The Bennington State Bank Revenue and Competitors

The Bennington State Bank has offered quality banking services to customers in central Kansas for over 100 years. In 1883 Christian Nelson, an original founder of the town of Bennington, and Adolph Gilbert formed a private bank. In 1887 that bank was chartered by the State of Kansas as The Bennington Banking Company, with Christian Nelson as president. After Mr. Nelson's death in 1897, John Nelson, his son, was named President and the name of the bank was changed to The Bennington State Bank. In 1931 a merger occurred between The Bennington State Bank and Bennington's other bank, Farmers State Bank. In 1945 the bank was sold by the Nelson family to the Berkley family. The Berkley family has been in control of the bank ever since with Kent M (Mike) Berkley becoming president in 1967. Assets of the bank totaled five million dollars. In 1986 the bank opened its first branch office in Minneapolis, Kansas with the purchase of the United Bank. Assets of the bank before the purchase had grown to forty-four million dollars and grew to sixty-seven million after the acquisition. In 1989 the state charter was moved to Salina Kansas and an office was opened at 200 South Ninth in Salina with the Bennington and Minneapolis offices becoming branches. In 1995 the former Graves Trucking building was remodeled to house the main offices of The Bennington State Bank. A new computer system was installed to allow information to flow between the branches. Today assets of the bank have surpassed $250 million and Mike Berkley is celebrating 37 years in banking. We at The Bennington State Bank are proud of the exceptional customer service we have offered over the past 100+ years and have no plans to change. We believe customer service is what sets us apart from other financial institutions. With our new Benn.ebanking service, we are expanding our horizons by offering customers a new way to bank by the Internet.