18394. Oregon Trust & Savings Bank (Portland, OR)

Bank Information

Episode Type
Suspension → Closure
Bank Type
savings bank
Start Date
*
Location
Portland, Oregon (45.523, -122.676)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini
Short Digest
027c6fd7

Response Measures

None

Description

Newspaper articles (Jan–Apr 1912) refer to the Oregon Trust & Savings Bank as 'suspended' and to its 'failure'. An embezzlement prosecution (Wilde and cashier W. Cooper Morris) is cited as adverse bank-specific information tied to the suspension/failure. No articles mention a run prior to suspension or a reopening; therefore classified as suspension leading to closure/receivership.

Events (2)
1. * Other
Newspaper Excerpt
Bonds from the other companies were involved in the failure of the Oregon Trust & Savings bank and several men were interested ... in the failure of the Oregon Trust & Savings bank and several men were interested in the Home company, not from choice, but necessity, and when the other independent companies began to lose in the fight against the trust, some of these financiers wanted to sell out to the trust, quick. They would not hear of advancing more money to make the local company a success. Operating expenses were high and it looked like the trust would win. Then Sam Hill came along. (Tacoma Times, Apr 9, 1912).
Source
newspapers
2. * Suspension
Cause
Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details
Alleged embezzlement involving sale of Omaha Telephone bonds and $90,000 misappropriation by Louis J. Wilde and cashier W. Cooper Morris; cited as tied to bank's suspension.
Newspaper Excerpt
Opening statements ... jury which is to decide whether Louis J. Wilde is guilty of embezzling $90,000 from the suspended Oregon Trust and Savings bank.
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (2)
1. January 25, 1912 The Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake City, UT
Article from The Salt Lake Tribune, January 25, 1912

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Article Text

WILDE CASE IS BEING ARGUED IN PORTLAND PORTLAND. Or., Jan. 24.-Opening statements of opposing counsel were made today to the jury which is to decide whether Louis J. Wilde is guilty of embezzling $90,000 from the suspended Oregon Trust and Savings bank. The state contends that by selling Omaha Telephone bonds of the par value of $500,000 to the Oregon Trust and Savings bank at par, when authorized by the construction company to dispose of them at 80 per cent, reporting back the sale at 82 per cent, and then. it is alleged, dividing the $90,000 difference between themselves, Wilde and W. Cooper Morris. the cashier, became embezzlers, as Morris was an employee of the institution and is alleged to have had no right to any profits. The defense declares that the construction company authorized the sale so as to net it 80 per cent of the par value, and that anything more which Wilde obtained was a legitimate commission.

2. April 9, 1912 The Tacoma Times Tacoma, WA
Article from The Tacoma Times, April 9, 1912

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Article Text

Portland, Oregon, is the scene of a finish fight between one man and a billion-dollar trust. The fight has been going on for a year, and will continue until the man wins or loses. At present he has the better of the scrap. The man is Samuel Hill, Pennsylvania Quaker, eccentric sonin-law of J. J. Hill, and president of the Home Telephone company of Portland. He is fighting the Bell Telephone trust. If he wins the Home company will be the only independent company in the northwest. But get this right. It is not the Home company against the trust-it is "Sam" Hill, Quaker, against the trust. The company tried fighting the trust and came within a hair's breath of losing. Then "Sam" happened along and now the battle is going the other way. Sam had been running the "good roads" work in Washington, but when Gov. Hay sent the convicts back to work in the jute mill to pay a political debt putting an end to the good roads work, Sam left the state. He said he would not live there as long as Hay was governor. About this time the Home Telephone company, in which Sam owned stock, needed help. The trouble was that the company was held by men who were back of other telephone companies in the northwest. Bonds from the other companies were involved in the failure of the Oregon Trust & Savings bank and several men were interested in the Home company, not from choice, but necessity, and when the other independent companies began to lose in the fight against the trust, some of these financiers wanted to sell out to the trust, quick. They would not hear of advancing more money to make the local company a success. Operating expenses were high and it looked like the trust would win. Then Sam Hill came along. He made an agreement whereby he was not to get any salary or expense money. He didn't need the money, he said, but he sure did want to wallop a trust. "You see, we Quakers don't think one man should keep his neighbor from getting enough to eat, just to satisfy his greed— that's why we don't like trusts. Thee understands that, does thee?" Sam doesn't use his Quaker "thees" and "thous" any more, except when he gets real earnest.