First National Bank of Cameron

The bank's plaque follows cotton and oil. The Handbook of Texas adds a third product: milk. Several milk-product companies, including the Kraft-Phenix Cheese Corporation, were operating in Cameron in the 1920s and 1930s. The next lift came in the 1950s, when jobs at the Alcoa plant near Rockdale and in the lignite industry that fed it revived the county. Cameron's population rose from 5,227 in 1952 to an estimated 7,500 in 1958, then fell to 5,640 in the early 1960s. Rail abandonments in 1959 and 1977 stung.

What the plaque says

First National Bank of Cameron Two banks operated in Cameron prior to the establishment of the First National Bank. The Buckholts Exchange Commission, a small frontier deposit office, faltered during the Civil War, and the Milam County Bank closed during the panic of 1895. On August 22, 1889, the First National Bank of Cameron opened its doors for business in a rented building, while construction commenced on a permanent bank structure at the corner of First Street and Houston Avenue. John M. Hefley and other businessmen realized the necessity of a new financial institution for the growing town of Cameron, and they began the bank with $50,000 capital. Hefley was elected as the bank's first president, and continued to serve as a director and stockholder until his death in 1903. The bank grew slowly at first, but record cotton prices and the discovery of oil in the county during the late 1910s and early 1920s helped the bank to develop. The bank temporarily relocated to the former post office building during construction of a newer, larger structure at the bank's original site in 1921. Although the bank reorganized during the Great Depression, it remained open, unlike several other banks in Milam County. As a product of the reorganization, the bank was renamed First National Bank in Cameron. In 2007, the bank's name changed again to Classic Bank, to reflect the expansion of its holdings to several cities which already had First National Banks. Today, the institution that began as the First National Bank of Cameron continues to serve the citizens of its community. (2010)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — steps away
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.
• Calvert — 20 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.
• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 28 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.

More markers nearby

• Mrs. Edna Westbrook Trigg — steps away
• Milam County — steps away
• First United Methodist Church of Cameron — steps away
• Ben Milam — steps away