First National Bank of Muscatine was founded in 1870, just five years after the end of the Civil War, as a private banking business under the name Silverman, Cook & Company. P.M. Musser, a prominent local citizen, became a partner in the bank in 1875, and the name was subsequently changed to Cook, Musser & Company. By 1896, just fifteen years after the first telephones were installed in Muscatine, the company became incorporated under Iowa banking laws as the Cook, Musser & Co.