The bank failed in 1883, and the news accounts at the time said it s because of Tompkin's speculations in the stock market along with other questionable banking practices. There were no bank examinations and no state or federal supervision then, much less a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to keep a check on the banking operations. An announcement of the bank's capital was about all that was given to the public at that time, and this meant nothing. In the settlement after the Tompkins failure, depositors received about 7% of their deposits.

After the failure, S. T. Rogers began discussion of the organization of a new bank, a difficult task. In forming the new bank the organizers were not only confronted by the depressing effect of the Tompkin's failure, but a short time previously, John Harper, a federal revenue collector, Ayers Whittaker, county treasurer, and Louis Feilitche, master in chancery, had all defaulted, the amounts in each case being considerable. Many citizens of El Paso were on the Harper and Whittaker bonds; making good the deficits seriously crippled them financially.

However, the organization of The National Bank of El Paso was completed in June, 1883, with a capital of $50,000. The stockholders included A. S. McKinney, M. V. Rogers, Dr. Frederick Cole, W. A. Johnston, J. Q. Adams, J. M. Dunn, W. H. McClellan, C. G. Shafer, E. A. Gardner, Henry Greiner, Jasper Gilmore, David Evans, August Strathman, J. S. Hammers, J. I. Kerr, H. L. McOmber, J. L. Patton, W. M. Jenkins, F. B. Stitt and others.

Mr. A. S. McKinney was elected president; J. Q. Adams, vice president, and S. T. Rogers, cashier. Business began July 11, 1883 in the quarters formerly occupied by the defunct Tompkin's bank. F. B. Stitt took over clerical duties two months after the bank opened, and he was named cashier on December 1, 1884, as Mr. Rogers had died on November 10. Mr. McKinney served thirty-six years as president, and when he resigned in 1919 Mr. Stitt was elected to that office. The bank had changed its name to the First National Bank of El Paso. Lewis K. Evans, who began as a bookkeeper April 20, 1885, was elected assistant cashier April 20, 1892 and became cashier in 1919.

That year the bank expanded its facilities, adding the room to the west side which had been occupied by the J. B. Michels drug store. Corner steps were removed and a new entrance at street level was made into a vestibule so the necessary steps would be indoors. Vault and conference rooms were enlarged, and by 1920 the bank had excellent new quarters, still in use.

The depression which followed the stock market crash in October, 1929, reached into the farm communities soon after, and on December 19, 1931, a notice on the door of the bank stated that the Board of Directors had voted to ask the Comptroller of the Currency to take charge of the bank because "withdrawals of deposits have been

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