FIRST BANKS
In 1852 there were two banks established in Rock Island, which were the first banks in Rock Island county, viz: Cook, Sargent & Parker, located at the present site of the T. H. Thomas Drug Company, Second avenue and Seventeenth street, and the Rock Island Bank, organized by Isaac Negus, William L. Lee and Marcus B. Osborn, occupying quarters at 1608 Second avenue.
The Cook, Sargent & Parker bank was the pioneer of a line of banks marked by the following succession: Cook, Sargent & Parker, 1852; Mitchell & Cable, successors, 1856; Mitchell & Lynde, successors to Mitchell & Cable, 1860; Mitchell & Lynde, succeeded Rock Island Bank, 1861; Mitchell & Lynde, succeeded First National Bank, 1890; State Bank of Rock Island, succeeded Mitchell & Lynde, 1905.
In 1854 Cook, Sargent & Parker moved to the then new Bailey & Boyle building on the site of the present new quarters or the State Bank of Rock Island on Second avenue between East and West Seventeenth streets.
The Rock Island Bank, organized in 1852 by Negus, Osborn and Lee, under the then existing and very liberal state banking laws, continued in business until 1861. John H. Kinney, still living in Chicago, was its cashier for several years. This bank issued its notes, which were circulated as money in this section. and the late Isaac Negus, with a high sense of financial rectitude, was the medium through which these notes were ultimately redeemed. Mitchell & Lynde bought out the building and business of the Rock Island Bank in 1861 and was the only bank in Rock Island from 1861 to 1863.
The Bank of the Federal Union of Rock Island was organized in 1856 by the late Gen. N. B. Buford, H. C. Blackburn and Bushrod Birch. all brothers-in-law. This was also a bank of issue, as well as deposit and succumbed to the most disastrous panic of 1857 and 1858.
Fish, Goodale & Lee started their bank in Rock Island in 1856. This bank also went out business iu the panic of 1857 and 1858, but our late fellow citizen, Mylo Lee, was the medium through which every dollar of their obligation's were paid.
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