The Fayette National Bank of Lexington was organized on September 8, 1870 and chartered by the Comptroller during October 1870. The Board of Directors appointed Robert R. Stone and James M. Hocker as President and Cashier, respectively. Charter Number 1720 was issued to the new institution. The Board of Directors consisted of John W. Appleton, Squire Bassett, William Cassius Goodloe, Milton G. Thompson, Robert McMichael, Rufus Lisle, Judge Jeremiah R. Morton and J. S. Anderson.
The bank’s first office was temporary quartered in the old Warfield Building on the southwest corner of Upper and Short Streets. The bank assumed the residuary interest in Mr. Hocker’s private bank, J. M. Hocker & Company. In 1871 - 72, an ornate three-story building was constructed on the corner of Main and Upper Street. This building, designed by famed Lexington architect John McMurty, was the first commercial building in Lexington with a stone facade and mansard roof.
In May 1872, the stockholders authorized an increase in the capital stock of eighty thousand dollars. In late January 1873, Squire Bassett and Robert S. Bullock were elected as President and Cashier, respectively. Mr. Stone resigned to form his own private bank (R. R. Stone & Company). The Bassett family controlled the bank's affairs until the Fayette National's acquisition by the First National in 1931.
On July 11, 1876, the directors declared a four percent semi-annual dividend. Two years later the bank's stock first traded publicly when ten shares sold for one hundred fifteen dollars each. In January 1880, an additional five shares of stock traded for one hundred twenty one dollars and thirty-five cents per share and two months later additional shares traded at one hundred twenty dollars per share.
On November 8, 1889, the Fayette National Bank lost the services of Colonel William Cassius Goodloe as a director. By a chance encounter, Colonel Goodloe met Col. Armstead Swope, a political rival, while checking his letterbox at the Post Office. After a few brief words, Colonel Swope pulled a revolver from under his coat and proceeded to empty it into Colonel Goodloe, while at the same time Colonel Goodloe, pulled a “bowie” knife from under his coat and repeatedly stabbed Colonel Swope. Both "gentlemen" died because of their respective wounds.
National Bank Note, Brown Back, Series of 1882
By the turn of the century, Fayette National installed the first telephone in a bank in the city of Lexington. The bank's telephone number was 12. The other bank's telephone numbers were First National number 43, City National number 98 and Security Trust number 351. It is interesting to note that the current phone system at First Security cost in excess of seven hundred fifty thousand dollars to install and operate. The Fayette National's capital at the turn of the century was only half a million dollars.
Board of Directors, December 1908.
(Left to right) William J. Goodwin, J. Edward Bassett, James M. Duff, I. N. Williams, Squire Bassett, Theodore N. Tunis, Thomas A. Combs, William F. Warren and Major Robert S. Bullock.
In 1905 the Fayette National was the largest commercial bank in the city of Lexington, with deposits of one million three hundred thousand dollars or twenty seven percent of total deposits. The bank had capital of six hundred thousand one hundred dollars and loans & discounts of one million one hundred thousand dollars.
In 1906, the Chamber of Commerce published a booklet of the leading business. The bank was profiled as:
THE FAYETTE NATIONAL BANK
A Sound and Reliable Institution and a Leading Factor in Finance in
Lexington and Central Kentucky.
This splendid banking institution was organized in 1870, and while ranking third in point of age among the City’s National Banks, takes first place among them in deposits and general volume of business.
With a capital of $300,000, this bank shows surplus and profits of $309,000 and deposits aggregating more than $1,100,000.
Established in 1870, it has passed unscathed through the greatest crises in the history of modern finance, and today, after a career of almost a third of a century, it stand like Gibraltar, with capital, surplus and deposits aggregating more than a million and half dollars.
The proud position in the field of finance attained by this bank is the result of steady application of the soundest banking methods, coupled with the fact that its officers and directors are men whose names are a tower of strength in the community. Banking in all its branches is conducted here, and better facilities for handling accounts of firms and individuals, banks and bankers, cannot be found anywhere. Lexington enjoys the reputation of being a city of solid financial concerns, and no one of them has contributed more to that reputation or is more worthy the patronage of the business public than the Fayette National Bank.
National Bank Note, Plain Back, Series of 1902
On January 25, 1909, shortly before his father's death, J. Edward Bassett was elected President.
During 1913-14, the bank constructed the first "Skyscraper" in Lexington on the corner of Main and Upper streets (taking down its existing building located there). The new fifteen story headquarters was designed by the prestigious New York firm of McKim, Meade and White. That firm was best known for designing buildings and mansions in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. The new building was opened to great fanfare on January 29, 1914, with the public allowed to ride the elevators to the roof to see a panoramic view of Lexington. The new building cost over four hundred thousand dollars. The Fayette National Building was the tallest in Lexington for the next sixty years, until the First Security Plaza was constructed in 1972.
During November 1914, Fayette National purchased twenty one thousand dollars worth of stock to join the newly formed Federal Reserve System. In December 1915, Fayette opened the first Christmas Money Club accounts in Lexington. This account allowed customers to regularly deposit a small amount monthly and receive a large check just before Christmas.
After suffering the effects of the economic slowdown during the Depression, the First National Bank, on April 23, 1931, assumed control of the assets, deposits and liabilities of the Fayette National Bank. The stockholders of the Fayette National received a sixty thousand dollar cash payment and, at the end of two years, any excess assets not used to meet the bank's liabilities would be distributed to the former Fayette National stockholders.
Advertisement, 1929
In addition, First National received a two-year purchase option on the Fayette National Bank Building. The Fayette National Bank was operated as a branch of the First National Bank for two years, until May 29, 1933, when all the remaining assets of the old Fayette National were transferred to the First National Bank.
National Bank Note, Brown Back, Series of 1882
National Bank Note, Brown Back, Series of 1882
