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
