From A History of Coleman County
and Its People, 1985 edited by Judia and Ralph Terry, and
Vena Bob Gates - used by permission --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All of the Coleman banks
closed in October 1931, and the
stockholders of the three banks organized
the new First Coleman National, and
provided a means whereby all depositors
were protected against loss, and all
deposits paid off 100 percent. Into
the present bank, which was organized in
1932, went the experience of the old First
National Bank and two other pioneer
Coleman Banks, the Coleman National and
the Central State Bank.
The old First
National was Coleman's first bank,
organized in 1886 with J. B. Coleman as
president and J. H. Babington as
cashier. Later, L. E. Collins,
pioneer Coleman merchant, purchased an
interest and became president and headed
it for years. It was reorganized in
1922 with J. C. Dibrell as
president. Sometime later the
Coleman National Bank was formed with J.
E. McCord as president, and L. V.
Henderson as cashier. Later, on his
father's death, J. P. McCord became
president. The Central State Bank
was organized in 1916 with C. W. Hemphill
as president, and J. C. Smith as cashier.
Into the new
First Coleman National went this
background of experience in county
banking. Its first officers were J.
P. McCord, President; S. H. Gray and C. W.
Hemphill, Vice-Presidents, and E. C.
Edens, Cashier. Initial capital was
$100,000.00, surplus was $20,000.00 and
deposits were $913,997.65. In July
1955 the new building was officially
opened for the First Coleman National
Bank, at cost exceeding $150,000.
The bank has modern offices on the second
floor, and a large hospitality room on the
third floor. The First Coleman
National Bank, in its new home, at same
location, is one of the finest in this
part of the state and has contributed much
to the development of the city and county.
(Images to be added)
First Coleman National Bank—1950
First Coleman National Bank—1984
...........................................
The
First Coleman National Bank Robbery
[As
remembered by Charlie Hemphill)
On this day February 16th, 1956, I am
thinking of an incident which occurred in
the early thirties. Even though I made no
pencil notations, the memory of the
occasion remains very vivid in my mind.
Early in the morning about seven o'clock
after a February bank holiday, Jake LeMay
and myself unlocked the rear door to the
First Coleman National Bank which opened
into the directors room and as we entered,
to our surprise, there stood a masked
bandit in the northeast corner of the room
with a machine gun in his hand which he
suddenly leveled on us, saying "Stick 'em
up!" In reply to the unwelcome greeting I
said "What's going on here this morning?"
', and he said in a very low voice, "Be
quiet,"
at the same time ushering us on into the
main office behind the grill. Turning to
the right and then to the east, I looked
towards the teller's cage only to see two
people lying on the floor which I knew had
been murdered and each step I took made me
feel that I was approaching the cemetery.
It seemed as though my brain had jellied -
eliminating my ability to think. When we
reached the spot which was near the
entrance to the vault where the money safe
was kept, we were confronted by an armed
masked man from the front of the building
who proceeded to search each of us, then
told us to open the safe. We told him that
we could not open it as we did not know
the combination. He wanted to know which
of the employees attended to opening it
and we told him that Wade Hemphill was the
only one that knew the combination.
After this ordeal, he told us to lay down
on the floor by the side of the two men
and it was not until then that I realized
they were not dead. As I lay down I
touched Charlie Woodruff who whispered to
me "This is hell, isn't it?" During
all this ordeal Jake was very calm.
Charlie's companion was the porter, Robert
Densy, who the bandits had tied hand and
foot to where he could not move.
They had located where Robert lived and
had him go with them to the bank at an
early hour before there was anybody on the
move, and I am sure that he told them that
Charlie attended to the opening of the
safe, basing his opinion on the fact that
he was nearly always the first man to the
bank and usually opened the vault door
before Robert finished his work.
One by one the
employees arrived, the next in order being
Clyde Edens and then Ed LeMay, both of
whom had to undergo the same ordeal,
except at this point they ordered all of
us to go to the northeast corner of the
building and to huddle up close together
so that we could not be seen from the
outside. You could hear Ed's
heartbeat across the room. Next in
line was Tommy Purvis, who was very
calm. Finally Mr. Gray came in, who
inquired unseeingly "Where is Wade."
I told him that Wade was real sick the
night before and that I doubted very much
that he would be able to make it.
Every few minutes for over an hour this
front door bandit would take first one of
us then another back into the vault and
threaten our lives if we did not open the
safe. He would then come by and push
us up closer together by using his foot as
a prod pole. He grabbed me and
shoved me over to my desk, which was in
the southeast corner of the building and
said that if I did not open the safe he
would blow my brains out, which sorter
brought my senses back and I told him that
if he thought that would get the safe
open, to start blowing. He then
ushered me back in the group, at which
time I told him that Wade would probably
be late in arriving and might not come at
all and that if he would permit me to
phone him I would get the combination and
open the safe but the suggestion seemed to
infuriate him the more, judging from the
language he used and the manner in which
he pushed me back into the huddle.
He then took Charlie back in the vault and
after abusing him with unmentionable
language, struck him on the side of his
head with his gun and threatened to kill
him if he did not open it up. But
with no results, as Charlie just simply
did not know how. He then took Jake
back to the safe and told him to open
it. Jake told him that he had never
opened it and that he did not know the
combination but told him that he had
watched Wade a good many times and that he
would try it, which he did, and through an
act of Providence, opened it the first
round. Just at this moment, Wade
came walking in the front door just a few
minutes before nine o'clock, the regular
opening time, and just in time to see the
two fill their money bags with currency to
the sum of approximately twenty-two
thousand dollars and just in time to join
our group in an automobile ride in their
get-away car, which was parked on the
north side of the bank, with the third man
sitting at the wheel.
When we reached
the car, the front man bandit had Charlie
get in the front seat with the driver, and
he and the back door man got in the back
seat and ordered us to hang on to each
side of the car. Clyde perched on
the right fender, so when the bandit
backed back and started east, Clyde fell
from his position behind a car that was
parked along the side of the get-away car
and before we had crossed the street going
east we could hear Clyde sounding the
alarm which brought some very harsh
language from the bandits. I thought
sure they were headed towards Ft. Worth
and I was braced for the certain left
turn, when suddenly the driver turned
right to the south on the street leading
to the Brownwood highway. After
reaching a speed of thirty-five to forty
miles per hour, they began pushing us off
the car with those big guns and we began
rolling and somersaulting, which resulted
in all of us receiving considerable
bruises, but fortunately nothing
serious. Of course, we were really
concerned regarding Charlie, as they
seemed to be more offended at him than any
of the rest of us.
In the course of
just a few minutes, Frank Mills, the
sheriff, and his deputies were in close
pursuit of the fleeing car, however they
were greatly retarded at the underpass
between Coleman and Santa Anna where they
encountered a road block due the the
scattering of a keg of big headed roofing
nails from one side of the concrete to the
other. This delayed them to the
extent that they were never able to
overtake the fleeing car. They
forced Charlie to jump out of the car
about sixteen miles east of Coleman and
about seven miles northeast of Santa
Anna. He said they were running
about sixty miles per hour when they
forced him to jump, which caused him
numerous bruises and scratches, but
fortunately no broken bones, but he was
forced to remain in the Santa Anna
hospital for several days. A passing
motorist carried him to the hospital after
finding him laying by the side of the
road.
It developed that
they had another car parked in a pasture
not very far from where they unloaded
Charlie, where they abandoned the get-away
car and took the other car in which they
made their safe escape from the officers,
taking a route back through Santa Anna,
then south into McCulloch County on
through Concho County and into San Angelo,
where the loot was divided three ways and
evidently each fled in different
directions. One of the men was captured
the next day near Blanco and about one
third of the money recovered, and the man
held in jail until indictment by the grand
jury and trial in district court, which
gave him a fifteen year sentence. We
were informed a few months later, that the
front door bandit had been murdered in
Arkansas by his own comrades.
The driver of the
get-away car was apprehended several
months later and was tried and convicted -
receiving a fifteen year sentence, also.
I tell you for
certain that during the ordeal and for
days after, our feelings were very
tense. I prayed as I had never
prayed before for the safety of our
group. I had said and heard others
say that they had no fear of death, but my
conclusion now is that I nor they had ever
reached what we thought was the brink of
death. There are two things that I
think can dispel the fear of death, one of
which is severe physical pain and the
other is the complete loss of mental
capacity.
(Images to be added)
Mr. C. E. Edens, Mayor Scarborough, T.
J. Allen, Mr. Charlie Hemphill, Sam Gray
receiving check, J. P. McCord, Jack Durham,
man with cigar Mr. Milton, B. B. Nunley,
Walter Gordon, and Shorty Gilliam. Insurance
payoff after the robbery