History of Southern Illinois ~ Biography of Illinois State Trust Company

ILLINOIS STATE TRUST COMPANY. Among the substantial and admirably managed institutions which contribute in an important degree to the financial stability and commercial prestige of Southern Illinois is the Illinois State Trust Company, of East St. Louis, which conducts a general banking and trust business and which bases its operations on a capital stock of three hundred thousand dollars, with a surplus fund of one hundred thousand dollars. This important corporation represents a coalition of various banking interests. It was organized and incorporated in 1902, and its original executive corps was as here noted: President, J. C. Van Riper; vice-presidents Paul W. Abt, Thomas L. Fekete and Dr. H. J. DeHaan; cashier, Paul W. Abt; secretary and treasurer, R. L. Rinaman. The new institution was incorporated with a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and in January, 1907, upon its consolidation with the First National Bank, the capital P. 1362 stock was increased to three hundred thousand dollars, with the provision also of a surplus of one hundred thousand dollars. In 1909 the Illinois State Trust Company also absorbed the City National Bank, and thus it still farther expanded its field of operations and sphere of usefulness. In 1907 the company erected for its use a fine modern structure of six stories, known as the Cahokia building, and the first floor is devoted to the commercial banking departments; the second floor to the savings and trust departments; and the remaining four floors to general office purposes through rental. The banking house and real estate of the institution represent a valuation of $186,536.06, as indicated in the official statement of the corporation, and from the statement given at the close of business on the 21st of February, 1912, the following significant figures are taken: Loans and discounts, $1,706,561.77; bonds and stocks, $405,956.90; cash on hand and in banks, $481,147.20; undivided profits, $11,963.72; reserve for taxes, $11,314.81; deposits, $2,161,917.67. Besides conducting a commercial banking business of general order the Illinois State Trust Company maintains and gives special attention to its saving department, has a well equipped safety-deposit department, and is authorized under its charter from the state to act as administrator, executor, guardian, assignee or receiver, and to receive and execute trusts of all kinds. It has as its stockholders the highest order of business and professional men,—citizens whose very association with the enterprise stands as a voucher for its legitimacy and value and assures unqualified popular approbation. The personnel of the executive corps of the institution at the time of this writing is as follows: Robert E. Gillespie, president; Paul W. Abt, vice-president and cashier; Louis B. Washburn and Thomas L. Fekete, vice-presidents; Joel M. Bowlby, secretary; and Arthur W. Baltz, assistant cashier.
There is all of consistency in giving in this connection a brief record concerning the genesis and history of the institutions of which the Illinois State Trust Company figures as the lineal successor. In 1865 there was organized the East St. Louis Real Estate & Savings Bank, of whose capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars seventy-eight thousand were paid in. The president and cashier of this institution were Messrs. Toomer and Karst, respectively. This early banking house was succeeded by the East St. Louis Bank, of which Henry Ocbike became president and Theodore Messman, cashier. In 1891 was organized (as successor to this bank) the First National Bank of East St. Louis, which continued to conduct under this title a large and prosperous business until the consolidation with the Illinois State Trust Company, in 1907, as already noted. The officers of the First National Bank at the time of this amalgamation of interests were as here noted: Paul W. Abt, president; Dr. H. C. Fairbrother, vice-president; and Henry C. Griesediek, cashier. The bank had a capital of one hundred thousand dollars and a surplus of five thousand. The City National Bank, merged with the Illinois State Trust Company in 1909, was incorporated on the 29th of October, 1907, with a capital stock of two hundred thousand dollars, and at the time of its consolidation M. M. Stephens was president and Robert E. Gillespie, cashier, the latter being now president of the Illinois State Trust Company, as has already been noted.