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NSSB celebrates 100 years serving local communities
NORTH SALEM — It may not have appeared that way at the time, but 1923 was not the best year to be founding a bank.
Though the 1920s may have been roaring away at the time, the Great Depression was just a few years away. Nationwide, that meant about 9,000 failed banks, taking with them $7 billion in depositors’ assets, according to the U.S. Social Security Administration.
Yet in the wake of the 1922 failure of the former North Salem Bank, some residents of the small Hendricks County town did something about it.
“A group of local residents got together and started a new bank,” North Salem State Bank President and CEO Matt Howrey said.
A century later, NSSB is still going strong, having grown from a single branch with two employees to nine branches and 95 employees, in spite of the 1929 stock market crash and countless crises since then.
“That’s a big part of the story they tell around here. The bank was only six years old, so to survive the crash was a big deal,” Howrey said. “The shareholder base can almost all be tracked back to the original group.”
The growth has happened despite a marked lack of growth in the town whose name the bank bears.
“The town is actually smaller than when the bank started,” Howrey said. “Within the town limits the population is just under 500, and it was 600 in 1923.”
That did not stop a big celebration last month, when more than 1,200 people descended on the town for a cookout to celebrate the bank’s 100 years.
“We cautioned everybody. We parked far away and walked in. It was several hundred yards in any direction,” Howrey said. “People didn’t care, though. “We got food for 1,000, then went ahead and got another 1,000 just in case.
“You only turn 100 once.”
More than celebrating the bank itself, recent festivities have been a celebration of the customers themselves, many of whom can trace their history with the bank back through the majority of its history.
“Everybody was arguing over who was the oldest customer,” Howrey recounted with a laugh. “They got comparing account numbers.”
Some went back as far as the 1950s. Some claimed even earlier, though their account numbers didn’t match this, though numbers could have changed.
“That’s pretty good to have an account with us for 70 years,” Howrey said.
More recently, the bank was feted by Gov. Eric Holcomb as the bank was presented with the Governor’s Century Award, which honors Hoosier businesses that have operated for a minimum of 100 consecutive years and have exhibited a commitment to community service.
NSSB was one of 14 organizations so honored with a visit to the Statehouse on Aug. 9 and the presentation of a commemorative certificate.
“Every year, the Century and Half-Century Awards remind me of the dedication and perseverance Hoosiers across the state bring to their businesses,” Holcomb said, “and each year it is truly an honor to recognize these organizations that have withstood the test of time, navigated economic uncertainties and demonstrated unconditional commitment to their employees and communities across Indiana.”
Howrey spoke of that commitment.
“Supporting the economic health of our communities has been the centerpiece of our mission since we made our first loan and continues to be our central purpose,” Howrey said of the award. “While our market has expanded, we’ve chosen to remain focused on the residents, farmers and other small businesses in each of the communities we call home. It’s a dedication captured by our tagline, ‘Where Caring Still Counts,’ and brought to life by every one of our employees.”
The president also spoke of that expanding market to the Banner Graphic, noting that while the bank continues to be headquartered in its namesake town, it actually has branches across three counties — North Salem, two in Danville, Clayton and Plainfield in Hendricks County; Lebanon and Jamestown in Boone County; and two branches in Greencastle here in Putnam County.
Howrey said they also do business in Morgan County, though there are no branches there.
He gave credit to much of that growth to Putnam County native John Colvin, who served as bank president from 1984 through 2006, and continues as chairman of the board to this day.
“John started off in 1989 with our first real branch, in Danville,” Howrey said. “That was a big deal for us to kind of start that branching network.”
There has also been the much more recent addition of a 20,000-square-foot operations center in Avon just last year.
Locally, the expansion into Greencastle occurred in 1996 with the opening of a branch inside the Kroger store. The current Greencastle East branch at 117 S. Warren Dr. opened in 2007.
Later, situations following another economic meltdown actually led to the opening of the Greencastle North branch at 1280 N. Jackson St.
“After the great recession the need for community banking in the rest of these small towns really became evident,” Howrey said. “We opened a second in Greencastle because we were so busy.”
Besides the Greencastle locations, North Salem’s leadership team is marked by a number of Putnam County ties. Chief Credit Officer Heath Allen, Director of IT John Hendrich, Chief Lending Officer Kevin Miller and Senior Vice President of Commercial Lending Michael Clampitt are all Putnam County residents. Meanwhile board members Ryan Pershing and Curt Wrightsman are also Putnam people.
“Putnam County kind of runs this place,” Howrey said.
Just last month, NSSB expanded its services with the acquisition of a Putnam County business.
“Most recently, two weeks ago, we announced that we purchased Grant Stewart’s business, Advantage Financial Group,” Howrey said. “We’ve done business with him for three decades now. We finally got to the point that we had grown, they had grown and we kind of merged the two.
“It allows us to offer all the investment products under a wealth strategies platform,” he added. “Anything a wealth planner can offer, we can offer through Grant as NSSB Wealth Strategies.”