Site of the Guarantee State Bank
Ore City, Upshur County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Ore City was founded about 1910 as an iron mining center. On Dec. 16, 1911, its citizens organized the Guarantee State Bank, and after operating temporarily in the local schoolhouse, they built a brick structure on this site in 1912. State Representative W. O. Stamps, the first president, set up farsighted policies during the hard times when the iron mill failed to materialize. Cattle, hogs, mules, and crops figured as loan collateral here as in other Texas farm centers. Renamed the Security State Bank in 1927, the firm erected and moved into a new building nearby in 1968. (1976)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Ore City sprang up around 1910 as an iron-mining hope, and its citizens organized the Guarantee State Bank the next year, first operating out of the schoolhouse before raising a brick building in 1912. When the iron mill never materialized, the bank's first president, State Representative W. O. Stamps, steered it through hard times by lending against cattle, hogs, mules, and crops. Renamed the Security State Bank in 1927, it eventually outgrew the site and moved nearby.
Why it matters
The bank's story shows how small-town financial institutions improvised to survive when the extractive booms that founded their towns failed to pan out.
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Related people
- · W. O. Stamps
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Port Bolivar & Iron Ore Railroad
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