The First National Bank of South Bend — Charter No. 126

1863 – 1932

The charter: The First National Bank of South Bend was organized on 5 September 1863, in the first year of the national banking system, by Charles N. Culver, Thomas S. Stanfield, John A. Henricks, Ethan S. Reynolds, John Reynolds and Ransom Hubbard, with capital of $100,000. The Comptroller of the Currency issued its charter on 13 November 1863 — Charter No. 126, making it the 126th national bank chartered in the United States — and it opened for business on 30 November 1863, two weeks after Gettysburg's address, in the St. Joseph block at Washington and Main. Thomas S. Stanfield, a prominent local judge, was its first president; John T. Lindsey, the state-bank branch's teller since 1856, was its first cashier. Among its early shareholders, the bank's own history records, was Schuyler Colfax, later Vice President under Grant.

Sixty-eight years: The bank's first office was destroyed in the fire that burned the St. Joseph block in 1865; its assets were saved, and it moved into the old State Bank of Indiana building at the southwest corner of Michigan and Market, where it stayed thirty-five years. In 1900 it moved to a corner room of the Oliver Hotel at Main and Washington, and in 1923 to the Union Trust Company building at Michigan and Jefferson. Its presidents after Stanfield were William Miller, John A. Henricks, William F. Cushing, John R. Foster, Lucius Hubbard — who held the office from 1879 to 1914 — and A. L. Hubbard, president from 1917 to 1930; Caleb A. Kimball was cashier for thirty-eight years, 1871 to 1909. In 1928, by the bank's own account, it became the first bank in the city and the fifteenth in the nation to abolish teller cages for an open counter. Its charter was extended in 1883 and 1903, renewed in 1922, and made perpetual in 1927.

The end of the charter: The charter did not survive the Depression. The bank closed its doors in the first week of June 1931 (the closing is told in the Depression entry below), and its business was taken over by the Indiana Trust Company of South Bend. The Comptroller's record closes the charter in its own words: "Vol. Liq. Jan. 12, 1932; absorbed by Indiana Trust Company of South Bend, which changed its title to First Bank and Trust Company of South Bend." The business, the name and the 1863 descent passed to that state-chartered company — today's 1st Source Bank — but Charter No. 126 itself was surrendered on 12 January 1932, and no national charter stands behind the present bank. That distinction is the bank's history in one sentence, and it is documented at every link.

Sources:

1. Thomas A. Pollock, Tabular Guide to United States National Banks, 1863–1935, the charter-by-charter monograph for Charter No. 126, built from the records of the Comptroller of the Currency — organization 5 September 1863, charter 13 November 1863, opening 30 November 1863, the addresses, the presidents and cashiers, the extensions, and the Comptroller's conclusion quoted above.
2. Timothy E. Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (1907), vol. 1, §16, "Banks" — the organizers and the $100,000 capital.
3. Polk's South Bend city directory, 1921, "Banks and Bankers" — the bank in 1921 at the northwest corner of Washington and Main, capital $600,000, A. L. Hubbard president, and its own statement, "being the 126th National Bank incorporated in the United States."
4. 1st Source Corporation, 2013 annual report, "A Little History" — the bank's own account of the 1863 opening, the 1865 fire, the 1928 teller cages, and Schuyler Colfax among the early shareholders.