Historic Midland

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Above, right: Mr. & Mrs. John P.
Butler dance at a function of First
National Bank held during 1960.
Above, left: Alva and John P. Butler,
foreground, entertain out of town guests
at a function of First National Bank.
Below: A.N. Hendrickson, left, a
director of First National Bank, and
bank president John O. Butler look
over plans for building expansion.
“You know,” he said, “one of those girls is
going to come down in labor some day when
they are in that bank and what will I do?”
He always felt like everything was going to
depend on him.
Finally one day he said, “You know, I have
figured out what I’m going to do.”
At that time there was a common corridor
that came into the bank and there was a divan
on either side.
He said, “I’ll just take them over to that divan
and get the ambulance as fast as I can.”
That just seemed to weigh on him all of the
time. Of course, that never happened, thank
goodness!
The First National Bank was sort of the central
place for the smaller towns to bank.
Andrews and McCamey and all of the smaller
banks, the banks operated just like individuals
operate through the bank.
Also, oil employees were scattered all over
that had been in Midland at one time and had
accounts with the bank. After John P.’s experience
here having to know everybody’s name and
something about them, he made it a point to
always be very close to them. They would tell
him what they wanted and then they might dismiss
it from their mind and every month, I suppose,
the oil company would send their check
or money to them and he would distribute it the
way they gave the order. First National Bank was
very supportive of the oil industry and all the
people who worked in it.
On the cultural side, First National Bank had
a wonderful art collection—small, but it was
wonderful. It was reported in bank magazines.
Once we were on a cruise, and the ship always
puts out a daily paper, and imagine our surprise
when we picked up the ship paper one day and
there was the little interesting notes in there and
it said “One of the finest, smallest art collections
in the United States is in the First National Bank
of Midland, Texas.”
44 ✦ HISTORIC MIDLAND