First State Bank in Richland Springs

The bank opened as Richland Springs was growing. The weekly Eye-Witness began in 1905, and in 1911 a Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe line linked the town with the main line between Galveston and Amarillo. Richland Springs incorporated in 1932 with a mayor and council, and with nearly 500 people and as many as forty businesses it prospered until the Depression. World War II reversed the decline, and residents numbered 600 by the early 1950s, but the drought of the mid-1950s crippled the economy, and within a decade the town had lost nearly half its people and businesses.

What the plaque says

First State Bank in Richland Springs John M. Burleson (1870-1933) founded the Burleson Bank in 1910 to expand his business interests and provide financial services to the community of Richland Springs. In 1913 Burleson reorganized his institution as the First State Bank; in 1919, W. H. Gibbons became the new director when Burleson left the bank. During Gibbons' tenure, in 1928, the bank was robbed at gunpoint. The First State Bank was renamed the People's State Bank, ruled and protected by federal law, in May 1933. The People's State Bank continued to uphold the standards set by its founder and to serve the community until May 8, 1958, when it was liquidated by the Texas Banking Commission. (1998)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado Bend State Park — 32 mi
  Old ranch country on the Colorado above Lake Buchanan, where a spring-fed creek drops 70 feet over fern-covered travertine at Gorman Falls.

More markers nearby

• John Duncan's Fort — 0.3 mi
• On This Site a Treaty of Peace — 8.4 mi
• Bowser Community — 9.3 mi
• Harkeyville — 10 mi