Galveston, Galveston County
Successor of Texas' oldest bank and its first national bank. Founded in 1835 when Mexico granted a banking charter to the merchants Thomas F. McKinney and Samuel May Williams -- a firm wealthy enough in 1836 to finance the Texas War for Independence to a large extent. Later McKinney, Williams & Company moved from Quintana to Galveston, where in 1841 the Texas Republic authorized them to issue bank notes for circulation as money. When re-established in 1847 as "Commercial & Agricultural Bank," this became first chartered bank in the state. At its closing, 1859, Ball-Hutchings & Company assumed many of its activities. This company was established by two young men, John H. Hutchings and John Sealy, under the name of Hutchings, Sealy & Company at Sabine Pass in 1847 as a merchandise business. These men moved to Galveston in 1854 and joined with George Ball to form Ball-Hutchings & Company. In 1897 the firm changed its name to Hutchings, Sealy & Company, and in 1930 it merged with Henry Rosenberg's South Texas National Bank. In 1958 the Hutchings-Sealy National Bank merged with the First National Bank of Galveston, the latter being the first Texas bank chartered under the National Bank Act of 1865. (1971)