The Pioneer Banks of Citrus County
By: Ken Marotte, Citrus County Historical Society
On the eve of the Great Depression, there were four local banks in Citrus County. Three of them failed to succeed and passed into memory. One of them not only survived but continues to thrive into the current day.
Bank of Crystal River
The institution opened in May 1907 and was capitalized at $15,000. It was advertised as a safe home-grown bank because local people who you know and trust were in charge as opposed to a distant larger bank. It was advertised as a “…place of safety for the working man’s hard earnings and a natural exchange for the business man’s money”
The permanent location for the bank would be at the corner of Mill Street and Citrus Avenue. Temporary headquarters were stationed at the Dixon Crucible company office. The President was Clifford E. Herrick, who was also manager of the Dixon cedar mill. A.S. King held the important position of Cashier.
One of the innovations was the installation of bank money orders. While they could be ordered at post offices, the bank offered the same security and convenience at a lower cost.
A financial calamity known as the Panic of 1907 swept the country that year. Many regional and local banks were forced into bankruptcy. However, the Bank of Crystal River had adequate capital on hand to weather the storm. The Bank continued to show satisfactory earnings over the next few years.
Mr. Herrick passed away in 1911. Local businessman C.E. Allen assumed the role of President.
Trouble began when the town of Crystal River issued bonds for construction of municipal waterworks in 1926. The Bank of Crystal River held a significant number of the bonds. When discrepancies were found in the way that the construction project was handled, the town and bank were sued by the re-insurer (Continental Casualty Co of Indiana) to recover the cost of the bonds in 1928. The court case was not settled by the court until 1934. By that time, the Bank of Crystal River was defunct.
On Monday June 10, 1929, the Bank failed to open for business. Bank officials had been monitoring the slow repayment of outstanding bonds and a much greater rate of withdrawals. This situation affected the level of available capital. Cashier C.A. Miller told the Citrus Chronicle that they planned to reopen but had no set timetable. The bank never opened its doors again. The bank was declared defunct and Crystal River’s W.H. Moon was appointed as Receiver by the State Comptroller.
A final indignity awaited the Bank of Crystal River. On Saturday September 21, 1929, someone broke into the bank building to scavenge whatever assets remained in the building. There was about $100 petty cash remaining in the drawers and a gold coin that was stored there for safekeeping. Moon noted that “…the robbery was committed by someone who was very familiar with the working of the bank.” He speculated that the robber must have been disappointed to find that the vaults were empty because all of the remaining bank assets had been moved to institutions in other cities.
No one was held accountable for the collapse.
Citizens Bank of Inverness
The Citizens Bank of Inverness organized in 1912 with capital assets of $25,000. C.E. Allen was President, G.H. Scofield and R.L. Turner were vice-Presidents and R.L. Fender was Cashier. Mannie Scofield was also listed as a Director of the bank. L.E. Carter was Assistant Cashier. Their objective was to make the bank a locally-owned institution without ties to a larger bank in another city. Note that C.E. Allen was also President of the Bank of Crystal River. He became mayor of Lecanto in 1928. At the bank’s 15th anniversary Citizens Bank assets had grown from $25,000 to $425,000
On October 5 1928, Citizens Bank failed to open for business. It was immediately taken over by the Florida Comptroller and W.A. Moon was assigned as Receiver. The executive’s press release indicated enough deposits on hand so that no depositors would be harmed.
A week after the bank closed, Assistant Cashier Leon Earl Carter decided to leave town “for a few days”. He borrowed a LaSalle and reportedly headed North toward Tallahassee. The Comptroller’s preliminary audit revealed that $70,000 was apparently missing and they wanted to speak with Carter about the shortfall. A warrant was issued for his arrest and a statewide search ensued. The Governor offer a reward for his capture.
A week later, Cashier I.O. Fender followed his assistant’s example and left town. The amount of missing funds had grown to $140,000. Fender was not as adept as Carter in his evasion of law enforcement. Authorities traced him to his home town in Georgia and the local Sheriff arrested him within a few days of his escape.
The Comptroller’s auditor alleged that Fender and Carter had been embezzling bank funds for at least 18 months. Citrus County bonds were sold by the bank but the two men had allegedly colluded to convert a portion of the proceeds to their own accounts. The shortfall was not discovered until the State Comptroller decided to conduct a detailed examination.
After tracking Carter across several states, Sheriff Charlie Dean arrested the missing banker in Tampa on January 14 1929. The former Cashier was ordered to stand trial after being on the run for three months.
The Comptroller’s accusations grew to include former Citrus County Sheriff B.O. Bowden and Inverness attorney George M. Scofield. The men were Directors of the bank and allegedly had arranged dubious personal loans from the institution’s resources. Both Directors were indicted by the Grand Jury and ordered to stand trial in February 1929.
Scofield’s case was handled first. After a two-day trial, the jury returned a verdict of “Not Guilty” and the former Director was released. The prosecutor decided to not pursue the case against former Sheriff Bowden and charges were dropped.
Assistant Cashier Carter was also found “not guilty” of some of the embezzlement charges at this trial. Some charges remained against Carter and a decision would be rendered on Carter and Fender at a future trial to be held in December 1929. When that session convened, the judge found that there was a technical error in the indictment and a new Grand Jury would need to restart the judicial process. The process did not move further for another four months, however, the results were the same – Carter and Fenter were indicted again for embezzlement.
Citizens were surprised to find that the judge invalidated the second Grand Jury indictment once again in June 1930, citing “legal discrepancies” in the jury’s empaneling. An appeals court found that the indictments were indeed valid and directed the judge to begin the trial. The case against the former bank officials finally started in December 1930 (over two years after the original indictment). Inverness attorney G.C. Scofield, who had been a co-defendant, served as the bankers enthusiastic lawyer.
The jury quickly returned a “not guilty” verdict on some of the charges. The jury reconvened in January 1931 and declared the defendants innocent of all remaining charges. In the final analysis, the bank remained closed and no one was held accountable for the collapse.
Citrus County Bank
The Citrus County Bank opened on March 18, 1907. It was a subsidiary of the City Savings Bank and J.M. Harvey was installed as President. G.I. Singleton assumed the role of Cashier and W. H. Boswell and F.M. Dampier were listed as Directors. Raymond deMuro worked as an attorney for the firm.
The Citrus County Bank moved to a new building in Inverness in 1908. A huge fire burned most of the business district in Inverness in 1916. The Citrus Chronicle and Citrus County Bank buildings were totally destroyed but the bank was covered by insurance. A new building was constructed at the corner of Main and Pine streets in Inverness (next to Miller’s Drug store).
Business prospered for the bank. By 1926, capital levels had risen to $65,000. George L Jacobs was the designated Cashier. Baxter Morrison, the Boswell brothers and R.O. Bowden were also listed on the Board of Directors. Unfortunately, Jacobs died in a car crash in 1927.
To the surprise of the community, the bank closed its doors in January 1929. C.D. Schultz was President and I.W. Stewart was Cashier at that time. As usual, the Florida Comptroller took over and appointed W.B. Moon as Receiver. He stated “there is no shortage shown in the affairs of the Citrus County Bank. The Bank closed on account of local business conditions, the inability of people who owe the Bank to make payments on loans and a large withdrawal of deposits.”
When questioned about the possibility of reopening, Moon declared that the Citrus County government owed a substantial amount of debt to the Bank and it would not reopen unless the loans were repaid.
Bank assets were auctioned off. The final assets were disposed of in 1937. No one was held accountable for the collapse.
Bank of hom*osassa / Bank of Inverness
The Bank of hom*osassa was the last of the four banks to be incorporated. The leaders of the West Coast Development (WCD) company wanted to provide a full-service bank as part of their hom*osassa development in 1925. Senator J.H. Scales, President of the Perry Bank, was designated as President and Bruce Hoover (President of the WCD) was listed as Vice-President. The bank opened for business in July 1926 with a capital of $25,000. The bank continued to thrive for the next few years. George Brannen served as Cashier.
In the wake of the multiple bank failures in Inverness, Brannen announced that the Bank of hom*osassa was going to move into the downtown Main Street building formerly occupied by the defunct Citrus County Bank in 1929. The new institution would be named the “Bank of hom*osassa-Inverness” and later became the “Bank of Inverness”.
The new Bank of Inverness opened on November 22, 1929 and thirty-six new accounts were opened on the first day. Reflecting the personality of Mr. Brannen, there was no special Grand Opening celebration. The capital continued to grow in spite of the economic Depression. When a national bank holiday was declared in 1933, the Bank of Inverness was one of the first area banks that were deemed strong enough to reopen once the order was lifted.
Brannen became a banking leader at the regional and statewide level. He was active in the Florida Bankers Association and served as head of the State Bank division in the organization. He was head of the local Kiwanis Club as well.
When J.H. Stiles passed away in 1947, Brannen was the logical choice to be appointed President of the Bank of Inverness. Under Brannen’s guidance, the bank’s capital stock doubled within two years. When the bank celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1949, its total resources had reached a record two million dollars (compared to 45000 when the bank opened). Deposits grew from $19,000 to $1,850,000. Bonds holdings started at $7,000 and had grown to $1,432,000. Deposits continued to increase to $2,139,320 the following year.
“Uncle George” Brannen was a fixture in the lobby of the downtown institution. One of the main reasons for the bank’s progress was Brannen’s hands-on and cautious approach to his customers. He managed to establish satellite local banks in Inverness, Crystal River, hom*osassa Springs, Dunnellon and Hernando County. When he passed away, control of the local banking empire passed to his children. They decided to honor the family’s traditions by consolidating all of the different community banks into a single entity – The Brannen Bank – in 2008.
Reminiscing about their father, the Brannen children remembered “His bank survived the Great Depression. He had seen people not able to get their money out of banks in the Crash of 1929. He vowed that would never happen to his customers” They continued: “safety and soundness were the bywords…he warned us that “you can’t borrow your way out of debt.” This philosophy continues at the Brannen’s hometown bank – the sole survivor of the Great Depression – to this day.
