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It’s been 110 years since F & M Community Bank first opened its doors in Preston, and its been serving and giving back to the community ever since.
Originally named Farmers and Merchants State Bank of Preston, it first operated out of a building on Main Street which still bears its name carved in the stone above its columns. The bank was started by a group of 31 local shareholders on March 27, 1911. Tollefson Sanderson was its first president and the bank still has his stock certificate which was the first one it ever issued. Interestingly enough, the first cashier employed by the bank was Thomas Garratt whose son, Wilson Garratt would go on to become the second president and majority owner of the bank. In 1965, F & M moved to its current location on the corner of Fillmore Street and St. Anthony Street in Preston. Just three years later, in 1968, Al and Evelyn Christianson purchased Wilson’s stock, becoming the majority owners of the bank.
After moving to Preston in the 1950s, the Christiansons had purchased John A. Johnson Insurance Agency, renaming it Root River Insurance Agency. When they purchased stock in F & M Community Bank, their insurance agency became one of the first bank holding companies in the Ninth Federal Reserve District. Eventually, the name of the agency was changed to F & M Financial Services, Inc. and is still owned by the Christianson family, making F & M Community Bank a family-owned and locally-owned bank.
In 1982, Al and Evelyn’s son, Dan Christianson came back to Preston after finishing law school and started working at the bank with his dad. At the time, the country was facing a historic Ag crisis which made work at a mainly ag credit based bank very challenging. “We’re lucky the bank didn’t fail,” Christianson said. Thankfully, things were turning around by the early 1990s, around the same time that Dan Christianson took over for his father as chairman, president, and CEO of F & M Community Bank. “I thought I might only be here a few years,” he explained. “Then I would see what else I wanted to do.” Obviously, it has gone well as he’s now been with the bank in his current position for 30 years. His daughter Alyssa began working at the bank as the compliance officer and internal auditor in 2015 and while he isn’t sure of her future plans, Christianson is happy to have her working with him.
F & M Community Bank truly lives up to its name, defining itself as a Community First – Customer First organization. In addition to sponsoring and donating to local arts, non-profit organizations, food shelves, etc, it also supports local individuals and businesses. “If we can find a way to make a loan…we try to help them out,” Christianson explained.
Christianson finds it interesting to see how the banking business has changed over the years. “When I first started, we didn’t have a computer. It used to be all in-person and on paper,” he said. “Now everything is done on computer.” With the introduction of the bank’s website in 2004 and more recently, it’s mobile app, technology is definitely the name of the game. The pandemic accelerated a lot of technological changes as well, with loans now being able to be closed remotely and some employees working from home rather than the office. “We’re seeing more and more people use our alternative methods of banking. They aren’t coming back into the lobbies,” Christianson explained. “It’s always nice to have that face-to-face contact with the customer, but this is a more efficient way to get business done, both for the customer and the bank.”
F & M Community Bank has seen a lot of growth in the last few decades and not just financially. In 2000, a branch was opened in Chatfield and 15 years later, a third branch opened its doors in Rochester. They were supposed to celebrate their 20th and 5th anniversaries respectively in the fall of 2020, but due to the pandemic, that didn’t happen. Now Christianson is hoping to roll those celebrations into F & M’s 110th anniversary. Unfortunately, the pandemic is still continuing to affect plans and so nothing has been set in stone yet. “It’s been a challenge to figure out what we can do,” Christianson said. He’s hoping the bank will be able to sponsor some special events and possibly have a cookout type celebration at some point.
Christianson hopes that F & M Community Bank continues to grow and provide opportunities for its employees to grow as well. He and the employees look forward to many more years of serving Preston and the surrounding communities
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