First Hutchings-Sealy National Bank
Galveston, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Successor of Texas' oldest bank and its first national bank. Founded in 1835 when Mexico granted a banking charter to the merchants Thomas F. McKinney and Samuel May Williams -- a firm wealthy enough in 1836 to finance the Texas War for Independence to a large extent. Later McKinney, Williams & Company moved from Quintana to Galveston, where in 1841 the Texas Republic authorized them to issue bank notes for circulation as money. When re-established in 1847 as "Commercial & Agricultural Bank," this became first chartered bank in the state. At its closing, 1859, Ball-Hutchings & Company assumed many of its activities. This company was established by two young men, John H. Hutchings and John Sealy, under the name of Hutchings, Sealy & Company at Sabine Pass in 1847 as a merchandise business. These men moved to Galveston in 1854 and joined with George Ball to form Ball-Hutchings & Company. In 1897 the firm changed its name to Hutchings, Sealy & Company, and in 1930 it merged with Henry Rosenberg's South Texas National Bank. In 1958 the Hutchings-Sealy National Bank merged with the First National Bank of Galveston, the latter being the first Texas bank chartered under the National Bank Act of 1865. (1971)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This bank traces its roots to 1835, when Mexico granted a banking charter to Galveston merchants McKinney and Williams, whose firm helped finance the Texas War for Independence. Re-established in 1847 as the Commercial and Agricultural Bank, it became the first chartered bank in the state, and through a chain of mergers its business passed to the Ball-Hutchings and Hutchings-Sealy houses. A series of consolidations across the following century tied it to Galveston's rise as a commercial hub.
Why it matters
As successor to Texas's oldest bank, the institution shows how frontier commerce and finance underwrote the Republic's independence and the young state's economic growth.
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Related people
- · Thomas F. McKinney
- · Samuel May Williams
- · John Sealy
- · John H. Hutchings
Themes & tags
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