First National Bank
Cooper, Delta County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Oldest bank in Delta County. Founded 1889 as private firm operating in a grocery store. Chartered as a national bank 1891. Erected this building 1909. Guaranty State Bank merged with First National 1925. This bank has had continued growth. The founder, Wm. J. McDonald (1844 - 1926), at his death left a great fortune to establish an astronomical observatory of the first order - the McDonald Observatory, in West Texas. RTHL 1966
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Delta County's oldest bank began in 1889 as a private firm run out of a grocery store, earned its national charter in 1891, and put up this building in 1909. Its founder, William J. McDonald, quietly amassed a fortune and left it to endow the McDonald Observatory in the mountains of West Texas. A humble small-town bank thus seeded one of America's great astronomical institutions.
Why it matters
The story links frontier commerce to the rise of American scientific research, showing how private wealth built the public infrastructure of discovery.
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Related people
- · William J. McDonald
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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