Even the rain didn’t stop customers from coming out to the Peoples Savings Bank in New Florence on June 12 and enjoying a free lunch.

Barbecue was served to patrons as part of the 90th anniversary celebration of Peoples Savings Bank. Hamburgers, hot dogs and brats were on the menu in the six-hour event that started at 11 a.m.

“I really like the fact that they decided to barbecue,” said Derek Stuckenschneider, who is the PSB regional president that serves locations in New Florence and Montgomery City. “I think that’s better than ordering pulled pork or whatever.”

There are 12 PSB locations in east central Missouri. Barbecue celebrations were held in Troy, New Melle and Wing Haven. A celebration was scheduled to be held in Clarksville on June 17.

Stuckenschneider said the barbecue celebration at the New Florence bank was first planned in March.

“Since the proximity of here and Montgomery City, we decided to do this one now and Montgomery City will kind of be in the fall,” he said.

There are three PSB locations in Montgomery County. There is also a location in Rhineland.

PSB originated in Rhineland on Aug. 13, 1935. It went through floods in the latter part of the 20th century, including the massive flood in 1993 in which many of the houses and businesses in the Rhineland area were moved to higher ground. A new bank in Rhineland was constructed in 1995.

New Florence became PSB’s third location in 1997 after making an application to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for permission to establish a temporary facility at 221 S. Main Street during that winter. In November of that year, PSB in New Florence was open for business with staff members that included branch manager/loan officer Darren Schmidt, tellers Elaine Hank, Gayl Cuno and Nicole Overkamp and loan officer Doug Lensing.

Three years later, its current location of 514 Picnic Street was built. It had a two-day grand opening that drew about 800 people.

Stuckenschneider has been the PSB regional president since 2020.

“Back in the day, I was with Martinsburg Bank before it turned into Bank of Missouri,” Stuckenschneider said. “We always compare ourselves to Peoples Savings Bank. Whenever I decided to make the move, it kind of worked that in small banking, there is a lot of networking that takes place, so they heard about me and I heard about them. So it kind of worked and it fit.”