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Organized in 1885, this group is the oldest and largest (with 1,150 member banks as of 1969) State Bankers Association in the United States. Inspired by the ten-year success of the American Bankers Association, two young bankers of Lampasas Springs, Frank R. Malone and E. M. Longcope, composed on May 26, 1885, an enthusiastic letter presenting the need for a similar group in Texas. Being loyal citizens, they also promoted Lampasas Springs as the convention site, praising it as a "great spa" with "scenery...sure to inspire grand thoughts". Published in the "Galveston News", then the leading newspaper in the state, their plan brought immediate response. For the next six weeks an advertisement in the "News" each day announced the future meeting. Thus on July 23, 1885, thirty-one bankers from all over Texas convened here in the plush Park Hotel for a three-day organizational meeting, characterized by the many dynamic young (under 35) men present. Jas. F. Miller, member of Congress and of a private banking firm in Gonzales, was elected first president. The provisions of one of the resolutions passed at the meeting-- to provide for the chartering of state banks-- have been state law since 1905. |
