Oregon's J. P. Morgan Sells Out

Salemites strolling past the corner of State & Commercial Streets one day last week stared sorrowfully at cardboard placards in the arched windows of the old Salem, Ore. firm of Ladd & Bush, Bankers.

They read: "Ladd & Bush Salem-Branch of the United States National Bank of Portland." For 71 years (almost the age of Salem) it had kept the money of Salem and the inhabitants of Oregon's lush Willamette Valley. Together the three had prospered.

For a reputed price of $1,200,000, straitlaced, teetotaling, 83-year-old Asahel Nesmith Bush ("Asahel II") sold his bank last week to branch bankers from Portland. Third oldest State bank in the Pacific Northwest, Ladd & Bush was also the region's third biggest independent. On its books were $11,220,150 deposits, $508,093 surplus & undivided profits. Once forced to take a $250,000 RFC loan, the Bush Bank nevertheless earned an average $156,400 over the last five years.

It was 1850 when Asahel Bush ("Asahel I"), a young (26) Massachusetts attorney and printer, had clapped a printing press into the hold of a Yankee clipper for the 15,000-mile voyage round the Horn, lit out himself by packet boat for the rich, raw, pioneer Oregon Territory. He founded the Oregon Statesman at Oregon City, later moved to Salem when it was made the Territorial capital, became State printer, by 1862 was rich enough to retire from the publishing business.

Coaxed out of retirement by another New Englander, William Sargent Ladd, Asahel I, at 44, went into the banking business with him and one employe, a cashier. First day Ladd & Bush took in $1,450 deposits, made nine loans on which they collected $221.17 interest (12%) in advance. The bank quoted U. S. Government bonds below par, handled currency only at a discount. At day's end its balance sheet listed $51,450 assets & liabilities. That year the first transcontinental railroad came through.

When Asahel I died in 1913 at the age of 89 his bank had $2,228,000 deposits.

Moreover, the bank was his, lock, stock & barrel, for he had long ago bought out his partner. On his deathbed he looked up to ask: "Is everything all right?" Advised that it was, he instructed: "Keep it so." His only son, Asahel II, kept it so until last week. For years he personally took over delinquent loans rather than let them spot the bank's records. A stickler for liquid assets, he astounded U. S. Treasury officials by turning in $350,000 in gold when the New Deal forsook the gold standard. Like the elder J. P. Morgan, he had plenty of money to lend to a man with character, none for a man without it, Stubborn, independent, able, he refused to close his firm for the 1933 bank holiday, went out in the street and urged jittery depositors to come in and get their money, finally compromised with Federal officials by locking the front door, leaving a side door open.

For as long as any Salemite can recall, the Bushes have been Salem's first family, its only millionaires. Asahel II had three sisters, the most notable of whom is quaint, petite Miss Sally, who lives in a big old house in the 40-acre "wilderness" Asahel I bought in mid-Salem, a block from the State capitol. There she cut fresh flowers each morning to pretty up the Bush Bank's lobby. There she pastured her cows. Asahel II 's son was no banker, dabbled in world travel, social pastimes. Of the grandsons, one, Asahel IV ("Tito"), 28, is an Associated Press reporter in Salt Lake City, the other, Stewart, 25, is a director of the family trust company.

Last week, after he had sold his bank, Asahel II showed up for work as usual next morning. His employes were all there.

They had been taken over by the Portland bank, merged with the staff of its former Salem branch. Sorrowing Salemites sat back and waited for the inevitable announcement of Asahel II's retirement.

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