One of the strong and actively ordered financial institutions of Jackson
county and one that contributes its quota to the commercial and industrial
stability of this favored section of the country is the City National Bank
of Murphysboro. The institution is the direct successor to the Bank of
Murphysboro, organized by James E. Walker and his wife, who owned and
controlled the business for a number of years. In 1892 the City National
Bank was organized and incorporated, and business had practical initiation
on the 25th day of November of that year. At the time of organization the
total assets of the bank were $112,000, and in the early stages of its
operations its individual deposits aggregated something less than $60,000.
The enterprise has been handled with marked conservatism and circumspection,
and the institution has gained an impregnable hold upon the public
confidence and esteem, aggregating in bonds alone a capital stock of
$50,000, and the total deposits now aggregating $550,000. In 1895 Mr. Walker
and his associates sold their interests in the banks to Mr. William K.
Murphy and others. Mr. Hardy has been chief executive of the institution
since May, 1899.
The bank has a fine modern building of brick, two stories in height and
twenty-four by sixty feet in lateral dimension.
Extracted from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, by George W. Smith, volume 2, page 677.