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CITIZENS BANK & TRUST COMPANY
We are an independent bank with one location, locally owned and managed.
Our directors have close ties to the community. Most of our employees have
worked here for ten years or more. When misunderstandings or other
difficulties arise, it doesn’t take our customers long to find someone
with the authority to help them. We can usually give next day answers on
loan applications.
The history of our bank traces back to the first financial
institution in Big Timber. In 1890 William Shanks and Thomas Lee placed
some private funds in an office safe and for a while did a loan business.
The following year Shanks helped organize and became Vice President of Big
Timber National Bank. In 1913 Big Timber National was reorganized as
Commercial Bank and Trust Company. Early day Big Timber luminaries, C.T.
Busha and Oscar Nepstad were bank directors. You will note Busha Street in
Big Timber and Nepstad Ditch on area maps.
Citizens State Bank was incorporated in 1906. Its principal founder, an
Irish immigrant named Charles McDonnell walked into Sweet Grass County
behind a band of sheep in the 1870s and became a prosperous land owner,
business man, and state Senator. His granddaughter, Mary Ellen Cremer, is
one of our current directors.
In 1927, Citizen State Bank and Commercial Bank & Trust Company merged
into Citizens Bank & Trust Company. At that time, Anthony Arneson, who had
been President and principal stockholder of the Commercial Bank became
President of the new bank. Arneson, a second generation American of
Norwegian descent, got off the train in Big Timber in 1889 or ’90. For a
while, he worked as a hod carrier during the construction of the Grand
Hotel. Then, using borrowed money he bought a half interest in a small
ranch on Swamp Creek north of town. At the same time he took up a
320-acre homestead on nearby open range. Eventually, he became one of
the largest landowners in the area.
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