First National Bank of Orange

Duane's take

Now, this story comes straight from the official marker for the First National Bank of Orange, and I'm just the one drivin' it down the road for you. Before the industrial revolution reached Orange in the late 1880s, if you needed real banking done in that corner of southeast Texas, you were lookin' toward Galveston. That's just how it was.

Orange hadn't yet become the kind of place that needed its own financial institution. But things were about to change. Orange was growing, and growing fast, into a lumber center and a deep water port.

And when a town starts movin' timber and moving ships, it starts moving money too. That growth necessitated, as the marker puts it, a local banking facility. So in 1889, folks gathered for an organizational meeting at the office of Dr.

D. C. Hewson.

A board of directors was elected right then and there, and their application for a charter was accepted that same year. Now, the names on that first board of directors are worth slowing down for. Henry Jacob Lutcher, born 1836, died 1912, was a successful sawmill operator, and he came aboard as the bank's first president.

He didn't just lend his name to the thing either. Lutcher built the institution's first facility, right there at the corner of Front and Fifth streets. Two of his sons-in-law also sat on that board.

William H. Stark, born 1851, died 1936, and Dr. Edgar W.

Brown, born 1888, died 1917. Among the initial investors you had Jerome Swinford, a merchant and Texas Legislator, and Leopold Miller, a shingle mill owner. That is quite a table of timber and commerce to sit down with.

Over the years, the bank changed locations, changed names, changed investors. But it never stopped being a part of what Orange is. That's the kind of staying power that outlasts any single name on any single door.

What the marker says

Until the industrial revolution reached Orange in the late 1880s, most banking needs in the area were handled through Galveston.The growth of Orange as a lumber center and deep water port, however, necessitated the development of a local banking facility.The organizational meeting for the First National Bank of Orange was held in 1889 at the office of Dr. D. C. Hewson. A board of directors was elected, and their application for a charter was accepted the same year. A major instrument in Orange's growth as a center for the timber industry, the First National Bank was associated with many of the town's prominent lumbermen. Successful sawmill operator Henry Jacob Lutcher (1836-1912) served on the bank's first board of directors as its president and built the institution's first facility at the corner of Front and Fifth streets. His sons-in-law, William H. Stark (1851-1936) and Dr.Edgar W. Brown (1888-1917), also were members of the board of directors. Among the bank's initial investors were merchant and Texas Legislator Jerome Swinford and shingle mill owner Leopold Miller. Over the years, the bank has changed locations, names, and investors, but it remains an important part of the city's commercial heritage.