First National Bank of Farmersville

In 1933 the bank took in the First National Bank of Nevada, which makes the town of Nevada part of the story. Granville Stinebaugh moved there in 1861 and named it for Nevada Territory, which he had crossed on a trip to search for gold in California. A post office opened in 1880, and the railroad arrived in 1888. By 1925 Nevada had twenty-five businesses and a high school. On May 9, 1927, a tornado killed twenty-seven people and injured seventy-five, and the Handbook of Texas says the town never recovered.

What the plaque says

First National Bank of Farmersville Named for the occupation of many of its citizens, the town of Farmersville was founded in the mid 1850s. A private bank, the Exchange Bank was established in 1885, and housed in the rear of the Aston Brothers store. A national bank charter was obtained on January 17, 1887, and the Exchange Bank merged with the First National Bank of Farmersville. Pioneer Doctor A.H. Neathery served as the first president. The bank building, then located at 119 South Main Street, was destroyed by fire in 1905 but it was rebuilt. The First National Bank absorbed the Farmersville National Bank in 1929. In 1933 the First National Bank of Nevada, from the small town of Nevada south of here, was also absorbed. Despite experiencing heavy losses and undergoing two reorganizations during the Depression of the 1930s, the bank never failed and its customers suffered no interruption of services. The bank moved to its present location in 1970, and expanded the building in 1979. The bank converted to a state bank charter in 1986, and changed the name to the First Bank at Farmersville. The bank, one of the 20 oldest independent banks in Texas, has served Farmersville and the surrounding communities continuously for more than 110 years. (1996)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 15 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 16 mi
  A Greenville museum of Hunt County's military heroes, including Audie Murphy, and of cotton, which keeps the engine of what it says was the world's largest inland cotton compress.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 17 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.

More markers nearby

• Audie Murphy's Homecoming, June 15, 1945 — steps away
• Gussie Nell Davis — steps away
• First Methodist Church of Farmersville — 0.2 mi
• Farmersville — 0.4 mi