from high school and had been assistant cashier for the past 3 years. Her great ambition was to secure a position in a large city as she liked banking and was anxious to climb in her chosen line of work. Her alertness led to apprehension of John Mayes, a 35-year-old counterfeiter at Murphysboro. Conspiracy charges were also lodged against two Champaign, Illinois, residents, Miss Mary Ayers and Miss Gladys Barnatta Crawford who were jailed. The gang had circulated spurious notes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
On April 17, 1927, John Mayes, 35, one of the most skilled counterfeiters in federal records, was arrested by secret service agents in a small house in Murphysboro, Illinois, where he was living with his wife and three children and turning out thousands of dollars of counterfeit notes. S.A. Connell, secret service agent, said that aligned with Mayes were the Birger and Shelton gangs whose bootleg wars in southern Illinois had attracted wide attention, the Cal Morgan gang of bootleggers and counterfeiters in Universal City, Indiana, and a St. Louis gang. The latter gang bought Mayes' plates and issued $290,000 of the notes. The third issue of $250,000 was in progress when the ringleader was arrested amidst the paraphernalia of his craft. Trained by the veteran's bureau in the art of photo-engraving, Mayes, a war veteran, turned his knowledge to counterfeiting. Connell said Mayes used the alias "George Gregory," and always kept in the background. The Secret Service raiders confiscated copper plates for three different $20 bills, two $5 bills, and one $50 bill as well as a small quantity of counterfeit bills. All the counterfeits were said to be clever imitations with the $50 being the best of all. A January raid in St. Louis netted plates from which $290,000 of bogus $20 Federal Reserve Notes were printed. Printer Frank Blocker, proprietor of the Great Western Printing Co. and several alleged associates were arrested. John H. Mayes was sentenced to 15 years at Leavenworth on his plea of guilty to engraving plates for a flood of bills in the St. Louis and southern Illinois area.
On Wednesday, March 16, 1927, a run on the First National Bank was stopped when cash reserves were hastily dispatched from St. Louis by airplane. False rumors that a former employee who had not been with the bank since last July had defaulted, caused the run according to F. Guy Hitt, president. Hitt phoned R. Palmer McElroy to expedite funds and within an hour, $200,000 in cash was en route to the Lambert-St. Louis Flying Field. McElroy was an assistant vice president of the First National Bank in St. Louis. An armored car and bank officials greeted McElroy in a field on the outskirts of Zeigler. The imported cash was heaped before the eyes of depositors who had lined up to withdraw their money. By 4 pm, Hitt reported the crisis was over. McElroy and his pilot left Zeigler on the return flight and aided by a southerly wind, were back at their starting point in 50 minutes.
In April 1927, Elmer J. Lovel, 28, former officer of the First National Bank of Zeigler, was sentenced to nine years in prison and fined $5,000 on a guilty plea to a federal indictment charging mis-appropriation of $16,707 of the bank's funds.
On Wednesday, March 15, 1933, the First National Bank of Zeigler opened on an unrestricted basis. It was the only bank in Franklin County open. The Zeigler State Bank had failed to open on December 4, 1930.
In December 1937, F. Guy Hitt, president of the First National Bank of Zeigler and a recognized leader in southern Illinois banking, was elected first vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The announcement came from chairman of the board, William T. Nardin. Hitt had been head of the Zeigler bank since 1927 and a director in the Federal Reserve Bank since 1932. He would assume his new duties on December 16th.
In March 1953, Ray M. Cook announced he would resign as president of the First National Bank of Zeigler on or about May 1st to accept a position as executive vice president in a new National bank being organized in Ottawa. Cook became active president of the Zeigler bank in 1938, succeeding F. Guy Hitt who resigned to become first vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Cook held the office until he was called into active military service with the Air Forces in March 1942. Upon his release on April 1, 1946, he was re-elected president. Other officers were Hitt, chairman of the board; R.R. Frazier, vice president; Vallie Flack, cashier; and Ethel Bulmer, assistant cashier. Besides Cook and Hitt, the directors were John W. Broadway, secretary, Chicago; Max Kohlsdorf, merchant, Zeigler; Harry L. Miller, St. Louis Union Trust Co., St. Louis; F. Mark Miller, attorney, Du Quoin; and Paul Wein, consulting engineer, Chicago.
In March 1956, Robert W.M. Kohlsdorf and Ward Padgett were elected director. The action increased to board and advisory board to eight members. Kohlsdorm, assistant vice president of the Mercantile Trust Co. of St. Louis succeeded his father who died recently. Padgett was general superintendent of the Southern Illinois properties of Bell and Zoller Coal Co., and was active in civic affairs. The directors re-elected the following officers: F. Guy Hitt, president; R.R. Frazier, executive vice president; Vallie Flack and John W. Broadway, vice presidents; Byron Fuller, cashier and Ethel Bulmer, assistant cashier.
In February 1957, the bank of Zeigler was celebrating its 35th anniversary as the second largest bank in the county. It had total assets of $9,126,000 and deposits of $8,260,000. The bank maded financial and aviation history in its young years when a plane was used to transport money to keep its doors open. Depositors on March 16, 1927, withdrew more than $125,000 or 1/5 the total deposits in one day. Since November 1954, the bank was associated with the General Contract Corp. of St. Louis, holding company for eight banks, three insurance companies and more than 30 finance and personal loan offices. The bank celebrated its anniversary with an open house.
On Thursday, July 18, 1968, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, state, county and local police continued searching for two men who robbed the Bank of Zeigler. Vallie Flack, bank president, said it had not been determined how much money was taken, but heard estimates ranging from $20,000 to $60,000. A stolen car used in the robbery was found abandoned north of Zeigler. The pair armed with either sawed-off shotguns or rifles entered the bank about 1:10 pm. Mrs. Betty Conley, cashier, was typing in the rear of the bank and didn't notice the masked men until one of them spoke, using a lot of profanity, and told Charles R. Tinley, cashier, to get his hands up. Both men were wearing what appeared to be silk stockings masks, gloves and sun glasses. Bryan Fuller, vice president, said he was at his desk near the door when the men entered. He said employees and an unidentified customer were ordered to move behind the teller's cage. The men took money from three unlocked tellers cash drawers and the open vault. They put money into "white pillow cases." Mrs. Mary June Nemetsky, assistant cashier, had locked on drawer and had gone to lunch taking the keys with her. Pat Wright, a bank clerk, returned from lunch as the robbery was in progress. She was told to move behind the teller's cages and join the others. The men finished cleaning the cages and vault of paper money, leaving the coins, fuller said. They ordered all to lay face-down on the floor and departed. Employees estimated the robbery took less than 10 minutes. One resident told police she saw another car driven by a women preceding the get-away car out of town. The bank opened in 1922 and this was its first robbery.
- 03/18/1986 Changed Institution Name to Boatmen's Bank of Zeigler.
- 05/18/1992 Merged and became part of Boatmen's Bank of Benton (15517) in Benton, IL.
- 05/18/1992 Changed Institution Name to Boatmen's Bank of Franklin County.
- 06/13/1997 Merged and became part of NationsBank, National Association (15802) in Charlotte, NC.
- 07/05/1999 Changed Institution Name to Bank of America, National Association.
- 07/23/1999 Merged and became part of Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association (3510) in San Francisco, CA.
- 07/23/1999 Changed Institution Name to Bank of America, National Association.
Official Bank Title
1: The First National Bank of Zeigler, IL
Bank Note Types Issued
A total of $328,340 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1922 and 1935. This consisted of a total of 65,668 notes (23,932 large size and 41,736 small size notes).
This bank issued the following Types and Denominations of bank notes:
Series/Type Sheet/Denoms Serial#s Sheet Comments 1902 Plain Back 4x5 1 - 5983 1929 Type 1 6x5 1 - 5196 1929 Type 2 5 1 - 10560
Bank Presidents and Cashiers
Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1922 - 1935):
Presidents:
Cashiers:
Other Known Bank Note Signers
Bank Note History Links
Sources
- Zeigler, IL, 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 Daily Herald, Chicago, IL, Fri., Feb. 16, 1923.
- The Belleville News-Democrat, Belleville, IL, Thu., Mar. 17, 1927.
- Belleville Daily Advocate, Belleville, IL, Tue., Apr. 26, 1927.
- The Dispatch, Moline, IL, Mon., Apr. 18, 1927.
- Carbondale Free Press, Carbondale, IL, Tue., Apr. 19, 1927.
- The Record, Gillespie, IL, Thu., Apr. 28, 1927.
- The Bethany Echo, Bethany, IL, Fri., June 24, 1927.
- The True Republican, Sycamore, IL, Wed., July 6, 1927.
- Journal Gazette, Mattoon, IL, Thu., Dec. 4, 1930.
- Perry County Advocate, Pinckneyville, IL, Fri., Mar. 17, 1933.
- Belleville Daily Advocate, Belleville, IL, Thu., Dec. 9, 1937.
- The Jacksonville Daily Journal, Jacksonville, IL, Fri., Dec. 10, 1937.
- Southern Illinoisan, Carbondale, IL, Sat., Mar. 21, 1953.
- Southern Illinoisan, Carbondale, IL, Wed., Mar. 28, 1956.
- Southern Illinoisan, Carbondale, IL, Mon., Feb. 4, 1957.
- Southern Illinoisan, Carbondale, IL, Fri., July 19, 1968.