First National Bank of Crockett

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the First National Bank of Crockett, right here in Houston County. Now settle in, because this one starts the way the best Texas stories always do: with a man, a safe, and a little something on the side. Around 1881, W.E.

Mayes was running a mercantile store. Dry goods, probably. The kind of place where everybody in the county came through sooner or later.

And Mayes, being the sort of man who noticed things, noticed that his customers had a problem. They needed somewhere to keep their cash, somewhere to borrow a little when times got thin. So Mayes did what a practical Texan does.

He opened up that safe of his, started keeping currency in it, started issuing loans and credits, and just like that, banking became a sideline. Not his main business. A sideline.

Which tells you something about the man. Born in 1837, and by 1881 he was already running one enterprise and quietly inventing another. Then comes 1892, and things get formal.

H.F. Moore rides in from Galveston to charter the First National Bank of Crockett. Mayes transfers his deposits over, the foundation of something unofficial becoming the cornerstone of something very much official.

Mayes himself takes the first presidency, 1892 to 1893. Then J.C. Wooters holds the chair from 1893 all the way to 1904.

Now 1904 is a big year for this institution. That's the year the First National Bank absorbs the Farmers and Merchants National Bank, which had only been founded in 1901. Three years old, and it gets folded right in.

Moore takes the presidency in 1904, and he holds it until 1926. After Moore comes Arch Baker, 1926 to 1943. And here's where the story gets a particular kind of Texas texture, because when Baker's time ends, Moore's sons step in.

Donald G. Moore takes the helm in 1943, hands it to his brother Phil C. Moore in 1944, and Phil carries it through to 1950.

Then J.L. Burton, 1950 to 1968. And Henry M.

Ellis picks it up from there. What started as a sideline in one man's mercantile store, cash in a safe, a neighborly loan here and there, grew into an institution that outlasted its founder, absorbed its competitors, and passed the presidency down like a family heirloom. W.E.

Mayes died in 1915. H.F. Moore in 1926.

But that bank of theirs just kept right on going.

What the marker says

Founded about 1881 as sideline in mercantile store of W.E. Mayes (1837-1915), who aided customers by keeping cash and currency in his safe, issuing loans and credits. In 1892 H.F. Moore (1854-1926) came here from Galveston to charter First National Bank, with Mayes transferring his deposits. This bank absorbed (1904) Farmers and Merchants National Bank (founded 1901). Presidents: Mayes (1892-93); J.C. Wooters (1893-1904); Moore (1904-26); Arch Baker (1926-43); Moore's sons, Donald G. (1943-44) and Phil C. (1944-50); J.L. Burton (1950-68); Henry M. Ellis (1968- ).