Dublin National Bank

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Back in 1893, a former railroad president by the name of John G. Harris looked around the young town of Dublin, Texas, and apparently decided that running a railroad wasn't quite enough for one lifetime.

He joined up with three other businessmen, and together those four put Dublin National Bank into the world. Now, the town itself had only been incorporated four years prior, in 1889, so this was a community still finding its footing. Cotton was coming in, the railroad had arrived, and Dublin was growing in a way that made a man with vision take notice.

The late nineteenth century was good to this town, and the bank was right there in the middle of it all. Then came 1933. You know the kind of year that was for banks across this country.

Dublin National Bank was still standing, and that year it acquired the assets of the only remaining local bank in the area. One bank left standing, and Dublin National absorbed it. The institution kept right on going, expanding its building over the years without ever leaving its original location, which is a quiet kind of stubbornness that Texans tend to respect.

More than a hundred years of lending, saving, and keeping the Dublin area on its feet. The oldest continuously operating bank in all of Erath County. John G.

Harris walked through a door in 1893, and somehow that door is still open.

What the marker says

In 1893, John G. Harris, a former railroad president, joined with three other businessmen to establish Dublin National Bank. The bank opened on the heels of the incorporation of the town of Dublin in 1889. Dublin experienced considerable growth in the late 19th century due to the cotton industry and the arrival of the railroad. Dublin National Bank acquired assets of the only remaining local bank in 1933. It continues to operate at its original location and has experienced several building expansions. For more than 100 years, the bank has played a vital role in the development of the Dublin area. It is the oldest continuously operating bank in Erath County. (2006)