Credit Union History

The first credit union was started in 1849 in Germany when poor farmers, workers, and trades people got together to pool their money, lift themselves from poverty, and avoid unethical money lenders.

Today there are approximately 16,800 credit unions in the United State, serving more then 54 million people with the first being introduced in 1909 when a credit union in the state of New Hampshire was formed.

In 1967 Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital employees had their first opportunity to join a credit union as the COPE (City of Parkersburg Employees) Federal Credit Union was formed. Several of our current members were also members of the COPE Credit Union. Although the COPE Federal Credit Union was doing a satisfactory job with providing our employees with what they needed from a credit union, it was decided because of logistics, that it would be more beneficial from CCMH employees to have their own credit union. Thus, after much work the CCMH Federal Credit Union was chartered on August 4, 1972 with ten (10) members. The members were:

• James Pelfrey
• Frances Starkey
• Jo Ann Hale
• Goldie Titus
• Howard Blazer

• David P. Bell
• David L. Perkins
• Anthony Minard
• Ray Leasure
• David Redmon

Today, the credit union is located at the Camden Clark Memorial Hospital at 800 Garfield Avenue, Parkersburg, WV. We have over 1200 members with over 5.0 million in assets.

CCMH FCU is a nonprofit Federally chartered & insured credit union formed for the purpose of combining our members funds to offer cooperative rates.

Our manager, Annette Cox, has the following to say about CCMH FCU. “We try every day to give that special service that you do not get at other financial institutions. I do not understand why people do not take advantage of credit unions. Credit unions are owned by its members and the more services they use the more the credit union grows and it continues to become bigger and better. We have grown over the last eight years and hope to continue encourage that growth. But, we cannot do that without our members. I encourage all current members to use as many of our services as possible. Those who are not members, I encourage you to join and give us a try.