- Item
- 1890
Part of Richards Studio Photographs
ca. 1890. Copy of customer print. Sepia portrait of J.B. (Jesse) Sutton, first president of Puget Sound National Bank. Pulling up stakes from Quincy, Michigan, the 62-year-old banker arrived in the "fastest-growing town on the Pacific Coast" in 1890. By the late 1880's, Tacoma was home to six national banks and six state and private banks. Sutton was to add one more, the Puget Sound Savings Bank which incorporated on May 8, 1890. He led the bank through the slowing Tacoma economy in the early 1890's and survived the bank closures that affected many Tacoma banks after the 1893 stock market panic. Sutton passed away in 1904. Prior to his death, the board of directors commended him for his "conservatism, good judgement (sic) and high sense of honor" that led the bank during the "stormy period of the great financial crisis of 1893, and establishing it firmly in the confidence of the people which it enjoys today." Puget Sound Savings Bank would evolve into the Puget Sound National Bank which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1965. (Provorse: Banking on Independence)
Sutton, J.B.; Banking--Tacoma--1890-1900; Bankers--Tacoma;