Note: The following is the last part of a series of columns looking at the establishment and evolution of the banking system in Georgia and Bulloch County.

    The first bank chartered in Bulloch County was the Bank of Statesboro in 1891, which didn't actually open until 1894.
    The president was J.L. Coleman. Its other officers were Vice President W.C. Parker and Head Cashier S.C. Groover. The Bank of Statesboro opened in the Simmons Building and then moved to the Sorrier & Brannen Building. It closed in 1932.
    Next, the Sea Island Bank (1901) opened in the J.A. Brannen Building. Its officers were John F. and James A. Brannen, Franklin D. and Solomon F. Olliff, William Preetorius, Madison Holland and Robert Donaldson.
    The Sea Island Bank absorbed the defunct privately-owned Bank of Bulloch (1917), and then closed itself in 1931. In order to reopen, the bank had to agree to return
20 percent of each customer's original investment.
    President Franklin D. Roosevelt suspended banking activities in the United States under the Emergency Banking Relief Act passed on March 9, 1933.
    First, FDR declared a four-day banking holiday. He ordered the 12 Federal Reserve Banks to issue new and additional currency, all of which was, in essence, now backed by a Federal government guarantee, to all banks that were allowed to reopen.
    The Sea Island Bank reopened with the majority of the nation’s banks. The bank moved its locations several times in rapid succession: first, to the Kennedy & Cone Building, and then to the Statesboro Mercantile Association Building.
    The third bank in Bulloch County was the First National Bank of Statesboro, which opened in 1904. Originally located in the Simmons Building, it later relocated to the old Sea Island Bank Building.
    Its first president was Brooks Simmons, vice president was Edwin Groover, and the head cashier was J.E. McCroan. The Bank of Statesboro absorbed the First National Bank, and then closed its doors in 1932.
    The fourth bank in Statesboro, the Bulloch County Bank, opened its doors in April 1934. It, in turn, took over the Bank of Statesboro, promising the Bank of Statesboro's customers they’d get 50 percent of their deposits back.
    The Bulloch County Bank's president was S.W. Lewis, and the V.P.s were R.J. Kennedy and J.L. Mathews. The liquidation agent of the Bank of Statesboro, W.L. DeJarnette, became its head cashier.
    After the U.S. Congress established the First Federal Savings and Loan Association in 1933, a local branch of the bank opened in Statesboro at the "In and Out” gas station on Main Street in 1936.
    Their assistant secretary, Mrs. Jessie Averitt, at first managed the banks' books from the family’s Averitt Brothers Auto Company. After several years, the bank moved into the old Bank of Statesboro Bank building.
    The chairman of First Federal was S.W. Lewis, its president was Homer Smith and its V.P. James B. Averitt. Their first savings customer was young Jerry Coleman, who received a $25 gift check, which he deposited in the bank.

    Roger Allen is a local lover of history. Allen provides a brief look each week at the area's past. Email Roger at rwasr1953@gmail.com.