First Security National Bank

Valentine Wiess, the bank's first president, was a banker before 1889. His firm, V. Wiess and Company, founded in 1874, grew within a decade into Beaumont's largest merchandising and insurance house, and in the late 1870s and 1880s he ran the town's first private bank beside the store. He helped found First National Bank of Beaumont in 1889, built the city's first five-story brick building in 1900, and when he died in 1913 was the largest taxpayer on the city's rolls, according to a Beaumont Enterprise history of the Wiess brothers.

What the plaque says

First Security National Bank Oldest bank between Houston and the Louisiana border. Organized on April 9, 1889, with capital of $100,000, as First National Bank of Beaumont, it was granted National Bank Charter No. 4017. First president was Valentine Wiess, a lumber man. Directors were W. A. Fletcher, John N. Gilbert, John L. Keith, L. P. Ogden, H. Solinsky, V. Wiess and W. Wiess. Fletcher was vice-president, J. P. Alvey, cashier. During the course of its history, other banks to merge with First National were Gulf National Bank in July 1919 and Texas National Bank in April 1932. The First National Bank and the Security State Bank were consolidated in October 1961 as First Security National Bank, which celebrated in 1964 its diamond anniversary of service to Texans. Activities of this financial institution have been interwoven with the growth of the community from a sawmill town of 3,200 people to a center of commerce and industry. Its corporate annals reflect participation in the great Spindletop oil boom, in the opening of the Sabine-Neches Ship Channel, and in development of the rice industry. Now the largest and oldest bank and financial institution in Golden Triangle area of Texas. (1966)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• McFaddin-Ward House — 1.0 mi
  A Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival mansion finished in 1906 and lived in by one family for 75 years, with free guided tours of three furnished floors, the carriage house and gardens.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 3.6 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.
• Village Creek State Park — 12 mi
  A 2,466-acre state park on one of the few free-flowing creeks in Texas, with a launch for the Village Creek Paddling Trail, boat rentals and sandy-upland trails in the Big Thicket.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 18 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.

More markers nearby

• Beaumont Enterprise — 0.2 mi
• Henry Millard — 0.2 mi
• William G. "Bill" Hall — 0.2 mi
• Travis Street Substation — 0.3 mi