Yoakum National Bank

The bank's federal paper survives in two series. The First National Bank of Yoakum held charter 4363 from July 1890, issued about $63,500 in brown-back notes, and was liquidated on May 18, 1907, the day charter 8694 made it the Yoakum National Bank. John M. Bennett Sr. was president of the old charter from 1890 to 1906 and of the new one until 1919. Under the new charter the bank issued $935,930 in notes, and its circulation peaked at $100,000 in 1932.

What the plaque says

Yoakum National Bank The town of Yoakum incorporated on May 13, 1889, and with a growing population and business, a banking house was needed. W.O. Richardson recognized this need and with the assistance of other community leaders, organized a commercial bank in Yoakum. On June 19, 1890, the First National Bank of Yoakum was established with the following board of directors: J.M. Bennett, J.P. Morris, A. May, B.P. Stephenson, W. Heuermann, Jr., W.S. Boothe, and W.O. Richardson. The First National Bank of Yoakum opened its doors for business on July 10, 1890, in rented space. A permanent lot was purchased in August 1890 and the bank relocated to a two-story building some time before May 1892. The local bank prospered and grew, even withstanding the panic of 1893 that devastated most small banks. In early 1907, the shareholders changed the name to Yoakum National Bank. Involvement in the community and area's interests were often considered, such as investment in the local cotton and tomato industry, and later the leather industry. In 1971, they moved to this location to better serve the community. From its earliest years, the First National Bank of Yoakum and later the Yoakum National Bank played a vital and major role in the growth and development of Yoakum and the surrounding areas. Through support of individuals and businesses, the Yoakum National Bank aided the financial prosperity of Yoakum's citizens and industries. (2017)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spoetzl Brewery — 10.0 mi
  The brewery a Czech and German railroad town started in a tin shed in 1909, run through Prohibition by a Bavarian who had brewed in Cairo, and then by his daughter.
• Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum — 16 mi
  A cattle-country museum in Cuero's 1903 Knights of Pythias Hall, telling the Guadalupe Valley's 1866 drive north and the Sutton-Taylor feud that bloodied DeWitt County.
• Lavaca County Courthouse — 17 mi
  A limestone Romanesque courthouse of 1897-99 on the square of a town founded by a widow trader, in a county seat that once printed the Socialist Party's state paper.
• Gonzales Memorial Museum — 23 mi
  A 1937 Centennial museum for the Immortal Thirty-two who died at the Alamo, holding the small iron cannon Gonzales calls its Come and Take It gun and the Handbook calls a second one.

More markers nearby

• Katolika Jednota Zen Texaskych (K.J.Z.T.)_Catholic Women's Union of Texas — 0.5 mi
• Yoakum — 0.7 mi
• The Trail Drivers of Southwest Texas — 0.7 mi
• West-Wagner Homestead — 8.4 mi