Early Days In Jacksonville Banking 

Reed was a Christian abolitionist and worked his 1,400 plantation home, Mulberry Grove (site of NAS-Jax), with salaried freedmen – not slaves. Yet his bank and his home suffered when the North invaded Jacksonville.

Knowing the thieving ways of Yankee troops, Reed moved his bank to Lake City where, alas, all assets disappeared in the course of the war.

After the war, Reed redeemed his bank’s notes with personal income from his plantation.

The end of the war brought both carpetbaggers and private banks to Jacksonville. Private banks included D.G. Ambler, 1868; Frank Dibble, 1869; Greely & Paine, 1872; and W.B. Barnett & Sons, 1877.

Some of these institutions are ancestors of banks still existing. For instance, Ambler’s private bank became Ambler National Bank in 1874, then the Bank Of The State Of Florida, which in 1903 was absorbed by the Atlantic National Bank, which in turn became First Union National Bank Of Florida, which was acquired by Wachovia.

The end of the war brought the National Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Co., an institution that handled money for former slaves. “Deposits received from 5 Cents upwards” the bank’s adds boasted.

The First National Bank of Jacksonville (not related to the bank of the same name today) was the first national bank in Florida. It was organized in 1874 with a capital of $50,000. By 1885, its resources had grown to $389,973. Shaky phosphate investments led to this bank’s failure on March 14, 1903.

Jacksonville enjoyed her banks and bankers.

An 1886 Board Of Trade report said, “Citizens can point with pride to the substantial and satisfactory condition of banking… The bankers are conservative and have never yielded to the fascination of speculation… Suspensions are conspicuous by reason of their absence, while the defaulting official is an unknown quantity, notwithstanding the tempting proximity of Cuba”.

But Jacksonville banks endured several crises.

Yellow Jack, the personification of yellow fever, rose out of the marshes near Jacksonville during the summer of 1888. The plague depopulated the city, with officials of six banks dying during the epidemic. Every single employee of W.B. Barnett’s bank came down with the fever. Three clerks died.

When Jacksonville recovered from the fever, many area banks invested heavily in the citrus industry. In those days the Orange Belt extended as far north as Fernandina.

In a single night most of that Orange Belt died. On February 7, 1895, temperatures in Florida fell to 11 degrees and stayed there for a week. Snow fell as far south as Tampa. Citrus trees cracked. Estimated loss to the state -- $75 million.

Six years later, Jacksonville banks thawed out.

On May 3, 1901, the city – including most bank buildings – burned to the ground.

But a May 7^th newspaper announced, “The vault of the Commercial Bank was opened by its combination yesterday and not a paper was seen scorched”.

Similar announcements followed for five other city banks – buildings destroyed, money and papers saved. They did business at temporary locations.

Barnett, with the only undamaged bank building in the city, shared its facilities with competitors in a cooperative endeavor to get Jacksonville on its feet again.

Jacksonville’s banking community once again not only survived but progressed both financially and technologically as new bank buildings sprang up to replace those destroyed in the fire.

Yes, Jacksonville banks have always been in the forefront when it comes to bringing new technology into the city. During its first 11 years of existence the Barnett Bank introduced Jacksonville’s business community to the telephone (the bank’s phone number was 37), to the typewriter, the bicycle, the fountain pen, the loose leaf binder, and, of course, the Burroughs Adding Machine..

A front page story in the January 14, 1898 Florida Times-Union & Citizen newspaper reflects the technological progress always evident in Jacksonville banking:

“The First National Bank Of Florida has placed a unique pencil-sharpener in the bank lobby for the benefit of the public. All that is necessary is to stick the point of the pencil in the machine, turn the crank, and a perfect point is the result. All who have pencils to sharpen are invited to try it”.

What will they think of next?