Exeter Bank

“The bank at Pine Hill was chartered in 1833, and from that time until 1865 the town, though always without a lawyer or a doctor or a secret organization, could boast of a banking institution. Its capital was $50,000. Stephen Tillinghast was its first president; the last was Henry Aldrich. Thomas Phillips was the first and only cashier. It did not enter under the national banking system and closed its doors in 1865.” — J. R. Cole, History of Washington and Kent Counties, Volume 1, W. W. Preston & Co., New York, 1889.

Pine Hill was a quiet corner of Exeter, in central Rhode Island. It never managed to grow into a village or town, and remains sparsely populated today.

Phillips, the bank’s cashier, also served as the Town Clerk and Postmaster for Pine Hill. Christopher C. Greene served as president in the 1850s, between Tillinghast and Aldrich.