Country banking as conducted today, is less crude, more scientific, and safer than in the time of which we write, but a fundamental condition that has always made it a public necessity remains the same, namely, a local community engaged in the activities of development, production, and commerce.
It goes without saying that the banking needs of Cedar Rapids as a railroad town were greater than ever before and several applications were made for permission to establish a branch of the State Bank, none of which, however, was successful.
This worthy institution itself proved to be short-lived, for the need that brought it into existence was broader than Iowa and soon crystallized into the National Bank Act, which was adopted by the Federal Congress in 1863, and which provided for a National Bank currency and effectually put an end to all other bank note issues, and the State Bank of Iowa, having fulfilled its mission, redeemed its notes and all other liabilities, and ceased to exist.
Although the national system met with much opposition on the part of the larger state banks of New York and elsewhere, and had to overcome prejudice in the minds of many people throughout the country, its positive improvement on the old order of things was quickly apparent to Cedar Rapids bankers, resulting in the establishment of two National banks in 1864, and the race for charters illustrates a degree of alertness and competition in those days that would do credit to the chief of present day hustlers, and verified the old proverb, "the first shall be last," for the First National Bank, with a capital of $50,000.00, received charter No. 500 on August 23d, while the City National Bank, with a capital of $100,000.00, received charter No. 483 on July 19th of that year and was the first to open its doors for business. During the following year, the First National Bank increased its capital to $100,000.00. Published reports, about the end of the year 1865, show total deposits in both banks of nearly $150,000.00, and the full limit of outstanding bank notes $90,000.00 each, thus promptly and amply providing banking facilities for the rapid development that followed the close of the Civil war.
City banking within the memory of our older bankers was practically confined to the east and to a very few of the larger cities of the country, and its development in Cedar Rapids and other cities of her class illustrates the evolution of banking methods and evidences the remarkable financial growth of Iowa and the west. In response to the growing needs of jobbing and manufacturing lines, which were then in their infancy, the Merchants National Bank was organized in 1881 by R. D. Stephens. He was an exceptionally able banker, and his untimely death in 1883 deprived the community of a strong force.
With the organization of the Cedar Rapids National Bank, which succeeded the private banking business of G. F. Van Vechten in 1887, there was inaugurated a systematic effort to encourage and build up a business with country banks within this territory. Such deposits were carried in moderate amounts before this, but were handled more as a matter of necessary collections on account of the shipments of live stock and grain to this center than as a permanent and profitable branch of banking. It became evident at this time that the rapid development of the state and of wholesale and manufacturing businesses at this point was bringing Cedar Rapids into closer business relations with many other towns, that currency and credit could be handled here with equal safety and with greater profit and convenience than in the distant east, and with population and wage earners increasing, the savings banks assumed their most important place, and thus it came about that city banking, like country banking, was the outgrowth of our mutual business requirements and advantages. Its natural development led to the organization of the Cedar Rapids Clearing House Association in 1902, the designation by government authority of Cedar Rapids as a reserve city for deposits of other national banks in 1903, and to the existence of ten active banks today, holding total deposits of over sixteen million dollars, and completes a record of banking safety that has paid its depositors in full throughout its history.
List of Cedar Rapids banks in the order in which they began business:
| No. | Name | Opened | Liquidated |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greene & Weare | 1852 | 1858 |
| 2 | Ward, Bryan & Co. | 1853 | 1856 |
| 3 | Carpenter, Lehman & Co. | 1856 | 1857 |
| 4 | Dodge, Carr & Co. | 1856 | 1857 |
| 5 | Elihu Baker & Co. | 1857 | 1860 |
| 6 | Greene, Merritt & Co. | 1858 | 1862 |
| 7 | Carpenter, Stibbs & Co. | 1859 | 1869 |
| 8 | S. C. Bever & Son | 1862 | 1864 |
| 9 | City National Bank | July 19, 1864 | 1898 |
| 10 | First National Bank | August 23, 1864 | 1886 |
| 11 | Union Savings Bank | February, 1870 | 1879 |
| 12 | G. F. Van Vechten Private Bank | February 1, 1877 | 1887 |
| 13 | Merchants National Bank | March, 1881 | |
| 14 | Cedar Rapids Savings Bank | May 15, 1883 | |
| 15 | O. N. Hull's Real Estate Bank | August 12, 1884 | 1890 |
| 16 | Cedar Rapids National Bank | February 28, 1887 | |
| 17 | Security Savings Bank | April 26, 1889 | |
| 18 | Bohemian-American State Bank | June 13, 1892 | 1894 |
| 19 | {Iowa Savings Bank {changed name to {Bohemian-American Savings Bank | May 1, 1893} } September 1, 1894} | 1898 |
| 20 | Citizens National Bank | March, 1898 | 1908 |
| 21 | American Trust and Savings Bank | April 5, 1898 | |
| 22 | Cedar Rapids Loan and Trust Co. | February 1, 1900 | 1904 |
| 23 | Peoples Savings Bank | May, 1903 | |
| 24 | Fidelity Trust and Savings Bank | June 1, 1904 | 1907 |
| 25 | Commercial Savings Bank | December 14, 1905 | |
| 26 | Iowa State Savings Bank | July 1, 1906 | |
| 27 | Commercial National Bank | July 7, 1908 | |
| 28 | First Trust & Savings Bank | August 4, 1910 |