Firstar Bank history

1853: Farmers and Millers Bank is founded.

The bank underwent its first reorganization in 1863, when the federal government passed the National Bank Act.

The Sidney resident formed the Peoples Savings and Loan Association in 1886.

Effective on June 30, 1919, the merger created an immense new organization, First Wisconsin National Bank of Milwaukee, with assets surpassing $100 million. It was not long before the bank made another huge jump in assets, this time through a merger with Wisconsin National Bank, which had been formed in 1892.

1894: First National Bank of Milwaukee merges with Merchants Exchange Bank and founds First Wisconsin Trust Company.

Since 1895, Piper Sandler has been a leading financial services company committed to delivering integrity, insight and impact to each and every relationship.

Gun-shy local investors apparently liked the guarantees of "safety and government supervision" which a national bank like First National could provide, and First National touted those advantages in its ads. Its first day of operation was September 18, 1899.

First National, in fact, shared space with Peoples from its inception until it occupied the old German American Bank space at 114 East Poplar Street in 1905.

Studevant served as cashier of the bank until 1906, but his association with First National spanned nearly four decades.

Construction began on a 16-story building on the corner of North Water Street and East Mason in 1912.

Undoubtedly one of the proudest moments in the bank's history was when the doors of its fabulous new facility were opened for the first time on August 17, 1916.

Just after the bank opened on May 11, 1926, six robbers burst into the lobby.

In the early months of 1933, the financial situation deteriorated even further as nervous depositors began to pull their money out of banks.

The first drive-in bank in the county was opened by First National in 1956.

This move made it difficult for Wisconsin Bankshares to respond to a commercial trend in which shopping centers proliferated, drawing consumers away from the traditional shopping areas where most of the company's banks and branches were located. It was, however, able to establish new banks (such as Southgate National Bank of Milwaukee in 1958), a slow and costly process, and to move some of its existing branches to more profitable locations.

1960: The bank is renamed First Wisconsin Bankshares Corporation.

In 1967, the company was allowed to acquire State Bank of Waunakee, and, in the next few years, it would start up new banks in such growing markets as Waukesha, West Green Bay, and Mequon.

Opened two years later, the new facility would house the bank's main office until 1973.

First National's headquarters were moved in April 1977.

First Wisconsin wasted little time in making its first out-of-state purchase, buying DuPage Bank & Trust Co. in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, on April 29, 1987.

The bank was acquired by Star Bank in 1988.

The banks themselves were also renamed Firstar, though this did not occur in Wisconsin until 1992.

On October 18, 1994, Firstar issued 1,801,577 shares of common stock to complete the acquisition of the $423 million First Southeast Banking Corp., a bank holding company for two banks with 23 offices in the Racine/Kenosha area.

Firstar was named the top-performing bank in the country in 1998 by American Banker Magazine and the No.2 financial institution in the world in terms of shareholder performance by The Economist.

Moreover, it peeled off layers of the old Firstar's hierarchical management; by 1999, Firstar had an entirely new management team.

In 2001, Firstar acquired United States Bancorp and assumed its name, moving its headquarters to Minneapolis. (en)