Century Bank and Trust history

The bank, this county’s first, opened as the Bank of Gainesville on July 24, 1894, after its 4,500-pound safe was hauled here from West Plains by Joe Farmer and his impressive draft horses.

A third Harlin brother, Johnny, joined the bank two years later, in 1896, the same year he married Clara Layton, who had been the bank’s very first depositor.

Century Bank and Trust, formerly known as The Merchants and Farmers Bank, opened for business in Georgia’s Antebellum Capitol City of Milledgeville on March 1, 1898.

Sam, along with the Bank’s Cashier Madison McCraw, ran the Bank until 1902 when Sam resigned due to poor health and Madison left to open a dry goods store.

Johnny Harlin eventually became bank president in the 1920s.

In 1932, Hugh met Billye Key when her family came here from Texas to look at land.

But after a tour with the Air Force, several years of working in broadcasting and then a three-year stint at First National Bank of West Plains, he and his wife, Linda, a Houston, Missouri native, moved back to Gainesville in 1966.

In 1969, the bank’s 75th anniversary year, it moved to its current location on the northeast corner of the Gainesville square.

One day in December 1971, Hugh called everyone into his office. “There was no warning.

A 2,000-square-foot expansion was completed in 1978, the same year the bank opened a branch office in Theodosia, something previously prohibited by Missouri banking regulations.

In 1979, the Merchants and Farmers Bank expanded operations by opening a northside branch and constructed a drive-up motor bank behind its main office building.

The Corporation enters Cuyahoga County in 1985 by purchasing 18 banking offices from another institution.

A branch was established within the Goshen co-op in 1988.

In 1992, after graduating from what is now Missouri State University and working three years at Boatmen’s Bank in Springfield and Exchange National Bank in Jefferson City, Chris and his wife, Missy, moved to Gainesville, where he joined the bank as assistance vice president.

In 1993, the Bank’s name was changed to Century Bank and Trust to reflect the Bank’s evolving and growing role within the financial services industry.

Chris’ mother, Linda, joined the bank’s staff in 1994.

A year later, the Bank of Gainesville acquired the Douglas County Bank in Ava, and in 1996, the bank’s name changed to Century Bank of the Ozarks.

In 2003, Chris and a group of investors formed Legacy Bank & Trust, which now has seven locations.

In July 2008 Troy Bank & Trust merged with The Peoples Bank of Coffee County, which created three new branches located in Elba, New Brockton, and Enterprise.