Second National Bank, Danville, IL (Charter 2584)
Second National Bank, Danville, IL (Chartered 1881 - Closed (Merger) 1995)
Town History
Danville is a city in and the county seat of Vermilion County, Illinois. As of the 2020 census, its population was 29,204. In 1900, the population was 16,354 growing to 33,776 by 1920.
Danville was founded in 1827 on 60 acres of land donated by Guy W. Smith and 20 acres donated by Dan W. Beckwith. The sale of lots was set for April 10, 1827 and advertised in newspapers in Indianapolis, Indiana and the state capital of Vandalia. The first post office was established in May of the same year in the house of Amos Williams, organizer of Vermilion and Edgar Counties and a prominent Danville citizen. Williams and Beckwith drew up the first plat map; the city was named after Dan Beckwith at Williams' suggestion, although Beckwith suggested the names "Williamsburg" and "Williamstown". Beckwith was born in Pennsylvania in 1795 and moved to Indiana as a young man; in 1819 he accompanied the first white explorers to the area where Danville later existed because of his interest in the salt springs of the Vermilion River.
Danville became a major industrial city in the late 19th and early twentieth centuries. Starting in the 1850s Danville was an important coal mining area; some of the first open pit mining techniques were practiced here. The coal formation underlying eastern Illinois and western Indiana is named the "Danville Member," after the area where it was first discovered. Danville also served as a significant manufacturing center during the early 1900s, and the city's population doubled between 1900 and 1920.
Danville had four National Banks chartered during the Bank Note Era, and all four of those banks issued National Bank Notes.
Bank History
- Organized Nov 1, 1881
- Chartered Nov 7, 1881
- Succeeded Vermilion County Bank
- Assumed 5812 by consolidation Jan 3, 1920 (Danville National Bank, Danville, IL)
- Bank was Open past 1935
- For Bank History after 1935 see FDIC Bank History website
- Merged into First Midwest Bank, NA in Moline, IL May 18, 1995
In September 1873, the Vermilion County Bank commenced business in Danville with capital of $100,000. The stockholders were Wm. P. Cannon, George W. Holloway, Jesse R. Holloway, Elam Henderson and J.G. Cannon.
In 1875, Danville had three banks: the First National Bank with capital of $150,000 and an average deposit of $500,000; the Vermilion County Bank with a capital of $100,000; and the Danville Banking and Trust Company with capital of $300,000.
On November 7, 1881, by order of John Jay Knox, Comptroller of the Currency, the old-established private banking house of Joseph G. and W. P. Cannon, under the title of the Vermilion County Bank, was now styled the Second National Bank. Joseph Cannon was the Congressman from the Fourteenth District. Chicago Tribune, Chicago, IL, Thu., Nov. 10, 1881.
On January 1, 1920, the consolidation of the Danville National Bank and the Second National Bank was effected. The banking room of the Second National Bank was enlarged and remodeled to accommodate the business of the two institutions and was now as complete and commodious a banking room as was possible. The stockholders of the Danville National Bank were very much gratified by this consolidation to be able to offer to their patrons additional facilities for the transaction of their business, and believe that they would be pleased. Customers would find the same people from the old Danville National Bank to attend to their business and the only change apparent would be that of location and the added convenience of a large and convenient banking room.
On Monday, August 10, 1925, at a meeting of the board of directors, Woods H. Martin, formerly of Shelbyville, was elected cashier to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of A.R. Samuel who recently retired from active occupation in the banking business. Coulson V. McClenathan was elected president to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Ernest X. LeSeure. Mr. Martin was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Elgin H. Martin of Wilmer, Alabama. He went to Danville in 1906 where he accepted a position as messenger for the bank and was advanced in service until he became assistant cashier 12 years ago. He received his education in the public schools of Shelbyville.
Ernest X. LeSeure, who at the time of his death on April 3, 1925, occupied the presidency of the Second National Bank of Danville, was one of the city's prominent and influential residents as well as esteemed native sons. He was 61 years old when he answered the final summons. His birth occurred in Danville, Illinois, on March 24, 1864, his parents being Prosper and Harriet (Crane) LeSeure, honored early settlers of Vermilion County. His father was born in Nancy, France, May 26, 1820, a son of Pierre and Anne Le Seure, who brought their family to America when Prosper was about ten years of age. They first located in Philadelphia, where they remained a short time and then removed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Subsequently the father purchased an estate in southern Indiana where he reared his children, giving them good educational advantages in the English language. When a young man Prosper LeSeure came to Danville where he was soon joined by his brother and together they engaged in general merchandising under the firm name of V. & P. LeSeure, conducting a large and profitable business. In 1867 Prosper LeSeure sold his interest in the store and later embarked in the lumber business in connection with George Yeomans, but eventually disposed of his interests to his son-in-law, J.G. Shedd. In 1883, in connection with others, he organized the State Bank of which he was vice president for some years, but eventually retired in 1889 and in the spring of 1892 removed to Los Angeles, California, where he lived retired. He was visiting his children, however, in Danville when he passed away on November, 23 1897.
In 1926, the officers were as follows: M.E. King, chairman; C.V. McClenathan, president; Woods H. Martin, vice president and cashier; and D.W. Moore, assistant cashier. The members of the board of directors were as follows: F.W. Butterworth, general manager Western Brick Company; Hon. Joseph G. Cannon; S.M. Clark, attorney; W.T. Gunn, attorney; J.W. Hegeler, president The Hegeler Zinc Company; F.L. Hill, lumber; M.E. King, chairman of the board; F.E. LeSeure, wholesale cigars and tobaccos; C.V. McClenathan, president; W. C. Lindley, attorney; W.J. Parrett, publisher; A.R. Samuel; W.H. Van Valkenburgh, president Plaza Hotel Company; and George M. Wright, president Danville Artificial Ice Company.
C.V. McClenathan, president of the Second National Bank of Danville was born on a farm near Catlin, Illinois, on October 3, 1864. His parents were George S. and Sarah (Remley) McClenathan, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania, coming westward to Vermilion county, Illinois, in 1854, shortly after their marriage. The McClenathan family was of Scotch lineage and of Quaker belief. The great-grandfather of C.V. McClenathan was a native of Scotland and at an early period in the settlement of Pennsylvania he crossed the Atlantic in one of the old-time sailing vessels, taking up his abode near Philadelphia. The Remley family was of English lineage and dates its origin in America to the time of William Penn. The grandmother of C.V. McClenathan in the maternal line bore the maiden name of Margaret Penn and was a relative of the celebrated family to which the renowned philanthropist and pioneer, William Penn, belonged. On moving to Illinois, George S. McClenathan settled in Catlin township, where he purchased land and engaged in farming, being one of the successful agriculturists of his community and also serving acceptably as a township official. Eventually he removed to the village of Fairmount, where both he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. He died in October, 1896, and his wife passed away on the 22d of April, 1900, both being buried in Oak Ridge cemetery, near Catlin. In their family were twelve children, six sons and six daughters. C.V. McClenathan, the eleventh in order of birth, was reared on the home farm, obtained his early education in the country schools and remained under the parental roof until he attained his majority. He then went to Wichita where he remained for eight years. There he entered the Kansas National Bank, in the mortgage and loan department, and afterward was placed in charge of the loan business of that institution. In 1893 he returned to Danville and became cashier of the State Bank, which was incorporated as the Danville National Bank on the 1st of June, 1901, and which he continued to serve as cashier until chosen for the official position of vice president of the Second National Bank in 1920. He was elected president of the institution in 1925. In 1900 he was elected to the state legislature on the Democratic ticket and two years later was re=elected. During his incumbency he was made chairman of a new committee that had just been created, being the only democratic chairman in the legislature. This was a joint committee on penal and reformatory institutions and labor and industrial affairs. As chairman of the same he introduced and passed the anti-convict labor bill and also drew a bill to strike off all employees who were not in actual service, but it never came to vote. Fraternally he was affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Masonic order, in which he attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. C.V. McClenathan died in Danville on January 1, 1939.
Official Bank Title(s)
1: The Second National Bank of Danville, IL
Bank Note Types Issued
A total of $3,251,000 in National Bank Notes was issued by this bank between 1881 and 1995. This consisted of a total of 82,654 notes (72,310 large size and 10,344 small size notes).
This bank issued the following Types and Denominations of bank notes:
Series/Type Sheet/Denoms Serial#s Sheet Comments Series 1875 4x5 1 - 8750 Series 1875 50-100 1 - 1329 1882 Brown Back 50-100 1 - 2100 1882 Date Back 50-100 1 - 800 1882 Date Back 3x50-100 1 - 2934 1902 Plain Back 3x50-100 1 - 4279 1929 Type 1 6x50 1 - 1320 1929 Type 1 6x100 1 - 404
Bank Presidents and Cashiers
Bank Presidents and Cashiers during the National Bank Note Era (1881 - 1995):
Presidents:
- William P. Cannon, 1882-1901
- Michael E. King, 1902-1922
- Ernest X. LeSeure, 1923-1924
- Coulson Volney McClenathan, 1925-1935
Cashiers:
- Thomas S. Parks, 1882-1888
- Adam R. Samuel, 1889-1924
- Woods Hibbard Martin, 1925-1928
- Herman E. Douglas, 1929-1935
Other Bank Note Signers
- A.R. Samuel signed notes 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 Danville (Wikipedia)
- General information on Vermilion County (Wikipedia)
- General information on Illinois (Wikipedia)
Sources
- Danville, IL, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danville,_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
- Francis Murray Huston, Financing an Empire: History of Banking in Illinois (4 volumes) (Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1926), Vol. 2, p. 459-462.
- The Paxton Weekly Record, Paxton, IL, Thu., Sep 11, 1873.
- Chicago Tribune, Chicago, IL, Mon., Aug. 30, 1875.
- Chicago Tribune, Chicago, IL, Thu., Nov. 10, 1881.
- The Paxton Record, Paxton, IL, Thu., Jan. 8, 1920.
- Herald and Review, Decatur, IL, Fri., Aug. 14, 1925.