First National Bank of Mineola

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the First National Bank of Mineola. Now settle in, because this is a story about an institution that outlasted a whole lot of history. It was May 31, 1898, when the First National Bank of Mineola got its charter.

Incorporated for fifty thousand dollars, at five hundred dollars a share. That is a serious sum, and the man holding the majority of those shares was no small figure either. H.

M. Cates, lawyer and former Wood County Judge, stepped into the role of first president. You want someone steady at the helm of a new bank, you might as well start with a judge.

And behind the counter as first cashier stood J. O. Teagarden, a local photographer by trade.

Now there is a pairing for you. A judge and a photographer, building a bank together in Mineola, Texas. The bank planted itself at the corner of Johnson and Broad streets, and that corner held for a long, long time.

Decades rolled through, and not all of them were gentle. The banking crisis of the 1930s came along and swallowed up institutions left and right across this country. First National Bank of Mineola held on.

Then came the shift after World War II, when Mineola moved away from an agrarian economy and remade itself as a retail service center. The bank adjusted. That word, adjusted, does a lot of quiet work in a long history.

After operating for almost sixty years from that corner of Johnson and Broad, the bank finally moved to this very site in 1965. From 1898 to 1965 on one corner, and still going. Some things in Texas, friend, are just built to last.

What the marker says

Chartered on May 31, 1898, the First National Bank of Mineola incorporated for $50,000 at $500 per share. The majority shareholder, lawyer and former Wood County Judge H. M. Cates, became first president. Local photographer J. O. Teagarden served as first cashier. Throughout the course of its history, First National Bank has retained a strong financial footing in the community, surviving the banking crisis of the 1930s and adjusting to Mineola's shift from an agrarian economy to a retail service center after World War II. After operating for almost 60 years from its building at the corner of Johnson and Broad streets, the bank moved to this site in 1965. (2001)