70 Years of Success Farmers & Merchants Celebrates Milestone When local attorney Gerald Edenfield was just a lad, he asked H. M. Robertson, Jr., the president of Farmers & Merchants Bank of Brooklet from 1966 – 1973, for a loan to purchase livestock for his 4-H project. Edenfield, now a FMB director, remembers Robertson giving him the money for some pigs and when he went back to repay the loan at the end of the year, “the lady didn’t know me, so I pulled out my grade school picture and said, ‘This is me!’” That memory of the investment Robertson made in young Edenfield is part of the legacy of one of Bulloch County’s strongest banks; the only locally owned financial institution in the County today, celebrating 70 years of successful operations in 2018. A news story in the October 30, 1947 issue of the Bulloch Times stated, “First steps toward the organization of a new chartered bank for Brooklet were taken at a meeting Tuesday night, when officers were selected, a name chosen, and the capital stock subscribed.