RALEIGH, N.C. – State Employees’ CU celebrated its 75th anniversary yesterday with the opening of a new branch in Durham Lowe’s Grove, the site of the state’s first rural credit union in 1916.
SECU said the new branch pays homage to the Lowe’s Grove community’s rich history and landmark site of the “first cooperative credit union, operating under legislative sanction, established in the South” on Jan. 20, 1916.
In 1913, Durham banker John Sprunt Hill was commissioned by President Woodrow Wilson to study rural credit systems in Europe and “find ways of lending money so that an ordinary person could borrow without being cheated.” A bill was passed by North Carolina lawmakers authorizing the charter of Lowe’s Grove Credit Union in 1915.
With the assistance of Lowe’s Grove school, local bankers, and the NC Department of Agriculture, Hill brought the cooperative concept to the forefront and organized the Lowe’s Grove Rural Credit Union to help improve the area’s agricultural economy and community life of farm families in rural North Carolina, SECU said.
Through the joint efforts of SECU and the Lowe’s Grove Highway Historical Marker Committee, a NC Highway Historical Marker dedicated on Dec. 12, 1999, currently identifies the credit union site.
