Citizens Bank preps for 125th anniversary

During the same month the first Coca-Cola — laced with cocaine — was served in Atlanta, B.J. Brown opened a bank in the 700 block of Main Street in Van Buren, a city then just 44 years old and part of the last stop for those traveling to the relatively unsettled western U.S.

That was May 1886. Citizen’s Bank & Trust is not as big as Coca-Cola, but, then again, the bank wasn’t pushing cocaine.

The bank has pushed through a Great Depression, two World Wars, the emergence of auto and airplane transportation, wholesale changes in the relationship between banks and governments and this thing called the Internet.

Today, the bank has the main office and five branch banks in Crawford County, with 105 employees and mortgage loan offices in Fort Smith and Rogers. Bank assets total at least $369 million, which is obviously much greater than back in May 1886, and is much higher than the $2.379 million as of 1956.

“Any business where you reach a 125-year milestone, that is something that should be recognized, and it’s especially rare west of the Mississippi (River) in the financial industry,” explained Keith Hefner, president and CEO of the bank since January 2004. Banks east of the Mississippi River had a head start in terms of time, and weren’t tasked with operating in rough, frontier environments.

Bank officers, employees, customers and Van Buren Mayor Bob Freeman will formally celebrate the 125-year anniversary Monday (May 2) during a 3 to 6 p.m. open house at the Main Bank location in Van Buren’s Cloverleaf Plaza. Mayor Freeman is expected to issue a proclamation at 4:30 p.m.

Hefner, who admits to a weakness for trivial historical facts, was quick to point out in a recent interview that 1886 also was the year Geronimo surrendered to U.S. troops to end the Indian Wars; the Statue of Liberty was dedicated and Richard Sears established a mail-order business that focused on selling watches to farmers in the midwest. As everyone knows, Sears eventually partnered up with watch repairman Alvah Roebuck.

“It was quite a year,” Hefner said.

The bank, now a subsidiary of Fort Smith-based First Bank Corp., enjoys advantages because of its history.

“We are banking with some second and third generation customers, so we have some deep roots,” Hefner said.

When he first arrived at the bank in 1990 to head up what he said was a fledgling mortgage lending division, Hefner said customers then remembered the post-Great Depression promotional literature reminding people that that the bank survived the Depression, never failed to pay interest and never failed to pay a dividend.

“That was a huge deal. I wasn’t there and you weren’t there, but the people who survived the Depression, that reputation of bank strength stuck with them a long time into the future,” Hefner said.

Other reasons Hefner offered for the bank’s survival include having a good capital base, being in an area not subject to energy, real estate and other economic bubbles, and conservative management.

“The bank has typically been managed in a conservative fashion. That doesn’t always play well and isn’t always the popular thing to do, especially in a cycle when things are going well. … But we try to stick to what we know how to do, and don’t get involved in things we don’t understand,” Hefner said.

He also said the bank has a “very resourceful class of customers” who know how to manage their money when things get tight.

“That’s a quality I’d say is not just with our bank customers, but I think you see that in much of western Arkansas,” Hefner said.

BANK HISTORY
• Organized in May of 1886, Citizens Bank is the oldest incorporated bank in Crawford County and one of the oldest in the State of Arkansas.

• Founded by B. J. Brown, an attorney, the first bank was located in a frame building in the center of what is now the south side of the 700 block of Main Street.

• When David T. Bryan left the Bank of Mulberry in 1910 to return to Van Buren, he founded the fourth bank in the City of Van Buren at that time, the Van Buren Trust Company. Four years later in 1914, Citizens merged with the Van Buren Trust Company and became Citizens Bank & Trust Company doing business at 7th and Main with John B. Brown as President and David T. Bryan as Cashier.

• In 1919, Mr. Brown sold all of his stock to Mr. Bryan, who was elected President, a position he held for 36 years.  Mr. Bryan retired in January of 1955 after selling all of his stock to a group comprised of Basil Moody, Raymond Allen and Bill Echols. In 1956, Citizens Bank & Trust Company had total assets of $2,379,000.

• In 1966, the bank had total assets of $5,745,000. 

• In 1969, Moody sold his majority stock ownership interest to Doyle Hopkins. Under this ownership, Dane Riggs served as president, and in 1971 Mountainburg got its first bank as Citizens opened a branch facility. Additionally, a new main bank facility was completed in 1975 in Cloverleaf Plaza at 3110 Alma Highway. In 1976, Citizens Bank & Trust Company had total assets of $18,000,000.

• In 1979, Jack Alexander bought controlling interest in Citizens Bank & Trust Company from various stockholders. Robert Hammerschmidt served as President. The Bank continued to grow and prosper with total assets in 1986 reaching $70,143,000.

• In November 1988 of that same year, Vista Bancorporation, a one bank holding company, completed the acquisition of Citizens Bank from Alexander.

• In 1990 Citizens’ acquired the former First America Federal Savings Bank branches in both Alma and Van Buren with a purchase and assumption of some $33,000,000 in deposits and approximately $10,000,000 in loans. Total assets ended the year 1990 at $122,664,000.

• The Board of Directors of Vista Bancorporation, the one bank holding company of Citizens Bank & Trust Company, in 1994 announced their agreement to merge with First Bank Corp. of Fort Smith, a bank holding company whose members include First National Bank of Fort Smith and National Bank of Sallisaw in Sallisaw, Okla. Total assets were $137,000,000.

• Since January 2004, Citizens Bank has expanded its mortgage lending presence in Fort Smith and added an additional mortgage production office in Rogers, Ark. The bank eded 2010 with assets of $369.4 million.