Merchants and Planters National Bank
Sherman, Grayson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of the oldest banks in North Texas. Replaced Sherman's "Pecan Tree Bank"; for 22 years traders hung saddlebags filled with gold on tree's branches. Bank was founded in 1872 with $150,000 capital when city was 26 years old. Promoted growth of Sherman and was hub of North Texas area and Indian Territory, serving ranchers, farmers, traders. Became national bank in 1884. First president was C. C. Binkley; first directors, J. P. Dumas, Silas Hare, Sr., J. M. Lindsay, J. H. Slater, G. V. Winkle, C. A. Andrews.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1872 with $150,000 in capital, this was one of the oldest banks in North Texas, replacing Sherman's informal "Pecan Tree Bank" where traders had literally hung gold-filled saddlebags in a tree for 22 years. Serving ranchers, farmers, and traders across North Texas and the neighboring Indian Territory, it helped fuel the young city's growth and became a national bank in 1884.
Why it matters
It marks the moment a rough frontier trading post matured into a formal financial hub, the kind of institution that turned open range into settled commercial towns.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · C. C. Binkley
- · Silas Hare
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Hall Furniture Building
Sherman, TX
Missouri native and Civil War veteran Rufus Gaines Hall opened a Sherman dry goods store in 1868, prospering in part by sending thirty "notion wagons" to peddle supplies to farm families across thirteen North Texas counties. His son Dr. Hugh Logan Hall joined in 1872, and five generations of Halls ran the business here for a century. Built as two structures in 1876 and 1885 and joined in 1936, the building became a striking Art Deco storefront banded with black-and-ivory structural glass.
Thomas Jefferson Shannon
Sherman, TX
Thomas Jefferson Shannon arrived in Texas in 1839, when it was still an independent republic, and settled in the area that became Grayson County in 1845. As the county's first state legislator he pushed to move the county seat to present-day Sherman and donated the land for the townsite, earning the nickname "Father of Sherman." A pioneering cattleman, he even imported Durham cattle said to be a gift from Queen Victoria in 1848, while his daughter Julia named the town's first streets.
Joseph G. McCoy, Promoter of Chisholm Trail
Denison, TX
An Illinois livestock broker, Joseph G. McCoy (1837–1915) opened the first workable market for Texas cattle by securing rail cars and building loading pens at Abilene, Kansas — turning $5 longhorns into beeves worth $25 or more up north. He had part of Jesse Chisholm's trail surveyed and marked to guide the great drives through Oklahoma, over which some ten million cattle moved between 1866 and 1884. When the railroad reached Denison in 1872, McCoy moved here and helped launch a refrigerating company to ship dressed beef.
Sanborn Ranch
Whitesboro, TX
Established in the late 1870s by H.B. Sanborn, a leading promoter of barbed wire, this Grayson County showplace became the first large Texas spread fenced with the new wire—a working demonstration meant to convince skeptical cattlemen. The model project helped hasten the end of the open range that had defined the cattle frontier. In 1888 Sanborn went on to found the city of Amarillo, then sold the ranch.