The
First National Bank of Mercer
was one of the pioneer institutions of the
kind organized under the banking laws enacted by Congress at the height
of the Civil war excitement of 1863. Its charter was granted April 19,
1864, and Archibald McKean,
its venerable president of today [1909], but then a vigorous young man
of thirty-eight, engaged in the drug trade, was among the foremost in
its founding and organization. He has been a member of its board of
directors from the first, and in 1898 was elected president of the
bank. The original capital of the First National Bank was $60,000 and
its incorporators A. G. Egbert, A.
S. Burwell, Alexander Thompson, John R. Hanna, A. J. McKean, C. W.
Kline, S. Griffith, John Trunkey, T. R. Sheriff, L. Beach, R. M. J.
Zahniser and Joseph
Forker. Mr. Egbert was its first president, Mr. Hanna its first cashier and
L. Hefling its first bookkeeper. During its existence the bank has had
only seven cashiers—John R. Hanna,
O. L, Munger, W. C. Alexander, C. S. Burnell, William Miller, Jr.,
Charles McKean and C.
G. Williams. The present directors of the bank are as
follows: A. J. Mc Kean,
Herman Frankel, W. C. Alexander, B. A. Williams, J. T.
Reed, W. J. Logan, R. R. Wright and S. S. Mehard. In 1875 the
capital of the First National Bank of Mercer was increased from $60,000
to $120,000, and according to its last statement made in 7908 its
capital remains at the latter figure, while its surplus and profits
amount to $165,000.
Twentieth Century History of
Mercer County, 1909, pages 226-227
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