Dedham Institution for Savings
American bank

Dedham Savings is one of the oldest American banks still in operation and one of the oldest banks in the state of Massachusetts still doing business under its original charter.
It is owned by the holding company 1831 Bancorp, which also owns South Shore Bank in Boston.
Deposits at Dedham Savings are insured up to current limits of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which defines the institution as a community bank. The Depositors Insurance Fund insures all additional balances, up to any amount.
History
Dedham Savings was incorporated in 1831.
Originally founded as Dedham Institution for Savings on March 19, 1831, the bank has connections to prominent individuals including Horace Mann. Sophia Foord, an acquaintance of Henry David Thoreau, was the bank's first depositor.
On May 4, 1832, The Society in Dedham for Apprehending Horse Thieves opened a bank account at Dedham Savings. This is the oldest active account at Dedham Savings and may be the oldest continuously active account in the United States.
The founder and first president of the bank was Ebenezer Burgess.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q29094164. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1831 and 1832.
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