Liberty Bank celebrates 120 years

LIBERTY, Ill. – Liberty Bank recently hosted an open house to commemorate the 120^th anniversary of the bank’s founding.

The open house was held at the bank’s Quincy Community Banking Center at 4134 Broadway, in conjunction with a “Business After Hours” event through the Quincy Area Chamber of Commerce.

Bank President and Chairman Mark Field shared a story of the bank’s founding with those who attended the open house:

“On June 23, 1903, a meeting was held at the Masonic Lodge in Liberty, where a group of community-minded residents agreed to pool their resources and form a new local bank.

“Travel, even just to Quincy, was treacherous at that time, with only dirt paths and dirt roads available and with most folks traveling by horse and buggy. Automobiles were not yet prevalent at that time, as that was the same year that the Ford Motor Company first incorporated. Harley-Davidson Motor Company also started their operations in 1903, and the bank was actually formed six months before Orville and Wilbur Wright “took off” with their first successful airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

“Liberty’s local residents knew that their community would be best served by a local bank where friends and neighbors were helping friends and neighbors with their finances. The bank started its operations from the first floor of the Masonic Lodge, a building which still stands today.

“First chartered as The Farmers State Bank of Liberty in 1903, it was only open about a year when, on July 5, 1904, the bank was reorganized as The Farmers Bank of Liberty, a name which it was then known by for the next 114 years. On May 7, 2018, the name was finally changed to, simply, Liberty Bank, to avoid continued confusion with several area banks who also used the word “Farmers” in their name. The bank’s concentration of ag-related loans has actually continued to climb after the name change.

“The bank has made several significant investments over the years, including opening its first branch in Barry in 1995, purchasing the Payson office in 1998 and opening the Quincy Community Banking Center in 2012. The bank has also made investments in the infrastructure of the communities it serves, including originally bringing electric power and phone service to Liberty, paying for the surveying for what is now Route 104, and up to and including helping to bring fiber optic internet services to Liberty and Payson, starting with the schools.

“Being 100 percent local, the bank is there to help make good things happen for any need that is identified within the community. Whether it be for the schools, churches, villages or service clubs, you will find Liberty Bank employees deeply involved in all aspects of community life throughout Liberty, Barry, Payson and Quincy.

“We are one of just a few truly local banks left in this area. All banks try to make themselves look and sound local, but the most important thing is where the owners live and where the final decisions are made. In other words, where is the real headquarters located and where does your money sleep at night?

There is a continuing trend of banks selling out and consolidating operations, but I don’t see that as a positive development. There are obviously some economies of scale for certain things in this business, but the problem really is that the larger a bank gets, the more it becomes too focused on the numbers, instead of on the people. For that reason, we don’t ever want to become a large bank.

The bank has seen its share of growth, however, with approximately $128 million in assets under management at this time. I think there will always be a place for a well-run real community bank, because not everything can be done online. Sometimes you need people, and that’s where we shine. Our professional community bankers are the best there are.”