DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the First Hutchings-Sealy National Bank, standing there in Galveston County. Now settle in, because this story stretches nearly a century and a half, and it starts long before Texas was even Texas. Back in 1835 — when Mexico was still the authority on such things — a banking charter got granted to two merchants by the names of Thomas F.
McKinney and Samuel May Williams. Two merchants, one charter, and a firm that turned out to be wealthy enough, just one year later in 1836, to finance the Texas War for Independence to a large extent. Let that sit with you a moment.
The oldest bank in Texas helped fund the fight for Texas itself. Their operation, McKinney, Williams and Company, eventually moved from Quintana to Galveston, and in 1841 the Republic of Texas — Texas being a republic now, you understand — authorized them to issue bank notes for circulation as actual money. They were printing currency for a country.
Then came 1847, and the firm was re-established under a new name: the Commercial and Agricultural Bank. That made it the first chartered bank in the state of Texas. It ran until 1859, when it closed, and at that closing, a company called Ball-Hutchings and Company stepped in and assumed many of its activities.
Now here's where the story doubles back on itself in that satisfying way good stories do. Ball-Hutchings and Company didn't spring up from nowhere. Two young men — John H.
Hutchings and John Sealy — had started a merchandise business way back in 1847, the very same year as that Commercial and Agricultural Bank, operating under the name Hutchings, Sealy and Company out of Sabine Pass. They moved that operation to Galveston in 1854, joined forces with a man named George Ball, and together they formed Ball-Hutchings and Company. Then in 1897 the firm changed its name back to Hutchings, Sealy and Company.
In 1930 it merged with Henry Rosenberg's South Texas National Bank. And still the story wasn't finished. In 1958, the Hutchings-Sealy National Bank merged with the First National Bank of Galveston — and that latter bank carries its own distinction, being the first Texas bank chartered under the National Bank Act of 1865.
So what you're looking at, when you look at that marker in Galveston, is the final form of something that began with a Mexican banking charter, helped birth a republic, and kept on transforming — merchant house to bank note printer, merchandise business to financial institution — across more than a hundred years of Texas history. Some things in this state just refuse to stop.
What the marker says
Successor of Texas' oldest bank and its first national bank. Founded in 1835 when Mexico granted a banking charter to the merchants Thomas F. McKinney and Samuel May Williams -- a firm wealthy enough in 1836 to finance the Texas War for Independence to a large extent. Later McKinney, Williams & Company moved from Quintana to Galveston, where in 1841 the Texas Republic authorized them to issue bank notes for circulation as money. When re-established in 1847 as "Commercial & Agricultural Bank," this became first chartered bank in the state. At its closing, 1859, Ball-Hutchings & Company assumed many of its activities. This company was established by two young men, John H. Hutchings and John Sealy, under the name of Hutchings, Sealy & Company at Sabine Pass in 1847 as a merchandise business. These men moved to Galveston in 1854 and joined with George Ball to form Ball-Hutchings & Company. In 1897 the firm changed its name to Hutchings, Sealy & Company, and in 1930 it merged with Henry Rosenberg's South Texas National Bank. In 1958 the Hutchings-Sealy National Bank merged with the First National Bank of Galveston, the latter being the first Texas bank chartered under the National Bank Act of 1865. (1971)