18431. Gilbert Bros. bank (Salem, OR)

Bank Information

Episode Type
Suspension → Closure
Bank Type
state
Start Date
February 4, 1904
Location
Salem, Oregon (44.943, -123.035)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5-mini
Short Digest
70ea1b61

Response Measures

None

Description

Articles (Feb 1904) discuss the Gilbert Bros. bank being in suspension/receivership, creditors paid partial dividends (about 20%), and litigation over insolvency and assets. No article describes a depositor run. The bank is in receivership and appears to remain closed; therefore classified as suspension_closure. I corrected no names/dates beyond newspaper OCR oddities; used 1904 month from publication dates.

Events (2)
1. February 4, 1904 Suspension
Cause
Bank Specific Adverse Info
Cause Details
Bank entered receivership/bankruptcy proceedings; assets being marshaled and creditors receiving partial payouts; disputes over transfers to preferred creditors and collateral suggest bank-specific insolvency/asset problems.
Newspaper Excerpt
the Gilbert Bros. bank assets may pay out about forty percent. So far the creditors have received twenty per cent.
Source
newspapers
2. February 18, 1904 Receivership
Newspaper Excerpt
THE JOURNAL AND THE RECEIV- ERSHIP. ... Its efforts have caused some feeling ... to get the Gilbert Bros. bank receivership closed up in a creditable manner. ... The receiver should be the last to be offended at any suggestion to pay off the creditors in full, if such a way can be found. } ,cause:null,cause_details:null
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (3)
1. February 4, 1904 Daily Capital Journal Salem, OR
Article from Daily Capital Journal, February 4, 1904

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Article Text

A SUGGESTION IN GOOD FAITH. The statement is published that the Gilbert Bros. bank assets may pay out about forty percent. So far the creditors have received twenty per cent. It is not known how much the depositors will lose, but there is little doubt that the entire loss to the depositors will aggregate fifty thousand dollars. One Salem banker distinguished himself by taking up and paying the deposits of the public school children in full. That was a good advertisement for the banker, a good thing for the town and the children were taught honesty, Would it not be a good thing for the other bankers to pay the adult depositors in full? The Journal makes the suggestion in good faith, and under all the circumstances it would look well and make everybody feel good. A banker who is estimated to be worth several millions, who has made It all out of the community and who cannot take his wealth with him when he dies, would teach the adults a lesson in honesty, if he bank. made good the losses sustained by innocent depositors in a neighbor It would be a graceful act and an expression of good will towards a community of people who have all contributed to his enormous wealth and he would never feel the loss, Of course, he could accomplish some good by donating the sum to the community in the form of a fine park or public library, but the other Gilbert Bros. plan would be much more just and satisfactory to the depositors of It must be recalled that the high federal court declared that the Gilbort Bros. bank was not insolvent This other Salem banker doubtless could have all the assets of Gilbert Bros. turned over to him by the receiver agreeing to pay the depositors in full. Judge Bellinger virtually held that there were sufficient assets to pay all the depositors in full. Such a high court, after a full investigation, could not make so great an error as to not come within afty per cent of guessing the true state of the bank's affairs. The assets cannot have shrunken sixty per cent. They have not been

2. February 6, 1904 Daily Capital Journal Salem, OR
Article from Daily Capital Journal, February 6, 1904

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Article Text

WHY GILBERT BROS. BANK DEPOSITORS DESERVE LIBERAL TREATMENT. The Journal has shown that under all the circumstances the Salem banker who has had his own way with about everything connected with the Gilbert Broa bank suspension would do a very gracious act of justice If he paid off the adult depositors in full, as the other Salem banker paid off the school children in full. The Journal showed that the federal judge who passed on the ques. tion of bankruptcy proceedings held that it had not been shown that the bank was insolvent. It was represented that under a well-managed receivership in the local courts the assets could be husbaned carefully and made to pay out the depositors in full, as Mr. Slater had done in the Williams & Eng. land bank. Those who wanted a referee in bankruptcy claimed that large amounts of assets had been transferred to preferred creditors, that large sums of valuable collaterals had been turned over by the Gilberts, and especially to Banker Bush, and that this could be shown in bank ruptcy proceedings and not otherwise. But they were overruled and Mr. Bush had his own bank manager appointed receiver with whom he, along with others, proceeded to file his claims in the amount of about $20,000. in spite of the fact that he had collaterals in nearly the full amount At first Mr. Bush filed claims for interest on these claims, but that was objected to and was withdrawn. but he has remained in the posttion of drawing his regular dividends just the same as any other eredItor or depositor, while holding full collateral security. It is also claimed that he has not relinquished any collaterals on receiving divi. dends. We are not trying this case aga'nst Mr. Bush, but wish to make the point that other preferred creditors who got collaterals have not filed claims and got dividends, They proceeded to collect their own collaterala, while he is getting his dividends and will still have his collater ala andHENCE IS SURE OF GETTING HIS FULL PAY, WHILE OTH. ER CREDITORS WILL HAVE TO TAKE FORTY PER CENT OR WHATEVER IS FINALLY PAID. We are not saying this may not be all right and according to law

3. February 18, 1904 Daily Capital Journal Salem, OR
Article from Daily Capital Journal, February 18, 1904

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Article Text

THE JOURNAL AND THE RECEIV- ERSHIP. The Journal has been universally commended for its efforts to get the Gilbert Bros, bank receivership closed up in a creditable manner. Its efforts have caused some feel- ing, which is deeply regretted, but there is no conscious or intentional wrong-doing on its part. It 'bas exonerated by statement re- peatedly all the parties from any dis- honesty or collusion, and especially the receiver. THE RECEIVER SHOULD BE THE LAST TO BE OFFENDED AT ANY SUGGESTION TO PAY OFF THE CREDITORS IN FULL, IF SUCH A WAY CAN BE FOUND. No one took the suggestion very seriously, although it was made in good faith, that Mr. Bush pay off the depos- štors, and take the assets. Why anyone should get angry at such a proposition is hard to see. Mr. Bush is able to do that, and never feel the loss, and the effect would be good all around. This is the whole of our offending- that a newspaper man of little means should have the temerity to even sug- gest such a course is construed to be an offence for which he should be wiped out of existence. The proposition that a very wealthy man should pay a lot of people who are poor, or very moderately welll sup- plied with this world's goods, WHAT HE MAY NOT TECHNICALLY AND LEGALLY OWE THEM, ought not of- fend anyone. The Journal confesses to a feeling of timidity in referring to this matter. but who is to say a word for the unfor- tunate sufferers by the Gilbert bank suspension, if a newspaper does not? For this there is talk of threshing the editor, his personal shortcomings are dragged into the newspapers, as if he had become a public malefactor, and he is threatened with all kinds of evil. We will all live through these peri- ods of stress and storm, and we will all stand on our general merits. As the scriptures has it: "What one of you by taking thought can add to his stature?" THE CHARACTER OF LINCOLN. Lincoln's true character was found- ed in his long ancestry of pioneer and home-building, backwoods parents. Bankers' conventions and confer- ences of trust managers never eulo- gised Abraham Lincoln, for the very simple reason that they find no points of contact with the great soul of the emancipator, The human side of Lincoln was his