Our Story

Our Story

Our origins were built on the support of families and small business in rural Kansas. Since the beginning, The Bennington State Bank has kept safety and soundness of our customer’s financial matters as the cornerstone of our community bank, helping shape what BSB is today. For over 135 years, BSB has been committed to providing first class banking services to individuals, businesses and communities throughout central Kansas.

In 1883, Christian Nelson, one of the original founders of the town of Bennington, Kansas, and Adolph Gilbert formed a private bank. In 1887, that private bank became one of the first chartered by the State of Kansas and became known as The Bennington Banking Company, with Christian Nelson as president. Christain’s son, John, was later named President and the name of the bank was then changed to The Bennington State Bank.

In 1945, the bank was sold by the Nelson family to the Berkley family. In 1967, Kent (Mike) Berkley and his siblings assumed controlling ownership of the bank. Assets of the bank in 1967 totaled $5 million dollars. Today, with assets totaling over $1.25 billion, BSB is one of the largest privately held banks in Kansas. BSB has consistently been recognized as a 5-Star rated bank by Bauer Financial, the nations leading independent bank rating firm, making BSB one of America’s strongest and safest financial institutions.

Throughout our long, storied history, BSB has consistently provided safety and soundness to its customers, while maintaining the capital, liquidity and balance sheet strength that allows BSB to be a leader in Kansas and take pride in the fact that we remain loyal to our roots as a local, independent full service community bank.