DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same. Now, on January 5th, 1900, a group of men sat down with a plan. L.
T. Lester, S. F.
Sullenberger, and nineteen others put their names to something that would outlast most of what stood in that region at the time — the first bank in the area immediately south of Amarillo. That is not a small thing to be. You're talkin' about country that was still findin' its footing, and here comes a bank, openin' its doors, callin' itself Stockman's National Bank.
A name that told you exactly who it was talkin' to. And the way it spoke to those stockmen? Friendliness and trust.
Simple as that. That was the reputation it built itself on, and that reputation carried it. It was a vital factor, the marker says, in developing the city and the county — and it stayed involved continuously with civic programs, the kind of institution that didn't just hold money but held a community together.
L. T. Lester, one of those original organizers, even served as chairman of the committee to secure West Texas State University.
The bank didn't stay in one building through all of this, mind you — it moved through four different buildings during its existence, like something that kept growin' out of its own skin. And it went through presidents the way a county goes through weather: L. T.
Lester, T. W. Reid, Roy Wright, W.
C. Black, Levi Cole, and W. E.
Adams. Different hands on the wheel, but the same road. Then came 1994, when First National Bank was acquired by Norwest.
And then 1999, when Norwest merged with Wells Fargo. That bank organized by twenty-one men on a January morning in 1900 — the one that called itself a friend to the stockman — it's still out there on the landscape, just wearing a different name now. Wells Fargo.
Nearly a hundred years of becoming, right there in Randall County.
What the marker says
Organized Jan. 5, 1900, by L. T. Lester, S. F. Sullenberger, and 19 others. First bank in region immediately south of Amarillo. Was vital factor in developing city and county. Was involved continuously with civic programs. Lester served as chairman of the committee to secure West Texas State University. Originally, called Stockman's National Bank, prospered on its reputation of friendliness and trust. Has been in four different buildings during its existance. Presidents included L. T. Lester, T. W. Reid, Roy Wright, W. C. Black, Levi Cole, and W. E. Adams. (1968) supplemental: First National Bank was acquired by Norwest in 1994 and merged with Wells Fargo in 1999. It is housed under the name of Wells Fargo.