Austin Bank

For more than 120 years and four generations, the Austin Family has been deeply ingrained and involved in the Texas banking industry. They have personified banking in East Texas since 1909, when John F. Austin, Sr. became a founder of the First State Bank of Frankston. A savvy, ambitious businessman who had his eye on expanding and evolving the small town financially, he dutifully served the community bank until he died in 1931.

Sallie and John F. Austin’s children, John F. Austin, Jr., Jeff Austin, Sr., and Mary Austin Thacker, continued to honor that legacy. John stepped into the role vacated by his father’s death, and Jeff joined the Frankston bank in 1937. He was named president in 1946 and served as President and Chairman of Austin Bank until his death in 1997, when Jeff Austin, Jr. took over his board position. In 1972, Sissy Austin joined the Bank as Vice President and Assistant Trust Officer. Jeff Austin III, a fourth-generation banker, continued the family legacy when he became President/CEO of FSB Frankston in 1999, Vice Chairman of Austin Bank in 2003, and Chairman in 2021.

Jeff Austin, Sr., carried and greatly expanded the family legacy of leadership in banking as well as civic and philanthropic endeavors during his lifetime. It was under his leadership that the Bank grew. From 1944 to 1985, the Austin Family acquired six separate community banks in Big Sandy, Jacksonville, Longview, Rusk, Timpson, and Whitehouse. Other banks were also acquired in Troup and Grand Saline. In 1996, the separate banks were all renamed Austin Bank. In 1997, Austin Bank purchased seven Bank of America locations throughout the East Texas area.

All of the individual banks were combined in 1999 under the bank charter of Austin Bank Texas N.A., Jacksonville which was originally chartered and opened for business in 1900. Efforts to continue serving the East Texas area brought additional acquisitions in 2004 (First National Bank of Bullard) and in 2008 (City National Bank of Kilgore). In 2010 the First State Bank of Frankston was merged into Austin Bank, further expanding the Bank’s service area. Continuing this expansion, the Bank opened new locations in Lufkin (2015), Lindale (2017), Cleveland (2019), The Woodlands (2021) and Montgomery (2022). In 2025, the bank acquired Chasewood Bank adding locations in Houston and Spring.