(Bank of Charlotte note image - Bank of Charlotte ten-dollar note, 1859; CK1248.3; North Carolina Collection Numismatic Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)

Banking in Charlotte

After the arrival of the railroad, the increase in business and development in town prompted the organization of the Bank of Charlotte.  The bank, which opened in 1853, joined the Charlotte branch of the Bank of the State of North Carolina (later re-chartered as the Bank of North Carolina) which had served the town since 1834.  Charlotte's banks aided development in the growing town, providing investors and enterprising entrepreneurs with the capital necessary to start new businesses and ventures and improve existing operations.  After the Civil War, enormous war debt and a federally imposed tax on bank notes crippled the state's banking industry.  Every bank in North Carolina, including those in Charlotte, failed.  Charlotte's banking industry quickly recovered when John Wilkes, after receiving his pardon, went to New York and received backing for a new bank.  The First National Bank of Charlotte opened in 1865, contributing greatly to Charlotte's ability to grow and develop during a period when other towns in North Carolina, and throughout the South, were struggling to rebuild after the devastation of the war.  By 1880, Charlotte had a total of five banks which, in addition to providing capital for investment purposes, provided area farmers with another source of credit.

 

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