who took control of the florida national bank in 1929
Florida National Bank Samuel Hubbard's Mercantile Exchange Bank eventually became Florida National Bank[1] after Jacksonville's Great Fire of 1901. Millionaire Alfred I. du Pont acquired a major interest in the FNB shortly after moving to Jacksonville in the mid-1920s, but he was unable to gain control until the Great Depression struck in 1929.[2] The FNB stayed solvent throughout the 1930s because du Pont put $15 million of his own money into the institution to cover Bank runs.[3] During the early 1930s, six other Florida National Banks were opened throughout Florida, including Lakeland and Bartow; Alfred's wife, Jessie Ball du Pont was named a director of the bank. When Alfred du Pont died in 1935, the du Pont Trust, managed by Ed Ball, Jessie du Pont's brother, continued to control the bank. Growth continued with the acquisition of many more Florida banks over the next two decades and became known as the Florida National Group,[4] which was one of the strongest banks in the state. In size, the branches eventually numbered 185, second only in Florida to Barnett Bank.[5]
First Bank of the United States The President, Directors and Company, of the Bank of the United States, commonly known as the First Bank of the United States, was a national bank, chartered for a term of twenty years, by the United States Congress on February 25, 1791. It followed the Bank of North America, the nation's first de facto central bank.