First Southern's Story

First Southern History

On June 19, 1907, The Patterson Bank was chartered and opened its doors for business in Patterson, Georgia with capital stock of $15,000. Sixty-eight years later, in 1975, the bank moved into a new building on Highway 84 in Patterson, Georgia, where it still conducts business today. A second branch office was built eleven years later, in 1986, near Waycross in Pierce County in the Bonneyman community. This office was opened to take advantage of the growing population in Waycross and to comply with the banking regulations at the time restricting branching outside the chartering county. With branching regulations changing, in May of 1998, The Patterson Bank opened its third location, expanding into Jesup, Wayne County. Finally, in the summer of 2008, the fourth location of The Patterson Bank was opened in downtown Waycross. In 2009, the Bonneyman location was closed.

In March of 2013, a recapitalization plan was completed, which brought The Patterson Bank under new ownership. Forty-one individual investors, all from the local community, came together and purchased over 98% of the outstanding shares of the Bank. Until the initial closing of the Bank’s private offering on March 29, 2013, the Bank was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Patterson Bancshares, Inc., a Georgia corporation, registered as a bank holding company. As a result of the completion of the recapitalization of the Bank, as of June 30, 2013, Patterson Bancshares, Inc. held less than 1% of the outstanding shares of the Bank. In conjunction with this new start, the Bank’s name was changed to First Southern Bank and a new Board of Directors was elected.

In February 2019, First Southern Bank raised $16 million in new Capital with the goal of expanding its branch network to Florida. With the increased Capital, FSB was able to open a branch location in the Highlands County market in August 2019 and a Manatee County location in September 2019. On January 3, 2023, we opened another branch location in Stuart, Florida and our newest branch location in Blackshear, GA in September 2025. As of today, First Southern Bank has 7 branch locations serving Southern Georgia and West Central Florida.

First Southern's mission is to serve our communities with a level of service superior to our competition. First Southern has been investing in our communities since 1907.