Herrington — the former CEO of Franklin Financial Network and Civitas BankGroup, among others — and his team launched Lineage shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and about a year after Herrington resigned from Franklin Financial. They announced agreements to buy Sumner Bank & Trust in Gallatin and Citizens Bank & Trust in Atwood, 80 miles west of Dickson, and said they were scouting for other Tennessee community bank deals. The deal for Citizens — which has assets of about $27 million and essentially broke even in 2020 — has closed, but the Sumner transaction fell apart late last summer, Herrington said, because institutional investors stepped away from projects amid the uncertainty of the pandemic.