First National Bank of Jefferson

Thomas J. Rogers was born in Hinds County, Mississippi, in 1832 and came to Texas in 1849. A 1936 county history says he served in the 18th Texas as a lieutenant and became captain after Captain John Cocke was killed at Mansfield. He promoted the East Line and Red River railroad, serving as secretary and treasurer until its sale to the M. K. and T., and owned most of the Jefferson Cotton Oil Mill, which burned in 1903. Herbert A. Spellings became the bank's cashier in 1904 and its president from 1918 until 1935.

What the plaque says

First National Bank of Jefferson Thomas J. Rogers (1832-1918), a native of Mississippi, came to Jefferson in 1856. After serving in the Civil War, where he attained the rank of captain, he returned here and in 1868 established a mercantile business in this block. In partnership with his son Ben F. Rogers, he opened private banking facilities in the store in 1896. Eight years later the private bank received a Federal charter, as the Rogers National Bank. Following the death of his father, Ben opened the Rogers State Bank and Trust at another site in this block. It closed in 1928 and was succeeded by the Jefferson Bank and Trust. Later incorporated as the Jefferson State Bank, it remained in operation until 1932. The Commercial National Bank, started in 1907, was also located here until 1920. During the economic depression of the 1930s, the Rogers National Bank remained sound. It was one of the first institutions to reopen without a special examination after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1933 closing of the nation's banks. A reorganization in 1950 resulted in the formation of the First National Bank of Jefferson. The present facility, constructed on the site of the original bank, is modeled after T. J. Rogers' building. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Excelsior House Hotel — steps away
  A brick-and-timber hotel at 211 West Austin that began as a river captain's boarding house in 1858 and was revived by a garden club in 1959, and still takes guests with rosewood furniture.
• Jefferson Historical Museum — steps away
  A four-floor museum in Jefferson's 1888-90 federal post office and courthouse, with rooms for African-American history, Jewish heritage, the Caddo and Diamond Bessie, bought by the historical society in 1965 for $8,100.
• Caddo Lake State Park — 11 mi
  A Civilian Conservation Corps park on the Texas shore of Caddo Lake, where the Caddo told of a lake made by wind-driven water and visitors now paddle Big Cypress Bayou past moss-hung bald cypress.
• Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 12 mi
  Wetlands and woods on part of a former ammunition plant, now a refuge for wood ducks, prothonotary warblers and alligator snapping turtles, with four easy trails and a free visitor center on a Ramsar lake.

More markers nearby

• The Jefferson "Jimplecute" — steps away
• The Brooks House — steps away
• Immaculate Conception Catholic Church — steps away
• Texas Statesman Charles Allen Culberson — steps away