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Beginnings... Ottawa and the
The First National Bank
OLD SUPERSTITION...
Root crops should be sown when the
moon is rising, and above ground crops when the moon is waning.
There was a new first-quarter moon over Ottawa
and LaSalle County when the First National Bank opened for business
almost 140
years ago on June 1, 1865. That was an historical highlight of the
bank's history, for those were moon-farming days when farmers in this
predominantly agricultural community still depended upon the phases of
the moon in deciding when to plant their field crops and gardens.
In such a setting, the First National Bank was
a pioneer in financial service to the community and a bellwether for
other service institutions to follow. Ottawa had a population of only
6,000, being then just 12 years old as an officially chartered city.
Farmers had had the U. S. Department of Agriculture for three years, but
the department's influence and teachings had not yet spread to the
prairies of Illinois. What is now the University of Illinois was not to
open for another three years, in 1868, and as the Illinois Industrial
University, and Ottawa was not to have a high school for another 13
years. When the school was established in 1878 it was the second one in
the State of Illinois.
Ottawa was one of the first Illinois cities to
get telephones and electric trains (interurban), but the First National
Bank opened for business 12 years before the telephone came to Ottawa in
1877 and six years before the first train came through the city on the
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. The first train on what is
now the Rock Island Lines had come through on only 12 years before the
bank's opening. And it was only seven years before the opening of the
First National Bank that Ottawa became everlastingly famous as the site
of the first in the series of seven Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858.
Looking back at history, we can see Ottawa and
the First National Bank starting out together under that June moon in
1865 and continuing as partners ever since.

The First National Bank was not the
first bank in the city, but all that remained of that first bank was
long ago vested in The First National Bank of Ottawa. That first Ottawa bank was started in 1848 by
George H. Norris and George S. Fisher. Unfortunately, in 1853, failure
overtook the small banking concern, first known as Norris and Fishers
Bank and later called the Bank of Ottawa. But in time the remnant of the
bank's business was merged with that of The First National Bank of
Ottawa, first identifying The First National Bank of Ottawa with
the very beginning of banking in the community.
President Abraham Lincoln was identified with
the early history of the bank in two ways...officially and personally.
Officially, he signed the National Currency Act, February 25, 1863,
which established our national banking system, and the National Bank Act
of June 3, 1864, under which the First National was established.
Personally, President Lincoln was considered
"one of us" by all Ottawans. He first came to the city as the
captain of a company of volunteers from New Salem who were serving in
the Blackhawk War of 1832. Historians say that he made five known visits
to the city as a soldier, lawyer and politician, including the one of
August 21, 1858, for the first of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
In a more intimate and personal manner,
President Lincoln was identified with several Ottawans who later were to
become prominent in the early days of the First National Bank. A
bridesmaid for the Lincoln-Mary Todd wedding in Springfield on November
4, 1842, was Anna C. Rodney who herself was married the next year to W.
H. Cushman, first cashier of the bank, 1865-66.
There is a brief record of financial dealings
between Lincoln and Richard Thorne, who was a director of the bank from
1865 to 1867. In 1856 Lincoln wrote to Thorne concerning campaign
expenses: "Some little expense bills are on me, and I have
concluded to draw on you for $20 now, which is still ten dollars within
the authority you gave me."
Finally, fate decreed that President Lincoln
was to be both the heroic and tragic figure in national affairs that
made momentous history during the founding days of The First National
Bank of Ottawa. It was in
January, 1865, that the bank was organized, and it was on January 12
that Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, met with an emissary
of President Lincoln in Richmond, Virginia, to discuss peace
negotiations.
It was in April, 1865, that the charter was
issued for The First National Bank of Ottawa. The Confederacy surrendered on April 9. On April 15
President Lincoln died after being shot the night before by the
assassin, John Wilkes Booth.
The martyred President was returned to Illinois
and his final resting place in the Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, on
May 4, 1865. One era ended, another began, the nation returned to the
affairs of government and business, and Ottawa proceeded toward the
opening of the First National Bank on Thursday, June 1.
Only 638 national banks had been organized
under the national Currency Act (1863) and the National Bank Act (1864)
at the time the history of the First National Bank began. That was
during the winter of 1864-65 when a number of the leading business men
of Ottawa, aware of the banking reform taking place throughout the
country, met to discuss the possibilities of a national bank for this
community.
Subscription books to raise the capital for
such a bank were opened in January 1854, and in due time the required
capital of $100,000 was subscribed by about 50 of the most prominent and
influential men of the city and surrounding area. In April 1865 a
charter was organized by the comptroller of the currency authorizing the
First National Bank of Ottawa to begin business. The private bank of W.
H. Cushman, including the business and building on the northwest corner
of Main and LaSalle Streets, was purchased and opened for business as
the newly created bank on June 1, 1865.
William Hickling, who had come to Ottawa from
England in 1834, was the first president of the bank from 1865-67. John
Armour was the bank's first vice president, and W. H. Cushman, first
cashier. Members of the first board of directors were John Amour,
Lorenzo Leland I, William Hickling, Milton H. Swift, Washington
Bushnell, John Manley, Richard Thorne, Thomas Hurford, Joel W.
Armstrong, Isaac Gage and Cornelius M. Van Doren.

Today there are approximately 4,700 national banks of which the First
National of Ottawa is truly one of the first!
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