Vidalia was a village on the river, and Ferriday was still a cotton field, not even incorporated. The year was 1903.

On July 1, 1903, the forerunner of the Concordia Bank & Trust Co. came into being. Its name was the Bank of Vidalia. The late Judge John Dale, the patriarch of a family whose name has been associated with the Concordia Bank for 95 years, was a driving force in the formation of the Bank of Vidalia.

A.H. Gillespie was the first president, serving on the board with Judge Dale, J. L. Dagg, M. C. Reeves, I. Friedler, B. Y. Wade, D. Lemle, J. M. Monig, Charles Moritz, O. G. Kelly, J. C. Rountree, who was publisher of the Sentinel, W. H. Hudnall, W. G. Walton, A. L. George, and A. G. Campbell.

In 1903, a thousand dollars was a lot of money. The grand total of the bank's assets came to $25,000 that consisted of 226 shares of stock with a par value of $100 each. The most any stockholder owned was ten shares. Some 73 shareholders subscribed to the stock. Most of them lived in Vidalia, but some were from Natchez, Winnsboro, New Orleans, Jonesville, Vicksburg, and all parts of Concordia Parish.

Among the original stockholders were names that are a part of the history of Concordia Parish - Dale, Reeves, Campbell, Rountree, Schiele, Hough, Burley, and Ohlsen. Some of their descendants remain in the parish today.

Four years after the Bank of Vidalia was founded, Ferriday State Bank was incorporated with a capital stock of $40,000. Eleven years later, 1918, the Bank of Vidalia changed its name to the Vidalia Bank & Trust Co. and bought the Ferriday State Bank for $5,000 with capital of $50,000. In 1926, the name of the bank was changed to the Concordia Bank & Trust Company.

In 1999, Concordia Bank purchased the Wilkinson County Savings Bank in Woodville, Mississippi. In August 2002, Concordia Bank opened a new branch in Natchez. This expanded our bank's commitment to providing quality customer service throughout the Miss-Lou.

Concordia Bank has many customers in Natchez and surrounding areas. The need to provide hometown, quality customer service to our customers in Mississippi, were the main reasons for our move into our neighboring state. Concordia Bank's purchase was also the first by a Louisiana state chartered bank into the state of Mississippi.

Thus, from the bank's beginning with assets of $25,000 in 1903, the bank's assets have grown to over $426 million in the year 2005.