First National Bank of Shiner
Shiner, Lavaca County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1891, one year after Shiner was incorporated, Confederate captain and local rancher Charles Welhausen established a private bank for the growing railroad town. Welhausen served as first president, with E. F. Wolters, William D. Green, Earl Fry and Philip Welhausen serving with him on the first board of directors. Federally chartered in 1900, the First National Bank of Shiner has proven to be a strong financial institution and civic leader despite the decline of the cotton market in the early 1900s, a 1925 drought and other economic downturns in the 20th century. The bank remains a significant part of shiner's business history. (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1891, a year after Shiner was incorporated, Confederate captain and local rancher Charles Welhausen opened a private bank to serve the growing railroad town, serving as its first president alongside a founding board of directors. Federally chartered in 1900, the First National Bank of Shiner weathered the collapse of the cotton market, the 1925 drought, and other downturns to remain a pillar of the local economy. The bank endured as a civic leader through the upheavals of the 20th century.
Why it matters
Local banks like this one were the financial backbone of the cotton-and-railroad towns that grew across Texas at the turn of the century.
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Related people
- · Capt. Charles Welhausen
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cotton Industry in Shiner
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Barbed wire, the railroad, and German and Czech immigrants hungry for small family farms combined to make cotton king in Lavaca County. From August Stephan's first gin in 1892 through the founding of the Shiner Oil Mill in 1896, ginning, cottonseed-oil processing, and rail export drove Shiner's economy for nearly eighty years. The industry peaked in the 1920s with eight gins inside the city limits—four of them on this very site—before the last bale was ginned in 1971.
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