Notable New Orleanians: A Tricentennial Tribute

HANCOCK
WHITNEY
Since the bank’s late 1800s origins,
Hancock Whitney has served the Greater New
Orleans and Mississippi Gulf Coast regions
with pride and commitment. The 2011 merger
of Hancock Bank of Gulfport, Mississippi,
and Whitney Bank of New Orleans solidified
a lasting relationship that began in the days
when Hancock and Whitney first opened
their doors.
When Whitney Bank opened in New
Orleans in 1883, its founders, including
Whitney President James T. Hayden, saw a
need for a strong banking institution to serve
the Civil War-torn city. New Orleans received
heavy investments in lumber, produce and
other trades, sparking growth across the
entire Gulf South region. Just 65 miles east,
Hancock County, Mississippi, was also
changing rapidly. New Orleans cotton broker
and Hancock County resident Peter Hellwege
recognized the regional prosperity as an
opportunity to provide the Mississippi Coast
with a strong bank to help people manage and
grow their hard-earned money.
Hancock Bank opened in 1899 in Bay Saint
Louis, a Mississippi Coast town New Orleanians
have visited for generations. Hellwege, who was
committed to expanding the business
relationship between New Orleans and the
Mississippi Coast, commuted daily to New
Orleans by train from his home in Waveland,
Mississippi. After Hellwege led the founding of
another bank—the Bank of Orleans—in 1904,
he served concurrently as president of both
Hancock Bank and the Bank of Orleans.
When Hellwege died at his Waveland
home in 1907, Eugene Roberts, also one
of the Hancock Bank founders and cashier of
both banks, accepted the presidency of
both institutions. Hellwege’s son, Peter E.
Hellwege, became vice president of both
Hancock and Bank of Orleans. Tragedy
struck, however, shortly after Peter E.
Hellwege accepted those positions. While on
the train he rode daily between his Mississippi
home and New Orleans, he was killed when
he slipped and fell beneath the train’s wheels
as it passed Prieur Street on Elysian Fields.
During World War I, the Bank of Orleans fell
into a period of financial instability brought on
by wartime recession. The board of directors,
assuring the safety of Bank of Orleans depositors,
sold the bank to a strong and healthy
Whitney Bank in 1918. Eugene Roberts stepped
down as Hancock’s president and became a vice
president at Whitney Bank to assist with the
merger. Horatio S. Weston, the wealthy owner of
Weston Lumber Company—then the world’s
largest timber mill—in Logtown, Mississippi,
became President of Hancock Bank. Weston had
NOTABLE NEW ORLEANIANS: A Tricentennial Tribute
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