100 Year Anniversary - Celebrating a Century!

The year was 1901. It had been slightly more than a decade since Freeport had been incorporated and platted. The small town in Central Minnesota had shown steady growth over the years, but something was missing. The town needed a bank.

To fill this need, George Uhlenkott founded a private bank. Mr. Uhlenkott was a land owner, grain shipper and highly esteemed farmer. In 1908 George’s son Herman took control. With the resulting efforts of Herman and his brother Simon, Freeport’s bank was incorporated as the Uhlenkott State Bank.

In 1912 the bank was purchased by John W. Kuhn, Moritz Hoeschen and Hubert and Peter Thelen. Upon these changes of ownership, the bank’s name was changed to Freeport State Bank.

One year later in 1913, Herman Rose, Nick Hockert and JM Rieland founded a competing bank named Farmer’s State Bank. To meet the competition, the Freeport State Bank built a new building in 1922, which is still in use as the bank’s headquarters.

Both banks grew and prospered, and in December 1926 the Farmer State Bank merged with the Freeport State Bank to become the sole financial resource for the community. In 1941 VJ (Virgil) Hemker joined the bank as a bookkeeper. Many years later, in 1959, he bought controlling interest in the bank and was its guiding light until his retirement in 1983. During his time as president, a branch was created in New Munich in 1978. Upon retiring, VJ’s son Jim Hemker, purchased the bank and is now it’s president. Today, Freeport State Bank operates a second branch in Melrose, and has a current asset base of $64,000,000.00.

At Freeport State Bank, customer success is our priority.