Monday, February 20, 2012CANFIELD, Ohio – A letter dated August 10, 1909, from a cashier cordially requests that a mortgage holder make good on a delinquent coupon in the amount of $43.40. Large bound volumes of hand-written ledgers from the 1920s are still in pristine condition, echoing a bygone era in which penmanship was integral to bookkeeping and business. Across the table, sheathed in plastic, is a newspaper story of a daring daytime heist in the heart of Canfield.
All these artifacts provide a window to the routine -- and not so routine -- history of Farmers National Bank, an institution that's survived two world wars, the Great Depression, the Great Recession, and on Tuesday celebrates its 125th year in business.
"Those histories are important to us," reflects John Gulas, president and CEO of Farmers. "Understanding where we came from, learning from the things our predecessors learned from so we could grow."
On Feb. 19, 1887, 50 local businessmen raised $50,000 and founded Farmers National Bank in Canfield. The bank's first day of business recorded deposits totaling $170 from a local tavern keeper, a school principal, two tailors and a housewife. Today, the bank holds more than $1 billion in assets, manages 19 locations, and its shares are traded internationally on the Nasdaq exchange.
Alexander Dickson, a Civil War veteran, became the bank's first president in 1887.
"It's amazing," Gulas says. "I've looked through some of the histories and some of the recordings of what’s happened here over the years. I've even talked to some of the families," who were instrumental in the bank's foundation and growth.
Last year, for example, Gulas says that he was on a conference call with the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Hiram Beardsley, who was president and CEO of Farmers from 1927 to 1947. "We tied in a number of different cities, and just gave them an opportunity to hear what we're trying to do with the bank, hear what they would like us to do with the bank, and tie that history together." Some of the family members are shareholders today, he adds.
Gulas displayed for The Business Journal a number of artifacts from the late 19th century through the mid 20th century tucked away in an old vault in the bank's basement. Among these are bound registers filled with painstakingly detailed, hand-written daily transactions. Other volumes included cashier letters to customers that ranged from gratitude for paying off a loan to delicately worded reminders for those who were in default, urging the customer to "attend to these matters at the earliest convenience."
"When I started, there were still ledger books used to write the general amounts every morning," recalls Gerri Gbur Polas, today a Farmers branch manager in Columbiana. "There was still hand-balancing of the mortgage payments."
Polas, who joined the bank in 1971, says she's seen the business change from the centuries-old method of hand recording transactions to the computer age, and as in the process watched Farmers grow from just three branches to 18.
"There have been a lot of changes, a lot of growth," she says. "The directors, shareholders, employees, and managers had great vision, and we're still here today, 125 years later."
Still, there were difficult times for the bank, Gulas admits, especially during the Great Depression. But the CEO proudly points out that Farmers never once closed its doors for an entire business day.
On May 20, 1921, Canfield was rocked by a shootout in the middle of Broad Street, as bandits blasted their way out of Farmers Bank with $1,155.14. in money sacks. The daytime heist commanded newspaper headlines across the Mahoning Valley.
Gulas says he recently learned that the employees of the Mahoning Dispatch, today a museum but then a weekly newspaper whose building is located across the village green from the bank, were charged with the task of keeping watch over Farmers in the case of such an event.
"So, if there were ever a robbery, they would take up the guns they were given, step into the street and protect the bank," he says. "Unfortunately, they may have been good editors, good writers, and good media people, but not good shots. I heard they put more holes in the bank building than the bank robbers," he laughs.
And, during the latest financial crisis, the bank took bold steps to prepare new ground for the future.
"We looked at what was happening in 2008, and we charted a course – we knew there were going to be rough waters," Gulas says. "But, instead of trying to outrun the storm, we kind of steered into the storm."
Since 2008, Farmers has grown its revenue by 51%, Gulas reports. "Last year, our stock was up 39%."
Gulas says Farmers is set for a very stable, bright future and recently opened new trust, private banking and mortgage offices on McClurg Road, across from St. Elizabeth Boardman. "We're also going to be opening a new branch in Howland. We think the Trumbull County market is very important to us." The Howland branch should open sometime in the late spring or early summer, he reports.
"We've charted a course for success," Gulas says. "We've put in place things that would help us generate more fee-based business, such as the trust company."
Since 2009, Farmers' trust division has jumped from $630 million in assets to more than $1.3 billion today. "That's very good growth in a very short period of time," he says. "We've reinvested in some of our investment business, too, and that's doubled in the last three years as far as revenue production."
Gulas emphasizes that Farmers has no plans to steer away from the focus and responsibilities that helped build it into the largest community bank in the Mahoning Valley.
"We want to stay a community bank, but we want to have a nice, balanced community bank," he says. "We rise and fall based on the community we live in."
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.