Lewis Bank papers

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: MSS 0-178

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Lewis Bank papers are an extensive collection of banking records and papers pertaining to the Lewis family's banking enterprises in Tallahassee. These materials give insight into the economic evolution of the Tallahassee community by the administrative operation of State and University in which agriculture is of secondary importance.

Subjects covered by the collection include: banks in New York City, Atlanta, Georgia, Savannah, Georgia, and Tallahassee, Florida; cork industry; Florida State Troops; G. E. Lewis; Jacksonville oil companies; naval stores; cotton; Beulah B. Briley estate; E. W. Clark estate; F. H. Flagg estate; J. O. Gallegher estate; William P. Slusser estate; Hattie E. Stuart estate; Nettie Thomas estate; James D. Westcott estate; phosphates; Tallahassee hotels; Tallahassee brick companies; insurance companies in Tallahassee, Florida, and Eufaula, Alabama; acts of the Florida Legislature; Tallahassee laws; bank laws in Tallahssee; and rural homes.

Dates

Created: 1854-1957
Created: Majority of material found in 1871-1925
Other: Date acquired: 03/10/1966

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to all researchers.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Associate Dean for Special Collections & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Florida State University Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Biographical or Historical Information

The Lewis family recalls March 5, 1856 as the date associated with the commencement of B. C. Lewis's banking operations of collection and exchange. May 1870 finds George Lewis taken into partnership with his father and the firm known as B. C. Lewis and Son. When, in 1873, the next son was taken into the firm, the firm name changed to B. C. Lewis and Sons and remained under that name until 1889 when the First National Bank in the City of Tallahassee and the County of Leon was organized and took over the banking operations of B. C. Lewis and Sons. In order to accommodate their savings depositors they then organized the State Savings Bank under the Certificate of Authority dated October 25, 1889.

These two banks continued in operation until 1916 when, unhappy about some regulations of the Federal Reserve System, the controlling directors decided to reorganize under a State Charter and were granted a charter authorizing the Lewis State Bank. In December of 1919 the State Savings Bank, still in operation, was absorbed by the Lewis State Bank as its Savings Department.