Commercial Trust Company in Fayette will celebrate its 120th anniversary with food, fun, and games for all ages from 2 to 6 p.m. Friday afternoon on the square.

The bank is one of Fayette’s oldest and most successful businesses. On November 3, 1903, Commercial Bank occupied a single rented storefront on the south side of the courthouse square. Deposits totaled $2,532.10. Cash was kept in a safe the size of a cookstove. The few depositors did their business with stick pens and inkwells in a dark, narrow lobby.

One hundred and twenty years later, the banking house occupies two stories of four storefront spaces and is run by the fourth generation of the Jacobs family. Janet is the bank president, and her brother, Lew Wallace (Jay) Jacobs IV, serves as board chair.

The bank’s founders were a politician and a railroad telegrapher. The only one with any banking experience was J. R. Gallemore, who had made a name for himself as county assessor and county clerk and had risen to assistant cashier in the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Fayette from 1889 to August of 1903.

His partner was 42-year-old Lew Wallace Jacobs. For 18 years prior, he worked for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad, rising to the post of local MKT agent in Fayette during a time when railroads were the major means of travel and hauling. 

Jacobs owned 40 shares of the new bank. Gallemore owned 24. Sixteen others owned the remaining 55 shares.

The charter called for capital of $12,000. But only half was paid in when the bank opened for business. So, assets consisted of $8,532.10 in cash. That included the $6,000 in paid-in capital and $2,532.10 in deposits.

By 1910, the bank grew enough to afford its own building. The bank moved to its current location on the corner of Main and Davis streets.

In 1922, the bank became a Trust Company, which meant it could act as a trustee, making investments for persons or institutions. The name was changed from Commercial Bank to Commercial Trust Company. In that same year, L. W. Jacobs became president. He held that post until his death on October 7, 1931. His son, Lew Wallace Jacobs, Jr. (later known to his family as “Pappy”), took over as president at the age of 33 and would guide the bank through the Great Depression and the years of World War II. By 1953 when the bank celebrated its 50th anniversary, assets had grown to more than $3 million. 

During another nationwide bank crisis in 1982, when financial institutions were failing around the country, Commercial Trust was named the 11th safest bank in the nation and the safest in Missouri.

Jacobs Junior never retired. He continued going to his office until infirmities of age confined him to his home a few years before his death in 1996. Day-to-day operations gradually passed to his only son, Lew Wallace Jacobs III, known to his friends as “Three.”

With his father in the president’s office, Three Jacobs was relegated to the “cockpit,” a tiny office separated from the lobby by only a small half counter. Anyone wanting to talk to him just walked in. He took over as president upon his father’s death and oversaw the expansion of the bank building into two adjoining store spaces formerly occupied by a theatre.

From the time he began work in the bank in 1953 until his death in 1998, the bank’s assets grew from $3 million to $80 million. In 2006, Commercial Trust opened a second branch in nearby Harrisburg. Assets now total $170 million.

Much of the bank’s success can be attributed to the Jacobs family’s ongoing commitment to the community. Whether buying hams at the Howard County Fair or purchasing new scoreboards for the Fayette school district, Commercial Trust has been a benefactor of the Fayette and Central Methodist University communities for more than a century. 

“The main thing that we’re proud of and committed to is helping people,” Janet said. “We wouldn’t be here if weren’t for all the great friends, customers, staff members, and people we’ve had through the years. We have pride in the community. Keeping businesses viable here and helping make Fayette a place where people want to live and raise families.”

Friday’s festivities will include a bounce house, an inflatable slide, a cash cube, and face painting. Attendees can play Giant Jenga, cornhole, and Giant Connect 4. A Fayette fire truck will be on hand for young explorers. Refreshments will include kettle corn, lemonade, and Kona Ice.

The bank will also hold a raffle for “Trusty,” a giant plush St. Bernard. “Trusty” became the bank’s official mascot in the 1980s when Three Jacobs installed the bank’s first ATM.

“We are excited to have all our friends join in Commercial Trust’s 120-Year Anniversary Celebration as a thank you for the many years they have placed their trust in us,” Janet said. “Our biggest source of pride is the bank’s relationship with the people and communities who have been with us along the way. We hope to see everyone on Friday to celebrate with us.”

Many of the details relating to Commercial Trust Company’s history were provided by an article by H. Denny Davis in the September 24, 2003, Fayette Advertiser.