Bank History - Owatonna, MN
 
First State Bank of Meriden was established in 1915. The first president was John Schuldt and the second president was Henry Wicklow, both from Meriden.

For over 28 years, W.P. Jones was the First State Bank of Meriden’s third president. On December 5, 1959, he held a stockholders meeting and announced that the bank would be moving to Owatonna, Minnesota.

W.P. Jones purchased a piece of property east of Cedar Street and South of the Fair Grounds. He then moved a wooden building, the size of a two car garage onto the lot, constructed a fire proof reinforced concrete strong box, moved in a few desks, some money and hung out a shingle that read, “Oakdale State Bank.” Seven months later on July 10, 1960, the bank opened for business. During the winter the official bank building and permanent structure was built. On February 3, 1961 the beautiful new bank building was open. In 1963, the name was changed to “Owatonna State Bank.”

On September 17, 1968, at a meeting of the Board of Directors of Owatonna State Bank, Frank T. Lewis and John M. Johnson were elected president and vice president, respectively. They were also both elected members of the board of directors. This followed their purchase of controlling interest in the bank from R.H. Plunkett and Associates.

In 1975, another bank facility was established in the Cedar Mall of Owatonna. This marked the second location of Owatonna State Bank.

In May 1979, on the corner of Cedar Street and Pearl, the third location of Owatonna State Bank, was established. The building was a former dry cleaning business and needed some major remodeling.

In December 1985, Frank T. Lewis bought out John M. Johnson and formed an E.S.O.P, which made the bank employees part owners of Owatonna State Bank.

In 1987, an insurance and real estate company were added to the bank. In October 1988, the real estate company was sold and merged with three other firms. The combined agency took on the name of Coldwell Banker and relocated to 220 South Cedar.

On July 1, 1996, Owatonna State Bank was named Community Bank Minnesota, and moved into its new location at 110 West Rose Street in Owatonna. This main facility is open 6 days a week offering teller services, new accounts, safe deposit boxes, lending, customer support and became the home of Community Investment and Insurance Center, formerly Owatonna State Insurance. The 1801 South Cedar facility became known as the South Branch. The downtown facility at 223 North Cedar and the Cedar Mall facility were both closed in 1996.

In November 1998, Frank T. Lewis was named Chairman/CEO. In August of 2001, Frank Lewis sold the bank in it's entirety to James G Sneer of Mountain Lake; in effect, joining the bank to the United Prairie Bank system. In January 2002, Community Bank Minnesota assumed the name, "United Prairie Bank."