Local History

Texas Early Banking Historical Markers: Money, Panic, and the Institutions That Survived

Texas's original constitution banned banks. Then the National Bank Act of 1863 arrived. These four markers trace the institutions that financed cattle, cotton, and survival from Galveston to Big Spring.

Photo: Justin Ortega / Unsplash. Historic bank building facade.

Drive down the Strand in Galveston and you'll pass a plaque most people miss. It marks where Texas's first national bank opened in 1865, two years after the National Bank Act made it legal. RoadHistorical is a Texas historical preservation platform that puts more than 16,000 markers in your hands while you drive. This article covers four markers documenting the banks that financed cattle, cotton, and survival across the state.

The First National Bank of Galveston: Texas's First Vault

Texas couldn't legally have state-chartered banks for decades. The original state constitution banned them outright. Frontier Texans distrusted concentrated financial power. That changed with the National Bank Act of 1863. Two years later, on September 22, 1865, the First National Bank of Galveston opened its doors.

It was the first national bank in Texas. The bank's first office sat in the lower floor of the Hendley Building at the corner of 20th and Strand. By 1867 it moved into a three-story pressed-brick building. Workers shipped the bricks from Baltimore. The Strand became the commercial spine of the Gulf Coast.

The First National Bank of Galveston Historical Marker stands at 2127 Strand St in Galveston. The inscription records that it operated under the National Bank Act of 1863 and opened September 22, 1865, making it the first national bank in Texas.

2127 Strand St, Galveston, TX 77550

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The First National Bank of Corsicana: Cotton, Cattle, and Capital

In 1871, the Houston and Texas Central Railroad gave Corsicana its first rail connection. Two former railroad employees saw what that meant. James Garitty and Joseph Huey set up a private banking firm called Garitty, Huey and Company. Garitty had worked as a bank clerk. Huey ran a tin and hardware business.

They served cotton growers and ranchers driving cattle to the new railhead. Business kept growing. By 1886 they incorporated as the First National Bank of Corsicana with $125,000 in capital and $75,000 in surplus. That's a remarkable jump for a firm that started as a two-man private operation.

The First National Bank of Corsicana Historical Marker stands at 100 N. Main in Corsicana, Navarro County. The inscription traces the bank's origins from the private firm Garitty, Huey and Company to the incorporated institution of 1886.

100 N. Main, Corsicana, TX 75110

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First National Bank of Weatherford: From Frontier Raids to Industry

Samuel H. Milliken didn't just run a bank. He helped build the first railroad lines to Weatherford in Parker County. In 1880 he founded what the Texas Historical Commission later called the fifth oldest federally chartered bank still operating in Texas.

The bank started in a county where frontier Indian raids weren't history yet. It kept going. Walter S. Fant worked there for 54 years. The marker says it led in the city's development from those frontier days all the way through industrial and agricultural growth. That's more than a century of community banking in one spot.

First National Bank of Weatherford Historical Marker stands at 220 Palo Pinto St in Weatherford. The Texas Historical Commission erected it in 1981. Stop here and you're standing at a place that ties Parker County's frontier past to its present.

220 Palo Pinto St, Weatherford, TX 76086

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First National Bank in Big Spring: A Depression-Era Merger

By 1934, the Great Depression had cracked Texas banking. Small towns that once had two competing banks couldn't keep both alive. In Big Spring, Howard County's seat, two banks merged that year. The new institution took the name First National Bank in Big Spring.

It moved into the old West Texas National Bank building at the southeast corner of Second and Main. The bank held on through the hardest years. By 1963 it had grown enough to move to new facilities at Fourth and Main. Survival in a West Texas town during the Depression wasn't luck. It was a community keeping an institution alive.

First National Bank in Big Spring Historical Marker documents the 1934 merger near the corner of Second and Main in Big Spring. It's one of the few Depression-era banking markers in West Texas.

2nd & Main, Big Spring, TX 79720

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How RoadHistorical Finds These Markers

RoadHistorical's Discovery Mode runs in the background while you drive. When you pass within range of a Texas historical marker, your phone notifies you. You don't have to know the marker is there. The app finds it for you.

The AI Tour Guide answers questions the plaque can't. Ask what happened to Galveston's banks after the 1900 hurricane, or how Corsicana's oil boom changed its financial landscape. Everything works offline, so you don't need cell coverage to explore.

Start Discovering Texas History Today

RoadHistorical is free to download on the App Store for iPhone. Download it here and turn on Discovery Mode before your next drive. Android users: sign up for early access at roadhistorical.app.