City National Bank
Sulphur Springs, Hopkins County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The oldest banking institution in Sulphur Springs, City National Bank was organized in 1889. The first board of directors included J. J. Dabbs, John T. Hargrove, J. F. Carter, J. A. B. Putnam, W. B. Womack, W. A. Dabbs, and S. W. Summers. A two-story brick building was erected at this site on the town square. W. W. Jones, Sr., was a dominant figure in the bank. With his strong leadership, the bank thrived and survived the Great Depression intact. The original bank building was razed in 1968 and a new structure was built in its place.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When City National Bank opened its doors on the Sulphur Springs town square in 1889, it gave the growing East Texas community its first enduring financial anchor, complete with a substantial two-story brick home on the square. Under the long, steady hand of W. W. Jones, Sr., the bank weathered the storm that ruined thousands of institutions nationwide — surviving the Great Depression intact. The original building came down in 1968, replaced by a new structure on the same trusted spot.
Why it matters
Local banks like this one were the quiet machinery of small-town America, financing farms and storefronts, and surviving the Depression when so many failed marked a community's resilience.
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Related people
- · W. W. Jones, Sr.
Related events
- · Great Depression
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Sulphur Springs Loan and Building Association
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Chartered in 1890 by a circle of local business leaders, this savings and building association arrived just as the railroad was quickening growth across Hopkins County. By lending for homes, farms, and businesses in town and countryside alike, it helped finance the community's expansion, and many area enterprises trace their beginnings to its early loans. Recognized as the oldest surviving savings association in Texas, it long paired its financial role with support for local charities and civic groups.
Hopkins County Echo-Daily News-Telegram
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Printer's ink flowed early in Hopkins County: deed records show a paper, the Texas Star, publishing at the county seat of Tarrant by 1854. When William Wortham bought the presses in 1855 and hauled them to Bright Star — later Sulphur Springs — he launched a lineage of newspapers that split, competed, and merged over the next century. The Echo, founded in 1878, absorbed rivals under the long stewardship of the Tate family, and through a tangle of consolidations the county's papers eventually became the Daily News-Telegram alongside the weekly Echo.
Sulphur Springs Volunteer Fire Department and Fire Bell of 1889
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Soon after Sulphur Springs incorporated in 1870, volunteer firefighters organized a bucket brigade and hand-drawn equipment to battle blazes, until the city bought a steam fire engine in 1888. To summon the volunteers, this 500-pound brass bell was purchased in 1889 and hung in the engine house tower, ringing out alarms until a siren replaced it in the 1930s. Professionals joined the force in the 1940s, but volunteers still turn out for major fires.
George and Myra Wilson
Sulphur Springs, TX
Soon after they married in 1881, George and Myra Wilson set about transforming Sulphur Springs from a small town into a city. George and his brother ran a brick plant and built many of its landmarks—the City National Bank, First Baptist Church, and several county courthouses—while Myra led the Ladies' Cemetery Society for 43 years, helped found the public library, and raised money for a cemetery chapel. Together they typified the civic energy that reshaped a once-frontier Texas town.