One of the strong and actively ordered financial institutions of Jackson county and one that contributes its quota to the commercial and industrial stability of this favored section of the country is the City National Bank of Murphysboro. The institution is the direct successor to the Bank of Murphysboro, organized by James E. Walker and his wife, who owned and controlled the business for a number of years. In 1892 the City National Bank was organized and incorporated, and business had practical initiation on the 25th day of November of that year. At the time of organization the total assets of the bank were $112,000, and in the early stages of its operations its individual deposits aggregated something less than $60,000. The enterprise has been handled with marked conservatism and circumspection, and the institution has gained an impregnable hold upon the public confidence and esteem, aggregating in bonds alone a capital stock of $50,000, and the total deposits now aggregating $550,000.

In 1895 Mr. Walker and his associates sold their interests in the banks to Mr. William K. Murphy and others. Mr. Hardy has been chief executive of the institution since May, 1899. The bank has a fine modern building of brick, two stories in height and twenty-four by sixty feet in lateral dimension.