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 The Life and Character 
 
 OF 
 
 Stephen Girard, 
 
 OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, 
 IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
 
 Mariner and Merchant. 
 
 WITH 
 
 AN APPENDIX DESCRIPTIVE OF GIRARD COLLEGE. 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY ATLEE INGRAM, LL. B. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA.: 
 
 E. STANLEY HART, 32 1 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
 1884.
 
 Copyright, 18S4, by HENRY ATLEE INGRAM.
 
 CT 
 
 & 4-41 54 
 
 TO THE 
 DESCENDANTS IN AMERICA 
 
 OF 
 
 THIS BIOGRAPHY OF HIS BROTHER STEPHEN IS, WITH 
 THEIR PERMISSION, RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 
 1473860
 
 PREFACE 
 
 IN presenting a new biography of Stephen Girard 
 the writer has considered that a few words in ex- 
 planation of the various reasons prompting his work 
 may not be amiss, and as these reasons are best set 
 forth through a short consideration of already existing 
 memoirs, it is proposed here briefly to refer to the 
 latter. 
 
 The first attempt at a biography of Girard closely 
 followed his decease in 1831, being the work of 
 Stephen Simpson, 1 a former clerk in Girard's Bank, 
 whose probable motives in its conception and produc- 
 tion have been elsewhere adverted to in the body of the 
 present work. It is sufficient here to say that this 
 narrative shows such garbled, perverted, or wantonly 
 misstated facts that a mere casual reference to its 
 inconsistencies and flat self-contradictions will perhaps 
 quite fully justify the re-presentment of the subject 
 in a more reasonable light. But its author has gone 
 further, and, not hesitating to rely upon himself where 
 his investigations failed to supply the desired mate- 
 rial, has produced a work whose inaccuracy and 
 
 1 Biography of Stephen Girard. By Stephen Simpson. Philadelphia, 1832. 
 Reprint, King & Baird, 607 Sanson Street, Philadelphia, 1867. 
 
 vii
 
 V J}J PREFACE. 
 
 patent malice is the more regrettable since it contains 
 otherwise sufficient truth to have naturally formed the 
 basis of the majority of subsequent sketches. Its 
 author has himself confessed that, save for the gener- 
 ally known acts of Girard's life, he has chiefly relied 
 upon public gossip, 1 although he usually fails to 
 mention his authorities, and elsewhere uses liberally 
 his position of clerk in the Bank to lend a factitious 
 importance to his work as the personal observations 
 of one in close daily contact with his subject. The 
 present writer is indebted to the oldest living appren- 
 tice of Girard for the statement that at no time did 
 anything approximating an intimacy exist between 
 this clerk and his employer, and that the light esteem 
 openly evinced by the latter for his subordinate wholly 
 limited their infrequent communications to such mat- 
 ters as arose from the affairs of the Bank. 2 It will be 
 easily apparent, therefore, owing to the short time 
 spent daily by Girard in his Bank, that this clerk's 
 opportunities for acquiring accurate information of 
 his employer were even more scanty than those of the 
 counting-house apprentices, to say nothing of his 
 own admission that having upon one occasion had 
 the impertinence to question Girard upon his private 
 life, he met with a complete rebuff. 3 
 
 1 Preface to Simpson's Biograpliy of Girard, p. 5. 
 
 2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture IV. 
 
 3 See article in American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, Jan. 12th, 1832.
 
 PREFACE. j x 
 
 " Any one," says Professor Wagner in his first lec- 
 ture upon Girard, " who will read this biography of 
 Mr. Girard, which I thus publicly pronounce a tissue 
 of lies, sticking out on every page, will perceive that 
 the whole account is embittered and venomous, and 
 that the author has tortured his imagination to find 
 an opportunity to falsify and pervert. Now, before 
 dilating upon it, let us inquire for a moment who this 
 biographer was. When the charter of the old .Bank 
 of the United States expired and Mr. Girard purchased 
 the building, establishing in it his own Bank, he 
 appointed George Simpson, the cashier of the former 
 institution, to the same position in his new concern. 
 Stephen Simpson was the son of this latter, and, with 
 Mr. Girard's consent, was appointed by his father to 
 the situation of clerk in the Bank, in which position 
 he continued until the death of his father. Stephen 
 then aspired to the cashiership that his father had 
 held, but, unfortunately for him, Joseph Roberts, the 
 first teller, stood between him and the coveted office. 
 Mr. Girard had confidence in Roberts, but very little 
 in Simpson, the result being that the former received 
 the appointment, and the latter became thereupon the 
 uncompromising enemy of Mr. Girard." 
 
 This feeling of resentment having been reinforced 
 by the punishment of a reduction of salary upon the 
 occasion of Simpson's assault upon a fellow-book-
 
 x PREFACE. 
 
 keeper in the Bank, 1 " every invention of fancy and 
 perversion of facts has been resorted to by him to 
 injure the reputation and tarnish the fame of that 
 benevolent man ; — with which statement before you, 
 for the truth of which I vouch, can you expect a 
 calm or dispassionate narrative from a biographer so 
 influenced ? As well might you expect clear water 
 from a muddy pool." 2 
 
 But, unfortunately, the keynote struck by the gen- 
 eral tenor of Simpson's book has been patently fol- 
 lowed by Girard's subsequent biographers, with one 
 notable exception; these writers, most of whom were 
 contributors to periodical literature, finding it much 
 easier to publish excerpts from that remarkable pro- 
 duction than to investigate the subject for themselves. 
 From these circumstances, together with the posses- 
 sion of documentary evidence, referred to in its place, 
 and consisting of baptismal records and sworn testi- 
 mony refuting many of that author's statements, the 
 present writer regards the works of Simpson and his 
 followers as utterly unreliable. And though in the 
 present work the former has, nevertheless, been fre- 
 quently referred to, and even quoted freely, it will be 
 found that the references are wholly to facts likely to 
 have come under that author's personal notice, being 
 matters of common report, of which his book forms a 
 
 1 Post p. 135. - Professor William Wagner, Lecture I.
 
 PREFACE. x [ 
 
 convenient record, or else comprise reluctant admis- 
 sions in Girard's favor. These latter have been quoted 
 without reserve, in the belief that favorable statements 
 by an adverse party form strong evidence in their sub- 
 ject's behalf, the present writer especially desiring to 
 call attention to the fact that in many cases the pas- 
 sages flatly controvert the statements of other por- 
 tions of the book itself. 
 
 The notable exception among Girard's biographers 
 referred to above is Henry W. Arey, formerly secre- 
 tary of Girard College, who, having free access to the 
 papers stored at the College, impliedly protests against 
 the false inferences drawn by Simpson, and presents 
 in his own sketch a fair picture of Girard as he actu- 
 ally appeared to his fellows. 1 To this sketch the 
 present writer has great pleasure in acknowledging his 
 indebtedness ; and though the possession of certain 
 documents and evidence not at that biographer's dis- 
 posal compels him to differ from several of the lat- 
 ter's conclusious, he recognizes everywhere the author's 
 endeavor to present his facts with the strictest impar- 
 tiality. But, unfortunately, having depended mainly 
 upon a journal kept by Girard, commencing in the 
 year 1774, 2 this author, like the others, has relied for 
 information as to Girard's origin upon common report 
 
 1 Girard College and its Founder. By Henry W. Arey. Phila., i860. 
 2Arey, p. 8.
 
 X JJ PREFACE. 
 
 or the earlier work of Simpson, and has, consequently, 
 committed the same error of ascribing to his subject 
 that exceedingly humble parentage which forms one 
 of the salient defects of the earlier biographies. 
 
 How such a report can have originated is beyond 
 the power of the present writer to explain, but it will 
 be seen by the evidence herein presented that it must 
 have been the invention of absolute ignorance, if, in- 
 deed, the public is not additionally indebted for it to 
 Stephen Simpson, among whose other malicious 
 stories it first appears. The present writer has, how- 
 ever, no desire to enter into controversy with regard 
 to this or any other of the statements in the following 
 pages, it having been his endeavor in every case to 
 convince solely by the presentation of well-attested 
 proofs, believing that the surest argument than can 
 be advanced is the simple statement of facts he is in 
 a position to support. He is aware of the objections 
 to be urged against that minute consideration of 
 Girard's domestic life which he has permitted himself 
 in the second part of the present work ; but while ad- 
 mitting that such investigation of petty detail is often 
 liable to do injustice to character at large, he has felt 
 the necessity of stating openly and accurately the 
 intimate facts of a life which has been already grossly 
 misrepresented, and finds his chief excuse for so 
 doing in the remarkable success with which his sub-
 
 PREFACE. x jii 
 
 ject's character withstands the trying ordeal of such 
 scrutiny. 
 
 Conscious of many defects in his presentation of 
 the subject, he lays claim to no merit of literary work- 
 manship, but is quite willing that whatever value may 
 be attached to this biography shall rest entirely upon 
 the validity of the various documents already several 
 times mentioned, which documents are now for the 
 first time at the disposal of a biographer of Girard, 
 and which are as follows : 
 
 (i.) A copy of the official record of Girard's 
 birth and baptism, certified under their respective 
 seals in 1857 by the Mayoralty of Bordeaux and the 
 United States Consul at Bordeaux, France, to be used 
 as competent evidence in the various suits brought by 
 the heirs against his estate. 
 
 (2.) The sworn testimony taken in France under 
 a commission from the United States Circuit Court 
 for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania 1 for the same 
 purpose. 
 
 (3.) The lectures upon Girard, delivered by Pro- 
 fessor William Wagner, the MSS. of which has been 
 placed without reserve at the present writer's service, 
 and whose great value arises from the fact that from 
 the year 18 10 to the death of Girard, Professor Wagner 
 
 1 See Transcript of 'the Records of the U. S. Supreme Court, " Vidal vs. The 
 Mayor, etc.," No. 22, Vol. II, page 85 of Transcript and p. 120 of the case.
 
 x j v PREFACE. 
 
 was in most confidential relations with him, first as 
 his favorite apprentice, and afterward acting as his 
 agent in all parts of the world. 
 
 (4.) The traditions in the family, comprising 
 inter alia the substance of the present writer's many 
 conversations with the three nieces of Girard, daugh- 
 ters of his brother Jean, who lived in the Water 
 Street mansion from their early childhood to the 
 death of Girard, and who were present during the 
 whole of the latter's illness, as well as at his death. 
 The writer has had access to the MSS. notes left by 
 the youngest of these nieces, Henriette Marie Girard- 
 Clark (Vve. Lallemand), to which he is greatly in- 
 debted for many of the observations upon Girard's 
 domestic life. 
 
 (5.) A " Memorial of Stephen Girard against 
 Joseph Baldesqui," in Girard's handwriting. 
 
 (6.) A great number of French letters, written 
 to Girard by his father, his two brothers, and his 
 sister, covering a period of thirty-one years from 
 1772 to 1803, and comprising his intimate corres- 
 pondence during the whole period, of which no 
 information has heretofore been accessible to any 
 biographer. 
 
 The writer, having submitted his completed work 
 to Professor Wagner, founder of the " Wagner Free 
 Institute of Science," has the pleasure of subjoining
 
 PREFACE. xv 
 
 the following letter from the only business associate 
 of Girard now living : 
 
 Hall of the Wagner Free Institute of Science, 
 Philadelphia, April 26th, 1884. 
 
 Henry A. Ingram, Esq. : 
 
 My Dear Sir: — I have carefully considered "The 
 Life of Stephen Girard, Mariner and Merchant," 
 as he was always wont to be called, which you have 
 submitted to me for my opinion before publication. 
 I may safely say that I fairly consider myself in a 
 position to criticise closely any matters relating to 
 my old master, the great Girard, owing to my long 
 and intimate knowledge of him, extending over a 
 period of twenty-one years from the time of my first 
 being apprenticed to him to the day of his death. 
 I heartily and unhesitatingly approve of the work 
 which you have done, and feel delighted that so 
 correct a biography is to be presented to the world. 
 I believe it to be strictly correct, so far as the 
 facts are concerned, and, what is more, to be the 
 first true biography published of my old master, 
 which does honor and justice to his true char- 
 acter as an earnest, philosophic, and philanthropic 
 man. 
 
 I am, my dear sir, yours very truly, 
 
 William Wagner, 
 
 President and Founder of (he Wagner Free Institute of Science.
 
 STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 " On regardait chez moi par les fentes, et Ton me calomniait ; j'ai ouvert portes et 
 fenetres, afin qu'on me conniit, du moins, tel que je suis." 
 
 —J.J. Rousseau, in Souvestre's Un Philosophe sous Us Toits. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 STEPHEN GIRARD, the eldest son and second 
 child of Pierre Girard and of Anne Marie 
 Lafargue, his wife, was born on the 20th of May, 
 1750, in " a three-story brick house in the old 
 Philadelphia style" x in the Rue Ramonet aux 
 Chartrous, near the City of Bordeaux, France, and 
 was baptized in the Roman Catholic faith the 
 following day, having for godfather Etienne Foiesse, 
 and for godmother Anne Lafargue, the sister of 
 his mother. 2 
 
 The house, which was surrounded by quite a plot 
 of land, had probably been purchased by Pierre 
 Girard about the time of his marriage with Made- 
 
 1 Notes of Henriette Marie Girard-Clark (Vve. Lallemand). 
 
 2 Officially certified copy of baptismal record of Stephen Girard. 
 
 17
 
 i8 
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRAKD. 
 
 moiselle Lafargue, and upon his decease it was 
 inherited by Stephen, who in turn devised it to his 
 brother, Etienne, and his niece, Victoire Fenelon, in 
 equal moieties. 1 It thus became the homestead of 
 several generations of Pierre Girard's descendants, 
 for the former was not himself a native of Bor- 
 deaux, but of the little city of Perigueux, in the 
 Dordogne. Many generations of the family had 
 resided in this latter city, being widely known 
 for their devotion to the sea, upon which they had 
 been engaged from time out of mind, either com- 
 mercially or in the service of the Royal Navy. It 
 was a family well known and heartily respected, of 
 considerable wealth — Pierre Girard and his brothers 
 having inherited several ships from their father — and 
 whose social position had just been additionally well 
 established by the conferring upon Pierre Girard of 
 the Cross of the Royal and Military Order of Saint 
 Louis. 
 
 The circumstances which gave rise to this last 
 honorable distinction are so curtly narrated upon the 
 official Register of Marriages at Bordeaux on the 
 occasion of Pierre Girard's marriage to Mademoiselle 
 Lafargue that the present writer feels justified in 
 quoting the extract in full. Unfortunately he is 
 unable to give the exact date of this latter ceremony, 
 
 1 Will, Article IX.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 19 
 
 but it probably followed close upon the occurrence 
 mentioned below, which took place when Pierre 
 Girard was but thirty years old : 
 
 "In 1 j 4. j. France being at War with the English, 
 Pierre Girard finding himself upon the Squadron at 
 Brest, the English sent a Fire Ship into the [inidst of 
 the'] Squadron, which set on Fire a Vessel of Line. 
 
 " M. Pierre Girard fired with Zeal for his Country, 
 by his Skill and Vigilance succeeded in Extinguishing 
 the Fire and Saved the Ship, which the Flames would 
 have Destroyed, which Vessel in a few Days was in 
 Condition to Rejoin the Squadron. His Majesty, Louis 
 XV, having Learned of the Heroic Action which M. 
 Pierre Girard had done, Knighted him, and Ordered 
 a gold Medal to be Struck, which He gave to Pierre 
 Girard as a Badge of Honour, and that his Name 
 Should be Placed on the Lnscription of the Registers 
 of the Admiralty of Paris, to Engrave in the Hearts 
 of his Family, the Memory of their Ancestor." l 
 
 It should be added that according to the rules of 
 the Order the honor of knighthood could not be 
 conferred upon any save a naval or military officer, 2 
 showing that Pierre Girard already occupied a posi- 
 tion of some distinction, a circumstance which may 
 
 1 " Extrait des Actes de Mariage" depose aux Ecritures de M. Patotte Notaire, 
 Rue St. Remy, Bordeaux, France. 
 
 • Clark's Concise History of Knighthood, London, 1784, Vol. I, p. 235; Perrot's 
 Collection Historique ties Ordrcs de Chevaleric, etc., Paris, 1^20.
 
 20 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 account for the multiplication of rewards mentioned 
 in the quoted extract. 
 
 Born of this line of seafaring men, Stephen Girard 
 early showed a marked predilection in the same 
 direction, but he was kept at home acquiring such 
 elementary education as was possible in France one 
 hundred and twenty-five years ago, the thoroughness 
 of which rudimentary training became apparent in 
 his later completion of certain studies unaided. 1 It 
 had been his father's hope and intention that all his 
 sons should enter a professional life, and it is possible 
 that this might have been the result in Stephen's case 
 had not an accident during his eighth year summarily 
 broken off his attention to his studies — an attention 
 the consequent long indulgence of his preference for 
 open-air life found him very unwilling to renew. 
 
 This accident was the loss of his right eye, the 
 result of throwing wet oyster-shells upon a bonfire, 
 the heat of which splintering the shells, a fragment 
 entered Stephen's right eye, at once destroying the 
 sight in it beyond the hope of restoration. The grief 
 and pain attending the catastrophe was heightened by 
 his playmates' subsequent thoughtless ridicule of his 
 altered face, leaving so great an impression upon the 
 sensitive young lad's mind that he vividly remem- 
 bered it to the day of his death. As a consequence, 
 
 i Compare Arey, p. 7.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 2 l 
 
 he withdrew almost wholly from their society, occu- 
 pying himself with that of his brother Jean [de Mom- 
 brun], an early intimacy between the two brothers 
 being thus commenced that lasted, with but one inter- 
 ruption, during the long period that stretched to the 
 death of the younger. This friendship forms the 
 brightest thread in the whole fabric of the elder 
 brother's life, and was of equal warmth on the part of 
 both brothers, a happy result of the patient care with 
 which their mother had sought to render her family 
 a unit, and one the more worthy of remark when it 
 is remembered that to all other persons the elder 
 showed an exceedingly undemonstrative disposition. 
 His reserve of character was no doubt rendered some- 
 what morbid by the. comparative isolation to which 
 his proud and sensitive temper had relegated him, and 
 it is curious to consider the influence such a trivial 
 and childish circumstance as his playmates' ridicule 
 had in the after- development of his life, for it is 
 doubtless to this event may be fundamentally traced 
 that distrust of, and semi-contempt for so many of 
 his fellows which he later displayed ; and the disposi- 
 tion whose most salient feature became its self-reli- 
 ance and complete indifference to the cavil or judg- 
 ment of his neighbors was primarily dependent for 
 its direction in not a small degree upon this very 
 circumstance of its original exceeding sensibility.
 
 22 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 Although, as has been said above, Stephen was 
 carefully drilled in such elementary studies as are 
 commonly pursued by a lad of eight years old, 
 there can be no doubt that he was not naturally 
 studious, and a sympathy for his misfortune having 
 permitted great latitude in his preference for out- 
 door life, his later studies soon came to occupy by 
 far the smallest part of his attention. He possessed 
 excellent faculties of observation and a very reten- 
 tive memory, supplying in a great measure the 
 routine work of the school-room, and there can 
 be no doubt that at the time he was not at all 
 averse to escape from the uncongenial labor of the 
 latter. It is in the injudicious indulgence of this 
 preference upon his part that is to be found the 
 explanation of the neglect with which upon one 
 occasion he reproached his father, the consciousness 
 of his loss having led him, in 1813, to write the 
 following letter, which a consideration of the fore- 
 going remarks will show was decidedly unjust: 
 " I have the proud satisfaction to know that my 
 conduct, my labor, and my economy have enabled 
 me to do one hundred times more for my relatives 
 than they all together have done for me since the 
 day of my birth. While my brothers were taught 
 at college, I was the only one whose education 
 was neglected. But the love of labor, which has
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 2 T. 
 
 not left me yet, has placed me in the ranks of 
 citizens useful to society." 1 
 
 In the mere amount of money expended this state- 
 ment was probably true. But it is the start in life 
 which is most difficult to get, and for this Stephen 
 was indebted to his father, notwithstanding the 
 rather ungracious manner in which he had recognized 
 his relative's subsequent claims upon him. But the 
 stress under which this letter was written 2 was suffi- 
 cient to excuse it in a great measure, the more so as 
 it is the only time he gave vent to his feelings in this 
 manner, and the tone of conscious strength in it is 
 certainly to be pardoned one who had indeed almost 
 literally " made his way alone with means gained 
 from his nurse, the Sea." 3 
 
 From his earliest childhood Stephen had been re- 
 markable for precocious dignity and grave self-asser- 
 tion, and with these masterful traits was coupled a 
 passionate and rather domineering temper, which, 
 when opposed, was displayed with considerable vio- 
 lence. His mother was still earnestly seeking to 
 modify this character, so directly opposed to the 
 usual careless high spirits of young French children, 
 and to teach him the necessary self-control, when 
 her death, which occurred while Stephen was yet 
 
 1 Arey, pp. 6 and 7. " The capture of his ship, the " Montesquieu." 
 
 3 Arey, p. 7. Letter written in 1789.
 
 2 » LIFE OF STEPHEN G1RARD. 
 
 quite a young lad, found him with the lesson still un- 
 learned. The considerable influence which, as eldest 
 son, he doubtless wielded in the immediate family 
 after his mother's death, probably fostered the inde- 
 pendence of character already natural to him, and 
 his impatience of discipline, speedily reasserting its 
 mastery, grew in time to be not only the most fruitful 
 source of the unhappiness of his after life, but also 
 the proximate cause of his leaving his father's home. 
 
 Not that he was at all unhappy at this period, how- 
 ever, for during the few years following his mother's 
 decease no untoward event marred the peace of the 
 family circle, and probably none would have arisen 
 had not Pierre Girard selected a second wife in the 
 person of Madame Giraud (nee Lachapelle), an Ameri- 
 can or West Indian, who was, unfortunately, already 
 the mother of several children. 
 
 There is no evidence to show that Madame Giraud- 
 Girard was unkind to or in any particular neglected 
 her step-children ; but it was not long before the dis- 
 comforts of which a second marriage is so liable to 
 prove the fertile source began to make themselves 
 disagreeably manifest. Stephen had early found a 
 grievance in the fact that the newcomer not only 
 supplanted his influence in the family, but was also 
 disposed to exercise control of his theretofore com- 
 paratively unrestricted liberty ; while his step-mother,
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 2 K 
 
 failing to understand the peculiarities of the lad's 
 disposition, was unable to allay the distrust with 
 which he had immediately regarded her. Stephen 
 had always been amenable to kindly argument, being 
 one of those natures which must be led and cannot 
 be driven, and no especial effort having been made 
 to win his regard, his dislike and jealousy increased 
 from day to day, until, since he was not at the least 
 pains to conceal his sentiments despite his father's 
 frequent reproofs, it required but little foresight to 
 predict that a speedy climax was inevitable. 
 
 The crisis arrived one day while the family were 
 gathered about the dinner-table. Some action of 
 Stephen's had called for a reproof from his step- 
 mother, and her attempt to correct him proved to be 
 the final increment which the lad's overburdened 
 temper could not withstand. Restraining his feelings 
 no longer, he burst into a torrent of passionate re- 
 proach, expressing so plainly the bitterness of his 
 spirit that it was impossible for his father, who hap- 
 pened to be present, to pass the matter by without 
 making of it a signal example. Astounded by 
 Stephen's violence, apparently so disproportioned to 
 the provocation, and indignant at his temerity, Pierre 
 Girard, as soon as he was able to stem the current of 
 his son's indignation, rebuked him in the sternest 
 manner, commanding him to make immediate present 
 2
 
 26 
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 amends and submit cheerfully to family discipline in 
 the future, or else to find a home for himself as soon 
 as he was able elsewhere. 
 
 But the young lad, having once lost his self-control, 
 had gone too far to turn back. He was unwilling to 
 confess himself an offender where he firmly believed 
 himself to be the one aggrieved, and his father's com- 
 mand had hardly been finished before Stephen pas- 
 sionately replied : " I will leave your house. Give me 
 a venture on any ship that sails from Bordeaux, and I 
 will go at once where you shall never see me again !" 
 
 Persisting in his refusal to make amends, it was 
 evident that heroic measures were necessary, both for 
 the lad's own sake and for that of the family, whose 
 peace was constantly imperiled by his unmanageable 
 presence. And while there can be no doubt that 
 Pierre Girard felt deep compassion for his motherless 
 lad when the heat of his indignation had subsided, 
 yet it was still apparent something must be done to 
 prevent such scenes of domestic insubordination. In 
 this dilemma, serious thought was given the idea 
 Stephen had broached himself, and the latter remain- 
 ing firm in his obstinate attitude, his father found 
 himself reluctantly forced to surrender his hope that 
 his son might adopt a professional career, and conse- 
 quently sought a business acquaintance, Captain Jean 
 Courteau, master of the ship Pelerin, who was about
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 2 7 
 
 to sail for Santo Domingo, one of the French colonies 
 in the West Indies. Finding Captain Courteau willing 
 to take charge of Stephen, a " venture " amounting to 
 sixteen thousand livres 1 was furnished the latter by 
 his father, who bade his son farewell, as one may 
 well imagine, with many regrets that the young lad's 
 waywardness had made such a course a necessity. 
 
 This was in 1764, when young Girard was but four- 
 teen years of age, and though he was the owner of 
 more than three thousand dollars' worth of goods on 
 board, his youth and inexperience forbidding a post 
 of more responsibility, he occupied that remarkably 
 anomalous one of cabin boy, and part oivner, which 
 furnished afterward the theme of some of his liveliest 
 expressions of satisfaction. 2 
 
 Probably his father-after having reconciled himself 
 to the idea of his son's succeeding him in maritime 
 ventures, was not unwilling that the latter should 
 begin at the very foot of the ladder in his new pur- 
 suit. The knowledge he would thus gain of the sea 
 and of the details of a foreign commerce could not 
 but prove of the greatest service in any event ; and 
 perhaps too he had not wholly surrendered a hope 
 that a single voyage would cure this headstrong folly, 
 bringing back home, repentant, an obedient lad. But 
 if such had indeed been his hope, he was destined to 
 
 1 Somewhat more than three thousand dollars. 2 Compare Arey, p. 7.
 
 2 g LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 be greatly disappointed. Girard did, it is true, return 
 many times to Bordeaux, where he visited his old 
 home, " Les Chartrous," frequently, being received by 
 his brothers and sisters most cordially, and by none 
 with greater warmth than by his brother Jean [de 
 Mombrun]. But the charm of the sea had fastened 
 itself upon the old naval commander's son, and now 
 his sole ambition was to perfect himself in navigation, 
 which he studied daily with devotion. 
 
 His first voyage lasted ten months, 1 and resulted 
 in such profit, both financially and as regards progress 
 in seamanship, that instead of his ardor having 
 cooled, he found his gains but added fuel to the 
 hereditary passion. Besides, was this a time to ac- 
 knowledge he had been wrong, when he had shown 
 he could maintain his independence, though so very 
 young ? And, flushed with success, he sailed again 
 and again, until at the end of his sixth voyage he had 
 attained the rank of lieutenant of the vessel. 
 
 Now it was at that time the law of France that 
 no person under twenty-five years of age could be 
 admitted to the examination preliminary to granting 
 a license to command, nor could this be granted 
 except to an applicant who had already sailed two 
 cruises in the Royal Navy. Girard lacked both 
 qualifications, but nevertheless, undaunted by the fact, 
 
 l Arey, p. 7.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 29 
 
 he determined to apply for the necessary permission, 
 and his father's influence being still, happily, powerful 
 enough to procure a dispensation, on the 4th of 
 October, 1773, there was given "To Stephen Girard, 
 of Bordeaux, full authority to act as Captain, Master, 
 and Patron of a Merchant Vessel." l 
 
 Thus armed, he sailed from Bordeaux for the last 
 time, and during the sixty years of busy life that 
 supervened he never saw again the old homestead in 
 the Rue Ramonet aux Chartrous, nor, save only his 
 brother Jean, did he ever hold again the hand of one 
 of his brothers or sisters, or of that father to whom 
 he owed his starting-point in life. 
 
 He cleared for St. Marc's, in the island of Santo 
 Domingo, on board the ship " La Julie," Captain 
 Mouroux commanding, and reaching there in Feb- 
 ruary, 1774, sailed thence for New York, at which 
 port, the first at which he touched on the Continent 
 of North America, 2 he arrived in the following July. 
 There he met with a prosperous merchant of that 
 city named Thomas Randall, 3 whose notice had been 
 attracted by the business tact and shrewdness Girard 
 displayed in disposing of the articles which he brought 
 with him to New York, and the former taking a great 
 fancy to the young man, then in his twenty-fifth 
 year, their acquaintance rapidly ripened to intimacy. 
 
 1 Compare Arey, p. 8. "- Will., Art. XX, g 6. 
 
 3 Later cf the firm of Randall, Stewarts & Cox.
 
 3o LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 Mr. Randall was engaged in trade with New 
 Orleans, Port au Prince, and the West Indies gener- 
 ally, and not having an entirely responsible master 
 for his ship, " L' Aimable Louise," it occurred to him 
 that perhaps this alert young Frenchman might be 
 the very man he needed. So, as a preliminary experi- 
 ment, he offered Girard the position of first officer 
 under Captain Malahard, and this being accepted, it 
 led to such satisfactory results that at the termination 
 of the first voyage he sold Girard a part interest in 
 the vessel, and the two joined in freighting and dis- 
 patching her under the latter's command for New 
 Orleans and the West Indies. 
 
 For two years this quasi-partnership or commu- 
 nity of affairs continued, and during its existence 
 the war between Great Britain and her American 
 Colonies was declared, which immediately put 
 American shipping, and particularly that home- 
 ward bound from the West Indies, in the greatest 
 danger. It was owing to this apparently irrelevant 
 circumstance that Girard first conceived the idea of 
 visiting the city of his subsequent adoption, and 
 the following anecdote shows upon what a trivial 
 event the unconscious choice of his future hap- 
 pened to turn. In May of 1776 he found himself, 
 after many days of fog and storm at sea, fronting 
 a large bay, in complete ignorance of his where-
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN G IRA ED. 3 I 
 
 abouts, and prudence plainly dictating that he should 
 anchor. This was accordingly done, while at the 
 same time the small cannon carried for emergencies 
 was discharged again and again for a pilot, the sound 
 creating not a little excitement upon the shore, as 
 may be very easily imagined under the circumstances. 
 Upon the advent of the pilot it was discovered that 
 the bay was that of the Delaware, and Girard further 
 learned that a British fleet was even then cruising 
 outside, so that an attempt to put to sea or to make 
 the port of New York, for which he was bound, 
 would almost inevitably result in capture. Advised 
 by the pilot to relinquish his intention of going 
 further, he objected that he had no American 
 money on board to pay the pilotage up the river, 
 which was demanded in advance ; but this difficulty 
 being met by the kindly offer of a loan from one 
 Captain King, who had come aboard with the pilot to 
 discover who had had the temerity to discharge sig- 
 nal guns under the very nose of the British, Girard 
 accepted his courteous offer and the anchor was 
 weighed. He was in the habit of saying, jokingly, in 
 after life, alluding to this circumstance, that when he 
 first came to Philadelphia he was obliged to borrow 
 five dollars to bring him into the city; and it was well 
 that he did, for his ship was not yet out of sight of 
 the spot where she had been lying before a British
 
 -5 2 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRAKD. 
 
 man-of-war entered the bay, so that if they had not 
 escaped just when they did, in less than an hour 
 Girard would have been a British prisoner. 1 
 
 Upon arriving in Philadelphia, he decided that 
 the risk of putting to sea again immediately was 
 too great, and apparently having made an arrange- 
 ment with Mr. Randall, by which he sold his 
 interest in " L'Aimable Louise," he took a store 
 on Water Street, which he stocked with the rem- 
 nants of her West Indian cargo. Before he had 
 completed the sale of these articles Admiral Howe 
 blockaded the port, in July, 1777, and finding that 
 he would be compelled to remain some time in 
 that city, he wrote to his friends in Bordeaux that 
 a great profit might be expected, on account of 
 the high prices which prevailed consequent upon 
 the war, should they export clarets and brandies 
 to Philadelphia. Having confidence in his judg- 
 ment, these friends forwarded him consignments 
 in casks, which upon arrival were bottled and sold 
 upon his friends' account, although that he did 
 not then intend remaining ashore after it should 
 become possible for an American ship to safely 
 put to sea is evident from the fact that he filled 
 the greater part of his store with blocks, cordage, 
 and other paraphernalia of shipbuilding, contem- 
 
 1 Compare Simpson, p. 27; Louise Stockton, The Continent, June 20th, 1883, 
 P- 773-
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. -, <, 
 
 plating the building of a ship for himself so soon 
 as peace should be declared. 
 
 But though these commercial transactions de- 
 manded considerable attention, they did not entirely 
 monopolize his time, and in the intervals of business 
 he found leisure to make acquaintances among his 
 fellow-citizens other than merely those of the men 
 with whom he transacted his daily affairs, and among 
 them was a certain Mr. Lum, residing on Water Street 
 above Vine. Mr. Lum was a shipbuilder, 1 widely 
 known in Philadelphia as a plain and reputable man, 
 with whom it is highly probable that Girard first 
 came in contact through his above-mentioned inten- 
 tion to construct a vessel, this work demanding the 
 advice and service of a competent master builder. 
 
 Visiting Mr. Lum from time to time, Girard soon 
 became acquainted with his daughter Mary, a beauti- 
 ful brunette of sixteen, who was endowed with charms 
 that easily accounted for the admiration he at once 
 displayed for her. Her hair was abundant, of a rich 
 and glossy black, and to a fair complexion and fine 
 figure she joined a modesty as noticeable as her 
 beauty was widely celebrated. She was unquestion- 
 ably far below her admirer in social station, but all co- 
 temporaries agree in admitting that, notwithstanding 
 her great personal beauty and comparatively modest 
 
 i Memoirs and Autobiography of Some of the Wealthy Citizens of Philadelphia. 
 Phila , 1S46, p. 74. 
 
 2*
 
 , 4 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 position, her character was quite free from frivolity or 
 undue levity, and she was, further, of a disposition 
 that though quite reserved was yet exceedingly 
 amiable. It is true that she had had but few oppor- 
 tunities to improve her mind through reading or 
 study, but it is equally true that she possessed, never- 
 theless, a quick intelligence, and invariably evinced a 
 ready appreciation of knowledge in others that went 
 far to render her a most agreeable companion. 1 
 
 A curious incidental testimony as to her personal 
 worth appears in the letters written to Girard by his 
 brother Jean [de Mombrun] preceding and following 
 the latter's acquaintance with her ; for while the 
 earliest of these share the indifference of Girard's 
 offended family to the person upon whom he had fixed 
 his regard, those that follow Jean's meeting with her 
 outvie each other in making amends for the injustice he 
 had unintentionally done her. It would seem that 
 Girard, anticipating the strenuous objections made by 
 his relatives to a match with one so illy fitted to 
 advance his material interests, had neglected to notify 
 them of his attachment to Mary Lum, or of the 
 engagement of marriage which shortly followed their 
 acquaintanceship, so that the first intimation of the 
 matter that reached his family was the announcement 
 of the already accomplished marriage. Even this 
 
 1 Personally vouched for to the writer by Professor William Wagner.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 35 
 
 seems to have come to Jean in rather an indirect way, 
 for in 1778 he writes: "And now, my dear brother, 
 tell me the news with you. They say that you are 
 married. I hope so, and that you are sharing the 
 pleasures two married people are in condition to enjoy 
 when they are really well matched. My intention is 
 to do the same, and in the same country, where the 
 sex is so charming," 1 after which briefly courteous 
 sentences his letters completely ignore the existence 
 of his brother's wife for a period of nearly two 
 years. 
 
 This significant silence is only once broken by the 
 request, in 1780: " Greet your wife for me, a thing I 
 shall be able to do myself before the end of the 
 year," 2 which promise being carried into effect, either 
 in the winter of 1780 or the spring of 1781, the visit 
 resulted in a change of sentiment so marked that it 
 is impossible to overlook it. 
 
 For, staying at his brother's house and meeting 
 Mary Girard daily upon terms of the closest intimacy, 
 Jean's opinions underwent a change whose signifi- 
 cance cannot be mistaken. In a postscript to a letter 
 written to his brother in 1 781, somewhat laboriously 
 translated into the unfamiliar English tongue, in 
 order that its subject might have the pleasure of 
 reading it for herself, Jean betrays a warmth of feel- 
 
 1 Letter from Cape Francois, ioth September, 1778. 
 8 Letter from Cape Franqois, 6th February, 1780.
 
 36 
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 ing which testifies cordially in favor of that character 
 and admirable conduct on the part of his brother's 
 wife which compelled such a radical change of senti- 
 ment. Jean says : " Be so kind as to assure my dear 
 sister-in-law of my true affection. I long for embrac- 
 ing her and the familly (if she has any). If God 
 grants my vows (wishes) I shall one day live with 
 you both, and there, wishing for your mutual happi- 
 ness, enjoy the pleasure of life," x — a display of 
 feeling quite unusual on the part of its writer, and 
 one further supplemented by many messages of 
 regard and affection in his various subsequent letters. 
 
 In 1783 he writes in English again to Mrs. Girard 
 herself, as follows : 
 
 " Dear Sister : — The sole letter I received from 
 you (March, 1780) is fallen into my hands very often 
 since my arrival from France, where I met with more 
 vexations that is hardly to be described. You cannot 
 imagine what a satisfaction and pleasure I feel in read- 
 ing it, and how much I desire to receive some others, 
 till the happy moment of embracing and express you 
 my affection with the candour of a real friend and 
 brother." 
 
 He is continually sending her remembrances in 
 the shape of birds, fruits, plants, tropical preserves, 1 
 and such articles as housekeepers love, coupling 
 
 1 Letter from Bordeaux, 29th December, 17S1. 
 
 2 Letter dated " Cape Francois, the 20th February, 1783."
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 37 
 
 these presents with the expression of his sincerest 
 esteem. "I am awaiting the spring in order to 
 send some oranges to my sister. Say a thousand 
 kind things to her for me and assure her of my 
 unalterable friendship." 1 And in 1784 he writes 
 the jesting message, " I hope that my dear 
 Mary'll look around for a good match," 2 following 
 it with, " Many compliments to your wife. I have 
 a couple of orange trees and do not know how to 
 send them to her." 3 " Thousands and thousands 
 of friendly wishes to your dear wife. Say to her 
 that if anything from here would give her pleasure, 
 to ask me for it. I will do everything in the world 
 to prove to her my attachment." 4 " I send for 
 my dear sister a box of syrups and some oranges, 
 with a pretty parroquet." 5 " I send by Derussy 
 the jar which your lovely wife filled for me with 
 gherkins, full of an excellent guava jelly for you 
 people, besides two orange trees. He has promised 
 me to take care of them. I hope he will, and 
 embrace, as well as you, my ever dear Mary," 6 the 
 italicized phrase being in English. " I send for 
 my sister the trunk full of coffee and two ankers 
 of brandy as the proceeds of her venture." ' 
 
 1 Letter of 30th December, 1783. 2 " The Cape, 2d March, 1784." 
 
 3 "The Cape, 24th March, 1784." 
 
 * " At the Mole St. Nicolas, 13th June, 1784." 
 
 6"The Cape, 17th July, 1784." u "The Cape, 26th July, 1784." 
 
 1 " The Cape, 24th October, 1784."
 
 38 
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 " Adieu, dear friend ; I wish you, as well as 
 your dear better-half, whom I embrace also, all 
 satisfaction in this new year, and am forever your 
 friend and affectionate brother." 1 " If your wife, 
 whom I salute, wishes a little parrot, I will send 
 her one." 2 " My compliments to my ever dear 
 Mary. I am exceedingly sorry that I could not 
 find oranges for this time." 3 
 
 But, despite the light cast by these passages upon 
 the young girl whom Girard had chosen to be his 
 wife, it cannot be denied that it was a very hazardous 
 undertaking to link himself permanently with one who, 
 notwithstanding her rare physical beauty and many 
 admirable qualities, was still incontestably not the 
 person he should prudently have chosen. The differ- 
 ence in their social status alone was enough to have 
 caused him to hesitate long before taking the irrevo- 
 cable step — a difference that must have been quite as 
 apparent to him as it certainly was to many of his 
 neighbors, for it is not to be supposed that his keen 
 appreciation of the deficiency in his own early educa- 
 tion made him estimate his own position so modestly 
 as not to perceive this gap. He was perfectly conver- 
 sant with the station of his father's family in France, 
 and, indeed, seems to have been so confident of their 
 disapproval that he hastened the preparations for the 
 
 J "The Cape, nth January, 1785." * - The Cape, 29th May, 1785." 
 
 3 "The Cape, iGth February, i7£6."
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. -, Q 
 
 ceremony in order to anticipate their objections by 
 the announcement of the accomplished fact ; and 
 this, together with the knowledge of the financial 
 success he had already attained, with its foreshadow- 
 ing of the greater share of public attention destined 
 to follow, forms but another of the many arguments 
 showing the unselfishness of the motives leading to 
 that selection which has excited comment even to 
 the present day. 
 
 One needs not to search far for the actuating 
 impulse which compelled this Cophetua-like prostra- 
 tion of tangible success and present comfort at the 
 feet of a mere hope of future happiness in the girl's 
 affections. He was but twenty-six years old, quite 
 unused to the companionship of young women ; 
 entirely too self-reliant to either ask for or accept 
 counsel from strangers in matters relating to his per- 
 sonal concerns ; far from his family or from any one 
 sufficiently interested in him to point out the danger 
 of his contemplated step, and fascinated by the beauty 
 and goodness of the young girl upon whom he had 
 fixed his regard. And while he was, notwithstand- 
 ing, so far alive to the difference between them as to 
 determine that the success or failure of his experiment 
 should be strictly limited to the person of the young 
 girl herself, as is evidenced by his complete ignoring 
 of her relatives both then and thereafter, there is no
 
 ,~ LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 4° 
 
 room for doubt that the sole motive which actuated 
 him in making his choice was the sincere and unrea- 
 soning affection he had conceived for her — an affec- 
 tion which, notwithstanding the sadness which 
 overshadowed her later years, still happily endured 
 unbroken in its constancy to the day of the death 
 of its object. 
 
 Tiiey were married by the Reverend Mr. Stringer, 
 on the 6th of June, 1777, at Saint Paul's Protestant 
 Episcopal Church, on Third Street, below Walnut, 
 in the city of Philadelphia, 1 and immediately com- 
 menced housekeeping at Girard's residence, on Water 
 Street, where they remained without event of partic- 
 ular importance until late in the following September. 
 
 It was about this time that Girard's brother, Jean 
 [de Mombrun], wrote him from Cape Francois, Santo 
 Domingo, saying : " Our dear father in every letter 
 he writes asks me for news of you. * * * * It 
 seems that we are dearer to him since the death of 
 Bellevue. He begs me to join him in inducing you 
 
 1 It has been erroneously stated by Henry Simpson, vide The Lives of Emi- 
 nent Philadelphians Now Deceased, that the ceremony was performed by 
 Dr. Samuel Ma;a». This mistake arose from his having merely consulted the 
 "Transcriptof Records of St. Paul's Church," where the marriage does appear to 
 be noted under those celebrated by Dr. Magaw. Hid he gone to the original he 
 would have seen the apparent error. Consult original " Records of Marriages of 
 Saint Paul's Church, from 1759 to 1835," where this marriage is recorded under the 
 heading, "The Undermentioned Marriages, by the Rev. Mr. Stringer." These 
 original records were transcribed into " Records of Saint Paul's Church, from 1760 
 to 1833," by John Claxton, Plunk't F. Glentworth, and Joseph Wright, who were 
 appointed by the vestry of Saint Paul's Church to certify to the accuracy of the old 
 records and to make a transcript of them, both of which they did on March 3d, 
 1806.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. * Y 
 
 to forsake this dangerous commerce, 1 urging us to 
 form a partnership with the chief house at Cape 
 Francois, in which he will take part interest in order 
 to help us. Should you wish to command a vessel, 
 he will provide one for you." 2 
 
 It is interesting to consider what might have been 
 the possible result had this offer arrived a little earlier, 
 but Girard's marriage having already taken place, he 
 declined the generous suggestion, and Lord Howe 
 having threatened the city of Philadelphia in Septem- 
 ber of 1777, he removed with his wife to Mount 
 Holly, New Jersey, where he occupied a one-story- 
 and-a-half frame house on a little farm. The farm 
 consisted of from five to six acres, which he had pur- 
 chased the previous year from Isaac Hazlehurst 3 for 
 five hundred dollars, and during more than a year 
 
 he divided his time between farming this place and 
 
 • 
 making trips, by way of the Rancocas River, to Phila- 
 delphia, where he kept a watchful eye upon his 
 property in the hands of the British, and also sold the 
 clarets his friends in Bordeaux continued to send him. 
 In the enforced leisure of this life he became deeply 
 interested in the tremendous struggle for liberty with 
 which he was surrounded, and that intense admiration 
 for a republican form of government which comes so 
 
 1 By reason of the War of the Revolution. 
 
 2 Letter of Jean [de Mombrun], " The Cape, 27th September, 1777." 
 
 3 Simpson, p. 30.
 
 42 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 naturally to a native of Bordeaux soon implanted in 
 his bosom a hearty belief in the future of the Ameri- 
 can Nation, which he displayed on many prominent 
 occasions during his later life. Deliberation led him 
 to determine to cast in his lot with the struggling 
 States, and accordingly in 1778, two years after his 
 arrival in Philadelphia, he took the " Oath of Alle- 
 giance to the State of Pennsylvania " prescribed by 
 the General Assembly, which he repeated in the fol- 
 lowing year. The certificate received in return was 
 as follows : " I do hereby certify that Stephen Girard, 
 of the city of Philadelphia, merchant, hath voluntarily 
 taken the Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity as directed 
 by an act of the General Assembly, passed the 13th 
 day of June, 1777- Witness my hand and seal the 
 27th day of October, A. D. 1778. Jno. Ord. (No. 
 1678.)" 1 
 
 In 1779 he returned from Mount Holly to Philadel- 
 phia, resuming his interrupted business, and building 
 the long contemplated vessel, a sloop, which he 
 named the " Water Witch." This vessel was built by 
 Mr. Lum, and her planning having been the original 
 cause of Girard's meeting with his wife, she was 
 naturally regarded by him with considerable affection. 
 But he went even further than this, and like the great 
 Dr. Johnson, who would neither er.ter nor leave 
 
 1 Fum jus Americans of Recent Times, by James Purton, Boston, 1867, p. 231.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 43 
 
 a room unless his right foot was foremost, Girard 
 adopted a certain superstitious belief to the effect 
 that the " Water Witch " could never possibly cause 
 
 him a loss. 
 
 To a great extent she justified his extraordinary- 
 confidence in her, but her shipwreck shortly after the 
 happening of the great misfortune of his domestic 
 life, a misfortune that may not inaptly be compared 
 to the shipwreck of his personal happiness, was a 
 coincidence certainly strange enough to have justified 
 his regarding her at the outset as having a subtle 
 connection with his prosperity or failure. There is 
 no doubt that he was impressed by this accidental 
 concurrence, for when, long afterward, he built his 
 permanent Philadelphia residence at No. 23 North 
 Water Street, he placed a sheet-iron model of the 
 " Water Witch " in the rear railing of the two-story 
 counting-house, adjoining his four-storied dwelling, 1 
 as a tribute to the sole superstition of which he was 
 ever known to be guilty. 
 
 His business affairs prospered amazingly, and on 
 February 1st, 1780, at the urgent solicitation of 
 Joseph Baldesqui, formerly a paymaster in the Legion 
 of Count Pulaski, he entered into a partnership to 
 prosecute trade to Santo Domingo and the West 
 Indies. Baldesqui promised to sail immediately for 
 
 1 Prufessor William Wagner.
 
 . A LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 44 
 
 Santo Domingo, from whence he professed to be able 
 to obtain the major part of the consignments for the 
 benefit of the Philadelphia house, and into this part- 
 nership Girard, already worth more than thirty thou- 
 sand pounds, put ten thousand, Baldesqui subscribing 
 twenty thousand, in ships, uncollected notes, and the 
 like. Baldesqui sailed for Cape Frangoisin February, 
 1780, where he remained but a short time, utterly 
 failing to redeem his promises, and then left for Bos- 
 ton, where he remained until January, 1782, in all 
 this interval doing nothing for the benefit of the new 
 firm, the whole burden of whose affairs fell upon the 
 shoulders of Girard. The latter having in the mean- 
 while bought from Edward Stiles, with his private 
 funds, the frame dwelling on the east side of Water 
 Street, in which he resided, together with three fire- 
 proof stores adjoining, Baldesqui insisted, upon his 
 return to Philadelphia, in January, 1782, that these 
 stores should be considered partnership property. 
 This action on Baldesqui's part, coupled with his 
 refusal to pay the firm the usual commission for the 
 transaction of certain of his private affairs during his 
 absence, together with the manifestly unequal division 
 of labor and profit between the partners, led to the 
 dissolution of the firm in February, 1782, and the 
 questions in dispute being referred to arbitrators, an 
 award was made in Girard's favor. The clear and
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 45 
 
 able statement and the masterly arguments advanced 
 by Girard in his own behalf, were no doubt largely 
 instrumental in influencing the arbitrators in arriving 
 at this decision, the above little-known episode of 
 his business life being almost literally extracted from 
 a copy of the " Memorial against Joseph Baldesqui," 
 in his own handwriting. 1 
 
 After the dissolution Girard continued the business 
 on his own account, and prospered so greatly that in 
 1784 he found it necessary to construct a second 
 vessel, 2 which, out of compliment to his brother Jean 
 [de Mombrun], he named the " Two Brothers." But, 
 despite his prosperity and fancied security, the 
 disaster hinted at above as impending over his 
 household was soon to fall upon it, and, after eight 
 years of happy married life, in May, 1785, his wife 
 began to show unmistakable signs of the frightful 
 disorder of insanity. On the 12th of that month 
 Girard wrote the terrible news to his brother, 
 Jean, at Cape Francois, and received in reply a letter 
 couched in language of the most fervent sym- 
 pathy. Jean writes: "I have safely received your 
 letter of the 12th of May last. It is impossible 
 to express to you what I felt at such news. I 
 do truly pity the frightful state I imagine you 
 to be in, above all, knowing the regard and love 
 
 1 Memoirs de S'e. Girard, etc.. Centre le Sieur Joseph Baldesqui. 
 
 * Compare Arey, p. n, where it is incorrectly said to have been his first vessel.
 
 .{. LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 you bear your wife," and, after saying that nothing 
 but the pending dissolution of his own partner- 
 ship, which required his constant presence, prevented 
 him from going at once to console Girard, he 
 adds : " But, above all, conquer your grief and 
 show yourself by that "worthy of being a man, 
 for, dear friend, when one has nothing with which 
 to reproach one's self, no blow, whatsoever it may 
 be, should crush him. I presume that the grief 
 which this lovely woman has always shown to me 
 at having no children is the cause of her misfortune, 
 to which it is necessary to be resigned as to the 
 will of God. * * * Adieu ! I exhort you to 
 firmness and courage, without forgetting to care 
 for your own health so far as possible. I am your 
 affectionate brother and friend." 1 
 
 The affliction of Mrs. Girard, however, was rather 
 of a melancholy than violent character, and she was 
 kept at home, the restoration of her wavering mind 
 being sought by means of quiet coupled with medical 
 treatment, whose beneficial effects became almost 
 immediately apparent. Upon the receipt of his 
 brother's letter Girard had written suggesting 
 various methods of treatment, among them the 
 possible advantages of a change of climate and scene, 
 to which Jean replies : " The last of your letters 
 
 'Letter from the Cape, 30th June, 1785.
 
 LITE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. aj 
 
 announces your wife's projected voyage by the brig. 
 If you should happen to determine upon it, without 
 regarding the trouble she may cause me, I shall 
 not be sorry to have her here ; the less so since 
 my care, etc., may cure her, being singularly 
 attached to her. Although, on the other hand, 
 should the voyage not prove salutary to her it 
 will cause me a great deal of chagrin," 1 a letter 
 speaking volumes for the sincerity of Jean's earlier 
 professions of regard, though he had no opportunity 
 of putting these kindly offers to the proof, owing to 
 the idea of the projected voyage being finally given 
 up. During the whole of this painful period Girard 
 watched over his wife's comfort with the most 
 affectionate assiduity, and at last, though still subject 
 to periods of depression, he was able to write to 
 Jean in such manner as to call forth the reply : 
 " Be sure to give my love to your wife. I am 
 overjoyed that she is getting better," 2 followed 
 two weeks later with, " I learn with joy of the 
 restoration of your wife. Give her a thousand kisses 
 for me, and believe me your affectionate friend and 
 brother." 3 
 
 Confident of her eventual re-establishment, there- 
 fore, Girard returned to business with the ardor of one 
 
 1 Letter, Cape Franc is, 29th July, 1785. 
 
 2 Letter, Cape Francois, 28th August, 1785. 
 
 3 Letter, Cape Francois, 8th September, 1785.
 
 48 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 who has successfully passed a great ordeal, and began 
 to consider seriously a proposition of copartnership 
 which Jean had first formally broached in his letter of 
 26th July, 1784. To this proposition Girard had at 
 the time returned a favorable reply, and he now ac- 
 cepted the terms proposed by Jean, the partnership 
 being accordingly entered into, commencing on the 
 first day of July, 1785, to continue five years. The 
 agreement as set forth in Jean [de Mombrun's] letter 
 was as follows: (1) The Santo Domingo house was 
 to be at Cape Frangois ; (2) the partnership was to 
 commence immediately upon the expiration of Jean's 
 partnership with M. Hourquebie, on July 1st, 1785 ; 
 (3) the whole capital of both partners was to be put 
 in the firm, including all furniture, lands, and houses 
 whatsoever, amounting, as Jean says, to about three 
 hundred and odd thousand pounds. The Philadel- 
 phia house was to be styled Sn. & Jn. Girard freres, 
 and was to transact no business and make no pur- 
 chases except for the benefit of the firm. It was to 
 be managed by Stephen solely, unless Jean were in 
 Philadelphia, in which latter case it was to be man- 
 aged jointly, and all the expenses of Stephen's house- 
 hold (except clothing) or of the office, including all 
 costs cf voyages or trade, were to be divided between 
 the partners, the partnership to run for at least five 
 years ; (4) if Jean should renew his partnership with
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 49 
 
 M. Hourquebie, it was agreed that he was to send 
 Stephen sixty-six thousand pounds, and further that 
 his share of the profits arising from such renewed 
 partnership was to go into the common fund of his 
 partnership with Stephen, which latter society was to k 
 be charged with all costs of voyages, trade, etc., on its 
 account, and with all the household expenses of Jean, 
 except clothing; (5) in case the partnership of Jean 
 with M. Hourquebie should not be renewed, the for- 
 mer was to maintain alone a branch house at Cape 
 Frangois, under the style of Jn. & Sn. Girard freres, or 
 else send all his money and goods to the Philadelphia 
 house, it being agreed that either he or Stephen 
 would voyage for the firm's benefit. All rents from 
 Stephen's real estate were to go into the firm assets, 
 as was also the half rent of Jean's coffee plantation 
 of Doidy, farmed on shares, which was at that time 
 paying ten thousand pounds a year net. Jean exacted 
 also certain powers of attorney, and everything was 
 to be shared between the partners equally. The 
 letter concludes: " There must be good faith, openness, 
 and perfect accord, and in case of my death, or of 
 yours, the partnership must end six months after the 
 event, for I do not wish to have any business with an 
 heir, unless, I mean, the two members of the firm 
 agree beforehand as to the survivor." l 
 
 1 Letter, "The Cape, 26th July, 1784."
 
 c LIFE OF STEPHEN G1RARD. 
 
 Jean did not renew his partnership with M. Hour- 
 quebie, but formed a new one at Cape Francois under 
 the title of Girard, Bonnardel & Lacrampe, which 
 firm were the local representatives of Sn. & Jn. 
 Girard freres, of Philadelphia, Jean's share of the 
 profits arising from which doubtless came under the 
 same conditions as had been agreed in the case of 
 a renewal with M. Hourquebie. In March of 1787 
 this last was dissolved, and in the following August 
 he sailed, to take charge of the Philadelphia house,. 
 on board a vessel he had just purchased, and named 
 " Les Deux Amis." 
 
 He had previously stipulated, however, that Ste- 
 phen should not at once leave the reins of their 
 affairs in his hands without a most competent assist- 
 ant, not, as he says, " that I do not feel myself 
 capable of managing them, but because, not being 
 acquainted, a stranger may appear to me to be good 
 who is bad, and one who may appear bad may be 
 good, which uncertainty will put me in a perplexity 
 prejudicial to our interests." He also wrote that he 
 would not occupy Stephen's house, taking charge of 
 his wife, who was still far from strong, but upon 
 learning that Stephen contemplated her remaining 
 in the country during his absence, Jean consented to 
 occupy the mansion. Accordingly, he arrived with 
 his wife and family in September, 1787, with a large
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN G1RARD. c \ 
 
 cargo of claret, and in October of the same year 
 Stephen sailed in turn for Charleston and the Mediter- 
 ranean, being absent until July, 1788. 
 
 The partnership continued with great mutual profit 
 until its expiration by limitation upon July 1st, 1790. 
 But both brothers felt, notwithstanding, that they 
 were not sufficiently in accord as to the management 
 of their commercial ventures to warrant its renewal, 
 and it was therefore decided that the partnership 
 property should be divided. In accordance with this 
 determination, Hugh Calhoun was called in as arbi- 
 trator and appraiser, and his task was performed to 
 the avowed satisfaction of both parties, awarding to 
 Jean, it is said, sixty thousand dollars, and to Stephen 
 thirty thousand. 1 
 
 Jean returned immediately to Cape Frangois with 
 his family, and to Girard's ineffable satisfaction the 
 former quiet and contented routine of his household 
 was re-assumed by his wife, whose country sojourn, 
 so far as it was possible for any one to tell, had 
 resulted in her complete and perfect restoration to 
 health. But in believing, as he did, that his domestic 
 happiness was at last undoubtedly assured, he was 
 destined to an awakening even more cruel and pain- 
 ful in the result than the first discovery of her terrible 
 affliction. He had begun to make arrangements for 
 
 1 Simpson, p. 35. These amounts are probably not accurate.
 
 c 2 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 the gratification of her long-felt wish to visit France 
 immediately upon her return to their house in Water 
 Street, and he was in the midst of the necessary- 
 preparations to accompany her, when, to his unspeak- 
 able grief, the same signs of despondency over her . 
 childless condition which preceded the first weakening 
 of her mind once more became apparent. A consul- 
 tation of eminent physicians was called, who were 
 unanimous in the belief that the sole hope for the 
 restoration of her sanity lay in her immediate removal 
 to a hospital, and Girard found himself at last forced 
 to give his reluctant consent to this measure, which 
 was at once carried into effect. The only hospital 
 in Philadelphia at that time which received such 
 patients was the Pennsylvania Hospital, at Eighth 
 and Spruce Streets, and she was accordingly admitted 
 to that institution on the 31st of August, 1790, 1 
 where she remained, uncured, until her death. 
 
 She was pleasantly situated on the first floor of 
 the main building 2 in a spacious and comfortable 
 apartment, with parlor attached, 3 and was permitted 
 the freedom of the large grounds of the Hospital, 
 being also allowed to receive visitors with the fewest 
 restrictions possible. She is remembered by one 
 
 1 William G. Malin, ex-steward Pennsylvania Hospital. See also Philadelphia v 
 Sunday Dispatch, 16th June, 1878, by same authority. 
 
 2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture I. Also see Philadelphia Sunday Dispatch, 
 June 2d, 1878; article by William G. Malin, ex-steward Pennsylvania Hospital. 
 
 3 Professor William Wagner, Lecture I.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. ~ ■? 
 
 who visited her frequently as " a dark-haired woman, 
 always sitting in the sunlight, still bearing strong 
 marks of the beauty for which she was celebrated 
 in early life," * although her mind was then almost 
 wholly a blank, scarcely even recognizing the old 
 housekeeper, who would sometimes take Girard's 
 little nieces, Jean's daughters, to see her. 2 
 
 It might be supposed that with this last affliction 
 Girard had sounded a depth of domestic misfortune 
 to which nothing could be superadded, but he was 
 doomed to experience a still sharper pang when, 
 on March 3d, 1791, his wife gave birth to a daughter. 
 The child was immediately baptized, in the presence 
 of Doctors Cutbush and Warner, with the name 
 " Mary Girard," and was at once sent to be nursed 
 in the country, where, notwithstanding the watchful 
 care of Mrs. John Hatcher, it lived but a few months 
 and was buried in the graveyard of the parish 
 church. 3 
 
 Then, at length, childless and worse than wifeless, 
 the misfortunes that had so unrelentingly pursued the 
 married life of Girard were exhausted, and he found 
 himself once more freed from harassing care in his 
 household, though, alas, in what a manner! In view 
 
 1 Professor William Wagner's Lectures on Girard, lecture I. Professor Wagner, 
 while apprenticed to Girard, was usually commissioned to pay Mrs. Girard's board. 
 
 2 Louise Stockton, T/ie Continent for June 20th, 1883. 
 
 8 William G. Malin, ex-steward Pennsylvania Hospital.
 
 va LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 of the sincerity of his love for his wife, her absence 
 must have been a relief largely tempered, particu- 
 larly at the very outset, by the keenest sense of 
 loneliness, and he took up his daily life again with 
 a desperate patience that was almost pathetic. 
 His state of mind is well expressed in a letter 
 written in 1804, long afterward, to his friend, 
 Duplessis, in New Orleans, 1 in which, speaking 
 of the routine of existence into which he first fell 
 at this epoch, he says : " As to myself, I live like 
 a galley slave, * * * * often passing the whole 
 night without sleeping. I am * * * * worn out 
 with care. I do not value fortune. The love of 
 labor is my highest ambition." 
 
 But he was too well-balanced a man to permit 
 himself to vaguely repine, for he very well knew that 
 the only remedy for such pain as his was to 
 be found in constant occupation, and, therefore, 
 he sought to keep his mind unceasingly busy during 
 his hours of wakefulness. He plunged with ardor 
 into the details of the construction of several ships 
 he was building for himself, and it was with much 
 pride that he saw launched, in 1791 and 1792, those 
 splendid merchantmen so long the delight of Phila- 
 delphia and the envy of other East India traders. 
 They were six in number, named, in the order of 
 
 1 Arcy, p 5. Also quoted by P.*rton, p. 239.
 
 LIFE 0I< STEPHEN GlRARD. r r 
 
 their building, " Voltaire," " Helvctius," " Good 
 Friends," " Montesquieu," " Rousseau," and " North 
 America," and together with the " Superb," a seventh 
 vessel, which he took for debt, 1 and the " Kensing- 
 ton," they formed the most noteworthy part of the 
 fleet with which he built up his magnificent 
 monument of commercial success. He had owned, 
 in addition, at various times, the sloop " Water 
 Witch," the brigs " Kitty," " Liberty," " Polly," 
 and " Sally," and the schooner " Nancy ;" but these 
 were chiefly engaged in the coastwise trade, occa- 
 sionally venturing to European ports, and were 
 quite insignificant when compared with the beau- 
 tiful ships launched during these two years to 
 trade with Canton, Calcutta, and the East. These 
 were equipped with all the latest improvements in 
 shipbuilding, and had such superior facilities for 
 getting up anchor and pumping by machinery that 
 they were always more lightly manned than any 
 others of like tonnage leaving port. Curious to 
 relate, they were never insured, there being few, 
 if any, marine insurance companies in those days, 
 and Girard's confidence in the then boards of 
 underwriters being so scant that he preferred to 
 insure his own vessels and houses, 2 
 
 For this fleet he planned cruises extending over 
 
 1 Professor William Wagner, L"cturc IV. 
 
 2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture IV.
 
 56 
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 long periods of time, and embracing ports in all 
 quarters of the known globe. For instance, a ship 
 would sail with a cargo of cotton and grain for Bor- 
 deaux, where it would reload with fruit and wine for 
 Saint Petersburg, and there discharge this cargo, 
 replacing it with hemp and iron. In turn these would 
 be sold in Amsterdam for specie, laden with which 
 the ship would sail for Calcutta and Canton, where 
 tea, silks, and East India goods would be bought for 
 the return voyage to Philadelphia. During many- 
 years the system thus inaugurated was success- 
 fully carried out, bringing great wealth to its projec- 
 tor and much incidental benefit to his adopted city, 1 
 and it found hosts of imitators who availed themselves 
 of it with more or less advantage until the commerce 
 of America was overthrown by the War of 1812. 
 
 The year 1793 witnessed the horrible uprising of 
 slaves in the island of Santo Domingo, and many 
 foreign merchants narrowly escaped sharing in the 
 general massacre by taking refuge on one of Girard's 
 vessels, commanded by Captain Cochran, then in port 
 at Cape Francois. Some of these refugees barely 
 escaped with the clothing upon their persons, but 
 others, more successful, saved large quantities of 
 wearing apparel, household furniture, and silver, with 
 which the vessel set sail for Philadelphia, where she 
 
 1 Parton, p. 233.
 
 LIFE OF STETIIEN GIRARD. r- 
 
 arrived safely, loaded with the valuables. It has been 
 said that Girard's fortune was largely increased by 
 the subsequent failure of owners to claim many of 
 these articles, but of this no reliable evidence has 
 ever been adduced, while both Captain Cochran and 
 Mr. Roberjot, one of the refugee merchants who 
 succeeded in saving nothing but a valise of valuable 
 papers, vouched personally that all articles for whom 
 owners could be found had been returned. 1 Indeed, 
 Girard's books show large quantities of goods in 
 Cape Francois owned by him individually at the time, 
 on which he doubtless sustained heavy loss, not 
 a little augmented by the ruin of the majority of the 
 merchants of the island, a number of whom were 
 very heavily in his debt. 
 
 Girard was now forty-three years old, but notwith- 
 standing that during the seven years of his residence 
 in Philadelphia he had identified himself with the 
 largest commercial interests of that city, the opening 
 of the year 1793 found him personally but little 
 more known or understood by his neighbors than 
 had he been the veriest stranger. The Saxon heir- 
 loom of distrust for all persons of foreign birth was 
 still dominant in the recently separated English 
 colonies, and, notwithstanding the close alliance of 
 the newly formed States with the French nation, the 
 
 1 To Professor William Wagner, Lecture I. 
 
 3*
 
 53 
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIKAKD. 
 
 proverbial provincialism of Philadelphians led them 
 to regard their French fellow-citizen with a curiosity 
 largely tempered by uncertainty. It is the common 
 fault of a narrow mind, whether in an individual or 
 in a community, to fortify its lack of information 
 with a vigilant suspicion, and in the ahsence of defi- 
 nite knowledge many fanciful tales as to Girard's 
 origin and personal habits were hazarded by such as 
 were willing their neighbors should believe them 
 better informed than themselves. The impenetrable 
 reserve of their subject, who made it a point never to 
 deny such of these as reached his ears, together with 
 the personal dignity which would not suffer the 
 impertinence of being questioned upon private mat- 
 ters, no doubt lent an air of probability to some of 
 these stories, many of which, in the absence of denial, 
 were boldly asserted as facts, and grew in time to 
 be generally believed. But an occasion was about to 
 arise which was to strip off a part of this reserve and 
 afford his fellow-citizens an opportunity to gain an 
 insight into the character of the inner man, whom 
 they had so long profoundly misjudged, for in the 
 late summer of this year the deadly malady of yellow 
 fever broke out within one square of Girard's resi- 
 dence on Water Street, 1 and gaining a foothold in 
 their midst, spread with such fierce rapidity that the 
 
 1 Per Read, J., in Soohan vs. Philadelphia, reported in i Grant's Cases 505, 
 and albo in 9 Casey 29.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. ^q 
 
 consternation of the people was carried beyond all 
 bounds. Dismay and affright were visible in almost 
 every person's countenance. Most of those who 
 could by any means make it convenient fled from 
 the city. Of those who remained, many shut them- 
 selves up in their houses, being afraid to walk the 
 streets. Some of the churches were almost deserted, 
 and others wholly closed. The Coffee House was 
 shut up, as was the City Library and most of the 
 public offices. Three out of four of the daily papers 
 were discontinued. The corpses of the most respect- 
 able citizens, even of those who had not died of the 
 epidemic, were carried to the grave on the shafts of a 
 " chair " [chaise], the horse driven by a negro, unat- 
 tended by a friend or relation, and without any sort 
 of ceremony. Many never walked in the footpath, 
 but went in the middle of the street to avoid beinsf 
 infected in passing houses wherein people had died. 
 Acquaintances and friends avoided each other in the 
 streets and only signified their regard by a cold nod. 
 The old custom of shaking hands fell into such 
 disuse that many shrunk back with affright at even 
 the offer of a hand. 1 The death calls echoed through 
 the silent, grass-grown streets, and at night the 
 watcher would hear at his neighbor's door the cry, 
 '* Bring out your dead !" And the dead were brought. 
 
 1 An Account of the Malignant Fever, 1794. By Matthew Carey. Chap. IV, 
 pp. 21, 22.
 
 6q LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 Unwept over, unprayed for, they were wrapped in the 
 sheet in which they died, and were hurried into a box 
 and thrown into a great pit, the rich and the poor 
 together. 1 It is not probable that London, at the last 
 stage of the plague, exhibited stronger marks of 
 terror than were to be seen in Philadelphia from the 
 25th of August until late in September. Who, 
 without horror, can reflect on a husband, married, 
 perhaps, for twenty years, deserting his wife in the 
 last agony ? a wife unfeelingly abandoning her hus- 
 band on his deathbed ? parents forsaking their chil- 
 dren ? children ungratefully flying from their parents 
 and resigning them to chance ? masters hurrying off 
 their servants to Bush Hill (Hospital), even on sus- 
 picion of the fever, and that at a time when, almost 
 like Tartarus, it was open to every visitant, but rarely 
 returned any? And such was the force of habit that 
 those guilty of this cruelty felt no remorse themselves, 
 nor met with censure from their fellow-citizens. 2 
 
 In the midst of this terrific pestilence an anony- 
 mous call appeared on the 10th of September in the 
 Federal Gazette, the only paper still published, stating 
 that all but three of the Visitors of the Poor had 
 either fled or succumbed to the disease, 3 and calling 
 upon all who were willing to help to meet on the 
 
 1 Louise Stockton, p. 776, The Continent, for June 20th, 1883. 
 ^An Account 0/ the Malignant Fever, ante. 
 
 3 An Account 0/ the Malignant Fever, ante ch. V, pp. 28, 29. Also, Arey, 
 p. 12.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. gj 
 
 1 2th of the month, at the City Hall, 1 for the purpose 
 of devising some measures for the general relief. 
 A second meeting was held two days later, and 
 from those who attended a committee of twenty- 
 seven, ultimately dwindling to twelve, was appointed, 
 of whom Girard was one. This Committee met on 
 the following day, Sunday, September 15th, and the 
 physicians in charge laid the condition of the great 
 Hospital at Bush Hill before them. 
 
 This was reported as being without order or 
 regulation, far from clean, and in immediate want of 
 a qualified superintendent and attendants, which self- 
 devotion money could not purchase, for the entrance 
 to that pest house was deemed a passage to the 
 grave. 2 Upon the announcement of these facts a 
 silence fell upon the Committee, when suddenly 
 two men rising in their midst offered themselves, the 
 forlorn hope of the dead and dying. On the Com- 
 mittee's minutes, under the date of September 15th, 
 is found the following entry : " Stephen Girard and 
 Peter Helm, members of the Committee, commiser- 
 ating the calamitous state to which the sick may 
 probably be reduced for want of suitable persons 
 to superintend the Hospital, voluntarily offered their 
 services for that benevolent employment." s The 
 
 1 Parton, p. 233. SArey.p. 12. 
 
 3 Minutes of the Proceedings of the Committee Appointed, etc., to Attend to and 
 Alleviate the Sufferings of the Afflicted with the Yellow Fever ; 1794, p. 11.
 
 5 2 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 surprise and satisfaction excited by this extraordinary 
 effort of humanity can be better conceived than 
 expressed. Their offers were accepted, and the 
 same afternoon they entered on the execution of their 
 dangerous and praiseworthy office, the management 
 of the interior department being assumed by Girard 
 and of the exterior by Peter Helm. 1 
 
 " To estimate properly the value of this act of self- 
 devotion one must call to mind that Girard was 
 then in the zenith of his life, already a man of wealth 
 and influence, with the prospect before him of a long 
 career of happiness, usefulness, and riches. A 
 foreigner and without immediate family, it could not 
 be expected that any strong bonds of sympathy 
 existed between him and the people of that pestilence 
 stricken city. Before him stood probable death in its 
 most repulsive form ; certain and heavy losses 
 were to be entailed in the neglect of his private 
 interests ; the most loathsome and the most menial 
 duties were to be performed in person ; and the 
 possible reward of all this was a nameless grave 
 upon the heights of Bush Hill." 2 
 
 His persevering and decisive character was im- 
 mediately felt in everything pertaining to the Hos- 
 pital. Order soon reigned where all before was 
 confusion ; cleanliness took the place of filth ; 
 
 1 An Account of the Malignant Fever, ante, ch. VT, p. 31. * Arey, p. 13.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GTRARD. 5^ 
 
 attendants and medicines were at hand ; supplies and 
 accommodations were provided, and on the very next 
 day he reported the institution as ready to afford 
 every assistance. 1 The following interesting extract 
 from a letter written by him at this time to his friend, 
 Samatan, in Marseilles, describes vividly the con- 
 dition of things in this unfortunate city : " The 
 mortality is so great and the fear so general 
 that it is no longer possible to find nurses for the 
 sick or men to bury the dead. In fine, we are in 
 a most deplorable situation. Those of our people 
 who have escaped the disease have fled from 
 their homes, almost all the houses are closed, 
 and Philadelphians are not received into the neigh- 
 boring villages without undergoing quarantine. 
 The few who have had the courage to remain 
 have established a Hospital at a little distance 
 from the city for the reception of the unfor- 
 tunate. I am the active director, which causes 
 me much anxiety. I do not know when the disease 
 will cease. I am about leaving this moment for 
 the Hospital, where the great number of the sick, 
 who are constantly arriving, requires my constant 
 presence." 
 
 " For sixty days he continued to discharge his 
 duties at the Hospital, and up to the 9th of March 
 
 1 Minutes of the Proceedings of the Committee, etc., ante, pp. 12 and 14,
 
 6 4 
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN CIRARD. 
 
 following, when the Committee concluded its labors 
 and ceased to exist, his name is found upon the 
 records as a faithful attendant at its meetings. And 
 these noble men did not confine themselves to mere 
 efforts to stay the disease. They raised upon their 
 individual credit the necessary funds, until public 
 contributions could reimburse them ; they supplied 
 the poor with money, provisions, and firewood ; they 
 furnished burial for the dead; they received under 
 their care one hundred and ninety-two orphan chil- 
 dren (many of them infants), whose natural protec- 
 tors had perished of the fever ; they cleansed and 
 purified all infected places, and they ceased their 
 labors only when they had taken precautions against 
 a similar calamity in future, by procuring better sani- 
 tary regulations, and a permanent hospital for such 
 diseases." 1 
 
 The deadly nature of the sickness may be inferred 
 from the fact that from the 1st of August until the 
 9th of November four thousand and thirty-one inter- 
 ments took place in Philadelphia alone, from a popu- 
 lation of not quite twenty-five thousand who remained 
 during the plague, 2 but, notwithstanding the danger, 
 Girard remained six, seven, or eight hours daily in 
 the Hospital, leaving only to visit the infected districts 
 and assist in removing the sick from the houses in 
 
 'Arey, p. 14. 2Arey, p. 14.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. frc 
 
 which they were dying without help. He had to 
 encourage and comfort the sick, to hand them neces- 
 saries and medicines, to wipe the sweat from their 
 brows, and to perform many disgusting offices of 
 kindness which nothing could render tolerable but 
 the exalted motives that impelled him to this heroic 
 conduct. 1 
 
 One well-attested scene of the kind, witnessed by 
 a merchant who was hurrying past with camphor- 
 saturated handkerchief pressed to his mouth, gives a 
 vivid glimpse of Girard engaged in his heroic mission : 
 " A carriage, rapidly driven by a black servant, broke 
 the silence of the deserted and grass-grown street. 
 It stepped before a frame house in ' Farmer's Row,' 
 the very hotbed of the pestilence, and the driver, first 
 having bound a handkerchief over his mouth, opened 
 the door of the carriage and quickly remounted to 
 the box. A short, thick-set man stepped from the 
 coach and entered the house. In a minute or two 
 the observer, who stood at a safe distance watching 
 the proceedings, heard a shuffling noise in the entry, 
 and soon saw the visitor emerge, supporting with 
 extreme difficulty a tall, gaunt, yellow-visaged victim 
 of the pestilence. His arm was around the waist 
 of the sick man, whose yellow face rested against his 
 own, his long, damp, tangled hair mingling with his 
 
 1 An Account of the Malignant Fcx'cr, ante, ch. VI, p. 35.
 
 65 LIFE OF STEPHEN GJKARD. 
 
 benefactor's, his feet dragging helple: s upon the pave- 
 ment. Thus, partly dragging, partly lifted, he was 
 drawn to the carriage door, the driver averting his 
 face from the spectacle, far from offering to assist. 
 After a long and severe exertion the well man suc- 
 ceeded in getting the fever-stricken patient into the 
 vehicle, and then entering it himself, the door was 
 closed and the carriage drove away to the Hospital, 
 the merchant having recognized in the man who 
 thus risked his life for another the foreigner, Stephen 
 Girard !" ' 
 
 The feelings which actuated Girard and the modest 
 estimate which he placed upon these services may 
 
 be best inferred from the following extracts from the 
 very few and brief letters which he appears to have 
 written during the continuance of the disease: " The 
 deplorable situation to which fright and sickness have 
 reduced the inhabitants of our city demands succor 
 from those who do not fear death, or who, at least, do 
 not see any risk in the epidemic which prevails here. 
 This will occupy me for some time, and if I have the 
 misfortune to succumb, I will at least have the satis- 
 faction of having performed a duty which we all owe 
 to each other." 2 " You will receive my thanks for 
 your high opinion respecting my occupation in the 
 calamity which has lately afflicted my fellow-citizens. 
 
 1 The United States Gazette of January 13th, 1832. 
 - Letter to Les Fils de P. Changeraux & Co., Baltimore, September i6th, 1793.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. fij 
 
 On that occasion I only regret that my strength and 
 ability have not fully seconded my good will." ' 
 
 Twice afterward, in 1797 and 1798, Philadelphia 
 was visited by yellow fever, and on both occasions 
 Girard again took the lead in relieving the poor and 
 the sick by personal exertion and by gifts of money. 2 
 He had a singular talent for nursing the sick, although 
 a sturdy unbeliever in medicine, and in January, 
 1799, 3 he wrote to a friend in France : " During 
 all this frightful time I have constantly remained in 
 the city, and without neglecting my public duties 
 I have played a part which will make you smile. 
 Would you believe it, my friend, that I have visited 
 as many as fifteen sick people in one day ? And 
 what will surprise you still more, I have lost only one 
 patient, an Irishman, who would drink a little. I do 
 not flatter myself that I have cured one single person, 
 but you will think with me that in my quality of 
 Philadelphia physician I have been very moderate, 
 and that not one of my confreres has killed fewer 
 than myself." * 
 
 And so the brave man, who. though but a new- 
 comer among the Philadelphians, yet stood to the 
 
 1 Letter to John Ferris, New York, November 4th, 1793. 
 
 2 Parton, p. 235. See A Short History of the Yellow Fever in July, 1797, pp. 
 28 and 33 
 
 3 Arey, p. 2. 
 
 4 Letter to Deveze, one of the physicians of the Bush Hill Hospital, appointed at 
 the suggestion of GirarJ in 1793.
 
 ^g LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 post of public danger when those bound to remain 
 by closest ties of blood and duty were fleeing, un- 
 censured by their fellows, having finished the task no 
 other dared confront, quietly withdrew to his own 
 house, and the panic-stricken multitudes, recovering 
 from their fear, returned to their deserted homes. 
 And what was the reward that such services merited 
 and obtained from the citizens of Philadelphia ? " At 
 a meeting of the Northern Liberties and District of 
 Southwark, assembled on Saturday, the 2 2d day 
 of March, 1794, presided over by Thomas McKean, a 
 signer of the Declaration of Independence, and then 
 Chief Justice and afterward Governor of the State, 
 ' their most cordial, grateful, and fraternal thanks ' 
 were presented to those fellow-citizens named in 
 the proceedings, ' for their benevolent and patriotic 
 exertions in relieving the miseries of suffering human- 
 ity on the late occasion.' One of the citizens thus 
 gratefully remembered was Stephen Girard, ' under 
 whose meritorious exertions and peculiar care at the 
 Bush Hill Hospital, in conjunction with Peter Helm, 
 every possible comfort was provided for the sick, and 
 decent burial for those whom their efforts could not 
 preserve from the ravages of the prevailing dis- 
 temper.' " l 
 
 But this resolution of thanks, once passed, neatly 
 
 1 Per Read, J., in Soohan ts. Philadelphia. Reported in I Grant's Cases 505, and 
 
 Ml 
 
 9 Casey 20. S-e Testimjnial at GirarJ College.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. go 
 
 framed, and delivered, the city of Philadelphia con- 
 sidered its duty in the premises wholly done. No 
 friendly feeling toward the man, freshly returning, 
 pale, thin, and worn, from the house of pestilence and 
 death, prompted her citizens to publicly speak a 
 kindly word for that self-devoted heroism that had 
 just finished the task they dared not undertake. Nor 
 was there afterward found in all her limits one man 
 courageous enough to devote his pen to Girard's 
 defense when, in later years, public gossips, self-styled 
 biographers, joined the daily press in stigmatizing his 
 honorable name. 
 
 True, he was elected, in 1802, by the Democratic 
 party to the Common Council of Philadelphia, in 
 which office he served so well that in 1808 he was 
 returned with more votes than any other man on the 
 ticket ; and this unprofitable token of favor was 
 several times renewed, being followed in 18 19 by 
 election to the Select Branch. For over twenty-one 
 years, too, he served the city as Port Warden, an 
 office to which he was regularly re-elected. But it 
 remains, nevertheless, a perpetual reproach to the 
 city of Philadelphia that during Girard's whole life his 
 inestimable services, amid the reign of this terrible 
 plague, were almost as utterly ignored as though such 
 services were an every-day occurrence ; while his 
 fellow-citizens seemed to take an especial delight in
 
 y Q LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 fastening upon him such tales as tend to show him in 
 the least attractive, if not in the most ridiculous pos- 
 sible, light — all for the diversion of that public whose 
 families he had rescued from most terrible sufferings, 
 if not, indeed, in many instances, from a loathsome 
 death. 
 
 But, his servicej having been undertaken in the 
 cause of humanity and not for public applause, it 
 mattered but little to Girard that his work remained 
 unappreciated in any tangible manner, and, his task 
 of nursing done, he renewed his attention to his busi- 
 ness and to public matters, one of his first noteworthy 
 undertakings being in connection with a meeting of 
 protest against the aggressions of British cruisers. 
 This meeting was held March 13th, 1 794, at 
 McShane's Harp and Crown Tavern, Third Street 
 below Arch, and, Girard being in the chair, it was 
 resolved that owners of American vessels had a right 
 to reimbursement of losses from vexation or spolia- 
 tion by these cruisers, and that additional imposts 
 should be placed on goods from States so offending. 
 "On the 1 8th a more general meeting was held in the 
 State House yard, at which the meeting pledged itself 
 ' cheerfully to support with their lives and fortunes 
 the most expeditious and the most effectual measures 
 (which appear to have been too long postponed) to 
 procure reparation for the past, to enforce safety for
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. y T 
 
 the future, to foster and protect the commercial inter- 
 ests, and to render respectable and respected among 
 the nations of the world the justice, dignity, and 
 power of the American Republic' Resolutions were 
 also adopted ' to extend to France and her citizens 
 every favor which friendship can dictate and justice 
 can allow;' to impose duties and prohibitions on 
 British ships and manufactures until reparation could 
 be obtained; and a committee was appointed to col- 
 lect a fund for the relief of the crews of Philadelphia 
 ships captured by the Algerine or other pirates. The 
 fund, when collected, was put in the hands of thirteen 
 trustees, of whom Girard was one, " * these trustees 
 discharging their office with a fidelity and attention 
 that demanded considerable sacrifice of private in- 
 terests and doing infinite service to many of our 
 unfortunate seamen who had been captured and held 
 for ransom by those vindictive and merciless scourges 
 of commerce. 
 
 A second public task was entered upon on the 9th 
 of February, 1799, when he was appointed one of the 
 commissioners to receive subscriptions for the City 
 Water Works, to be erected at Broad and Market 
 Streets; 2 after which, with the exception of giving a 
 barrel of gunpowder toward the artillery salutes at 
 the Tammany Wigwam Democratic celebrations on 
 
 1 Scharf and Westcott's History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Vol. I, p. 476. 
 
 2 Scharf and Westcott's History of Philadelphia., ante, p. 500.
 
 72 
 
 LIEE OF STEPHEN G J HARD. 
 
 November 15th, 1806, 1 he devoted himself for a 
 considerable time entirely to his private affairs. The 
 latter had by this time spread over almost the whole 
 of the inhabited globe. Russia, India, China, and 
 America were the boundaries of his ventures, and, 
 with war spreading its rumors over the Continent 
 of Europe, and the means of communication with 
 outlying debtors daily becoming more uncertain and 
 difficult, there was danger enough apparent in 
 such widely scattered interests to have paralyzed the 
 effoits of an ordinary man. 
 
 But Girard was not an ordinary man. Foreseeing 
 plainly the complications which were about to arise, 
 he commenced in 1807 2 the endeavor to collect 
 his funds at some one central point, and after the 
 most strenuous exertions, necessitating the sending 
 abroad of special agents 3 for the purpose, he 
 succeeded, in the course of the next four years, 
 in concentrating in the hands of his correspondents, 
 the Messrs. Baring Bros. & Co., of London, the enor- 
 mous sum of one hundred and ninety-four thousand 
 four hundred and ninety-five pounds thirteen shillings 
 and ninepence. 
 
 For this he had no doubt more than one reason. 
 
 1 History of Philadelphia, supra, p. 527. 
 
 s Explanatory Statement to Accompany a Memorial to Congress, etc., 9th 
 March 1S12. 
 
 3 Messrs. Charles N. Bancker and Joseph Curwen, See Explanatory State- 
 ment, etc., supra. 
 
 * Sue Explanatory Statement, etc., supra.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. y , 
 
 First, his funds would be much more secure, lodged 
 at any one point not on the Continent, than distributed 
 in the hands of many bankers whose solvency, by 
 reason of political disturbances, was a matter of daily 
 uncertainty ; and second, the commerce of the Ameri- 
 can States with European countries in general was so 
 small that it would have been difficult to purchase 
 bills of exchange upon them for such large amounts 
 upon the Continent, while the credits could be easily 
 transferred to England, whence was the bulk of 
 American trade, and where bills upon American 
 credits were obtainable for the largest sums without 
 any material delay. 
 
 Perhaps it is also possible that Girard had even 
 then before his mind the profits of the investment he 
 was eventually compelled to make in order to secure 
 the transfer of these funds to America when they 
 were collected, although it is not likely he was able to 
 foresee that deterioration of the English currency 
 which followed the Continental troubles, and which 
 was the first cause of his London correspondent's 
 failure to remit. However this may have been, it 
 was not long after these funds had been gathered in 
 the hands of Messrs. Baring Bros. & Co., that he 
 found they were either unable or unwilling to transfer 
 them to America, according to his positive directions 
 on the subject. 
 
 4
 
 j a LIFE OF STEPHEN GIKARD. 
 
 Aiarmed by the suggestions of war between the 
 two countries, and the certainty of the confiscation of 
 his credits by the British Government in that untoward 
 event, Girard resolved to exhaust these credits by the 
 purchase in London of American six per cent, stocks 
 and shares of the Bank of the United States. Ac- 
 cordingly, in 1810, he forwarded instructions to 
 Messrs. Baring Bros. & Co. to make these purchases, 
 charging them to his account, the value of the bank 
 shares being then much depreciated by reason of the 
 state of affairs, as well as through the apprehension 
 of the non-renewal of its charter. After much delay 
 in London, this was finally accomplished in the follow- 
 ing year, four hundred and twenty dollars per share, 
 on a par value of five hundred dollars, being paid for 
 the bank stock, and, after additional delay, caused by 
 his correspondents' neglect to deliver the stock when 
 requested, after they had purchased it, Girard sent a 
 special agent to England ' to whom it was finally 
 transferred, and by him forwarded to America. 
 
 The extent of this great operation having become 
 noised abroad, Girard's wealth was brought promi- 
 nently before the public, which resulted, in 181 1, in 
 an attempt on the part of James Sylvanus M'Clean 
 and William L. Graham to kidnap and extort money 
 from him through checks which they hoped to com- 
 
 1 Mr. Joseph Curwen.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN- GIRARD. - - 
 
 75 
 
 pel him to draw after they had obtained possession of 
 his person. These men had rented a small house in 
 Philadelphia, to which it was purposed to entice him 
 upon a proposition to buy goods, their idea being to 
 remove him subsequently to a small ship in the Dela- 
 ware, where he was to be confined until their demands 
 were satisfactorily complied with. The plot was dis- 
 covered by Girard, however, before an attempt had 
 been made to put it into execution, and the men, being 
 arrested, were bound over to answer. After remain- 
 ing in prison several months, the elder and instigator 
 was declared insane, and a guilty knowledge not 
 having been conclusively brought home to the 
 younger, he was acquitted in March, 1812. 1 
 
 It is to be supposed that, having acted as one of a 
 committee which, in 1809, had drafted the memorial 
 to Congress in favor of the re-charter of the Bank of 
 the United States, Girard was especially justified in 
 believing, with the majority of business men, that the 
 charter would be renewed upon its expiration. He 
 was doubtless, therefore, much surprised at the folly 
 displayed in the refusal of Congress to heed the great 
 public demand for its resuscitation; but in the interval 
 which had elapsed between the purchase of its shares 
 in England and the actual extinction of the bank, his 
 
 ISee,-/ Report of the Trial of fames Sylvan us M' Clean , alias J. Melville, 
 and William /.. Graham, for a Conspiracy to Extort Money from Stephen Girard, 
 Esq., Philadelphia, 1S12.
 
 76 
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 prudence had matured a plan by which he could 
 secure himself from loss in any event. This was 
 simply the purchase of the whole outfit, bank build- 
 ing, cashier's house, paper, and general paraphernalia, 
 which, after the pending dissolution had become 
 a certainty in the spring of 1812, was accomplished 
 by him for the sum of one hundred and twenty 
 thousand dollars, and on the twelfth day of May, of 
 the same year, he reopened the old bank building 
 under the new title of " The Bank of Stephen 
 Girard," with a capital of one million two hundred 
 thousand dollars, increased, on the first of January, 
 181 3, to one million three hundred thousand dollars. 
 The opening of the new Bank was not delayed by 
 waiting for the engraving of new notes, nor, indeed, 
 by any preparatory measure whatsoever, 1 for while 
 the new notes were being engraved and printed for 
 him, payments were made in those of the State banks, 
 these notes being afterward exchanged for his own. 
 The latter bore the device of an American eagle and 
 a ship under full sail, and were signed by himself and 
 countersigned by his cashier. 2 From the very outset 
 they passed quite as current as those of the old Bank 
 of the United States, their redemption in specie being 
 never refused, 3 and an added stability was lent their 
 character through the deposit in the new Bank's 
 
 1 Simpson, p. 100. 2Si m p son pp 99 and 101. 
 
 3 See The Natijnal Gazette, Philadelphia, December 27th, 1831.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRAKD. yy 
 
 vaults of about five millions of dollars in specie be- 
 longing to the old Bank of the United States. 1 
 
 It was the rule of the Bank to first discount the 
 notes of small merchants and traders and of poor 
 mechanics, the balance being then applied to the 
 larger notes of more opulent men, 2 a preference, how- 
 ever, being always given to the needs of the Govern- 
 ment of the United States. During the whole of the 
 War of 1812 Girard's Bank was the very right 
 hand of the national credit, for when other banks 
 were contracting it was Girard who stayed the panic 
 by a timely and liberal expansion, 3 and frequent were 
 the calls made upon him by the Government for tem- 
 porary loans, which calls were invariably responded 
 to immediately. 
 
 It was during the continuance of that struggle that 
 he first found an opportunity to use his knowledge of 
 the Rancocas River, gained during his residence at 
 Mount Holly, New Jersey, for, having three vessels 
 lying comparatively unprotected at his wharf in the 
 Delaware, he sent them up the Rancocas, mooring 
 them " stem and stern " across the stream and arming 
 them with men and cannon, where they lay without 
 molestation until the alarm was over. 4 Doubtless, 
 in this remembering of minute details and readiness 
 to avail himself of them in emergency, lay one of the 
 
 1 Simpson, p, g8. 2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. 
 
 8 Parton, p. 238. * Professor William Wagner, Lecture I.
 
 7 g LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 chief secrets of Girard's success, and his genius was 
 as strongly shown in the celerity with which he 
 recovered from occasional heavy reverses as in his 
 usual phenomenal good fortune. In one of his letters 
 he says : ' We are all the subjects of what you call 
 ' reverses of fortune.' The great secret is to make 
 good use of fortune, and when reverses come receive 
 them with sang froid, and by redoubled activity and 
 economy endeavor to repair them." A striking 
 instance of the practice of this creed is found in 
 his remedy for the catastrophe to his vessel, the 
 " Montesquieu," ' which fine ship, after having passed 
 through thousands of miles of ocean without meeting 
 a single British cruiser, or speaking any other vessel 
 that could tell her of the war then going on between 
 Great Britain and the United States, arrived on the 
 night of the 26th of March, 18 13, within the Capes of 
 Delaware, the very spot where he had so narrowly 
 escaped with " L' Aimable Louise" in 1776. Pre- 
 cisely as had happened upon the former occasion, she 
 commenced to discharge guns for a pilot, thus form- 
 ing a coincidence of peril in the commencement of 
 our two ereat wars with the mother country which 
 was, to say the least, of a very remarkable character. 
 The firing soon attracted the attention of a small 
 British schooner called " La Paz," indignantly de- 
 
 1 Arey, p. 18.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 79 
 
 scribed by Girard as about the size of a wood- shallop, 
 which was then lying inside the cape, off Lewistown, 
 and proved to be a tender to the British man-of-war, 
 " Poictiers," of the British blockading squadron. As 
 soon as the light and the tide served in the morning, 
 this small and ill-manned craft sailed up to the unre- 
 sisting though well-armed " Montesquieu " and cap- 
 tured her and her valuable cargo entire. 
 
 The " Montesquieu" had sailed from Philadelphia 
 on December 17th, 18 10, for Valparaiso, and from 
 thence to Canton, where she arrived on February 
 19th, 1812, and whence she had sailed for Phila- 
 delphia in November of the same year, having on 
 board a most valuable Chinese cargo, the fruits of a 
 cruise of more than two whole years' duration. 1 The 
 loss at his very door, after passing safely through 
 all the perils of the sea, of this fine vessel, 
 valued at from fifteen to twenty thousand dollars, and 
 of her cargo, invoiced at one hundred and sixty- 
 four thousand seven hundred and forty-four dollars, 2 
 neither of which was insured, was a severe 
 trial to Girard. But he immediately set about 
 repairing the disaster, and after the necessary 
 negotiations with Sir John Beresford, who then 
 commanded the British squadron in our waters, 
 a flag of truce was granted him by the Gov- 
 
 1 Arey, p. iS. 
 
 ^Statement of Case in Girard vs. Ware et al., i Peters C. C, Rep. 142.
 
 So 
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 ernment to carry down the ransom money, which 
 amounted to one hundred and eighty thousand 
 dollars. 1 This was paid in coin, happily pro- 
 vided by his " little institution," as he called 
 his Bank, 2 and the " Montesquieu," being re- 
 leased, proceeded up to the city, where his calcula- 
 tions and foresight were fully justified in the result. 
 His books show that, notwithstanding the heavy loss 
 of the ransom, the cargo brought such enormous 
 profits in consequence of the scarcity caused by the 
 war, the sales amounting to four hundred and 
 eighty-eight thousand six hundred and fifty-five 
 dollars, 3 that his private fortune was increased thereby 
 in a manner that was very material. 4 
 
 On another occasion during this struggle he 
 displayed his readiness in emergency, for at about 
 the same period of general panic he had a large 
 amount of silver in the vaults of his Bank and 
 a heavy stock of silks and nankeens in his ware- 
 houses, which seemed to be in great danger of 
 capture by the British. Troops gathering on all 
 sides and fortifications being erected warned him that 
 he must take immediate action to secure the safety of 
 these valuables, and accordingly he determined to 
 send them to Reading. Engaging ten six-horse 
 teams with canvas-covered wagons, he loaded three 
 
 1 Girird vs. Ware et a!., supra. " Simpson, p 107. 
 
 3 Girard vs. Ware Ct al , supra. * Arey, p. 19.
 
 LIl-E OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 81 
 
 with the silver and the remaining seven with the silks 
 and nankeens, and dispatched the whole convoy to 
 that town under the charge of William Wagner, 
 an eighteen-year-old apprentice. Many amusing 
 incidents occurred during the transit, which occupied 
 three days, but the caravan arrived safely at its desti- 
 nation, notwithstanding the difficulties of pouring 
 rain and defective roads, the silver being deposited in 
 bank and the silk in warehouses, which had been 
 previously engaged for its reception. It is surprising 
 to reflect that the whole responsibility of this enter- 
 prise was rested upon the shoulders of so young a 
 man ; but the accuracy of Girard's estimate of char- 
 acter was abundantly proved in the result, for much 
 of the silk having been wet by the rains en route, was 
 found to be considerably damaged when the cases 
 were opened upon arrival. Equal to the emergency, 
 however, the young apprentice purchased a quantity 
 of bedcord and hung the damaged pieces in the sun 
 to dry, after which he sent them to be dyed and 
 re-pressed, the result being that they sold at a profit 
 of one hundred per cent, justifying the extraordi- 
 nary confidence his master had shown in him from 
 the outset. 1 
 
 The war so completely prostrated the finances of 
 the United States that the Government found itself, in 
 
 1 Professor William Wagncr.Lecture I. 
 
 4*
 
 g 2 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 the year 1814, at the extremity of its resources, with 
 an army and navy clamoring for supplies, a public 
 panic-stricken by the ominous outlook, or indifferent 
 to the Government's necessities and in some cases 
 actually inimical to its longer existence separate 
 from Great Britain. Appeals to patriotism were vain 
 when it was known the Treasury had been so heavily 
 drawn upon that practically no means remained to 
 purchase the supplies essential to prolong the strug- 
 gle, and the only possibility of relief apparent in the 
 disastrous prospect lay in the faint hope that an 
 additional loan might be floated upon the Government 
 credit. It was accordingly determined to attempt 
 this, and the amount was fixed at five millions of dol- 
 lars, the bonds to bear interest at the rate of seven 
 per cent, per annum, while as an additional allurement 
 to capitalists a bonus of thirty per cent, was offered, 
 so large an amount, indeed, that even under the cir- 
 cumstances it was considered enormous. Large, how- 
 ever, as it was, and strenuous as were the exertions of 
 the financial agents of the Republic to place the 
 bonds, the day for the closing of subscriptions arrived 
 with but twenty thousand dollars' worth subscribed 
 for. What was to be done? Failure of the loan 
 meant the end of the war, and its failure but a pre- 
 face to the destruction of the States in detail. It 
 was a moment for a patriot.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. g -, 
 
 Girard did not, however, permit the question to 
 be asked a second time. Determined to stake his 
 whole fortune on the failing arms of the country of 
 his choice, once again the citizen of adoption stepped 
 in where native Americans saw nothing but loss and 
 personal danger, and set his name opposite the whole 
 of the loan yet unsubscribed for. The effect was in- 
 stantaneous and electrical. " The timid became bold, 
 and the avaricious fancied themselves transformed 
 to patriots. Those who had shrunk from it as from a 
 gulf of ruin, now rushed forward, clamorous for a 
 share," 1 and, the danger averted, they were permitted 
 to have it upon the original terms, although an ad- 
 vance of five to ten per cent, could have been obtained 
 without the slightest difficulty. 
 
 The sinews of war thus furnished and public con- 
 fidence restored, a series of brilliant victories resulted 
 in a peace, to which Girard thus referred in a letter 
 written in 1815 to his correspondent, Morton, in 
 Bordeaux: "The peace which has taken place be- 
 tween this country and England will consolidate for- 
 ever our independence and insure our tranquillity," 
 an opinion justified, as we know, in the result, and to 
 which tranquillity Girard added not a little by writing 
 to A. J. Dallas, then Secretary of the Treasury, as 
 follows : "lam of opinion that those who have any 
 
 1 Simpson, p. 109. SArey, pp. 19 and 20.
 
 34 LIFE OF STEPHEN GJRARD. 
 
 claim for interest on public stock, etc., should patiently 
 wait for a more favorable moment, or at least receive 
 in payment Treasury notes. Should you be under 
 the necessity of resorting to either of those plans, 
 as one of the public creditors I shall not murmur." 1 
 
 But from these stirring scenes without Girard was 
 recalled, on the 13th of September, 181 5, to the final 
 scene of his domestic grief by the notification that 
 his wife, who had lingered through a painless blank 
 of twenty-five years' duration, was dying, still insane. 
 What chords of memory this notice touched can be 
 easily imagined. He had sought the legislative inter- 
 vention of divorce some years after his wife's admis- 
 sion to the Hospital on the ground of her incurable 
 affliction ; but the bill had failed, and now in his sixty- 
 fifth year he found himself free through the hand 
 of death, but with no child to bear his name or in- 
 herit the accumulations of his years of ceaseless toil. 
 One can only guess the sad recollections of the early 
 days of his married life that must have stirred in his 
 bosom at word that the body of her whose mind had 
 died so long ago at last lay dying also — the days 
 when, secure in the affection of the beautiful young 
 girl he had married, the future opened to the success- 
 ful young merchant in the brightest colors; the 
 happy period on the little farm at Mount Holly, 
 
 1 Arey, p. 20.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. g j- 
 
 followed by the contented life of their city home ; and 
 then the doubt, resolving into a still more fearful cer- 
 tainty, which opened the chapter now about to close. 
 But although, doubtless, he did not attempt to conceal 
 from himself how hopelessly his life in a certain sense 
 had failed, he was a man of marvellous self command, 
 and no outward sign was seen of the thoughts that 
 moved him inwardly ; only he bowed his head, and 
 after a moment's pause, requested to be told when all 
 was over; then, entering his chamber, closed the door, 
 communing with his grief and bitter thoughts alone. 
 " Toward the close of the day, after the sun had 
 withdrawn his last beams from the tallest sycamore 
 that shades the garden, Mr. Girard was sent for, and 
 when he arrived with all his family the plain coffin of 
 Mary Girard was carried forward to her resting- 
 place in deepest silence." x " I shall never forget the 
 last and closing scene. We all stood about the coffin 
 when Mr. Girard, filled with emotion, stepped forward, 
 kissed his wife's corpse, and his tears moistened 
 her cheek." 2 
 
 The burial was conducted in accordance with the 
 manner of the " Friends," who have the management 
 of the Hospital. Following a hush of a few minutes' 
 duration, the coffin was lowered into the grave, and 
 another silence ensued, after which Girard bent over 
 
 1 Simpson, p. 37. 2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture I.
 
 86 
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 and bestowed a last look upon his dead wife, then, 
 turning from the new-made grave, said to Samuel 
 Coates, " It is very well," and immediately returned 
 to his home. 1 
 
 She was buried, at Girard's request, in the lawn at 
 the north front of the Hospital, 2 a few feet west of the 
 grave of Charles Nicholes, a native of the island 
 of Jersey, who died in Philadelphia 31st December, 
 1807, having given the Hospital five thousand dollars 
 on condition that he should be interred there. 3 Some 
 days after the burial had taken place Girard gave the 
 nurses, attendants, and other assistants various small 
 sums of money as a reward for their care of his 
 wife while in the Hospital, and to the institution itself 
 he eave the sum of one thousand one hundred and 
 twenty- five pounds in Pennsylvania currency, equiva- 
 lent in specie to about three thousand dollars. 4 
 
 It was Girard's original intention to have been 
 buried here himself, and, indeed, a lovelier spot could 
 hardly have been found within the city, the smooth 
 lawns, broken with occasional flower-beds, shaded 
 by tall sycamores, and kept with Quaker-like sim- 
 plicity and neatness, having an especial charm for 
 the sensitive Frenchman. But this wish was destined 
 never to be carried into effect, and no other permits 
 having ever been granted for interments within the 
 
 1 Simpson, p. 37. 2 Simpson, p. 36. 
 
 3 William G. Malin, ex-stewar 1 Penn-ylvan'u Hospital. * Simpson, p. 37.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. g~ 
 
 grounds, these two are the only persons ever buried 
 in that beautiful spot. The lawns and flower-beds 
 still remain, shaded by the ancient trees, but the 
 actual site of these graves is now covered by the 
 Clinic building, erected in 1868, they both being 
 under the northernmost portion of that structure, 
 north of the roadway which passes through the 
 building. They were, of course, undisturbed in build- 
 ing, for the addition has no cellar, 1 but no trace of 
 them can now be seen, the custom of the " Friends " 
 forbidding a headstone to be placed at a grave, and 
 the simple mound of earth which alone marked the 
 resting-place of Mary Girard having been previously 
 leveled. 
 
 The year 18 16 witnessed the chartering by President 
 Madison of the second Bank of the United States, 
 and Girard having been named one of the commis- 
 sioners, the books were opened at his Bank in the 
 spring of that year for subscriptions to the stock. 
 But confidence in the nation's fiscal ventures was very 
 slow in arising, and the days rolled by bringing 
 so few subscribers that at last it was self-evident that 
 the scheme would fail. Until this time Girard had 
 held aloof, determined to take no part unless he found 
 his name essential to success, but when the closing 
 hour arrived, with less than half the shares subscribed 
 
 1 William G. Malin, supra
 
 gg LIFE OF STEPHEN G1RARD. 
 
 for, it was evident the time for action had arrived, and 
 he therefore placed his name opposite the unsub- 
 scribed-for stock, amounting to three million one 
 hundred thousand dollars. Stimulated by his confi- 
 dence, the same immediate and gratifying effect upon 
 the public was observed as had followed his similar 
 action in 1814, and, yielding to the solicitations of 
 those who had become importunate for shares, his 
 stock was sold again at par, until at last not more than 
 a million and a half of the whole amount for which he 
 had originally subscribed was left standing in his 
 name. 1 His interest in all public matters was of the 
 keenest description, and it was but necessary to con- 
 vince him that the general welfare was at stake to 
 induce him not only to subscribe liberally himself, but 
 to use every personal effort with others to insure the 
 success of the enterprise under consideration. Thus, 
 becoming persuaded that great advantage to the State 
 would follow the improvement of her water-ways, 
 he was the first to furnish efficient pecuniary aid 
 to the Schuylkill Navigation Company, subscribing, 
 at the very inception of the enterprise, to two 
 thousand two hundred shares of the stock at 
 fifty dollars per share, and subsequently, in 1823, 
 lending the Company the sum of two hundred and 
 sixty-five thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars for 
 
 1 Simpson, p. 113.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. £>g 
 
 the purpose of better accomplishing the laudable 
 enterprise and to establish it upon a more secure 
 foundation. 1 
 
 Girard was now seventy-six years of age, and, the 
 summit of his life being passed, that slow process of 
 vital disintegration began which reconciles the body 
 more easily to the shock of final transition. In 1826 
 Dr. Monges was called in to attend him for a violent 
 attack of erysipelas in the head and legs, by which 
 he was confined to the house for several weeks, 
 and which left so great resultant debility that it 
 was some time before his vigorous natural stamina 
 appeared to triumph over its inroads. He finally 
 seemed to recover, however, but he evidently felt the 
 need of a radical change of habit, for he altered his 
 mode of living to a vegetable diet, which he con- 
 tinued until the period of his death. 2 
 
 It is probable that in stimulating the march of 
 internal improvements Girard had no idea of the 
 extent to which the movement would be carried 
 through extravagance of State officials and the 
 Legislature, or he would doubtless have hesitated 
 much before committing himself as unreservedly 
 to its advocacy as he did. His suggestions had 
 fallen upon ground of alarming fertility, and it 
 was not long before those in charge of public works 
 
 Simpson, p. 143. 2 Simpson, p 181.
 
 go LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 seemed to have abandoned commonest business pru- 
 dence in making their expenditures. It must have 
 been evident to all thoughtful people that such reck- 
 lessness could not go on indefinitely, and but few 
 could have been surprised when, in 1829, the State 
 found its treasury empty, with not only no means to 
 complete improvements already commenced, but actu- 
 ally none to carry on the daily affairs of government, 
 while, as a climax, the Legislature was adjourned. 
 
 In such straits an extra legislative session was 
 convened in order to provide for the remainder of the 
 fiscal year, but in the interval, before it could assemble, 
 the threatening contingency of bankruptcy made 
 it an impossibility for the State to obtain credit for 
 the actual daily outlay of its departments. In alarm, 
 Governor Shultz came to Philadelphia and besought 
 Girard to make the State a loan for the purpose 
 of bridging the financial chasm which had opened 
 before it, to his intense satisfaction meeting with 
 a most cordial reception from the latter, who unhesi- 
 tatingly, and with the single object of relieving the 
 embarrassed Commonwealth, advanced one hundred 
 thousand dollars upon the sole credit of the Execu- 
 tive. 1 When it is remembered that there was no law 
 to authorize the Governor's request, and that Girard 
 was relying for repayment wholly upon the future 
 
 1 Compare Simpson, p. 144.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. g Z 
 
 action of the Legislature, a disavowal by which 
 of the Governor's authority would have caused him 
 to los.2 the whole sum, it will be conceded that in so 
 serving the State he was displaying public spirit and 
 patriotism worthy of the most enthusiastic commen- 
 dation. 
 
 This relief of the State appropriately formed the 
 last public act of his life, but his attention to private 
 business was unrelaxed, although his eyesight grew 
 so dim that he could scarcely walk the streets in 
 safety. In 1830 he was often found groping in the 
 vestibule of his Bank, unable to find the door, 1 and it 
 was about February 12th of that year that he was 
 struck and thrown down by a furiously driven dear- 
 born wagon as he attempted to cross the street at 
 Second and Market, on his way home from the Bank. 
 The wheel passed over his head, terribly lacerating 
 his forehead, cheek, and right ear, and injuring his 
 remaining eye, but he regained his feet without assist- 
 ance, and walked home unaided, where the wound 
 was found to be more serious than had been at first 
 supposed. " Drs. Physick and Clark were called 
 in, and probing the wound, cleansed it from a quantity 
 of gravel and sand. He bore the pain of dressing it 
 without flinching, saying, ' Go on, Doctor, I am an old 
 sailor ; I can bear a good deal ;' but inflammation 
 
 1 Simpson, p. 181.
 
 q 2 LIFE OF STEPHEN CIRARD. 
 
 setting in, for a fortnight or more his brain was in a 
 terrible excitement, which a little later developed into 
 a condition resembling imbecility. After some weeks 
 he rallied, but refused pertinaciously to attend to any 
 business, saying that he ' would not be disturbed to 
 be the gainer of a large sum.' Finally, he yielded to 
 the entreaties of Mr. Wolfert, and in March signed 
 his name to a business document, the event making 
 quite a stir in the household. A desk was brought to 
 his room, there was a great mending of pens (for 
 he never used steel or gold ones), and then a long 
 page of paper was filled with trial signatures, ' to get 
 his hand in,' as he said. At last the document 
 received the wished-for signature, Girard expressing 
 himself as quite proud of the performance, which he 
 wished noted down as the first time lie had signed his 
 name since the accident. This was accordingly done, 
 but after his decease it appeared that he must have 
 labored under an error, for his will is dated February 
 1 6th, 1830, a fezo days after that unfortunate occur- 
 rence." ' 2 
 
 'Notes of Henriette Girard Clark (Vve. Lallemand). 
 
 ; It is perhaps ivjt inappropriate to mention in this connection that the heirs of 
 Girard have never believed it was their relative's intention to deal less liberally 
 with them after his death than he had unintermittingly done during his lifetime. 
 While they admit his intention to found the College for Orphans, yet the various 
 contests which have been made over the testamentary disposition of his estate 
 have been actuated by the conviction that his published will but reflects an adverse 
 ascendency, gained after his intellect had been seriously weakened, by certain in- 
 dividuals, who from this time forward attended him, both in and out of season, 
 with the most unwearying and pertinacious assiduity.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. g-> 
 
 On April 30th, 1830, he bought eleven tracts of 
 coal land in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, contain- 
 ing about four thousand acres, which were sold at pub- 
 lic auction by the trustees of the old Bank of the 
 United States for the sum of thirty thousand dollars. 1 
 The tract afterward formed the subject of a lawsuit 
 between the heirs-at-law of his estate and the city of 
 Philadelphia, it being asserted on behalf of the heirs 
 that as to this land Girard had died intestate, the 
 mere color of title which he had at the date of his 
 will not being such an estate in the land as could be 
 devised. Girard had perfected his title subsequently 
 to his will, but the heirs maintained that his subse- 
 quent good title would not relate back and attach to 
 his previous mere color of title in order to make the 
 devise hold good. The city denied these claims and 
 defended its possession under the will and codicils. 
 The case was tried in 185 1 before a special jury in the 
 United States Circuit Court, 2 the verdict being for the 
 heirs, and a motion for a new trial being refused, 3 
 the heirs were put in possession by the United States 
 Marshal by virtue of a writ of habere facias posses- 
 sionem issuing upon the original judgment. Three 
 years later, in 1854, the city brought suit in ejectment 
 
 1 Lessees of Clark vs. The City of Philadelphia, U. S. Circuit Court, October 
 sessions, 1850, Common Law Docket No. 31. Not reported. Same case on argu- 
 ment for new trial reported in 2d Wallace, Jr.'s, Circuit Court Reports, page 301. 
 
 2 Lessees of Clark vs. The City, supra. 
 
 3 Reported 2 Wallace, Jr.'s, Circuit Court Reports, page 301.
 
 ~ , LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 94 
 
 against the heirs, but was defeated, and the Supreme 
 Court of the State refusing to reverse the judgment 
 of the lower court, 1 the heirs were thus confirmed, 
 after protracted litigation, in the only material por- 
 tion of Girard's immense estate of which they ever 
 succeeded in divesting the city of Philadelphia. 2 
 
 At a meeting of Philadelphia merchants, held on 
 the 19th of July, 183 1, it was decided to build a Mer- 
 chants' Exchange, at the intersection of Walnut, 
 Dock, and Third Streets, and Girard was appointed 
 one of the trustees to purchase and hold the said lot 
 until the company was incorporated. 3 This was the 
 last position of honor which his increasing feebleness 
 permitted him to accept, and before the matter had 
 been fully completed he was attacked in December of 
 the same year by the influenza, which was then 
 
 1 Case not reported. 
 
 2 la Girard 7'.?. The Mayor, and Vidal vs. The Same, both reported in 4 Rawle 
 323, certain housesand real estate in Philadelphia were recovered by the heirs. The 
 various Girard suits and discussions of his will are reported as follows : 
 
 In the State Courts. — Girard vs. The Mayor, Vidal vs. The Same, 4 Rawle 
 323; The City vs. Davis et al., 1 Wharton 490; Beck vs. The City, 5 Harris 104; 
 Soohanz/.?. The City of Philadelphia, 9 Casey 9 ; also 1 Grant 494; The City vs 
 The Heirs, etc., 9 Wright 9; Field vs. The Directors of Girard College, 4 P. F. 
 Smith 233 (54 Penna. State 233). 
 
 In the United States Courts. — Vidal vs. Girard's Executors, 2 Howard 127; 
 Girard z>s. Philadelphia, 7 Wallace 1 ; Girard vs. Philadelphia, 2 Wallace, Jr., 301; 
 Madeleine H. Girard et al 7/s. Philadelphia, 1S Legal Intelligencer 388. 
 
 See also Ex parte Girard, 5 Clark 68, also reported 8 Legal Intelligencer 150; 
 Girard vs. Ware, 1 Peters Circuit Court Reports 142; Girard vs. Hutchinson, 2 
 Sergeant and Rawle 188 ; Girard vs. Hutchinson, 4 Sergeant and Rawle 81 ■ Girard 
 vs. Gettig, 2 Binney 234; Girard 7'S. Heyl, 6 Binney 253 ; Girard z's. McDermott, 5 
 Sergeant and Rawle 128; Girard vs. Stiles, 4 Yeates 1 ; Girard vs. Taggart, 5 Ser- 
 geant and Rawle 19. 
 
 3 Compare Scharf and Westcott's History of Philadelphia., p. 634.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRAKD. QC - 
 
 epidemic in the city. The violence of the disease 
 completely prostrated him, and pneumonia superven- 
 ing, it became at once apparent that he could not 
 survive the attack. 1 
 
 But, as he had never exhibited any concern about 
 life, so now neither did he display any fear of death, 
 which was meeting him, as he had always hoped, in 
 the midst of active labor. So fully, indeed, was he 
 impressed with the idea that constant employment 
 was one of the greatest duties in life, that about 
 a month before this he had said, " When Death 
 comes for me he will find me busy, unless I am asleep 
 in bed. If I thought I was going to die to-morrow I 
 should plant a tree, nevertheless, to-day," 2 which 
 steady courage, staying by him to the last, forbade a 
 tremor in face of the final moment. But, so far as the 
 city was concerned, as soon as it became known that 
 he was seriously ill it was everywhere agitated with 
 the utmost anxiety and interest. " Inquiries after 
 his health were incessant ; rumors as various and as 
 contradictory followed one another in quick succes- 
 sion, until the excitement of the public mind grew to 
 a pitch equal to that which would have attended the 
 illness of the first character of the Republic." 3 Of 
 all this, however, the dying man remained uncon- 
 scious to the last, his few remaining days being spent 
 
 i Arey, p. 25. 2 The American Daily Advertiser, Feb. 1st, 1832. 
 
 * Simpson, p. 183.
 
 9 6 
 
 LITE OF STEPHEN C1RARD. 
 
 in a stupor, from which he did not arouse until 
 a short time before his death. 1 Then he left his 
 bed and walked across the room to a chair, at once 
 turning and going back, and, placing his weak, thin 
 hand against his forehead, he exclaimed : " How 
 violent is this disorder! How very extraordinary it 
 is !" and shortly after died, without speaking again. 2 
 
 He died in the back room of the third floor of his 
 Water Street mansion 3 at four o'clock in the afternoon 
 of the 26th of December, 1831, aged eighty-one 
 years and seven months, less five days. As soon 
 as his death became known the authorities of the 
 city, convening, decreed him a civic funeral. The 
 flags of public buildings and of the shipping in 
 the river were displayed at half-mast, and many 
 public manifestations of regret for the loss of a 
 distinguished and useful citizen were exhibited by the 
 people. 4 Resolutions of regret were adopted by the 
 Select and Common Councils of the City of Phila- 
 delphia, and the following advertisement was inserted 
 in several of the daily papers: 
 
 " The funeral of the late Mr. Stephen Girard will 
 proceed from his late residence, North Water Street, 
 to the burial ground of the Holy Trinity Church, 
 N. W. corner of Spruce .and Sixth Streets, at 10 
 o'clock on Friday forenoon, December 30th. 
 
 1 Arey, p. 25. 2 Pro r essor William Wagner, and compare Simpson, p. 184. 
 
 3 Simpson, p. 184. * Arty, p. 25.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. gj 
 
 " The trustees of the Bank of Stephen Girard are 
 requested to meet and proceed together as mourners, 
 next after the relatives of the deceased. 
 
 " An invitation is respectfully given to the public 
 bodies, institutions, and societies hereinafter named, 
 to proceed to the funeral in the following order : 
 
 " The Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen, and the Select 
 and Common Councils, with their officers. 
 
 " The Wardens of the Port of Philadelphia. 
 
 " The officers and members of the Grand Lodge of 
 Pennsylvania, and of the subordinate Lodges. 
 
 " The officers and members of the Society for the 
 Relief of Distressed Masters of Ships and their 
 Widows. 
 
 " The officers of and contributors to the Pennsyl- 
 vania Hospital. 
 
 " The Comptrollers, Directors, and others of the 
 Public Schools. 
 
 "The officers and members of the Pennsylvania 
 Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. 
 
 " The officers and members of the Orphan Asylum. 
 
 " The officers and members of the Societe de Bien- 
 faisance Francaise. 
 
 " The officers and members of the Fuel Savings 
 Society. 
 
 " Other benevolent societies are respectfully invited, 
 and requested to proceed next after the Fuel Savings 
 Society. 
 
 " In a community in which Mr. Girard was as univer- 
 sally known as he was useful, it is not practicable to 
 give special invitations to individuals, nor is it sup- 
 
 5
 
 9 3 
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 posed that invitations will have been expected. All 
 those who knew Mr. Girard personally or by reputa- 
 tion, and who revere his example and memory, are 
 respectfully invited to attend his funeral. 
 
 ".'.It is customary to protract the time fixed for 
 funerals for an hour beyond that designated. In the 
 present instance the procession will positively move 
 at 1 1 o'clock. 
 
 " JS@ a, The procession will move up Water Street to 
 Arch, up Arch Street to Sixth, down Sixth Street to 
 the place of interment, at the corner of Spruce and 
 Sixth Streets." 1 
 
 This programme was exactly carried out, the same 
 paper containing on the afternoon of that day the fol- 
 lowing paragraph : 
 
 " The funeral of the late Mr. Girard was attended 
 at the appointed hour this forenoon. The coffin was 
 carried in an open hearse ; it was covered with black 
 cloth, with silver trappings. The extent of the pro- 
 cession could not be discerned from any one point, 
 and the number of persons in the concourse, compris- 
 ing the societies and city officers alone, could not 
 have been short of a thousand. Spectators on the 
 sidewalks and in the streets were in countless multi- 
 tudes — forming an immense assemblage of many 
 thousands of our citizens. So large a funeral, it is 
 believed, was never before known in this city." 
 
 Another paper of the next day contained a some- 
 what fuller account in the following terms : 
 
 1 The Philadelphia Gazelle, December 29th, 1831.
 
 LIFE OF STEMEN GIRARD. qQ 
 
 " The funeral of Mr. Stephen Girard took place 
 yesterday morning at the hour indicated in the 
 programme published in the papers. The hearse was 
 preceded by the police of the city, and the whole of 
 the city watch walked beside the mourning-carriages, 
 with broad blue ribbons on their breasts marked, 
 ' City Watch.' Next to the mourners on foot were 
 the Mayor and Recorder of the City, with broad 
 mode hat-weepers and scarfs. The Aldermen and 
 City Councils succeeded, and then a society of which 
 the deceased was a member. This was succeeded by 
 the officers of the Grand Lodge of Masons of Penn- 
 sylvania and the officers and members of the subordi- 
 nate lodges. The officers wore their collars and 
 jewels, but not their aprons. These were succeeded 
 by various societies, constituting perhaps the largest 
 funeral procession ever seen in this city, and the 
 streets, from the commencement to the termination of 
 the procession, were thronged with immense numbers 
 of all ages and both sexes. The body was conveyed 
 in a richly decorated coffin on an open hearse." * 
 
 " The funeral of Mr. Girard * * * was conducted in 
 a mode consistent with the character of the deceased 
 — with solemnity and decorum unaccompanied by 
 pomp. The hearse was followed by five carriages 
 conveying the females whose attendance was thought 
 proper. Then followed the other mourners, and after 
 them the members of the City Corporation and 
 the representatives of societies invited, with a large 
 number of citizens, the whole forming a procession of 
 
 1 United States Gazette, December 31st, 1831.
 
 IOO LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 immense extent and most respectable appearance. 
 Fifteen carriages brought up the rear. 
 
 " The streets through which the procession passed 
 were thronged, and the conduct of those assembled 
 was that of persons desirous not of gratifying 
 curiosity, but of paying a last tribute of respect to a 
 great public benefactor. Respecting the provisions of 
 the will, the chief of which are understood to be as 
 we stated yesterday, we hear but one opinion — that 
 they are what might have been expected from a man 
 of consummate sagacity intent upon doing the utmost 
 possible good to the community in which he had 
 lived and died." 1 
 
 Owing to a misapprehension on the part of one of 
 
 his executors in regard to Girard's wishes in relation 
 
 to his burial-place, the will had to be read very soon 
 
 after his death, 2 and, the public being thus early 
 
 in possession of the facts, the following advertisement 
 
 appeared on the day of the funeral : 
 
 " The late Stephen Girard, Esq., having by his will 
 left very handsome bequests to the City of Philadel- 
 phia, as well as during his lifetime very extensively 
 contributed to its beauty and improvement, it is re- 
 spectfully suggested to all citizens who are not con- 
 scientiously scrupulous to close their windows at least 
 from the hours of ten to twelve o'clock as a testimony 
 of gratitude and respect to the memory of their 
 liberal benefactor." 3 
 
 1 The Daily Chronicle, Philadelphia, December 30th, 1831. 
 
 2 f-oui-e Stockton, in The Continent, June 20th, 1883, p. 778. 
 
 3 The American Daily Advertiser, December 30th, 1831.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN G1RARD. IOI 
 
 The windows of houses in the streets leading to 
 the church were accordingly closed during the pas- 
 sage of the funeral procession, 1 which finally halted at 
 the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, at the 
 northeast corner of Sixth and Spruce Streets. There 
 the mortal remains of Girard were placed in the vault 
 of the Baron Henry Dominick Lallemand, General of 
 Artillery under Napoleon Bonaparte, who had married 
 the youngest daughter of Girard's brother Jean. 
 Owing to the presence of the Masonic fraternity, the 
 necessary permission to do this was only obtained 
 from the clergy of the parish under threat of legal 
 proceedings on the part of the executors, the priests 
 refusing to officiate, and leaving the churchyard when 
 that Society entered ; so that after the manner of the 
 " Friends," and amid a silence broken only by the 
 murmur of the crowd of citizens, Girard at last was 
 laid at rest in the heart of the city he so deeply loved. 
 
 Many manifestations of regret and encomiums upon 
 the character of the dead philanthropist were pub- 
 lished in the city newspapers during the month follow- 
 ing his interment, among them the subjoined, from 
 which have been eliminated some apparent errors of 
 fact: 
 
 " He was always generous to the poor in times of 
 distress, particularly in the cold of winter. Often 
 
 1 Simpson, p. 187. The American Daily Advertiser, December 30th, 1831.
 
 I0 2 LIFE OF STEPHEN CIRARD. 
 
 have his stores of wood accumulated in his Market 
 Street Square been freely distributed to the friendless 
 and shivering. His purse, too, has been generally- 
 found ready to open for any case of real distress 
 which was communicated properly to him. * * * 
 His unimpeached integrity, active habits of business, 
 and promptness had given the public great confidence 
 in him. * * * * So unlimited has been public 
 confidence in him, that the most wealthy French emi- 
 grants have uniformly deposited their funds in his 
 hands. The present King of France is supposed to 
 have consigned him immense sums to be out of 
 harm's way, and Joseph Bonaparte's specie was all 
 safely placed in the Third Street vaults." ' 
 
 Another journal, speaking of the personal esteem 
 in which Girard was held by the respectable citizens 
 of his day, adds : 
 
 " But to those who knew him in distant towns and 
 cities as a rich banker, and only by report his benevo- 
 lent exertions in the cause of suffering humanity — 
 his uniform probity and uprightness are not perhaps 
 so familiar. Here, however, where the field of his 
 benevolent labor is spread open to all observers, his 
 character for real improvement and judicious philan- 
 thropy can be well attested." 2 
 
 At risk of fatiguing the reader, the following resolu- 
 tions are subjoined, which were offered by William J. 
 Duane in Select Council on the 28th of December, 
 
 1 The Saturday Bulletin, Philadelphia, December 31st, 1831. 
 S Tlu Philadelphia Gazette, December 27th, 1831.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. IO ? 
 
 183 1, they having been unanimously adopted in that 
 body, and subsequently in the Common Council : 
 
 " The members of the Select and Common Coun- 
 cils of the city of Philadelphia learn with deep 
 sorrow that their esteemed and venerable fellow- 
 citizen, Stephen Girard, has departed forever from 
 the scene of his long and memorable useful- 
 ness. Contemplating * * * * the ulti- 
 mate varietv and extent of his wealth and works, 
 the mind is filled with admiration for the man, 
 and profoundly impressed with the value of his 
 example. Numerous and solid as the edifices are 
 which he constructed in the city and precincts of 
 Philadelphia, they will constitute but a transitory 
 record of what he was when compared with the moral 
 influence that must arise from a knowledge of the 
 merits and means by which he acquired his immense 
 estate. Those merits and means were probity of the 
 strictest kind, diligence unsurpassed, perseverence in 
 all pursuits, and a frugality as remote from parsimony 
 as from extravagance. The goodness of his heart 
 was not manifested by ostentatious subscriptions or 
 loud professions, but when pestilence stalked abroad 
 Stephen Girard risked his life to preserve from its 
 ravages the most humble of his fellow-creatures; and 
 whenever sorrow, unaccompanied by immorality, 
 approached his door it was thrown wide open. His 
 person, his habits, and his home evinced the love of 
 what was simple and his disregard of ostentation. 
 Above all men most able to revel in luxury or to roll 
 in a splendid equipage, he fared at all times alike, and
 
 104 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 within a few days of his death rode in the style of 
 a plain farmer, rather than that of a rich banker, He 
 was a devoted friend to those principles of civil 
 and religious libertv which form the basis of the 
 political fabric of his adopted country, and when 
 in the course of the last war the credit of that country 
 was impaired, he mainly contributed to arrest the 
 threatened consequences. To say all this is but 
 to aver what all those of mature age in this city must 
 know or have heard. 
 
 "Resolved, That the Clerks of Councils be, and they 
 are hereby instructed, to cause the respective halls to 
 be hung with mourning as a mark of respect to Ste- 
 phen Girard, Esq." 1 
 
 For twenty years the body of Girard reposed 
 undisturbed where it had been laid in the church- 
 yard of the Holy Trinity Church, when, the 
 Girard College having been completed, it was re- 
 solved that the remains of the donor should be 
 transferred to the marble sarcophagus provided in 
 its vestibule. " Some of the heirs * * * * 
 objected to this transfer, alleging that the body of 
 their relative had been deposited in the vault of 
 the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, Sixth 
 and Spruce Streets, in accordance with his own 
 wishes, and that there was no authority, either in the 
 Masonic Order or in the city of Philadelphia, to 
 remove them. It was an important fact that they had 
 
 1 The American Da'uy Advertiser, December 30th, 1831.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. IO ,- 
 
 been removed before application had been made for 
 an injunction. The point was strongly debated on 
 both sides. Judge Edward King, of the Common 
 Pleas, before wnom the motion for an injunction was 
 discussed, took the view that the body having been 
 removed, an injunction against removing it could not 
 be consistently granted. The public ceremonies had 
 also been arranged for, and finally he continued the 
 case without making any decision, stating that if an 
 injunction could be legally ordered after the remains 
 had been actually removed from the churchyard, it 
 could be as well disposed of afterward upon full argu- 
 ment on bill and answer and final decree. Nothing" 
 was ever done afterward in relation to the matter. 
 * * * * Under the particular state of the case, 
 the old adage that possession is nine points of the 
 law became available. 1 
 
 " The ceremonies of this second funeral, which 
 took place on September 30th, 185 1, were entirely 
 Masonic, under the direction of the Grand Lodge 
 of Pennsylvania, which upon this occasion permitted 
 the first parade of the brotherhood for many years. 
 Care was taken to present the members of the 
 Order under the most favorable circumstances. 
 They were uniformly attired in full-dress suits of 
 black and wore white kid gloves (the white sheep- 
 
 ^■Ex-parU Girard, 5 Clark 6S; also reported 8 Legal Intelligencer 150. 
 
 5*
 
 j 5 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 skin apron of the Master Mason trimmed with 
 broad edging of blue ribbon) and blue sashes 
 ornamented with silver fringe. Fifteen hundred 
 and nineteen members of the Order paraded, and 
 the procession, in the fine appearance of the mem- 
 bers, the personal respectability of all of them, and 
 the decorum exhibited, had never been equalled 
 in impressive character. The procession marched 
 from the Masonic Hall, Third Street above Spruce, by 
 the most direct route, via Ridge Avenue, to Girard 
 College. Here the orphans under tuition in the insti- 
 tution, three hundred in number, were placed upon 
 the steps of the College building. The remains of 
 the founder were brought forth and borne by twelve 
 Past Masters to a platform erected on the east side of 
 the main building for the purpose. The Grand 
 Lodge was placed upon this elevation, the brethren 
 beincr arranged in close columns before it. A dime, 
 composed for the occasion, was played by a band of 
 musicians. * * * * A Past Master then deliv- 
 ered an appropriate and eloquent oration and the 
 Most Worthy Grand Master made a short address. 
 The dirge was again performed. The remains of 
 Girard were again removed to the vestibule of the 
 College and deposited in the sarcophagus. The 
 line of Masons filed along in front of the latter, and 
 each brother deposited his palm branch upon the
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 1Q y 
 
 coffin as he passed. After this the march was re- 
 sumed to Masonic Hall, where the members were 
 dismissed." 1 
 
 iScharfand Westcott's History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Vol. I (Philadel- 
 phia, 1884), pp. 699 and 700.
 
 PART II. 
 
 SOME idea of the little-understood personal char- 
 acter of this remarkable man may be gained by- 
 considering, first, his appearance and the habits of his 
 private life ; and second, his peculiar methods of 
 transacting business, these last being illustrated by 
 authentic anecdotes, or related by surviving associates. 
 " The time will come when he will be better under- 
 stood, and even while he remains the typical man of 
 business — allowing nothing to move him from his 
 purposes, inflexible, impetuous, never taking back 
 his word for good or ill, daring yet cautious, hav- 
 ing a brain that governed his heart — he will also 
 have credit for his sterling manly virtues. He was 
 one of the men to whom much was committed, and 
 when his time came to give it up, he gave it, not as 
 money to make money, but to the ' little ones ' with 
 widowed mothers, and for the benefit of the city of 
 his adoption." l 
 
 The first of these personal indices is but defectively 
 supplied by the statue in front of the sarcophagus in 
 Girard College, for while this work doubtless affords 
 an excellent idea of his features at the time of his 
 
 1 Louise Stockton, in The Continent, June 20th, 1883, p. 779. 
 108
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. IO g 
 
 decease, after they had been changed by acute suf- 
 fering, it is of greatly inferior merit as regards the 
 remainder of the figure. The face was copied from 
 a death mask taken at the direction of Dr. John Y. 
 Clark, 1 the second husband of Girard's youngest 
 niece, Henriette, the Baroness Lallemand, and there- 
 fore, considering the peculiar situation of the statue, 
 is perhaps suitable as representing the philanthropist 
 in contemplation of the charity which closed his 
 life, although it may certainly be criticised as but 
 defectively presenting the great merchant whose 
 efforts made such charity possible. The artist, 
 Gevelot, of Paris, never saw his subject; and having 
 been obliged to formulate the figure from descrip- 
 tions by untrained observers, aided by the clothing 
 found among the deceased's effects, the result gives 
 perhaps less room for surprise at his failure to depict 
 the grave dignity of Girard's appearance, than for 
 astonishment at his having satisfied the original body 
 of Trustees. 2 Its cost is said to have been thirty 
 thousand dollars, but from the outset it has been 
 compared very disadvantageously with the painting 
 by Otis, 3 a contemporaneous criticism of which latter 
 is as follows : 
 
 1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture II. 
 
 2 Compare Memoirs and Autobiography of Some of the Wealthy Citizens of 
 Philadelphia, Philadelphia, 1846, p. 77. 
 
 3 See Frontispiece. This portrait is in the possession of the descendants of 
 Girard's brother, Jean Girard (de Mombrun).
 
 j IO LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 " We called yesterday to look at the portrait of 
 Mr. Girard, now nearly painted by Mr. Otis, from 
 a cast taken after death. Mr. Otis has, in nearly fifty 
 cases, been remarkably fortunate in preserving upon 
 canvas the exact features of persons who had not 
 in their lifetime sate for a portrait, and in the present 
 case we think he has been even more than usually 
 successful. There are few of our citizens who do not 
 remember the looks of Mr. Girard, and all who saw 
 him alive will bear testimony to the faithfulness of 
 the portrait. This is the only likeness ever taken 
 of Mr. Girard, as he never sate to a painter during 
 his life." l 
 
 In person Girard was heavily built, broad and 
 square-shouldered, of middle stature, with strongly 
 marked, rather handsome features, and gray eyes, of 
 which the right, as has been said, was blind. His 
 forehead rose in a regular curve to the crown of his 
 head, and his hair, worn en queue, was powdered, until 
 advancing age rendered that addition unnecessary. 2 
 His person was scrupulously neat, and every morn- 
 ing his French barber, one Dorphin, came to his 
 house to shave him, dress and powder his hair, re-tie 
 his queue, and brush his clothes, during which opera- 
 tions Girard would converse with him, often giving 
 him such excellent business advice that Dorphin 
 eventually returned to France with profits of from 
 
 J The United States Gazette, December 31st, 1831. 
 2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIKARD. T j j 
 
 seventy to eighty thousand dollars, the result of 
 the adventures recommended. 1 He kept a colored 
 body-servant, too, one Samuel Arthur, afterward a 
 witness to his will ; and in matters of dress he was 
 as particular as his favorite people, the Quakers, 
 whom, indeed, he much resembled. Like theirs, his 
 clothing, while not in the prevailing fashion, was 
 made of the best, broadcloth, after his own direc- 
 tions, plain, large, and comfortable, and never 
 changing the cut, his coats being made by a French 
 tailor, in the style then called " shad-belly," a spe- 
 cies of dress-coat with square-cut, rolling collar, 
 above which he wore square white linen cravats, 
 which his nieces hemmed for him by the dozen. 
 He specially imported from China silk underwear for 
 his own use, and his trousers, which were very full 
 and large and of the same material as his coat and 
 waistcoat, surmounted low-topped walking-boots, of 
 which he kept a pair for every day in the week, 2 
 
 Personally he was grave, but not at all morose. 
 Fear was utterly unknown to him, and under threats 
 or abuse he was inflexible. 3 He was not easily 
 aroused, but when angered was very passionate, 
 though in later years his temper was completely under 
 
 1 Professor William Wagner. Lecture II. 
 
 £ Profes-or William Wagner, Lecture V. Louise Stockton, in The Continent, June 
 20th, 1883. 
 
 a Professor William Wagner, Lecture II.
 
 j j 2 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 his conrrol ; and a salient feature of his character was 
 his great love for children, for strong horses, good 
 dogs, and singing-birds. In his private office several 
 canaries swung in brass cages, and these he taught to 
 sing with a bird-organ specially imported for the 
 purpose from France, while his love for animals was 
 further manifested in the shape of a large watch-dog 
 which he always kept in the yard of his city house. 
 Each of his ships was similarly provided, and he was 
 in the habit of saying that the faithfulness of these 
 trusty animals not only economized the employment 
 of men, but protected his property much more 
 efficiently than services merely rendered for wages. 
 His natural kindliness, however, was most promi- 
 nently shown when he was surrounded by children, 
 and it was in these happy moments alone that his 
 gravity of manner unbent and the strictness of his 
 discipline was relaxed. 1 When his nephews, John 
 Fabricius Girard and Augustus Girard, engaging 
 boys of sixteen and eight respectively, arrived from 
 France, he not only felt, but openly expressed, the 
 liveliest satisfaction. Knowing, however, his prone- 
 ncss to undue indulgence, he was afraid to keep 
 them long with him, lest he should contract the 
 habit of spoiling them, 2 and they were therefore 
 hastily dispatched to Mr. Blondin Constant's school, 
 
 1 Compare Parton,p.24i. 2 Simpson, p. 133.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 1 j ^ 
 
 the " Mount Airy College," where they received 
 the greatest care and the most liberal education the 
 school afforded. 1 He also acted as guardian to the 
 daughters of his brother, Jean, after their parents' 
 decease, making his house their home and showing 
 them the greatest kindness, although in this case the 
 expense of education was defrayed from the estate 
 which they had inherited from their father. " He 
 never bought a shawl or a dress for one that he did 
 not for the others, and he remembered their girlish 
 fancies. They were sent to the best schools, and 
 after they had married from his house he petted their 
 children and liked to have them about, and, indeed, 
 felt a right to the little people." 2 And, not content 
 with thus benefiting his own relatives alone, he 
 brought up, educated, and furnished a home in his 
 own dwelling for several young orphaned women of 
 respectable family, 3 the fact that a person was with- 
 out father and mother seeming to appeal most 
 strongly to the natural benevolence of his character. 
 But although he was thus indulgently fond of 
 young people, he endeavored, nevertheless, to keep 
 them constantly and suitably engaged, for so fully 
 was he impressed with the idea that active employ- 
 ment is one of the greatest duties of life, that it 
 
 1 Autobiographic de Jean Fabricius Girard. 
 
 2 Louise Stockton, in The Continent, June 20th, 1883, p. 771. 
 8 Professor William Wagner, Lecture I.
 
 j j . LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 was one of his favorite maxims that no man should 
 leave off business because he considered himself rich 
 enough. He used to say that he attached import- 
 ance only to labor, valuing his wealth no more than 
 he did his old shoes, 1 and an amusing anecdote illus- 
 trative of this creed is told of an Irishman who had 
 applied to him for work. This being a form of 
 appeal that touched Girard's theories very nearly, he 
 was quite willing to assist the applicant, but having 
 no actual work that needed to be done, he considered 
 it an excellent opportunity to illustrate his theory that 
 the pleasure of labor lay in the simple gratification of 
 finding oneself employed. Accordingly, engaging 
 the man for a whole day, he directed the removal 
 from one side of his yard to the other of a pile of 
 bricks which had been stored there awaiting some 
 building operations ; and this task, which consumed 
 several hours, being completed, he was accosted by 
 the Irishman to know what should be done next. 
 " Why, have you finished that already?" said Girard, 
 " I thought it would take all day to do that. Well, 
 just move them all back again where you took them 
 from ; that will use up the rest of the day," and 
 upon the astonished Irishman's flat refusal to per- 
 form such fruitless labor, he was promptly paid and 
 discharged, Girard saying at the same time, in rather 
 
 1 The American Daily Advertiser, February ist, 1S32.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN CIRARD. j j c 
 
 an aggrieved manner, " I certainly understood you 
 to say when you came that you wanted any kind 
 of work." 
 
 Doubtless he was himself amused at the failure of 
 this instructive experiment, but being very tenacious 
 in adherence to an opinion when once deliberately 
 adopted, he still maintained his theory that labor was 
 the one thing to be highly esteemed, and gave practi- 
 cal illustrations of his belief in the conduct of his 
 daily life. He valued always the thing itself, not 
 the name, which may perhaps explain why, being 
 an ardent republican, according to the French com- 
 prehension of the term, he nevertheless associated 
 himself with the Democratic party in America. 
 He was convinced that the principles of true re- 
 publicanism were most firmly secured by the creed 
 of the latter, and accordingly allied himself with 
 it, although, being keenly alive to the duties of a 
 good citizen, he never permitted questions of party 
 to interfere with the respect he manifested toward 
 men in public office. Prominent among those whom 
 he highly regarded was Thomas Jefferson, and he 
 frequently expressed great veneration for the ex-Pres- 
 ident, John Adams, while he seemed to admire no less 
 the talents and patriotism of the son, John Quincy 
 Adams. His regard for both of the latter seemed to 
 arise chiefly from the great services their family had
 
 j j 5 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 rendered the country, 1 an observance of patriotic duty- 
 very close to the heart of Girard, and one which he 
 had on many occasions had opportunity to manifest 
 as an infinitely respected motive controlling his own 
 actions. 
 
 His individual habits shared the regularity and 
 method that disciplined his business life, and were 
 only suffered to be broken in upon when press of 
 affairs demanded his personal supervision. He rose 
 early, breakfasting between six and eight o'clock, 
 according to the season of the year, making a hearty 
 " American " breakfast of coffee or tea, meats and 
 fish, the family usually following him about an 
 hour later. He then devoted himself to business 
 affairs in his counting-room until ten o'clock, when 
 his presence was demanded by the discount hours 
 at his Bank, which lasted until eleven, after which, in 
 summer time, he woul4 drive to his farm in Passyunk 
 Township. 2 He is said to have had a singular 
 aversion to riding in a carriage, 3 and his yellow- 
 bodied gig, made in the height of the then prevailing 
 mode by a Mr. Clayton, one of the best builders 
 in Philadelphia, 4 was drawn by a single large and 
 powerful horse of full-blooded stock. 5 His preference 
 
 • Simpson, p. 141. " Professor William Wagner, Lecture II. 
 
 3 Simpson, p. 169. 
 
 4 Professor William Wagner : " My father drove an exact counterpart, by the 
 same maker." — Lecture II. 
 
 6 Lives 0/ Eminent Philadelphians, by Henry Simpson, p. 416.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 117 
 
 for walking on all occasions and in every state of the 
 weather, however, which lasted even to the latest 
 days of his life, led him to use this vehicle seldom or 
 never, except to ride out to his farm; and, before age 
 had shorn him of his prodigious muscular strength, 
 he as frequently walked to and from his plantation as 
 he rode. He was not a little proud of his pedes- 
 trianism, and, in the hottest days of summer, often 
 walked to the shipyard morning and evening when he 
 was building a vessel, which being one of the most 
 remote yards in Kensington, the feat, added to his 
 other perambulations throughout the city, was not at 
 all an inconsiderable one. 1 
 
 In winter the daily visit to the farm was usually 
 deferred until after dinner, which meal, whether he 
 dined at home or in the country, was always 
 taken between one and two o'clock. 2 At this great 
 feast of the day, as at all other times, everything that 
 could minister to the family's comfort and con- 
 venience was provided in the greatest abundance. 
 The table was furnished with the best meats the 
 market afforded, and with vegetables and fruits 
 of all kinds from his farm in profusion. The house 
 was, further, at all times kept bountifully sup- 
 plied with fruits of his own raising during 
 their season, which were always freely accessible 
 
 1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture IV. Compare Simpson, p. 169. 
 
 2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V.
 
 ! j g LIFE OF STEPHEN CIRARD. 
 
 to the apprentices in the counting-house, who 
 were, in general, not at all slow to avail them- 
 selves of such a privilege. 1 At dinner he drank the 
 best French claret, which he imported for himself, and 
 of which he was a competent judge, rarely touching 
 the heavier wines, and being at all times very abste- 
 mious as to quantity. He had, further, a custom of 
 taking a tablcspoonful of Holland gin at about four 
 o'clock in the afternoon, which he imported in stone 
 crocks for his especial use; 2 but his favorite beverages 
 were cider in season and coffee of a strength seldom 
 tasted by others, which latter, however, owing to the 
 iron strength of his constitution, never affected his 
 nerves in the slightest. 3 
 
 In the country he literally kept no table at all, but 
 satisfied his appetite with bread, cheese, and claret or 
 strong coffee, to which he added various vegetables 
 from his farm, making this hasty luncheon while 
 standing at a buffet. The bread and claret he always 
 carried with him from town in his chaise box, 4 and, on 
 returning home, supplied their place with three or 
 four gallons of milk in a demijohn and a kettle of 
 butter for his home use. 5 He took no supper at all, 
 except occasionally a biscuit and a glass of water 
 
 1 "Of these facts I have personal knowledge, as I have partaken of meals at his 
 table with his family hundreds of times." — Piofjssor William Wagner, Lecture II. 
 2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture II. 3 Simpson, note to p. 241. 
 4 Simpson, note to p. 241, supra. 6 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j j Q 
 
 previous to going to bed, 1 and upon returning from 
 the farm, usually about seven o'clock in the evening, 
 he went immediately to his office, which was open for 
 business until half-past seven, although, when affairs 
 pressed, the apprentices were often occupied until 
 eight or sometimes nine o'clock. Later in the even- 
 ing his confidential clerk, John H. Roberjot, read 
 to him the letters received during the day, or else left 
 them opened on his desk in the private counting- 
 house, after consulting which, Girard gave directions 
 for the following day, writing rough drafts of replies, 
 which, if unfinished in the evening, were completed 
 the next morning befcre going to the Bank. 2 At 
 about twelve o'clock he nominally went to bed, 
 although not by any means invariably to sleep, for he 
 sometimes remained awake until one o'clock, or even 
 later, according as business claimed his vigils or the 
 incessant activity of his mind prevented sleep. 3 
 
 His chief relaxation was the management of his 
 farm of five hundred and sixty-seven acres, 4 which, 
 as has been stated above, was situated in what was 
 formerly Passyunk Township. In the supervision of 
 this he took the keen interest of a man who finds in a 
 favorite pursuit at once the most effective means 
 
 1 Simpson, p. 165. - Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. 
 
 3 Simpson, p. 165. 
 
 4 Vide Philadelphia vs. Girard's Heirs, 9 Wright's Pennsylvania Supreme Court 
 Reports, p. 12.
 
 I20 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 of preserving his physical health and a relief from 
 the multiplicity of cares overburdening a restless 
 mind. When he found himself unable to make his 
 daily visit, an apprentice, charged with the minutest 
 directions for the labors of the day, was sent in his 
 stead, for in this, as in all other matters, he left noth- 
 ing to hazard or to the unguided discretion of subor- 
 dinates. As soon as he stepped from his chaise the 
 work he had planned to do was at once commenced, 
 and he superintended in person all the farm operations, 
 in which task he took the greatest pleasure. Few of 
 his vessels ever sailed for distant places without tak- 
 ing out orders for choice plants, seeds, or fruit-trees, 
 which new varieties of fruits and flowers were gradu- 
 ally extended throughout the neighborhood, much 
 of the celebrity which the markets of Philadelphia 
 have enjoyed being thus due to his enterprise and 
 love of such pursuits. 1 
 
 He had two stalls in the South Second Street 
 Market, where the produce of his farm was sent 
 to be sold, and this was of such remarkably excellent 
 quality that its immediate sale at prices above the 
 ruling rates was always assured. In addition, he 
 reared, fattened, and killed, every December, from 
 one hundred and fifty to two hundred oxen for the 
 provisioning of his ships, and this period was one 
 
 1 Compare Arey, p. 20.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j 2 T 
 
 of the greatest tribulation to such of the apprentices 
 as were obliged to attend to the little-relished duty of 
 selling the fat and hides. Every part of the animals 
 thus killed was utilized after the most approved 
 methods of experimental farming, and Girard demon- 
 strated practically the great value to a farmer of 
 economical administration, for his products, although 
 of a most superior quality, as has been said above, 
 were nevertheless put upon the market at so much 
 less cost than his neighbors', that they could have 
 been sold profitably at the same rates had not the 
 demand justified a considerable advance. 1 
 
 Girard also took the greatest interest in domestic 
 architecture, and from almost the beginning of his 
 permanent residence in Philadelphia to the time of 
 his death, he was more or less constantly occupied in 
 the erection of buildings. The first of these was his 
 dwelling, No. 23 North Water Street, with the store- 
 house and counting-room adjoining, and a warehouse 
 on the wharf, which were built about 1800, and 
 which were soon followed by the splendid stores fac- 
 ing his dwelling and by his house upon the Dutilh 
 estate, on Second Street below Spruce. Some time 
 afterward he built the dwellings on Third Street, 
 below his Bank, following them with a whole square 
 on Brown Street, and still later, having purchased the 
 
 1 Professor William Wagner, Lsclurell,
 
 ! 2 2 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 plot of ground bounded by Eleventh, Twelfth, Chest- 
 nut, and Market Streets, from Thomas Dunlap, for 
 the sum of one hundred and twelve thousand dol- 
 lars, 1 he commenced the erection of dwellings covering 
 the entire square of land, some of which were still in 
 the course of construction at the time of his death. 
 The majority of the bricks for these last were made 
 from clay found on the premises, 2 and Girard used to 
 buy whole rafts of lumber at a time, storing it upon 
 this square to season until ready to be used, the 
 circumstance indirectly giving rise to quite a curious 
 event. This was the capture of a number of thieves 
 who had been committing numerous daring burg- 
 laries in various parts of the city, a cave being acci- 
 dentally discovered beneath the immense piles of 
 lumber which had been excavated by them for 
 the purpose of storing the goods they had stolen, and 
 in which they were eventually captured, like rats in a 
 hole, surrounded by large quantities of various arti- 
 cles of plunder. 3 
 
 Girard usually projected the style and plan of his 
 buildings himself, invariably refusing the dictation or 
 suggestions of another/ and they were built in the 
 most substantial manner, their owner taking the great- 
 est satisfaction in solid construction. Many sanitary 
 
 1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. 
 
 2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture II. 
 
 3 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. 4 Simpson, p. 170.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j 2 ^ 
 
 precautions were for the first time introduced into 
 Philadelphia in these houses, and the operations of 
 the builders were inspected by Girard from day to 
 day with the keenest attention. But his chief triumph, 
 and the most interesting of all the dwellings he 
 designed, was the first one erected by him in Philadel- 
 phia. This was his residence, No. 23 North Water 
 Street, which united in a happy combination both 
 comfort and a very considerable degree of elegance, 
 the house being a four-story brick, whose sloping, 
 copper-covered roof terminated in a ridge, surmounted 
 by a railing and flanked by two great brick chimneys. 
 The facade presented two doors, one leading to his 
 private counting-room, which, after the European 
 custom, was the first floor front room of his house, 
 and the other forming the main entrance of the 
 dwelling. 1 The vestibule of this latter was paved 
 with white and black marbles in diamond pattern, the 
 same being carried back to and forming the floor of a 
 transverse hallway and of the dining-room, which last 
 was upon the same floor immediately back of the 
 private counting-house, the two rooms communicating 
 by a door across the transverse hall. Back of the din- 
 ing-room was the tile-paved kitchen, and a door at the 
 junction angle of the two halls led to the public count- 
 
 1 See water-co'or sketch of this house at " The Library Company of Philadelphia, 
 Locust Street Branch," a duplicate of which is also preserved at the Girard College. 
 See also cut of same in Scharf and Westcott's History of Philadelphia, ?. 631.
 
 j 24 LIFE 0F STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 ing-house, built upon an adjoining lot, from which in 
 turn access could be had to a range of fire-proof stores, 
 still further back upon the adjoining lot. The marble 
 pavement of the dining-room, delightfully cool in 
 summer, was covered in winter with heavy Turkey 
 carpet, and the floor of the private counting-house, 
 which was of hard woods and stained, was similarly 
 provided during the continuance of cold weather. 
 The furniture of this office was of the simplest charac- 
 ter, its only ornament being a Chinese drawing of his 
 ship, " Montesquieu," presented by one of his super- 
 cargoes. Two canary birds, cared for by the ladies of 
 the family, swung in cages, and Girard amused him- 
 self at odd moments by teaching them to sing with 
 an imported bird-organ that stood upon a little table. 
 He sat and wrote at a mahogany desk, by the side of 
 which stood a small fire-proof safe, about four and 
 one-half feet high, with two doors and a marble top ; 
 and this last was piled high with French editions of 
 Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau, completing the 
 inventory of the furniture. An even greater simplicity 
 marked the public counting-room. One single and 
 one double pine desk, mutilated by the knives of the 
 apprentices, rough, lettered, and notched ; a good 
 desk of walnut, used by Roberjot ; three or four 
 chairs, and the same number of maps upon the walls, 
 constituted the whole outfit of the office, where more
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j 2 r 
 
 business was done than in any other in the city of 
 Philadelphia. The windows of his house were case- 
 mented, and vaults in the cellar provided storage for 
 the wines he imported for his private use. The sani- 
 tary arrangements were especially considered, among 
 others a marble bath-room being provided, and this 
 was justly regarded a very unusual luxury, owing to 
 the scarcity of water, street mains being a convenience 
 not yet understood in the city. 
 
 Another great innovation was the introduction 
 of open coal fires throughout the house and in the 
 counting-rooms ; and Girard designed ingenious sheet- 
 iron shutters, sliding up and down in iron grooves let 
 into the front masonry of the brick hearths, com- 
 pletely doing away with risk of fire from sparks 
 thrown off into the room at night. He brought a » 
 cargo of coal from England, which lasted him more-^^/*^ 
 than a year, storing it upon his wharf, and this novel e #C^~' 
 form of fuel burning in the counting-house fire-place -- .o 
 attracted considerable attention, its use being then n ^ 
 practically unknown in Philadelphia. 1 (Y^^ 
 
 The drawing-rooms occupied the whole second floor, 
 and were furnished in what was in those days termed 
 elegance, though now they would be styled plainly 
 comfortable. The black ebony chairs were imported 
 from France, a present from his brother Etienne, the 
 
 1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V.
 
 j 2 5 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 seats being of crimson velvet plush, which, with the 
 dark Turkey carpet covering the floor, formed an effec- 
 tive contrast to various pieces of marble statuary pur- 
 chased in Leghorn by his brother Jean [de Mombrun] 
 and disposed in various parts of the room. There 
 was a tall writing cabinet containing a six-cylindered 
 mechanical organ, playing a great number of airs, 
 which had been given him by the ex-King of Spain, 
 and in the rear parlor was a table, also brought from 
 Leghorn, the top of which was inlaid with parti- 
 colored marbles. 1 
 
 The sleeping-apartments were upon the third floor, 
 Girard's own bedroom being in the rear, and the gen- 
 eral aspect of these rooms was of that plain, simple, 
 and uncostly character that one would expect to find 
 in the mansion of a respectable citizen having no rep- 
 utation for unusual wealth. On his bedroom table he 
 kept, unloaded, a brace of splendid blunderbusses, of 
 Ketland's make, of admirable workmanship, with 
 brass barrels and steel bayonets, that appeared never 
 to have been used. In one corner stood a little, old- 
 fashioned mahogany desk and bookcase, the latter 
 containing a small collection of books, and colored 
 prints representing the female negroes of Santo 
 Domingo, hung upon the walls. A small print of 
 his Bank was so placed that his first waking glance 
 
 1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. These articles are now preserved at the 
 Girard College.
 
 LIFE OF STEFIIEN GIRARD. j ~ 
 
 must necessarily light upon it, and from his windows 
 the range of fire-proof stores, reserved for his choice 
 merchandise and the best parts of his India cargoes, 
 formed the most prominent object visible. The attics 
 were reserved for the servants' sleeping-apartments, 
 and from the balcony upon the roof and from the 
 front windows of the house was presented a prospect 
 of the glistening waves of the majestic Delaware, 
 with his great ships riding easily at anchor, or moored 
 at the wharf, receiving their valuable lading. 1 
 
 To this house came frequently Joseph Buonaparte, 
 Comte de Survilliers, brother of the Emperor Napol- 
 eon I of France, and himself ex-King of Spain and 
 of Naples, who, being at liberty to come any Sunday 
 to dinner, availed himself of the privilege with consid- 
 erable regularity. His gentlemen followers were 
 included in this hospitable invitation, 2 and scarcely a 
 Sunday passed without witnessing a gathering of some 
 of the most noted Frenchmen of the day around 
 Girard's table, among them being the Prince Murat 
 and Baron Henry Dominick Lallemand, who, with 
 his brother Charles, formed part of the Court at Bor- 
 dentown. At these courteous festivities the convivial 
 element was restrained by the presence of Girard's 
 nieces, young women, aged twenty-three, twenty, and 
 eighteen years respectively, whose affable and well- 
 
 1 Simpson, pp. 163 and 164, and Professor William Wagner, Lecture V. 
 
 2 Professor William Wagner, Lecture V.
 
 j 08 LIFE °F STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 bred deportment added not a little charm to the 
 informality of the gatherings. Indeed, the attractive- 
 ness of the youngest, Henriette, proved irresistible to 
 the Baron Henry Dominick Lallemand, and in the 
 year 18 17 she consented to become his wife, the 
 ceremony being performed October 20th, 18 17, at 
 St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church, on Crown 
 Street above Race. 1 
 
 " The Count," as the ex-King Joseph was usually 
 called, having built his house in the magnificent park 
 at Bordentown, N. J., and having constituted Girard 
 his banker, was in the habit of coming to Philadel- 
 phia frequently, almost invariably calling at Girard's 
 house, where, if the latter was not at home, he would 
 sit awhile in the public counting-house, conversing 
 very affably with the head clerk, and occasionally 
 with the apprentices. On one occasion, one or two 
 of the more discreet of these latter were notified to 
 remain after the close of the usual business hours, 
 and far on toward morning a heavy wagon, bearing 
 several large boxes, and conducted by three or four 
 men, drove up to the counting-house door. The 
 boxes, which were extremely weighty, were deposited 
 with care in the fire-proof storehouses, where they 
 were watched by the men concerned in their arrival, 
 until the opening of the Bank on the following day 
 
 1 Rocuil's of St. Augustine's Church, Vol. I, [>. 33.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j 2 g 
 
 permitted their removal to its vaults. The contents 
 of these boxes, which were carefully sealed with wax, 
 was hinted at by no one, but after some days it leaked 
 out to those in the counting-room, perhaps through 
 the medium of Roberjot, that they were actually the 
 receptacles of the crown jewels of the Kingdom of 
 France. When or how they were returned there 
 remains a mystery, but it is probable that this report 
 was at least partially erroneous, it being more likely 
 that if the boxes really contained such articles, they 
 were rather the jewels of Naples or of Spain, which, 
 having once been in the possession of Joseph Buona- 
 parte, were most likely to have been the ones in 
 question. 
 
 It will be remarked that upon this, as upon many 
 other occasions, Girard reposed a trust in certain of 
 his apprentices that was, to say the least, unusual ; 
 but his judgment in this respect was so accurate 
 that he rarely had occasion to regret his confidence. 
 He entrusted certain of them, notably William 
 Wagner and Meredith Calhoun, with business opera- 
 tions of the most responsible character, and, in 
 general, had a full quota of them on his farm, in his 
 counting-house, and upon his ships. They were 
 invariably the sons of gentlemen or retired mer- 
 chants, and were sent on long voyages as super- 
 cargoes, thus enabling them to gain a handsome
 
 T „r» LIFE OF STEP II EX GIRAItD. 
 
 remuneration through commissions on purchases and 
 sales of his rich Eastern cargoes. 1 All of them 
 entered his service free of charge, this exception to 
 the general rule of apprenticeships having been made 
 on account of friendship for their fathers, and, beside 
 being carefully taught and supervised, they had the 
 advantage of seeing the world and mingling with 
 men of business under the patronage and protection 
 of one whose mercantile fame had spread to the four 
 quarters of the globe. The sole conditions exacted 
 in return were good behavior and implicit obedience 
 of orders, the rigidity with which the former was 
 demanded being well set out in the following extract 
 from a letter to Captain Bowen, of hi 3 ship Voltaire, 
 about to sail for Canton, in 1815 : 
 
 " I desire you not to permit a drunken or immoral 
 man to remain on board of your ship. Whenever 
 such a man makes disturbance, or is disagreeable 
 to the rest of the crew, no matter who he is, 
 discharge him whenever you have the opportu- 
 
 lAn incomplete list of Girard's apprentices is as follows : 
 
 (a) Martin Bickham, (/) ■ Taylor, 
 
 (b) Meredith Calhoun, (g) Louis Vanuxem, 
 (r) John Charnock, (/') William Wagner, 
 
 (d) John Grelaud, (/) Samuel Wagner 
 
 (e) Mahlon Hutchinson, (J) John Warder. 
 
 (See Professor William Wagner's Lecture I ) Martin and George Bickham settled 
 in the Isle of Mauritius, Martin afterward becoming American Consul there and re- 
 turning to America with a moderate fortune. Many of these apprentices are ances- 
 tors of well-known Philadelphians of to-day. Professor William Wagner is the sole 
 apprentice now living (1884), the fortune he has accumulated during a long lifetime 
 being devoted to the founding of the " Wagner Free Institute of Science " in Phila- 
 delphia.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j , j 
 
 nity. And if any of my apprentices should not con- 
 duct themselves properly, I authorize you to correct 
 them as I would myself, my intention being that they 
 shall learn their business, so after they are free they 
 may be useful to thems'elves and to their country." * 
 
 Girard was equally inflexible in requiring a minute 
 obedience to the concise directions for every emer- 
 gency which he invariably furnished. " Break 
 owners, not orders," was the maxim of his service, 
 and the rule was strictly enforced, as was illustrated 
 in the case of a young supercargo sent to the Red 
 Sea. This young apprentice was to have gone 
 first to London, then to Amsterdam, and so from port 
 to port, selling and buying, until at last he was 
 to go to Mocha, buy coffee, and immediately return 
 to Philadelphia. 
 
 " At London, however, the young fellow was 
 charged by the Barings not to go to Mocha, or 
 he would fall into the hands of pirates. At Amster- 
 dam they told him the same thing. Everywhere 
 the caution was repeated ; but he sailed on until he 
 came to the last port before Mocha. Here he was 
 consigned to a merchant who had been an apprentice 
 to Girard in Philadelphia — for this happened when 
 Girard was an old and rich man — and he, too, told 
 him he must not dare venture near the Red Sea. 
 The supercargo was now in a dilemma. On one side 
 
 lArey, p. 17.
 
 , - LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 1 J 2 
 
 was his master's order; on the other, two vessels, 
 a valuable cargo, a large amount of money." The 
 merchant knew Girard's peculiarities as well as did 
 the supercargo, but he thought the rule of the 
 service might for once be governed by discretion. 
 " ' You'll not only lose all you have made,' he said, 
 ' but you'll never go home to justify yourself The 
 young man reflected. After all, the object of his 
 voyages was to get coffee, and there was no danger 
 in going to Java, so he turned his prow, and away he 
 sailed to the Chinese seas. He bought coffee at four 
 dollars a sack and sold it in Amsterdam at a most 
 enormous advance, and then went back to Phila- 
 delphia in good order, with large profits, sure of 
 approval. Soon after he entered the counting-room 
 Girard came in;" he looked at the young fellow, 
 neither greeting, welcoming, nor congratulating him, 
 but after a moment, shaking his angry hand, he sim- 
 ply said: " What for did you not go to Mocha, sir?" 
 and turned his back, utterly ignoring the explanation. 1 
 But no more was ever said upon the subject, for he 
 never scolded his apprentices, his opinion of an 
 employe being expressed by cutting down a salary, 
 or, if matters had gone so far that this was not suffi- 
 cient, by the offender's summary dismissal. He had 
 no patience with incompetence, and neither time nor 
 
 1 Louise Stockton, The Continent, June 20th, 18S3, p. 774 et sef.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. T -, - 
 
 the desire to educate people generally in business 
 habits. Each man felt he was watched, and so long 
 as he did his best, and his best suited, he was confi- 
 dent of the most impartial justice. Honesty, sober- 
 ness, and punctuality were exacted, and no plans 
 were suffered to be thwarted by independence on the 
 part of subordinates. They were enjoined at the out- 
 set to leave business in the office, so no one of them 
 gossiped to his friends over Girard's affairs, and the 
 secrecy of his operations was secured by the habit 
 of entrusting a matter of business to the smallest 
 number of persons that could properly perform it. 1 
 Several anecdotes are told which illustrate his 
 method of rebuking his employes, one of which is 
 that of an apprentice 2 who, in making up an account, 
 credited a tanner with three hundred dollars more 
 than he was entitled to. Having drawn a check for 
 that amount, he forwarded it with the account to the 
 creditor, who, at once discovering the mistake, re- 
 turned the letter and enclosures to Girard. The latter 
 said nothing to the apprentice, but contented himself 
 with silently laying the letter and check upon the 
 former's desk, where it was discovered by him the 
 morning after the occurrence, this being the only 
 reproof the act of carelessness ever received. On 
 another occasion, small sums of money having been 
 
 1 Louise Stockton, ante, p. 774 et seg. Professor William Wagner, Lecture II. 
 • Related by Professor William Wagner of himself.
 
 T -,* LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 missed from the counting-house, the errand boy was 
 suspected of the thefts, and being watched, was at 
 last caught in the act. Instead of the severe punish- 
 ment which might naturally have been expected to 
 follow, however, Girard merely directed that a new 
 and more intricate lock should be obtained for the 
 money-drawer, and this being accordingly done, the 
 matter was passed by without further comment. 
 Girard probably felt that the remorse shown by the 
 lad was a sufficient token of his repentance, but it was 
 such acts of judicious forbearance toward his em- 
 ployes, at times when they were undoubtedly derelict, 
 that implanted in the bosoms of the better of them 
 such personal admiration and regard as grew in 
 time almost to veneration. 
 
 Another incident, not exactly in line with those 
 just narrated, hinges upon the ungoverned temper of 
 Girard's future malevolent biographer, Stephen Simp- 
 son, and was undoubtedly a potent cause of the 
 malice that individual so freely displayed in his mis- 
 called Biography of Stephen Girard. This work, 
 which was published in 1832, 1 immediately after 
 Girard's death, was the first attempt to give the 
 general public a history of the life of their benefac- 
 tor, and, notwithstanding many glaring absurdities, 
 contains sufficient truth to have naturally formed the 
 
 l Biography of Stephen Girard. By Stephen Simpson, Philadelphia, 1832. Re- 
 print King & Baird, 607 Sanson! Street, 1867.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. T , c 
 
 chief authority for the majority of subsequent 
 sketches. In view, therefore, of the willful manner in 
 which many facts have therein been distorted, the 
 present writer considers it justifiable to rescue from 
 oblivion an anecdote which, while displaying one rea- 
 son for the author's resentment, at the same time 
 forcibly illustrates Girard's peculiar method of deal- 
 ing with unruly subordinates. 
 
 Upon one occasion, Simpson, having assaulted, 
 without provocation, a fellow-bookkeeper named 
 Joseph Clay, injured him so severely about the head 
 that his victim was unable to leave the house for 
 more than a week. The attack having been made in 
 the Bank during business hours, and knowing how 
 unjustifiable his action had been, Simpson naturally 
 feared that he would infallibly be dismissed as soon as 
 the matter was brought to Girard's notice. His sur- 
 prise was very great, therefore, to find the day pass by 
 without any attention having apparently been given 
 to his outrageous conduct, but when the following 
 morning arrived, a letter from Girard was laid upon 
 his desk, curtly announcing that thenceforth his salary 
 was reduced from fifteen hundred to one thousand 
 dollars per annum. " On receipt of the note Simp- 
 son's temper knew no bounds, and I do not entertain 
 a doubt that from that moment he determined to be 
 revenged upon Mr. Girard for having dared to so pun-
 
 136 
 
 LIFE OF STETIIFN G1RARD. 
 
 ish and humiliate him." 1 But, necessity compelling 
 him to accept the reduced salary, " he had to bide his 
 time, awaiting an opportunity, and when this was fur- 
 nished in the death of his benefactor, 2 his ingenuity 
 (and hope that the work might be profitable) sug- 
 gested the abominable method of retaliation he 
 adopted." 3 
 
 It is but just to say that the work bears upon every 
 page evidence of its hasty and unrevised preparation, 
 and it is possible, therefore, that had the author not 
 been pressed for time he might have stricken out the 
 painfully prominent evidences of his malicious pur- 
 pose. But this was never done, and the work re- 
 mains in its original shape, a monument of its author's 
 ingratitude, which, one is compelled to believe, sober 
 second thought would never have contented him to 
 leave as the only memorial in the world that one of 
 his name ever existed. 
 
 Girard's memory for facts, places, and business 
 events was most remarkable. On one occasion he 
 greatly surprised one of his apprentices 4 by guessing 
 within one hundred thousand dollars, and without re- 
 ferring to his books, the exact state of his account 
 with Messrs. Baring Bros. & Co., of London. The 
 
 1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture IV. 
 
 2 Simpson himself admits (p. 123) that, having become a bankrupt, he was forced 
 to rely upon Girard for employment. 
 
 3 Professor William Wagner, Lectures II and IV. 
 * Told by Professor William W.igner of himself.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j 3 y 
 
 amount then due him was two millions and a quarter, 
 and the account covered a period of two years, during 
 which it had fluctuated by millions, 1 but it was evi- 
 dent Girard had closely followed each one of the 
 transactions, and further, that he carried in his mind 
 at all times a very approximate estimate of the con- 
 dition of his ventures. He was himself well aware of 
 his superiority in this respect, and was consequently 
 extraordinarily carefuL in making promises to be per- 
 formed in the future, for he never forgot any obliga- 
 tion he had entered into, and what he once bound 
 himself to do he never after sought a pretext to evade 
 or violate. 2 He seemed but imperfectly to realize the 
 inferiority of memory of many of his neighbors, for 
 he often lent large sums of money to his business 
 acquaintances without interest or note, and upon the 
 mere exchange of checks, on one occasion, in the 
 case of a Frenchman named Montmollin, the loan 
 having amounted to ten thousand dollars. 3 Nor was 
 his mental activity confined solely to business affairs. 
 He read with close attention the works of the Voltair- 
 ean school of philosophers, and his native wit, sharp- 
 ened by this active course of training, often stood him 
 in excellent stead. It is related that the banker, 
 Ridgway, the father of Madame Rush, having once 
 lost his temper with Girard, exclaimed, pettishly, 
 
 1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture II. 
 
 • Simpson, p. 139. 3 Professor William Wagner, Lecture II.
 
 j ^g LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 " Friend Girard, thee assumes too much pride in thy 
 dealings ; I can both buy thee and sell thee," but was 
 quite unprepared for the retort that flashed instantly 
 from the lips of his ready antagonist: "And I, 
 Friend Ridgway, can buy thee, and keep tlice f 
 
 The course of reading mentioned above has been 
 imagined by many to indicate a degree of irreligion 
 upon Girard's part, and this erroneous supposition 
 was further fixed in the public mind by the clause in 
 his will forbidding ministers or priests of any sect 
 whatsoever, to either hold office in, or be admitted as 
 visitors to, his college. 1 As a matter of fact, however, 
 he was far from either irreligious or atheistic, having 
 been baptized in the Roman Catholic Church, in 
 which denomination he died, although he did not 
 attend its services for some time prior to his death, 
 and having many times refused to sever his connec- 
 tion with that Church, though often urgently solicited. 
 He paid for, and on more than one occasion is known 
 to have occupied, a pew in St. Augustine's Roman 
 Catholic Church, on Crown Street above R ce, where 
 the members of his family attended service, and from 
 which two of his nieces were married. Each one of 
 his apprentices was expected to go to his particular 
 church regularly every Sunday, and this rule was 
 enforced without exceptions, save in the case of actual 
 
 l Will, Art. XXI, j} 9 .
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. T -, n 
 
 illness. 1 He gave liberally and impartially to all 
 religious denominations worthy of such assistance, 
 and in the government of his private life endeavored 
 to observe the strictest moral law, in this succeeding 
 doubtless as well as commonly falls to the lot of indi- 
 vidual mankind. Following the custom of his native 
 land, his day of recreation was Sunday, on which day 
 he usually dined some friends at two o'clock in the 
 afternoon, notably, as has been mentioned above, 
 Joseph Buonaparte, Comte' de Survilliers and ex-King 
 of Spain and Naples, and his gentlemen. 2 
 
 But though he never formally separated himself from 
 the Church in which he was born, there is no doubt 
 "that his opinions underwent a very great change when 
 brought in contact with members of the "Society of 
 Friends" in Philadelphia, the purity of whose life and 
 the simplicity of whose religious faith acted power- 
 fully upon a mind readily susceptible to the virtues 
 these external evidences made manifest. He did not 
 hesitate to openly model his life in a great degree 
 after their pattern, and not only felt the greatest 
 regard for their tenets, but very warmly expressed his 
 admiration of them as a body in a manner whose 
 sincerity cannot be doubted. 
 
 Realizing, therefore, in his own case, the difficulty 
 of choosing between the various religious denomina- 
 
 1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture II. 
 
 - Professor William Wagner, Lecture V ; also see page 127, supra.
 
 jaq LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 tions, he inferred, either rightly or wrongly, that a 
 similar choice was not one to be put upon the tender 
 mind of an infant ; and his College being destined for 
 all orphaned children, irrespective of what had been 
 the creed of their deceased parents, it was evident that 
 it must perforce itself be free from any sectarian bias. 
 Nor would he tolerate that his intention that each 
 orphan should be in a position to choose for himself, 
 when arrived at years of discretion, should be de- 
 feated through the efforts of zealous visitors, who 
 might conceive their duty directed the attempt to 
 make converts ; and the surest method of securing 
 this intention being the exclusion, as far as possible, 
 of every person who might be likely to attempt such ■ 
 a thing, there was naturally suggested the regulation 
 which has attracted such universal attention. 
 
 The directions in the will upon this subject are as 
 follows : " I enjoin and require that no ecclesiastic, 
 missionary, or minister of any sect whatsoever, shall 
 ever hold or exercise any station or duty whatever 
 in the said College ; nor shall any such person ever be 
 admitted for any purpose, or as a visitor, within the 
 premises appropriated to the purposes of the said 
 College. In making this restriction I do not mean to 
 cast any reflection upon any sect or person whatso- 
 ever; but as there is such a multitude of sects, and 
 such a diversity of opinion amongst them, I desire
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. ja j 
 
 to keep the tender minds of the orphans, who are to 
 derive advantage from this bequest, free from the ex- 
 citement which clashing doctrines and sectarian 
 controversy are so apt to produce. My desire is, that 
 all the instructors and teachers in the College shall 
 take pains to instill into the minds of the scholars the 
 purest principles of morality, so that on their entrance 
 into active life they may, from inclination and habit, 
 evince benevolence toward their fellow-creatures, and 
 a love of truth, sobriety, and industry, adopting at 
 the same time such religious tenets as their matured 
 reason may enable them to prefer." 1 
 
 It will be evident from this passage, as from 
 the general tenor of Girard's life, that his habits of 
 thought differed widely from those of his fellows ; 
 and it is perhaps not very surprising, since the latter 
 failed to comprehend these, that they failed also 
 to understand what the object was that he kept con- 
 stantly before him as the single aim of his existence. 
 
 "Steady, persevering, and judicious in the pursuit 
 of wealth, he seemed to those who could not penetrate 
 his hidden motives to covet it for its own sake and to 
 labor for no other purpose than to see his hoards and 
 investments increase. The simple and economic 
 modes of life that permitted the accumulation of the 
 gains on which the superstructure of his fortune was 
 built, remained comparatively unchanged when he 
 
 1 Will, Art. XXI, §9.
 
 j 4 2 LIFE OF STEPHEN GJRARD. 
 
 was able to count his ships by squadrons, his 
 mansions by scores, and his moneyed capital by mil- 
 lions. In a country where, perhaps more than in any 
 other, wealth seems to be chiefly desired for the eclat 
 which its elegant expenditure furnishes, the character 
 of Girard remained an enigma. It was even more 
 inscrutable to those who saw him more nearly 
 than others, and were aware that to an attention 
 to business and a strict economy was added benevo- 
 lence of an active description, that shunned no per- 
 sonal exertion or sacrifice." 1 
 
 But to his biographers, who, having his whole life 
 spread before them, are supposed to have given the 
 subject an attention impossible to his fellow-citizens, 
 the error of the supposition that his aim was the 
 mere accumulation of wealth should have been 
 unmistakably apparent at the outset. Indeed, to one 
 of these it seems to have been so. " It was not the 
 love of money," says this latter historian, " that kept 
 him at work early and late to the last days of 
 his life," and having come thus close upon the truth, 
 the author unfortunately halts at the very verge of 
 discovery, dismissing the subject with the more gen- 
 erous solution that Girard's chief object was forgetful- 
 ness of " early disappointments " and the unhappy 
 chapter of his marriage. 2 He supports this latter 
 conclusion ap arently quite strongly by two quota- 
 
 1 American Quarterly Review, Vol. XIII, pp. 144 and 145. 
 
 2 Arey, p. 23, quoted by Parton, p. 239.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. T , 7 
 
 tions from letters of Girard's, the first of which is as 
 follows : " When I rise in the morning my only 
 effort is to labor so hard during the day that when 
 night comes I may be enabled to sleep soundly," in 
 which sentence the author mentioned sees " a vista of 
 disappointed hopes and broken ties " and of " misery 
 in the midst of millions," which, as being the sincere 
 opinion of a remarkably fair writer, is entitled to con- 
 sideration. 1 
 
 But let us see whether this construction is war- 
 ranted by the facts of Girard's life. There is no 
 known time when this remarkable man did not labor 
 with the utmost assiduity. Leaving home when but 
 fourteen years old, he commenced then a life whose 
 whole course is well expressed in the sentence quoted, 
 and the same argument applies with equal force 
 against the inference from the second quotation, which 
 latter is taken from a letter written by Girard in 1804 
 to his friend Duplessis, in New Orleans. 
 
 This second passage is : " I observe with pleasure 
 that you have a numerous family, that you are happy 
 and in the possession of an honest fortune. This is 
 all that a wise man has the right to wish for. As to 
 myself, I live like a galley-slave, constantly occupied, 
 and often passing the night without sleeping. I am 
 wrapped up in a labyrinth of affairs, and worn out 
 
 lArey, p. 24.
 
 j 44 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 with care. I do not value fortune. The love of labor 
 is my highest ambition. You perceive that your situ- 
 ation is a thousand times preferable to mine. 1 
 
 It cannot be denied that upon casual consideration 
 this quotation seems to indicate something of the dis- 
 appointment hinted at by the author, but the present 
 writer believes, nevertheless, that a closer examination 
 will prove it a very unsubstantial basis upon which to 
 rest the theory that the single motive of Girard's life 
 was a desire to forget. It is not intended to suggest 
 that at that particular period Girard, childless at 
 nearly sixty years of age, may not have felt his lack 
 of issue bear heavily upon his spirits ; and the sad- 
 ness of this reflection, coupled with the tinge of mel- 
 ancholy natural to advancing age, is quite sufficient 
 to account for such tone of regret as the author 
 imagines the letter unconsciously discloses. But in 
 drawing from his quotations the inference that " the 
 belief in childhood that he had not been given his 
 share of the love and kindness that had been ex- 
 tended to others," was a fundamental motive in 
 Girard's life, a life remarkable for its singleness of 
 purpose, the author ascribes an importance to youth- 
 ful troubles that it is not believed experience will 
 warrant. The present writer cannot adopt the 
 opinion that such troubles form sufficient inducement 
 
 1 Letter to Duplessis, quoted by Arey, p. 25, also quoted by Parton, p. 239.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j^r 
 
 to lead a lad but fourteen years old to adopt a life of 
 labor in search of forgetfulness, and while these 
 " early disappointments " did undoubtedly, as has 
 been hereinbefore shown, furnish the controlling 
 motive turning his life into a particular channel, it is 
 not believed that they proved of such permanent 
 character as to govern his existence for any consider- 
 able length of time. Indeed, that they did not prove 
 of lasting force is shown by the fact that notwithstand- 
 ing his undeniable dislike for his stepmother, Girard 
 frequently revisited his home during the nine years 
 following his first departure from Bordeaux, 1 and also 
 that he corresponded with his brother Jean [de Mom- 
 brun] during the whole of the latter's life ; that he 
 sent to France for his nephews, sons of his brother 
 Etienne, educating and caring for them for years ; 2 
 that he corresponded more or less irregularly with 
 his father 3 and with his brother Etienne ; 4 and lastly, 
 that all his relatives were individually left legacies in 
 his will. 
 
 It would seem that these facts should be further 
 sufficient to disprove the author's additional statement 
 that Girard was *' alienated from his home, his parents, 
 and his friends," but after suggesting that it is absurd 
 to attach importance to such juvenile friendships as 
 Girard forsook upon leaving home at that early age, 
 
 ^Ante, p. 28. 2 Post, pp. 146, 147. *Ante, pp .40, 41. * Post, p. 148.
 
 j ,g LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 the present writer is happily able to produce in refu- 
 tation of the remainder of the statement evidence 
 apparently not at the former biographer's disposal. 
 This is the sworn testimony taken in France, Septem- 
 ber 8th, 1839, under a commission from the United 
 States Circuit Court for the Eastern District of 
 Pennsylvania, to be used in a suit brought by one of 
 the heirs of Girard against the city of Philadelphia, 
 trustees under his will, 1 the most applicable parts 
 of which testimony are as follows : 
 
 (i.) The fifth witness called, M. Choury, attorney- 
 at-law, residing at Perigueux, testified, among other 
 things : 
 
 " It is publicly notorious in the city of Perigueux 
 and in the province, where the family of Girard origi- 
 nated, that Stephen Girard, who died in Philadelphia, 
 had left his country very young, engaged in the 
 French marine. That he had constant relations with 
 his relatives in France, and in particular with his 
 brother, Etienne Girard. That after having acquired 
 the considerable fortune he possessed, he had called 
 to him the two male children of his brother Etienne. 
 That he had taken care of their education, and had 
 given them those proofs of affection which they nat- 
 urally deserve for their qualities and for their name." 
 
 1 Vidal vs. The Mayor, etc , of Philadelphia. See transcript of the Records of 
 the U. S. Supreme Court, No. 22, Vol. II, page 85, of transcript, and page 120 of 
 case.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j .- 
 
 (2.) The sixth witness called, Barthelmy Michellet, 
 President of the Tribunal of Commerce of Perisiueux 
 confirmed the preceding, and added : " All the 
 inhabitants of this city know that the late Stephen 
 Girard, of Philadelphia, had entertained for his brother 
 Etienne and his children a particular affection. That he 
 had called to him the only two male children of his 
 brother Etienne ; that he had taken care of their 
 education, and it was thought that he destined them 
 to continue the immense affairs to which he had 
 initiated them from their infancy, in which direction 
 of affairs he caused them to act as his clerks." 
 
 And (3.) The seventh witness called, Jean Baptiste 
 Vidal, M. D., formerly Mayor of the city of Peri- 
 gueux, beside additionally testifying to the above 
 statements, added: " During the fifteen years that I 
 performed the duties of Mayor of the city of Peri- 
 gueux, I received in that capacity a letter from Mr. 
 Stephen Girard, of Philadelphia, who informed me of 
 his prosperous condition, and asked me information 
 respecting his brother Etienne, who resided in Peri- 
 gueux, who his family consisted of, and what were his 
 means of existence. He manifested to me his inten- 
 tion of sharing with him and his children the favors 
 which Fortune had so abundantly heaped upon him. 
 At his request I communicated his letter to Etienne 
 Girard. I answered Mr. Stephen Girard's letter, and
 
 j .g LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 a correspondence was established between the two 
 brothers. Etienne Girard was the father of many- 
 children. He had eight children. His fortune was 
 inconsiderable. I knew that in some instances, Mr. 
 Stephen Girard sent to his brother and his wife some 
 amounts of money. * * * * I have known 
 particularly the relations entertained between the two 
 brothers. They we're of a reciprocal good-xvilir 
 
 The writer regards the above evidence as suffi- 
 ciently refuting the idea of Girard's alienation from 
 his family ; such interruption of intercourse as really 
 took place being undoubtedly rather the effect of dis- 
 tance and the imperfect intercommunication of the 
 day than of design ; and considering the question of 
 " early disappointments " thus disposed of, there 
 remains the supposition that Girard's desire to forget 
 the painful chapter of his later married life, was the 
 secret of his assiduous devotion to labor. But apart 
 from the fact that his industry was quite as marked 
 before as after that epoch, it should be remembered 
 that his wife's affliction was preceded by eight years of 
 happy and contented companionship with him, which 
 he could scarcely have wished to forget ; and in addi- 
 tion, the writer has endeavored to show that while he 
 mourned deeply and sincerely the terrible misfortune 
 which had made him at once childless and worse 
 than wifeless, his affection for the partner of his life
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. j . g 
 
 had, happily, been of such character that he had no 
 cause of regret as for a duty unperformed. There is, 
 therefore, a most prominent lack of foundation in 
 both the reasons, to wit, alienation from his friends 
 and family and a desire to forget unhappiness, which 
 have been advanced to explain the motive of Girard's 
 untiring energy, a misconception on the part of the 
 author referred to, all the more surprising in view of 
 the closeness with which he has approached the true 
 explanation. 
 
 What then was this great and overmastering 
 impulse, that dominated the whole course of Girard's 
 life and governed every act of his remarkable career ? 
 If his labor was not an endeavor to subtract some- 
 thing from his condition, what was the object that he 
 sought to add ? 
 
 The first definite hint of his purpose is found in a 
 letter sent him from Cape Frangois, Santo Domingo, 
 by his brother Jean [de Mombrun], in which occurs 
 the following passage : " I have just received yours 
 of the 30th and 31st of October. It is really laugh- 
 able to ask me for a method by which you can make 
 some money. You will always be the same, never 
 content. I dare even say you are not satisfied with 
 this last voyage of the brig, which will certainly yield 
 at least fifty-five thousand pounds profit. * * * * 
 Therefore, since / am not so ambitious as you, if you
 
 j r LIFE OF STEPHEN GIKARD. 
 
 are not pleased with our management of your busi- 
 ness, put it in the hands of whomsoever may seem 
 good to you, we will always remain friends.'.' * 
 
 It is in this italicized phrase that is first given voice 
 the great passion that kept Girard at work not only 
 " early and late," but from his very boyhood down to 
 the last hours of a life pre-eminent] y crowned with its 
 triumph. " If we were to specify the prominent point 
 of his character," writes a discerning memorialist 
 shortly after his decease, " we should mention a 
 feature that would perhaps be the last that was sup- 
 posed to belong to this individual — ambition. He 
 sought money not from avarice, but from a desire for 
 power. Money was the only avenue by which he 
 could obtain the eminence that he coveted, not money 
 to be dissipated in rich salons and splendid 
 equipages and liveried servants bearing his badge, 
 but wealth to be exercised as the Archimedean lever 
 by which he could move the fiscal world. The desire 
 of this, as the means of influence, was the master 
 spirit which conquered his soul." 2 " My deeds must 
 be my life. When I am dead my actions must speak 
 for me," was his reply to captious critics or inquisi- 
 tive impertinence, 3 and the fire of his ambition burned 
 so clear that kindred flames were stirred in the 
 
 l Letter of 25th of November, 1784. 
 
 - Anonymous article in Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, Vol. IV, p. 367. 
 sSaid by Girard to Simpson.— Professor William Wagner, Lecture III. Also, see 
 American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, 12th January, 1832.
 
 LIFE OF STEPHEN GI.RARD. j c j 
 
 bosoms of those nearest to him. 'The force with 
 which I work is annihilating me," writes his brother ; 
 " I feel my strength abandoning me, so that, unless I 
 adopt some remedy, I see my days wasting away 
 in the pains and torments of the ambition you have 
 aroused in me ;" * and, again : "I do not hesitate 
 to say, my brother, that I see with regret my 
 days vanish without pleasure or satisfaction, on the 
 contrary, tormented by the ambition you have 
 waked." ' 
 
 But the wish for money as a means of influence 
 was a master-spirit modified by a secondary motive in 
 his character, which, though it had always existed, 
 had yet lain comparatively dormant until financial 
 power enabled him to make its influence felt. 
 The purpose for which he coveted the eminence 
 at last attained was one quite to be expected from 
 a native of Bordeaux, the Utopian aspirations of 
 whose people for a voice in public affairs for 
 many years rendered her name synonymous with 
 Revolution. Born among and spending the whole of 
 his young manhood amid principles of political ascet- 
 icism, the entire life of Girard shows how thoroughly 
 he had become imbued with their spirit. Simplicity 
 of private life, coupled with untiring industry ; a 
 Cincinnatus-like readiness to sacrifice private interests 
 
 1 Letters of Jean (de Mombrun), 8th March, 1787. 
 
 2 Letters of Jean (de Mombrun), 17th March, 1787.
 
 j r 2 LIFE OF STEPHEN GIRARD. 
 
 for those of a State which would secure the indi- 
 vidual's liberty in the pursuit of happiness ; in short, 
 the perfect example of a law-abiding citizen was 
 the ideal of Girard's aspiration and the sole tradition 
 he desired to leave surviving him. The long steps 
 by which he built up the largest fortune of his 
 day bear each one the stamp of the probity and 
 integrity that was to be afterward unassailable. His 
 fortune once acquired — the character of a fearless, 
 patriotic, and, withal, humane citizen once established, 
 he built a marble monument on such unheard-of 
 scale and for such benevolent purpose that posterity's 
 attention must perforce be challenged to regard 
 its founder, a consistent purpose of whose life 
 had been to preserve the character that could alone 
 sustain such close inspection. 
 
 His great ambition, then, was first, success ; and this 
 attained, the longing of mankind to leave a shining 
 memory merged his purpose in the establishment of 
 what was to him that fairest of Utopias — the simple 
 tradition of a citizen. A citizen whose public duties 
 ended not with the State, and whose benefactions were 
 not limited to the rescue or advancement of its 
 interests alone, but whose charities broadened beyond 
 the limits of duty or the boundaries of an individual 
 life, to stretch over long reaches of the future, enrich- 
 ing thousands of poor children in his beloved city
 
 LIFE OF STETHEN GIRARD. j r ^ 
 
 yet unborn. His life shows clearly why he worked, 
 as his death showed clearly the fixed object of his 
 labor in acquisition. " While he was forward with an 
 apparent disregard of self, to expose his life in behalf 
 of others in the midst of pestilence, to aid the internal 
 improvements of the country, and to promote its 
 commercial prosperity by all the means within his 
 power, he yet had more ambitious designs. He 
 wished to hand himself down to immortality by the 
 only mode that was practicable for a man in his 
 position, and he accomplished precisely that which 
 was the grand aim of his life. He wrote his epitaph 
 in those extensive and magnificent blocks and squares 
 which adorn the streets of his adopted city, in the 
 public works and eleemosynary establishments of 
 his adopted State, and erected his own monument, 
 and embodied his own principles in a marble-roofed 
 palace." x 
 
 " Yet, splendid as is the structure which stands 
 above his remains, the most perfect model of archi- 
 tecture in the New World, it yields in beauty to the 
 moral monument. The benefactor sleeps among the 
 orphan poor whom his bounty is constantly rearing. 
 Thus, forever present, unseen but felt, he daily 
 stretches forth his invisible hands to lead some friend- 
 less child from ignorance and vice to usefulness and 
 
 ' Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, Vol. IV, p. 371. 
 
 7*
 
 j ca LIFE OF STEPL'EN G1KAKD. 
 
 perhaps distinction. And when, in the fullness of 
 time, many homes have been made happy, many 
 orphans have been fed, clothed, and educated, and 
 many men rendered useful to their country and them- 
 selves, each happy home, or rescued child, or useful 
 citizen, will be a living monument to perpetuate the 
 name and embalm the memory of the dead ' Mariner 
 and Merchant.' " * 
 
 1 Arey, pp, 5 and 6.
 
 APPENDIX. 1 
 
 THE estate of Stephen Girard amounted, at the 
 time of his decease, to about seven millions five 
 hundred thousands of dollars. It was the greatest for- 
 tune known in America at that day, and was surpassed 
 by few, if by any of the private fortunes abroad. One 
 hundred and forty thousand dollars of this was 
 bequeathed to members of his family ; sixty-five 
 thousand as a principal sum for the payment of annu- 
 ities to certain friends and former employes ; one 
 hundred and sixteen thousand to various Philadelphia 
 charities ; five hundred thousand to the city of Phila- 
 delphia, for the improvement of its Delaware water- 
 front ; three hundred thousand to the State of Penn- 
 sylvania, for the prosecution of internal improvements, 
 and an indefinite sum in various legacies to appren- 
 tices, sea-captains, who should bring his vessels in 
 their charge safely to port, and to house-servants. He 
 devised to the cities of New Orleans and Philadelphia 
 
 1 Mainly condensed from Arey, and from the report of the architect of the Girard 
 College. See Journal of the Franklin Institute, Vol. XXI, p. 354, and Vols XXII 
 and XXIII (New Series). 
 
 The writer is also desirous of acknowledging hi> indebtedness to A. H. Fetterolf, 
 Ph. D., President of Girard College, for various information respecting the govern- 
 ment of the Institution. 
 
 155
 
 j r6 APPENDIX. 
 
 two hundred and eighty thousand acres of land in 
 Ouachita Township, State of Louisiana (subsequently 
 lost to the legatees by a decision of the United States 
 Supreme Court), and all the rest, residue and remain- 
 der of his estate he devised in trust to the city of 
 Philadelphia for the following purposes: (i) To 
 erect, improve, and maintain a College for poor, 
 white, orphan boys ; (2) To establish a better police 
 system ; and (3) To improve the city of Philadelphia, 
 and diminish taxation. 
 
 The sum of two millions of dollars was set apart by 
 his will for the expense of construction of the Col- 
 lege, and as soon as was practicable the executors 
 appropriated certain securities, to that amount, for the 
 purpose. Heavy depreciation in their value during 
 the construction of the buildings, however, compelled 
 recourse to be had to the residuary fund intended for 
 the maintenance of the College, in order to insure 
 their completion, the actual outlay for erection and 
 finishing of the edifice being one million nine hun- 
 dred and thirty-three thousand eight hundred and 
 twenty-one dollars and seventy-eight cents (#1,933,- 
 82178). Excavation was commenced May 6th, 1833, 
 the corner-stone being laid with ceremonies on the 
 Fourth of July following, and the completed buildings 
 were transferred to the Board of Directors on the 13th 
 of November, 1847. There was thus occupied in
 
 APPENDIX. ! r j 
 
 construction a period of fourteen years and six months, 
 the work being somewhat delayed by reason of suits 
 brought by the heirs of Girard against the estate, and 
 the design adopted was substantially that furnished by 
 Thomas U. Walters, an architect elected by the 
 Board of Directors after the rejection of advertised- 
 for competing plans. Some modifications were 
 rendered advisable by the change of site directed in 
 the second codicil of Girard's will, the original pur- 
 pose having been to occupy the square bounded by 
 Eleventh, Chestnut, Twelfth, and Market Streets, in 
 the heart of the city of Philadelphia. But Girard 
 having, subsequently to the first draft of his will, 
 purchased for thirty-five thousand dollars 1 the Wil- 
 liam Parker farm of forty-five acres, on the Ridge 
 Road, known as the " Peel Hall Estate," he directed 
 that the site of his College should be transferred 
 to that locality, and commenced the erection of 
 stores and dwellings upon the former plot of ground, 
 which dwellings and stores form part of his resi- 
 duary estate. 
 
 The College proper closely resembles in design a 
 Greek temple in white marble, the material for the 
 construction of which was chiefly obtained from 
 quarries in Montgomery and Chester Counties, Penn- 
 sylvania, and at Egremont, Massachusetts. A broad 
 
 1 Professor William Wagner, Lecture II.
 
 158 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 platform or stylobate, approached on every side by 
 eleven marble steps, supports the cella or main body 
 of the building, as also a colonnade of thirty-four 
 Corinthian columns, these latter forming the peristyle 
 and aiding in the support of the marble roof. The 
 cclla measures one hundred and eleven feet in width, 
 one hundred and sixty-nine feet in length, and fifty- 
 nine feet eight inches in height. The columns are 
 six feet in diameter and fifty-five feet in height, the 
 diameter of the corner columns being increased one 
 and one-half inches in order to overcome the appa- 
 rent reduction of size arising from their insulated 
 position. The bases are nine feet three inches in 
 diameter and three feet two inches high, and the capi- 
 tals are eight feet six inches high and nine feet four 
 inches wide on the face of the abacus. Each shaft 
 as well as the bases, consists of a single piece without 
 vertical joints, the total weight of each column being 
 one hundred and three tons and the cost twelve thou- 
 sand nine hundred and ninety-four dollars. 
 
 The extreme height from the top of the columns to 
 the apex of the pediment is thirty-four feet, and 
 the elevation of the pediment is one-ninth of the 
 span. The whole height of the entablature, which is 
 enriched with a congeries of moldings and a sculp- 
 tured cymatium, is sixteen feet four inches. The roof 
 is composed of marble tiles four feet and one-half
 
 APPENDIX. j rg 
 
 long, four feet wide, and two and three-fourths inches 
 thick, the joints covered with a marble saddle hol- 
 lowed on the under side to embrace ridges left on the 
 edges of adjacent tiles. Every tile overlaps the one 
 below six inches, and the under side is grooved and 
 fitted to corresponding ridges and projections on the 
 surface, thus preventing the admission of water from 
 beating rains or capillary attraction. The tiles rest 
 on nine-inch brick walls. They are two thousand 
 and forty-six in number, the aggregate weight of the 
 roof being nine hundred and sixty-nine and one-half 
 tons, exclusive of the brick walls supporting it. The 
 gutters are of brick and flagstones, laid in hydraulic 
 cement and covered with heavy milled lead. Every 
 block of marble in the building is set on pieces of 
 milled lead, in order to prevent fracture at the joints, 
 and every stone is doweled into the stones above and 
 below and at each end, and also securely cramped to 
 the brick work and to the adjacent stones by means of 
 heavy cramp irons. The ceiling of the peristyle is of 
 cast iron, enriched with deep sunken panels, and, with 
 the balusters and skylights, is the only portion of the 
 building proper that is not of stone or brick. The 
 floor of the peristyle is of white marble accurately 
 jointed, and the thrust of the interior arches forming 
 the roof and floors is taken up by five huge chains of 
 wrought iron, completely encircling the cella and built
 
 j 5 appendix. 
 
 into the masonry of its walls at various heights from 
 the base. The building covers an area of thirty-four 
 thousand three hundred and forty-four superficial feet, 
 exclusive of the steps, the total weight being seventy- 
 six thousand five hundred and ninety four and one- 
 half tons, and the average weight resolved on each 
 superficial foot of foundation being about six tons. 
 
 The building is three stories in height, the first and 
 second being twenty-five feet from floor to floor, and 
 the third thirty feet in the clear to the eye of the 
 dome, the doors of entrance being in the north and 
 south fronts, and measuring sixteen feet in width and 
 thirty-two in height. The walls of the cdla are four 
 feet in thickness, and are pierced on each flank by 
 twenty windows. At each end of the building is a 
 vestibule, extending across the whole width of the 
 cclla, the ceilings of which are supported on each 
 floor by eight columns, whose shafts are composed of 
 a single stone. Those on the first floor are Ionic, 
 from the temple on the Illusus, at Athens ; on 
 the second, a modified Corinthian, from the Tower 
 of Andronicus Cyrrhestes, also at Athens, and on 
 the third, a similar modification of the Corinthian, 
 somewhat lighter and more ornate. In each ves- 
 tibule two flights of " geometric stairs " lead to 
 the floor above, these stairs having one end of 
 each step built into the wall, and the lower edge
 
 ATPENDIX. I g 1 
 
 of each supported by the step below, thus doing 
 away with the necessity of support for the outer 
 end. The whole of these steps, columns, and floors 
 is of white marble, the floor-tiles being accurately 
 jointed to prevent loosening. Each floor is divided 
 into four rooms, each fifty feet square, vaulted with 
 brick, those of the first and second stories having 
 groined arches, and those of the third story penden- 
 tive domes springing from the floors. The reverber- 
 ation of sound in these rooms caused by their arched 
 ceiling is obviated by false ceilings of canvas 
 stretched over a light wooden frame. 
 
 The building, including the vestibules, the cellars, 
 and the space under the exterior steps, is warmed by 
 means of steam, and each room is ventilated by regis- 
 ters, which open from near the ceiling into the main 
 flues. 
 
 There are ten auxiliary buildings, including a hand- 
 some Gothic chapel of white marble, dormitories, 
 offices and laundries, four of them having been 
 constructed under the directions of the will, and 
 the others having been added from time to time as 
 necessity arose. These are faced with marble and 
 roofed with copper, slate, or tin, the stairways in 
 the four original dormitories being of marble, with 
 wrought-iron balustrades, and those in the buildings 
 subsequently added, of iron and slate. A new
 
 T (32 APPEND IX. 
 
 refectory, containing- improved ranges and steam 
 cooking apparatus, has recently been added, the 
 dining-hall of which will seat with ease more than 
 one thousand persons. A bathing pool in the 
 western portion of the grounds affords amusement to 
 the pupils, and a well sixteen feet in diameter, the 
 water from which is forced by means of a steam 
 engine into four iron tanks or reservoirs, supplies the 
 water used in the Institution. The outbuildings are 
 heated by steam, and the whole Institution is lighted 
 by gas obtained from the city works. A wall sixteen 
 inches in thickness and ten feet in height, strength- 
 ened by spur piers on the inside and capped with 
 marble coping, surrounds the whole estate, its length 
 being six thousand eight hundred and forty-three 
 feet, or somewhat more than one and one-quarter 
 miles. It is pierced on the southern side, immedi- 
 ately facing the south front of the main building, for 
 the chief entrance, this last being flanked by two oc- 
 tagonal white marble lodges, between which stretches 
 an ornamental wrought-iron grille, with wrought-iron 
 gates, the whole forming an approach in keeping with 
 the large simplicity of the College itself. 
 
 The site upon which this latter is erected corres- 
 ponds well with its splendor and importance. It is 
 elevated considerably above the general level of the 
 surrounding buildings, and forms a conspicuous
 
 APPENDIX. j 5 3 
 
 object, not only from the higher windows and roofs 
 in every part of Philadelphia, but from the Delaware 
 River many miles below the city, and from eminences 
 far out in the country. From the lofty marble roof 
 (to which access is so easy that almost every visitor 
 ascends) the view is also exceedingly beautiful, 
 embracing the city and its environs for many miles 
 around, and the course, to their confluence, eight miles 
 below, of both those noble rivers which enclose the 
 Quaker City. 
 
 The history of the Institution commences shortly 
 after the decease of Girard, when the Councils of 
 Philadelphia, acting as his trustees, elected a Board of 
 Directors, which organized on the 18th of February, 
 1833, with Nicholas Biddle as Chairman. A Building 
 Committee was also appointed by the City Councils on 
 the 2 1st of the following March, in whom was vested 
 the immediate supervision of the construction of the 
 College, an office in which they continued without in- 
 termission until the final completion of the structure. 
 
 On the 19th of July, 1836, the former body, having 
 previously been authorized by the Councils so to do, 
 proceeded to elect Alexander Dallas Bache President 
 of the College, and instructed the latter to visit 
 various similar institutions in Europe, purchasing the 
 necessary books and apparatus for the school, both of 
 which he did, making an exhaustive report upon his
 
 j 5 a APPENDIX. 
 
 return in 1838. It was then attempted to establish 
 schools without awaiting the completion of the main 
 building, but competent legal advice being unfavorable 
 to the organization of the Institution prior to that 
 time, the idea was surrendered, and difficulties having 
 meanwhile arisen between the Councils and the Board 
 of Directors, the ordinances creating the Board and 
 authorizing the election of the President were re- 
 pealed. 
 
 In June, 1847, a new Board was appointed, to whom 
 the buildings were transferred, and on December 15th, 
 1847, the officers of the Institution were elected, the 
 Hon. Joel Jones, President Judge of the District 
 Court for the City and County of Philadelphia, being 
 chosen as President. On January 1st, 1848, the Col- 
 lege was opened with a class of one hundred orphans, 
 previously admitted, the occasion being signalized by 
 appropriate ceremonies. On October 1st of the same 
 year one hundred more were admitted, and on April 
 1st, 1849, an additional one hundred, since when 
 others have been admitted as vacancies have occurred, 
 or to swell the number as facilities have increased. 
 The College now (1884) contains upward of eleven 
 hundred pupils. 
 
 On June 1st, 1849, Judge Jones resigned the office 
 of President of the College, and on the 23d of the 
 following November William H. Allen, LL. D., Pro-
 
 APTENDIX. 
 
 165 
 
 fessor of Mental Philosophy and English Literature in 
 Dickinson College, was elected to fill the vacancy. 
 He was installed January 1st, 1850, but resigned 
 December 1st, 1862, and Major Richard Somers 
 Smith was recalled from active service in the United 
 States Army to fill his place. Major Smith was 
 inaugurated June 24th, 1863, and resigned in Septem- 
 ber, 1867, Dr. Allen being immediately re-elected and 
 continuing in office until his death, on the 29th of 
 August, 1882. 
 
 The present incumbent, A. H. Fetterolf, Ph. D. 
 (Lafayette), was elected December 27th, 1882, by the 
 Board of Directors, the members of which body are 
 no longer elected by the Councils, but appointed by 
 the Judges of the Courts of Common Pleas of the 
 City of Philadelphia. The Board has a membership 
 of fifteen, twelve of whom are appointed for life, the 
 number being completed by three Directors cx-officio, 
 viz. : The Mayor of the city of Philadelphia and the 
 respective Presidents of the Select and Common 
 Councils. Its meetings are held on the second Wed- 
 nesday of each month. 
 
 It has been determined by the Courts of Pennsyl- 
 vania that any child having lost its father is properly 
 denominated an orphan, irrespective of whether the 
 mother be living or not. 1 This construction has 
 
 iSoohan vs. Philadelphia, reported in i Grant's Cases 505, and in 9 Casey 20.
 
 1 66 
 
 A Pr END IX. 
 
 been adopted by the College, the requirements for 
 admission to the Institution being as follows: (i) The 
 orphan must be a white male, between six and ten 
 years of age, no application for admission being 
 received before the former age, nor can he be 
 admitted into the College after passing his tenth 
 birthday, even though the application has been 
 made previously; (2) the mother or next friend is 
 required to produce the marriage certificate of the 
 child's parents (or, in its absence, some other satis- 
 factory evidence), and also the certificate of the 
 physician setting forth the time and place of birth; 
 (3) a form of application looking to the establish- 
 ment of the child's identity, physical condition, 
 morals, previous education, and means of support, 
 must be filled in, signed, and vouched for by respect- 
 able citizens. Applications are made the first Mon- 
 day of each month, at the office, No. 19 South 
 Twelfth Street, Philadelphia, between the hours of 
 nine and twelve a. m. 
 
 A preference is given under Girard's will to (a) 
 orphans born in the city of Philadelphia ; (a) those 
 born in any other part of Pennsylvania; (c) those 
 born in the city of New York ; (d) those born in the 
 city of New Orleans. The preference to the orphans 
 born in the city of Philadelphia is defined to be 
 strictly limited to the old city proper, the districts
 
 APPENDIX. Y fa 
 
 subsequently consolidated into the city having no 
 rights in this respect over any other portion of the 
 State. 
 
 Orphans are admitted, in the above order, strictly 
 according to priority of application, the mother 
 executing an indenture binding the orphan to the city 
 of Philadelphia, as trustee under Girard's will, as an 
 orphan to be educated and provided for by the Col- 
 lege. The scholars are fed, clothed, and taught wholly 
 by the Institution. No distinctive dress is ever to be 
 worn ; and although the orphans reside permanently 
 in the College, they are, at stated times, allowed to 
 visit friends at the latter's houses and to receive visits 
 from their friends at the College The household is 
 under the care of a matron, an assistant matron, 
 twelve prefects, and fourteen governesses, who 
 superintend the moral and social training of the 
 orphans and administer the discipline of the Institu- 
 tion when the scholars are not in the school-rooms. 
 The pupils are divided into sections for the purposes 
 of discipline, which last have distinct officers, build- 
 ings, and playgrounds. 
 
 The schools are conducted principally, though not 
 entirely, in the main College building, four professors 
 and thirty-one teachers being employed in the duties 
 of instruction, and the course comprises a thorough 
 English commercial education, to which has been
 
 X 6S APPENDIX. 
 
 latterly added special schools of technical instruction 
 in the mechanical arts. As a large proportion of the 
 orphans admitted into the College have had little or 
 no preparatory education, the instruction commences 
 with the alphabet, and includes during the first year, 
 spelling, reading, writing, drawing (on slates), pri- 
 mary arithmetic, and object lessons. 
 
 The order of daily exercises is as follows : The 
 pupils rise at six o'clock, take breakfast at half-past 
 six. Recreation until half-past seven ; then assemble 
 in the section rooms at that hour, and proceed to the 
 Chapel for morning worship at eight. The Chapel 
 exercises consist of singing a hymn, reading a chapter 
 from the Old or New Testament, and prayer, after the 
 conclusion of which the pupils proceed to the various 
 school-rooms, where they remain, with a recess of 
 fifteen minutes, until twelve. From twelve until the 
 dinner-hour, which is half- past twelve, they are on the 
 playground, returning there after finishing that meal, 
 until two o'clock, the afternoon school-hour, when 
 they resume the school exercises, remaining, without 
 intermission, until four o'clock. At four the afternoon 
 service in the Chapel is held, after which they are on 
 the playground until six, at which hour supper is 
 served. The evening study hour lasts from seven to 
 eight, or half-past eight, varying with the age of the 
 pupils, the same difference being observed in their
 
 APPENDIX. j 6 Q 
 
 bedtimes, which are from half-past seven for the 
 youngest until a quarter before nine. 
 
 On Sunday the pupils assemble in their section 
 rooms at nine o'clock in the morning, and at two in 
 the afternoon for religious reading and instruction, 
 and at half-past ten o'clock in the morning, and 
 at three in the afternoon, they attend Divine wor- 
 ship in the Chapel. Here the exercises are similar 
 to those held on weekdays, with the important 
 addition of an appropriate discourse adapted to the 
 comprehension of the pupils, which last is delivered 
 either by the President of the College or by some 
 other layman selected by him for the purpose. The 
 services in the Chapel, whether on Sunday or on week- 
 days, are invariably conducted by the President or 
 other selected layman, the will of the founder forbid- 
 ding the entrance of clergymen of any denomination 
 whatsoever within the boundaries of the Institution. 
 
 The discipline of the College is almost entirely 
 administered through admonition, deprivation of re- 
 creation, and seclusion ; but in extreme cases corporal 
 punishment may be inflicted by order of the President 
 and in his presence. If by reason of misconduct a 
 pupil becomes an unfit companion for the rest, the 
 right to dismiss him summarily is vested in the Board 
 ot Directors. 
 
 The annual cost per capita of maintaining, clothing, 
 8
 
 ! y Q APPENDIX. 
 
 and educating each pupil, including current repairs to 
 buildings and furniture and the maintenance of 
 the grounds, is about three hundred and twelve dollars, 
 and those scholars who merit it remain in the College 
 until between fourteen and eighteen years of age, at 
 the discretion of the Board. Between these ages they 
 are indentured by the Institution, on behalf of " The 
 City of Philadelphia," to learn some " art, trade, or 
 mystery," until their twenty-first year, consulting, as 
 far as is judicious, the inclination and preference of 
 the scholar. The master to whom an apprentice is 
 bound agrees to furnish the latter with sufficient meat, 
 drink, apparel, washing, and lodging at his own place 
 of residence (unless otherwise agreed to by the parties 
 to the indenture and so indorsed upon it) ; to use his 
 best endeavors to teach and instruct the apprentice in 
 his " art, trade, or mystery," and at the expiration of 
 the apprenticeship to furnish him with at least two 
 complete suits of clothes, one of which shall be new. 
 Should a scholar not be apprenticed by the Institution, 
 however, he must leave the College upon attaining 
 the age of eighteen years, and in case of death his 
 friends have the privilege of removing his body 
 for interment, though should this not be preferred, 
 his remains are placed in the College burial-lot at 
 Laurel Hill Cemetery, near Philadelphia. 
 
 Citizens and strangers provided with a permit
 
 APPENDIX. j ~ j 
 
 are allowed to visit the College on the afternoon of 
 every weekday. Permits can be obtained from the 
 Mayor of Philadelphia, at his office, on the southwest 
 corner of Fifth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia ; 
 from a Director; at the office of the Board of City 
 Trusts, No. 19 South Twelfth Street, Philadelphia; or 
 at the office of the Public Ledger newspaper, on 
 the southwest corner of Sixth and Chestnut Streets, 
 Philadelphia. It is to be observed, however, that the 
 passes obtained from the Public Ledger office will not 
 admit visitors on Fridays, that being the " Battalion 
 drill day," and it having been found that the central 
 position of the Ledger office was likely to result in 
 the issuance of so many passes for that day as 
 to seriously interfere with the exercises. Especial 
 courtesy is shown all foreign visitors, and particularly 
 to those interested in educational matters, in whose 
 favor the rigidity of the above rules is invariably 
 relaxed upon proper application either to a Director 
 or to the President of the College, at his office in the 
 College buildings. 
 
 THE END.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 (The abbreviation App. signifies Appendix?) 
 
 Accident at Second and Market, 91. 
 
 " to right eye, 20. 
 Actes de Mariage, Extrait des, 19. 
 Adams, John, 115. 
 
 " John Quincy, 115. 
 Admiral Howe, 32. 
 
 Admiralty of Paris, Registers of the, 19. 
 Advertiser, American Daily, viii, 95, 
 
 100, lor, 104, 114, 150. 
 Agreement, Partnership, with Baldesqui, 
 
 43- 
 Agreement, Partnership, with Jean [de 
 
 Mombrun], 48, 49. 
 A. H. Fetterolf, App. 155, 165. 
 Aimable Louise, V ', 30, 32, 78. 
 A. J. Dallas, 83. 
 
 Aldermen of Philadelphia, 97, 99. 
 Alexander Dallas Bache, App. 163. 
 Algerine Pirates, 71. 
 Allegiance, Oath of, 42. 
 Allen, William H., App. 164, 165. 
 Ambition of Girard, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153. 
 America, The North, 55. 
 American Daily Advertiser, The [see 
 
 Advertiser~\. 
 American Quarterly Review, 142. 
 Amis, Les Deux, 50. 
 Amsterdam, 56, 131. 
 An Account of the Malignant Fever, 59, 
 
 60, 62, 65. 
 Andronicus Cyrrhestes, App. 160. 
 Anecdotes of apprentices, 80, 133, 134. 
 
 arrival in Philadelphia, 30, 
 3 1 , 3 2 - 
 
 Anecdotes of capture of the Montesquieu, 
 78. 
 capture of thieves, 122. 
 Crown jewels of France, 
 
 Spain, or Naples, 128. 
 drinking Irishman, 67. 
 Irish laborer, 114. 
 Jacob Ridgway, 137. 
 Rancocas River, 77. 
 signing a document, 92. 
 " showing fearlessness of 
 
 death, 95. 
 " showing Girard's memory, 
 
 136. 
 " Stephen Simpson, 134. 
 
 supercargo sent to Red Sea, 
 131. 
 " war-panic in Philadelphia, 
 
 8o. 
 yellow-fever times, 65. 
 Anne Lafargue. 17. 
 Anne Marie Lafargue, Mademoiselle, 17, 
 
 18, 21, 23, 24. 
 Appearance, Personal, no. 
 APPENDIX, 155. 
 Apprentices, 81, 120, 129, 130, 131, 132, 138. 
 
 " Anecdotes of, 83, 133, 134. 
 
 Apprenticing at College, System of, App. 
 
 170. 
 Arey, Henry W., Girard College and its 
 Founder, discussed, xi, 142 to 149 ; 
 referred to, xi, 23, 27, 28, 29, 54, 60, 61, 
 62, 64, 67, 78, 79, 80, 83. 84, 95, 96, 120, 
 131, 142, 143, 144. 154, App. 155 et seq. 
 
 173
 
 174 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Arrival in Philadelphia, 32. 
 
 Arthur, Samuel, in. 
 
 A Short History 0/ the 1 'ellotv Fever in 
 
 July, 67. 
 Asylum, Orphan, 97. 
 Athens, .-(//. 160. 
 Attacked by erysipelas. 89. 
 
 epidemic influenza, 94. 
 
 pneumonia, 95. 
 Attempted divorce, 84. 
 Augustine's Church, St., 128, 138. 
 Augustus Girard, 112. 
 Autobiography of Some Wealthy Citizens, 
 
 Memoirs and, 33, 109. 
 Auxiliary buildings, App. 161. 
 
 Bache, Alexander Dallas, App. 163. 
 Baldesqui, Joseph, xiv, 43, 44, 45. 
 
 " dissolution with, 44, 45. 
 " " Memoir c de Ste. Gir- 
 
 ard contre le Sieur, 
 xiv, 45. 
 " Partnership agreement 
 with, 43. 
 Baltimore, 66. 
 Bancker, Charles N., 72. 
 Bank of Stephen Girard, vii, 76, 77, 80, 91, 
 
 97, "6, "9- mi, 126, 135. 
 Bank of the United States, The First, 74, 
 
 75, 76, 93- 
 Bank ofthe United States, The Second, 87. 
 Bankruptcy ofthe State, Threatened, 90. 
 Baptism of Girard's daughter, 53. 
 Baring Brothers & Co., 72, 73, 74, 131, 136. 
 Baron Henry Dominick Lallemand, 101, 
 
 127, 128. 
 Baroness Lallemand, xiv, 17, 109. 
 Barthelmy, Michellet, 147. 
 Bay, Delaware, 31. 
 Beliefs, Religious, 138. 
 Bellevue, 40. 
 Beresford, Sir John, 79. 
 Bickham, Martin, 130. 
 Biddle, Nicholas, App. 163. 
 Bienfaisance Franchise, Societe de, 97. 
 Biography 0/ Stephen Girard, Simpson ; 
 
 discussed, vii, 134,135,136; referred to 
 
 (See Stephen Simpson). 
 
 Biography by Arey (see Arey, Henry W). 
 Birth of Girard, Official record of the, xiii. 
 
 " Girard's daughter, 53. 
 Blindness, 20. 
 Blondin Constant, 112. 
 Board of City Trusts, App. 171. 
 
 " Directors of College, App. 156, 
 
 '57. i°3> '64, 165, 169, 170. 
 Body, Contest over removal of Girard's, 
 
 104. 
 Bonaparte, Joseph, 102, 126, 127, 128, 139. 
 
 Napoleon, 101, 127. 
 Bonnardel et Lacrampe, Girard, 50. 
 Book, Raison d'etre of this, vii et seq. 
 Bordeaux, xiii, 17, 19, 26, 28, 29, 32, 36, 
 
 41, 42, 56, 83, 145, 151. 
 Bordentown, 128. 
 
 " The Court at, 127. 
 
 Boston, 44. 
 Bowen, Captain, 130. 
 Boy, Cabin, 27. 
 Brest, 19. 
 
 British Cruisers, Protest against, 70. 
 Brothers, The Two, 45. 
 Building Committee, App. 163. 
 Buildings, 121. 
 
 Auxiliary College. App. 161. 
 Builds a fleet of merchantmen, 54. 
 Bulletin, The Saturday, 102. 
 Burial of Mary Girard, 85. 
 
 " Stephen Girard, 101. 
 Bush Hill Hospital, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 66, 68. 
 
 Cabin boy, 27. 
 Calcutta, 55, 56. 
 Calhoun, Hugh, si. 
 
 " Meredith, 129, 130. 
 Canton, 55, 56, 130. 
 Cape Francois, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41, 44, 
 
 45, 46, 47. 48. 49, 59, 5i, 56, 57, M9- 
 Capes of Delaware, 78. 
 Captain Jean Courteau, 26, 27. 
 
 " Bowen, 130 
 
 " Cochran, 56, 57. 
 
 " Derussy, 37. 
 
 " King, 31. 
 
 " Malahard, 30. 
 
 " Mouroux, 29.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 i/5 
 
 Capture of thieves, Anecdote of, 122. 
 
 " the Montesquieu, 23, 78, 79, 80. 
 Carey, Matthew, 59. 
 Celebrations, Tammany Wigwam, 71. 
 Changeraux & Co., Les Fila de P., 66. 
 Character of Mary Lum, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 
 
 38, 39, 40. 
 Character, Personal, 108, m. 
 Charles Lallemand, 127. 
 Charles N. Bancker, 72. 
 Charles Nicholes, 86. 
 Charnock, John, 130. 
 Chartrous, Les, 28. 
 
 Rue Ramonet aux, 17, 29. 
 Children, Orphan, 64, 154. App. 156, 164, 
 
 165, 166, 167. 
 China, 72. 
 Choury, M., 146. 
 Chronicle, The Daily, 100. 
 Church, Holy Trinity, 96, 101, 104. 
 " Saint Augustine's, 128, 138. 
 " Pauls, 40. 
 Circuit Court, U. S., xiii, 93. 
 
 " " Testimony in, 147 el 
 
 seq. 
 City Library, 59. 
 City Trusts, Office of the Board of, App. 
 
 166. 
 City Water Works, 71. 
 Citizens, Memoirs and Autobiography of 
 
 Some Wealthy, 33, 109. 
 Clark's Concise History 0/ Knighthood, 19. 
 Clark, Doctor John Yardley, 91, 109. 
 Clark, Henriette Marie Girard-, [Baro- 
 ness Lallemand], xiv, 17, 92, 109, 128. 
 Clark vs. Philadelphia, Lessees of, 93. 
 Clay. Joseph, 135. 
 Clayton, Mr., 119. 
 Coal lands, 93. 
 G>ates, Samuel, 86. 
 Cochran, Captain, 56, 57. 
 Coffee House, 59. 
 Collection Hislorique des Ordres de 
 
 Chevalerie, Perrot's, 19. 
 College, Girard, Daily exercises at, App. 
 168. 
 " " Description of, App. 157 
 
 et seq . 
 
 College, Girard, Discipline of the, App. 
 
 167, 169. 
 
 " " History of the, App. 163. 
 
 " " Permits to visit, App. 
 
 170, 171. 
 
 " Relics at, 123, 126. 
 
 " " Religious exercises at, 
 
 App. 168, 169. 
 ' : " Statue at, 108. 
 
 " " System of apprenticing 
 
 at, App. 170. 
 " " Testimonial at, 68. 
 
 Also, xi, 92, 104, 106, 140, 153, App. 156, 
 157, 162, 163, 164, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170. 
 College, Mount Airy, 113. 
 Commencement of excavation, App. 156. 
 Committee, Building App. 163. 
 Committee, Minutes 0/ the Yellow Fever, 
 
 61,63. 
 Comte de Survilliers, 102, 126, 127, 128, 
 
 139. 
 Concentrates funds at London, 72. 
 Concise History of Knighthood, 19. 
 Congress, 75. 
 
 " Explanatory statement to, 72. 
 Conspiracy to kidnap GirarJ, 74. 
 Constant, Blondin, 112. 
 Contest over removing Girard's body, 104. 
 Continent, The, 32, 53, 60, 100, 108, in, 
 
 113, 132, 133. 
 Corner-stone of College laid, App. 156. 
 Cost of education. App. 169. 
 Councils of Philadelphia, Common, 69, 96, 
 
 97. 99? io 3, App. 163. 
 Councils of Philadelphia, Select, 69, 96, 
 
 97, 99, 102, 103, App. 163. 
 Count Pulaski, 43. 
 Court at Bordentown, The, 127. 
 Courteauj Captain Jean, 26, 27. 
 Court of Pennsylvania, Supreme, 94. 
 " U. S. Circuit, xiii, 93. 
 " *' " Testimony in, 146 
 
 et seq. 
 Court, U. S. Supreme, 146. 
 Cox, Randall, Stewarts and, 29. 
 Crown Jewels of Spain, Naples, or France, 
 
 Anecdote of the, 128. 
 Crown. Tavern, McShane's Harp and, 70.
 
 176 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cruisers, Protest against British, 70. 
 Curwen, Joseph, 72, 74. 
 Cutbush, Doctor, 53. 
 Cyrrhestes, Andromcus, App. 160. 
 
 Daily Advertiser , The American, viii, 
 
 95, 100, ioi, 104, 114, 150. 
 Daily Chronicle, The, 100. 
 Duilyexercises at the College, App. 168. 
 Dallas, A. J., 83. 
 Daughter, Mary Girard gives birth to a, 
 
 53- 
 Daughter dies, 53. 
 
 Deaf and Dumb, Institution for the, 97. 
 Death of Girard, 96. 
 
 " Girard's daughter, 53. 
 " Mary Girard, 84, 85. 
 Delaware, Capes of the. 78, 
 Bay of the, 31, 
 River, 75, 77, App. 155, 163. 
 Democratic celebrations, 71, 
 
 " Party, 69 1 15, 
 Derussy, Captain, 37. 
 Description of Auxiliary Buildings, App. 
 
 161. 
 Description of Girard College, App. 157 
 
 etsey. 
 Deux Amis, Les, 50. 
 Deveze, Doctor, 67. 
 
 Difficulties with stepmother, 24, 25, 145. 
 Directors, Board of, App. 156, 157, 163, 
 
 164, 165, 169, 170. 
 Directors of "Public Schools, 97. 
 Discipline of the College, App. 167, 169. 
 Dispatch, The Philadelphia Sunday, 52. 
 Dissolution of partnership with Baldes- 
 
 qui, 44, 45- 
 Dissolution of partnership with Jean [de 
 
 Mombrun], 51. 
 District of Southwark, Meeting of the 
 
 Northern Liberties and, 68. 
 Divorce, Attempted, 84. 
 Doctor John Yardley Clark, 91, 109. 
 " Cutbush, 53. 
 " Deveze, 67. 
 *' Monges, 89. 
 " Physick, 91. 
 " Je; n Baptiste Vidal, 147. 
 
 Doctor Warner, 53. 
 
 Doidy, Plantation of, 49. 
 
 Domestic life of Girard, xii. 
 
 Domingo, Santo, 27, 29, 40, 43, 44, 48, 56, 
 
 126, 149. 
 
 Domingo, Massacre at Santo, 56. 
 Dominick Lallemand, Baron Henry, 101, 
 
 127, 128. 
 Dordogne, 18. 
 Dorphin, no. 
 
 Drinking Irishman, Anecdote of, 67. 
 Duane, William J , 102. 
 Dunlap, Thomas, 122. 
 Duplessis, 54, 143, 144. 
 Dutilh Estate, 121. 
 
 Early education, 20, 22. 
 
 East India, 54, 56, 72. 
 
 Education of orphans, Cost of, App. 169. 
 
 Edward King, Judge, 105. 
 
 Edward Stiles, 44. 
 
 Egrcmont, Massachusetts, App. 157. 
 
 Eminent Philadelphians, Lives of, 40, 
 
 116. 
 Epidjmic — Influenza, Attacked by, 94. 
 
 " Yellow Fever, 58 et seq. 
 
 Erysipelas, Attacked by, 89. 
 Estate, Dutilh, 121. 
 
 " Girard, 92, App. 155. 
 
 The Peel Hall, App. 157. 
 Etienne Foiesse. 17. 
 
 " Girard, 18, 125, 145, 146, 147, 148. 
 Excavation commenced, App. 156. 
 Exchange, Merchants', 94. 
 Exercises at College, Daily, App. 168. 
 
 " " Religious, App. 168, 
 
 169. 
 Ex-King of Spain and Naples, 102, 126, 
 
 127, 128, 139. 
 Ex-parte Girard, 1C5. 
 Expiration of partnership with Jean [de 
 
 Mombrun], 51. 
 Explanatory statement to Congress, 72. 
 Extrait des Actes de Mariagc, 19. 
 Eye, Accident to right, 20. 
 
 Farm, Passyunk Township, 116, 119. 
 " The William Parker, App. 157.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 177 
 
 Fearlessness of death, Anecdote showing, 
 
 95- 
 Federal Gazette, The, 60. 
 Fenelon, Victoire, 18. 
 Ferris, John, 67. 
 Fetterolf, A. H., App. 155, 165. 
 Fever, An Account of the Malignant, 59, 
 
 60, 62, 65. 
 
 Fever Committee, Minutes of the Yellow, 
 
 61, 63. 
 
 Fever in fitly, A Short History of the Yel- 
 low, 67. 
 Fever, Outbreak of Yellow (First\ 58. 
 
 " " " (Second and 
 
 Third), 67. 
 Fever, Anecdote of Yellow- times, 65. 
 
 " Interments from Yellow, 64. 
 
 " nurse, Girard volunteers as Yellow, 
 61. 
 Fils de P. Changeraux & Co., Les, 66. 
 First Bank of the U. S., 74, 75, 76, 93. 
 Fleet of merchantmen, Girard builds a, 54. 
 Foiesse, Etienne, 17. 
 Foreign visitors to College, App. 171. 
 France, The King of, 102. 
 
 " Anecdote of the Crown jewels of, 
 
 128. 
 Francois, Cape, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41, 44, 
 
 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 5°, 51, 56, 57, M9- 
 Franklin Institute, fournal of the, 155. 
 Free Institute of Science, The Wagner, 
 
 xiv, xv, 130. 
 Friends, The Good, 55. 
 Friends, The Society of, 85, 87, 101, in, 
 
 139- 
 Fuel Savings Society, 97. 
 Funeral of Girard (First), 96. 
 
 " " (Second), 105. 
 
 Funeral procession, Route of Girard's, 
 
 98. 
 
 Gazette, The Federal, 60. 
 " National, 76. 
 
 " " Philadelphia, 98, 102. 
 
 " " United States, 66, 99, no. 
 
 George Simpson, ix. 
 Gevelot, 109. 
 Girard, Augustus, 112. 
 
 Girard, The Bank of Stephen, vii, 76. 77, 
 
 80, 91, 97, 116, 119, 121, 126, 135. 
 Girard, The Bank of Stephen, opens, 76. 
 Girard, Bonnardel and Lacrampe, 50. 
 Girard-Clark, Henriette Marie [Baroness 
 
 Lallemand], xiv, 17, 92, 109, 128. 
 Girard College audits Founder; discussed, 
 xi, 142-149 ; referred to, xi, 23, 27, 28, 
 29, 54, 60, 61, 62, 64, 67, 78, 79, 8j, 
 83, 84, 95, 96, 120, 131, 142, 143, 144, 154, 
 App. 155 et seq. 
 Girard College, Daily exercises at, App. 
 168. 
 " " Description of, App. 157 
 
 et seq. 
 " " Discipline of the, App. 
 
 167, 169. 
 
 " " History of the, App. 163. 
 
 " " Permits to visit, App. 170, 
 
 171. 
 
 " " Relics at, 123, 126. 
 
 " " Religious exercises at, 
 
 App. 168, 169. 
 
 " " Statue at, 108. 
 
 " " System of apprenticing 
 
 at, App. 170. 
 
 " " Testimonial at, 68. 
 
 Also xi, 92, 104, 106, 
 140, 153, App. 156, 157, 
 162, 163, 164, 166, 167, 
 
 168, 169, 170. 
 Girard, Etienne, 18, 125, 145, 146, 147, 
 
 148. 
 " Jean [de Mombrun], xiv, 21, 28, 
 
 29, 34- 35, 36, 4°, 4 1 , 45, 46, 47, 
 
 48, So, 5 1 , id, io 9, lx 3, I26 > 
 
 M5, '49, *V- 
 " Jean [de Mombrun], Letters of, 
 
 xiv. 35, 36, 37, 38, 41, 46, 47, 49, 
 
 151. 
 " Jean Fabricius, 112, 113. 
 " Madame Giraud-, 24. 
 
 Mary, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 45, 
 
 46, 87, 148. 
 " Mary, becomes insan", 45. 
 " " recovers from insanity, 47, 
 
 5i- 
 " Mary, again becomes insane, 52.
 
 1 7 8 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Girard, Mary, gives birth to a daughter, 
 
 53- 
 
 " Mary, Death of, 84, 85. 
 " Burial of, 85. 
 " Grave of, 86, 87. 
 
 " Pierre, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26. 
 
 " Stephen, Official record of birth 
 and baptism of, xiii. 
 
 " Stephen, Troubles with step- 
 mother, 24, 25. 
 
 " Stephen, leaves home, 27. 
 " Marriage of, 34. 
 
 " " Domestic life of, xii. 
 
 " Purpose in life of, 141, 
 149. 
 
 " Stephen, Ambition of, 149, 150, 
 
 151, 152, i53- 
 
 " Stephen, Religious beliefs of, 
 138. 
 
 " Stephen, Rebuff of Simpson by, 
 viii. 
 
 " Stephen, volunteers as yellow- 
 fever nurse, 61. 
 
 " Stephen, Sails for the Mediterra- 
 nean, 51. 
 
 " Stephen, Anecdote showing mem- 
 ory of, 136. 
 
 " Stephen, Conspiracy to kidnap, 
 
 74- 
 " Stephen, Contre le Sieur Joseph 
 
 Baldesqui, Mtmoire lie, 45. 
 " Stephen, is attacked by epidemic 
 
 influenza, 94. 
 " Stephen, is attacked by erysipelas, 
 
 89. 
 " Stephen, is attacked by pneumo- 
 nia, 95, 
 " Stephen, run over by wagon, 
 
 91. 
 " " Death of, 96. 
 
 " ** Funeral of (First), 96. 
 
 " (Second), 105. 
 " " Will of, 18, 29.92, 100, 138, 
 
 140, 141, 145, 146, A/>p. 157, 166, 
 
 167. 
 " Stephen Contest over removing 
 
 the body of, 104. 
 " Stephen, Ex parte, 105. 
 
 Girard, Stephen, Biography of; dis- 
 cussed, vii, 134, 135, 136; re- 
 ferred to [see Stephen Simpson']. 
 
 " Stephen, Biography by Arey 
 [See Henry W. Arey]. 
 
 " Stephen, vs. Ware et al., 79, 80. 
 
 " Cases, List of the various, 94. 
 
 " Stephen, The Bank of, vii, 76, 77, 
 8o, 91, 97, 116, 119, 121, 126, 
 
 135- 
 Girard's Heirs, 92, 157. 
 
 " " Philadelphia vs. , 119 
 
 Goes to Mount Holly, 41. 
 Good Erie nds, The, 55. 
 Government loan of 1S14, The, 82. 
 Governor Shultz, 90. 
 Graham, William L., 74. 
 
 " " " Report of the Trial 
 
 of M'Lean and, 75. 
 Grand Lodge, 97. 
 Grelaud, John, 130. 
 
 Habits, Individual, 116. 
 
 Hall Estate, The Peel, App. 157. 
 
 Harp and Crown Tavern, McShane's, 70. 
 
 Hatcher, Mrs. John, 53. 
 
 Hazlehurst, Isaac, 41. 
 
 Heirs of Girard, 92, 157. 
 
 " Philadelphia vs. Girard's, 119. 
 Helm, Peter, 61, 62, 68. 
 Helvetius, The, 55. 
 Henriette Marie Girard-Clark [Baroness 
 
 Lallemand], xiv, 17, 92, 109, 128. 
 Henry Dominick Lallemand, Baron, 101, 
 
 127, 128. 
 Henry W. Arey ; Girard College and its 
 
 Founder; discussed, xi, 142 to 149; 
 
 referred to, xi, 23, 27, 28, 29, 54, 60, 61, 
 
 62, 64, 67, 78, 79, 80, 83, 84, 95, 96, 120, 
 
 131, 142, 143, 144, 154, App. 155 et sea. 
 Henry Simpson, 116. 
 History 0/ Philadelphia, 71, 72,94, 107, 
 
 123. 
 History 0/ the Yellow Fever in July, A 
 
 Short, 67. 
 Holly, Mount, 41, 42, 77, 84. 
 Holy Trinity Church, 96, 101, 104. 
 Home, Girard leaves, 27.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 1 79 
 
 Hospital, The Bush Hill, 6o, 61, 62, 63, 
 
 64, 66, 68. 
 Hospital, The Pennsylvania, 52, 84, 85, 
 
 86, 97. 
 Hourquebie, M. Joseph, 48, 49, 50. 
 House, The Coffee, 59. 
 House in Water Street, The, 40, 43, 44, 
 
 j2, 96, 121, 123. 
 Houses, i2i, 122, 123. 
 Howe, Admiral, 32. 
 
 " Lord, 41. 
 Hugh Calhoun, 51. 
 Humble parentage (sic), xii. 
 Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, 150, 153. 
 Hutchinson, Mahlon, 130. 
 
 Illusus, Temple on the, App. 160. 
 
 India, East, 54, 56, 72, 
 
 Indies, West, 30, 43. 
 
 Individual habits, 116. 
 
 Influenza, Attacked by Epidemic, 94. 
 
 Insane, Mary Girard becomes, 45. 
 
 " " " again becomes, 52. 
 
 Institute of Science, The Wagner Free, 
 
 xiv, xv, 130. 
 Institute, Journal 0/ the Franklin, 155. 
 Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, 97. 
 
 " History of the, App. 163. 
 
 Interments from yellow fever, 64. 
 Isaac Hazlehurst, 41. 
 Island of Jersey, 86. 
 Isle of Mauritius, 130. 
 
 Jacob Ridgway, Anecdote of, 137. 
 James Sylvanus M'Lean, 74. 
 Java, 132. 
 Jean Baptiste Vidal, M. D., 147. 
 
 " Courteau, Captain, 26, 27. 
 
 " Fabricius Girard, 112, 113. 
 
 " Girard [de Mombrun], xiv, 21, 28, 29, 
 
 34. 35, 36, 4°. 41. 45, 46, 47, 48, 5°, 5*, 
 101, 109, 113, 126, 145, 149, 151. 
 
 Jean Girard [de Mombrun], Letters of, 
 xiv, 35, 36, 37, 38, 41, 46, 47, 49, 151. 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 115. 
 
 Jersey, Island of, 86. 
 " New, 41, 77. 
 
 J. H. Roberjot, 57, 119, 124, 129. 
 
 Joel Jones, Judge, App. 164. 
 John Adams, 115. 
 
 " Beresford, Sir, 79. 
 " Charnock, 130. 
 " Fabricius Girard, 112, 113. 
 " Ferris, 67. 
 " Grelaud, 130. 
 " Hatcher, Mrs., 53. 
 " Quincy Adams, 115. 
 " Warder, 130. 
 
 " Yardley Clark, Doctor, 91, 109. 
 Joseph Baldesqui, xiv, 43, 44, 45. 
 
 " Bonaparte, 102, 126, 127, 128, 139. 
 " Clay, 135. 
 " Curwen, 72, 74. 
 " Roberts, ix. 
 Journal 0/ the Franklin Institute, App. 
 
 *55- 
 Journal kept by Girard, xi. 
 Judge Edward King, 105. 
 
 " Joel Jones, App. 164. 
 
 " Read, 58. 
 Julie, La, 29. 
 
 Kensington, 117. 
 
 Kensington, The, 55. 
 
 Kidnap Girard, Conspiracy to, 74. 
 
 King, Captain, 31. 
 
 " Judge Edward, 105. 
 
 " Louis XV, 19. 
 
 " of France, 102, 127. 
 
 " of Spain and Naples, The Ex-, 102, 
 126, 127, 128. 139. 
 Kingdom of France, Anecdote of the Crown 
 
 jewels of the, 128. 
 Kitty, The, 55. 
 Knighthood, Clark's Concise History of, 
 
 19. 
 
 Laborer, Anecdote of Irish, 1T4. 
 Lachapelle, Madame Giraud-Girard, nee, 
 
 24. 
 Lacrampe, Girard, Bonnardel and, 50. 
 Lafargue, Anne, 17. 
 
 " Mademoiselle Anne Marie, 17, 
 
 18. 
 Laid, Corner-stone of College, App. 156. 
 L' Aimablc Louise, 30, 32, 78.
 
 i So 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 La Julie, 29. 
 
 Lallemand, Baron Henry Dominick, ioi, 
 
 127, 128. 
 " Charles, 127. 
 " ] Henriette Marie Girard-Clark 
 
 [Baroness, xiv, 17, 92, 109, 
 
 128. 
 Lands, Coal, 93. 
 
 " Louisiana, App. 156. 
 Ledger, The Public, AJ>/>. 171. 
 Leghorn, 126. 
 Lcs Deux Amis, 50. 
 Les Fils de P. Changeraux & Co., 66. 
 Lessees of Clark vs. Philadelphia, 93. 
 Letters of Jean Girard [de Mombrun], xiv, 
 
 35, 36, 37> 3 8 > 4i, 46, 47. 49. 'Si- 
 Liberties and District of Southwark, Meet- 
 ing of the Northern, 68. 
 Lilerty, The, 55. 
 Library Company of Philadelphia, 123. 
 
 " The City, 59. 
 Life, Purpose in, 141, 149. 
 List of the various Girard cases, 94. 
 Lives of Eminent Philadelphians , 40, 116. 
 Loan of 1S14, The Government, 82. 
 Lodges, Masonic, 97, 99, 101, 104, 105, 106. 
 London, 60, 72, 74, 131. 
 
 " Concentrates funds at, 72. 
 " The plague of, 60. 
 Loss of sight, 20. 
 Louis XV, King, 19. 
 
 " Royal and Military Order of Saint, 
 
 18. 
 " Vanuxem, 130. 
 Louise Stockton, 32, 53, 6o, ico, ip8, in 
 
 113, 132, 133. 
 Louisiana lands, App. 156. 
 Lum, Mary, 33, 34. 
 " Mr., 33, 42. 
 
 Madame Giraud-Girard, 24. 
 
 " Rush, 137. 
 Madison, President, 87. 
 Magaw, Rev. Samuel, 40. 
 Mahlon Hutchinson, 130. 
 Malahard, Captain, 30. 
 Malignant Fever, An Account of the, 59, 
 60, 62, 65. 
 
 Malin, William G., 52, 53, 86, 87. 
 Marc's, St., 29. 
 
 Mariage, Extrait ties Actes de, 19. 
 Marriage, 34. 
 Marseilles, 63. 
 Martin Bickham, 130. 
 
 Mary Girard, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 45, 
 46, 87, 148. 
 
 " " becomes insane, 45. 
 
 " " recoversfrom insanity, 47, 51. 
 
 " again becomes insane, 52. 
 " gives birth to a daughter, 53. 
 " Death of, 84, 85. 
 " Burial of, 85. 
 
 " " Grave of, 86, 87. 
 
 " Lum, 33, 34. 
 Masonic Lodges, 97, 99, 101, 104, 105, 
 
 106. 
 Massachusetts, Egremont, App. 157. 
 Massacre at Santo Domingo, 56. 
 Matthew Carey, 59. 
 Mauritius, Isle of, 130. 
 Mayor of Perigueux. 147. 
 
 " " Philadelphia, 97, 99, App. 165, 
 
 171. 
 " Vidal vs. The, 146. 
 M'Lean, James Sylvanus, 74. 
 M'Lean, and William L. Graham, Report 
 
 of the Trial of James Sylvanus, 75. 
 McKean, Thomas, 68. 
 McShane's Harp and Crown Tavern, 70. 
 Mediterranean, Sails for the, 51. 
 Meeting of the Northern Liberties and 
 
 District of Southwark, 68. 
 Memoire de Ste. Girard contre le Sieur 
 
 foscph Baldesqui, 45. 
 Memoirs and Autobiography of Some 
 
 Wealthy Citizens, 33, 109. 
 Memory, Anecdote showing Girard's, 136. 
 Merchantmen, Girard builds a fleet of, 54. 
 Merchants' Exchange, 94. 
 Merchant' 's Magazine, Hunt' 's, 150, 153. 
 Meredith Calhoun, 129, 130. 
 Michellet, Barthelmy, 147. 
 Minutes of Yellow-Fever Committee, 61, 
 
 63- 
 Mocha, 131. 
 Mole, St. Nicolas, 37.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 181 
 
 [Mombrun.de], Jean Girard, xiv, 21, 28, 
 2 9> 34. 35. 36, 4°, 4 1 . 45. 46, 47. 48. 5°, 
 51, 101,109, "3. 12 6, 14S, '49, »5*- 
 
 [Mombrun, de], Letters of Jean Girard, 
 xiv, 35, 36, 37. 3 8 , 4i, 46, 47, 49, *S*« 
 
 Monges, Doctor, 89. 
 
 Montesquieu, 124. 
 
 Montesquieu, The, 23, 55, 78, 79, 80, 124. 
 
 Montmollin, 137. 
 
 Morton, 83. 
 
 Mount Airy College, 113. 
 
 Mount Holly, 41, 42, 77, 84. 
 
 Mouroux, Captain, 29. 
 
 Murat, Prince, 127. 
 
 Nancy, The, 55. 
 
 Naples, Anecdote of the Crown jewels of 
 
 Spain and, 128. 
 Naples, Ex-King of Spain and, 102, 126, 
 
 127, 128, 139. 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, 101, 127. 
 National Gazette, The, 76. 
 Navigation Company, The Schuylkill, 88. 
 Navy, Royal, 18, 28. 
 New Jersey, 41, 77. 
 New Orleans, 30, 54, App. 155, 166. 
 New York, 29, 31, App. 166. 
 Nicholas Biddle, App. 163. 
 Nicholes, Charles, 86. 
 Nicolas, Mole St., 37. 
 North America, The, 55. 
 Northern Liberties and District of South- 
 
 wark, Meeting of the, 68. 
 Nurse, Girard volunteers as Yellow- Fever, 
 
 61. 
 
 Oath of allegiance, 42. 
 
 Office of the Board of City Trusts, App. 
 
 166, 171. 
 Official record of birth and baptism, xiii. 
 Opening of the Bank of Stephen Girard, 76. 
 Opening of the Will, 100. 
 Order of Saint Louis, Royal and Military, 
 
 18. 
 Orleans, New, 30, 54, App. 155, 166. 
 Orphan Asylum, 97. 
 
 " children, 64, 154, App. 156, 164, 
 
 165, 166, 167. 
 
 Orphaned women, Young, 113. 
 
 Orphans, Cost of educating, App. 169. 
 
 Orphan ? What is an, App. 165. 
 
 Otis, 109, no. 
 
 Ouachita Township, Louisiana, App. 156. 
 
 Outbreak of yellow-fever (First), 58. 
 
 " " " . " (Second and 
 Third), 67. 
 
 Panic in Philadelphia, Anecdote of the 
 
 War, 80. 
 Parentage, Humble {sic.), xiv. 
 Paris, Registers of the Admiralty at, 19. 
 Parker Farm, The William,^//. 157. 
 Partnership, Agreement with Baldesqui, 
 
 43- 
 Partnership, Agreement with Jean [de 
 
 Mombrun], 48, 49. 
 Partnership with Baldesqui, Dissolution of, 
 
 44, 45. 
 
 Partnership with Jean [de Mombrun], Ex- 
 piration of, 51. 
 
 Partnership with Randall, Quasi, 30, 32. 
 
 Parton, 40, 42, 54, 56, 61,67, 77, "2, 142, 
 144. 
 
 Party, Democratic, 69, 115. 
 
 Passyunk Township farm, 116, 119. 
 
 Paul's Church, Saint, 40. 
 
 Peel Hall Estate, The, App. 157. 
 
 Pelerin, The, 26. 
 
 Pennsylvania Hospital, 52, 84, 85, 86, 97. 
 " Institution for the Deaf and 
 
 Dumb, 97. 
 
 Pennsylvania, Supreme Court of, 94. 
 
 Perigueux, 18, 146, 147. 
 
 Permits to visit College, App. 170, 171. 
 
 Perrot's Collection Historique des Ordres 
 de Chevalerie, 19. 
 
 Personal appearance, no. 
 " character, 108, 111. 
 " reserve, 58. 
 
 Peter Helm, 61, 62, 68. 
 
 Petersburg, St., 56. 
 
 Philadelphia, 31, 32, 33, 40, 41, 42, 44, 48, 
 54, 56, 57, 6 °> 6 4. 67, 69, 76, 79, 86, 94, 
 103, 116, 120, 121, 123. 125, 131, 139, 
 App. 155, 156, 163, 165, 166, 167, 170. 
 
 Philadelphia, Aldermen of, 97, 99.
 
 182 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Philadelphia, Arrival in, 32. 
 
 " Gazette, The, 98, 102. 
 
 " History of, 71, 72, 94, 107, 123. 
 
 " Lessees of Clark vs., 93. 
 
 " Library Company of, 123. 
 
 " Mayor of, 97, 99, App. 165, 
 
 171. 
 " Met;ioirs and Autobiogra- 
 
 phy 0/ Some Wealthy Citi- 
 zens of, 33, 109. 
 " Recorder of, 97, 99. 
 
 " Sunday Dispatch, 52. 
 
 " Soohan vs., 58, 68, App. 165. 
 
 vs. Girard's Heirs, 119. 
 Philadelphians, Lives of Eminent, 40, 
 
 116. 
 Philosophers, Voltairean, 137. 
 Physick, Doctor, 91. 
 Pierre Girard, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26. 
 Pirates, Algerine, 71. 
 Plague of London, The, 60. 
 Plantation of Doidy, 49. 
 Pneumonia, Attacked by, 95, 
 Polly, The, 55. 
 Port au Prince, 30. 
 Port Warden, 69, 97. 
 President Madison, 87. 
 Presidents of the College ; Allen, App. 164, 
 
 165. 
 '• " " Bache, App. 163. 
 
 " " '* Fetterolf, App. 
 
 155, 165. 
 " " " Jones, App. 164. 
 
 Smith, App. 165. 
 Prince Murat, 127. 
 Professor William Wagner, xiii, xiv, xv, 
 
 53. 81, 116, 118, 129, 130, 133, 136. 
 Professor William Wagner, Lectures of, 
 
 referred to, viii, xiii, 43, 52, 53, 55, 57, 
 
 77, 81, 85, 96, 109, no, in, 113, 116, 117, 
 . 118, 119, 121, 122, 125, 126, 127, 130, 133, 
 
 *36, 137. '39. I 5o, App. 157. 
 Protest against British Cruisers, 70. 
 Public Schools, Directors of, 97. 
 Pulaski, Count, 43. 
 Purpose in life, 141, 149. 
 
 Quakers, 85, 87, 101, in, 139. 
 
 Quarterly Review, The American, 142. 
 
 Raison d'etre of this book, vii et seq. 
 Rancocas River, 41. 
 
 " " Anecdote of the, 77. 
 
 Randall, Thomas, 29, 30, 32. 
 
 " Stewarts and Cox, 29. 
 Reading, 80. 
 Read, Judge, 58. 
 
 Rebuff of Simpson by Girard, viii. 
 Recorder of Philadelphia, 97, 99. 
 Record of birth and baptism of Girard, 
 
 Official, xiii. 
 Red Sea, Anecdote of supercargo sent to 
 
 the, 131. 
 Registers of the Admiralty at Paris, 19. 
 Relapses into insanity, Mary Girard, 
 
 52- 
 Relics at Girard College, 123, 126. 
 Religious beliefs, 138. 
 Religious exercises at College, App. 168, 
 
 169. 
 Report of the trial of M'Leanand Graham, 
 
 75- 
 Reserve, Personal, 58. 
 Resolutions in Select and Common Coun- 
 cils, 103, 
 Resolutions of regret, 96. 
 " of thanks, 68. 
 Returns from Mount Holly, 42. 
 Review, The American Quarterly, 142. 
 Rev. Doctor Samuel Magaw, 40. 
 Rev. Mr. Stringer, 40. 
 Richard Somers Smith, App. 165. 
 Ridgway, Anecdote of Jacob, 137. 
 River Delaware, 75, 77, App. 155, 163. 
 Roberjot, J. H , 57, 119, 124, 129. 
 Roberts, Joseph, ix. 
 Rousseau, 124. 
 Rousseau, The, 55. 
 Route of funeral procession, 98. 
 Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis, 
 
 18. 
 Royal Navy, 18, 28. 
 Rue Ramonet aux Chartrous, 17, 29. 
 Run over by wagon, 91. 
 Rush, Madame, 137. 
 I Russia, 72.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 IS 
 
 Sails for the Mediterranean, 51. 
 Saint Augustine's Church, 128, 138. 
 
 " Louis, Royal and Military Order of, 
 
 18. 
 " Nicolas, Mole, 37. 
 " Paul's Church, 40. 
 " Petersburg, 56. 
 Saturday Bulletin, The, 102. 
 Sally, The, 55. 
 Samatan, 63. 
 Samuel Arthur, 111. 
 " Coates, 86. 
 " Wagner, 130. 
 Santo Domingo, 27, 29, 40, 43, 44, 48, 56, 
 126, 149. 
 " " Massacre at, 56. 
 
 Scharf and Westcott's History of Phila- 
 delphia, 71, 72, 94, 107, 123. 
 Schools, Directors of Public, 97. 
 Schuylkill Navigation Company, 88. 
 Science, The Wagner Free Institute of, 
 
 xiv, xv, 130. 
 Second Bank of the United States char- 
 tered, 87. 
 Second Bank of the United States opened, 
 
 88. 
 Second funeral ofGirard, 105. 
 Select Councils, 69, 96, 97, 99, 102, 103, 
 
 App. 163. 
 Shultz, Governor, 90. 
 Sight, Loss of, 20. 
 Simpson, George, ix. 
 " Henry, 116. 
 " by Girard, Rebuff of, viii. 
 " Anecdote of, 134. 
 " Stephen, vii, viii, ix, x, xii, 134, 
 
 135, 136. 
 " Biography of Stephen Girard, 
 by ; discussed, vii et seq. ; re- 
 ferred to, 32,41, 51, 76, 77, 8d, 
 83,85,86, 88, 89,90,91, 95,96, 
 101, 112, 116, 117, 118, 119, 122, 
 I2 7, '36, 137. 
 Sir John Beresford, 79. 
 Smith, Richard Somers, App. 165. 
 Societe de Bienfaisance Francaise, 97. 
 Society for Relief of Masters of Ships, 97. 
 " Fuel Savings, 97. 
 
 Society of Friends, 85, 87, 101, m, 139. 
 Soohan vs. Philadelphia, 58, 68, App. 
 
 165. 
 Southwark, Meeting of the Northern Lib- 
 erties and District of, 68. 
 Spain and Naples, Anecdote of the Crown 
 jewels of, 128. 
 * ; " The Ex-King of, 102, 
 
 126, 127, 128,139. 
 Statement to Congress, Explanatory, 72. 
 State, Threatened bankruptcy of the, 90. 
 Statue at Girard College, 108. 
 Stephen Girard, Official record of birth and 
 baptism of, xiii. 
 " Troubles with step-mo- 
 ther, 24, 25. 
 " leaves home, 27. 
 " " Marriage of, 34. 
 
 " " Domestic life of, xii. 
 
 " Purpose in life of, 141, 149. 
 " Ambition of, 149, 150, 151, 
 
 152, 153. 
 " " Religious beliefs of, 138. 
 
 " " Rebuff of Simpson by, 
 
 viii. 
 " volunteers as yellow-fever 
 
 nurse, 61. 
 " " sails for the Mediterra- 
 
 nean, 51. 
 " Anecdote showing memory 
 
 of, 136. 
 " " Conspiracy to kidnap, 74. 
 
 " " Contre le Sieur foseph 
 
 Baldesqui, Memoire 
 
 de, 45. 
 " "is attacked by epidemic 
 
 influenza, 94. 
 " is attacked by erysipelas, 
 
 89. 
 " " is attacked by pneumonia, 
 
 95- 
 " run over by wagon, 91. 
 " Death of, 96. 
 " Funeral of (First), 96. 
 " " *' (Second), 105. 
 
 " " Will of, 18, 29, 92, 100, 138, 
 
 140, 141, 145, 146, App. 
 157, 166, 167.
 
 1 84 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Stephen Girard, Contest over removing 
 body of, 104. 
 " " Ex parte, 105. 
 
 " Biography of, discussed, 
 vii > J 34, 135, 136; re- 
 ferred to [see Stephen 
 Simpson]. 
 " " Biography by Arey [see 
 
 Henry W. Arey]. 
 " " vs. Ware et at., 79, 80. 
 
 " Cases, List of the various, 
 
 94- 
 " *' The Bank of, vii, 76, 77, 
 
 80. o- 1 . ^ "6. "9, 135. 
 Stepmothei, Difficulties with, 24, 25, 145. 
 Stewarts and Cox, Randall, 29. 
 Stiles, Edward, 44. 
 St. Marc's, 29. 
 Stockton, Louise, 32, 53, 60, 100, 108, in, 
 
 113, 132, 133. 
 Stringer, Rev. Mr., 40. 
 Sunday Dispatch, The Philadelphia, 52. 
 Superb, The, 55. 
 Supercargo sent to the Red Sea, Anecdote 
 
 of the, 131. 
 Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 94. 
 
 " " United States, Testi- 
 
 mony in, xiii, 146 
 et seq. App. 1 56. 
 Survilliers, Comte de, 102, 126, 127, 128, 
 
 '39- 
 
 System of apprenticing from College, App. 
 170. 
 
 Tammany Wigwam celebrations, 71. 
 Tavern, McShane's Harp and Crown, 70. 
 Taylor, 130. 
 
 Temple on the Illusus, App. 160. 
 Testimonial at Girard College, 68. 
 Testimony in Courts, xiii, 146 et seq., App. 
 
 156. 
 Thanks, Resolution of, 68. 
 Thieves, Anecdote of capturing, 122. 
 Threatened bankruptcy of the State, 90. 
 Thomas Dunlap, 122. 
 
 " Jefferson, 115. 
 
 " McKean,68. 
 
 " Randall, 29, 30, 32. 
 
 Thomas U. Walters, App. 157. 
 Township farm, The I'assyunk, 116, 119. 
 
 " Ouachita, App. 156. 
 
 Trial of McLean and Graham, Report of 
 
 the, 75. 
 Trinity Church, Holy, 96, 101, 104. 
 Troubles with stepmother, 24, 25. 
 Trusts, Office of the Board of City, App. 
 
 166, 171. 
 Two Brothers, The, 45. 
 
 it a 
 
 it u 
 
 United States Circuit Court, xiii, 93. 
 
 " " Testimony in, 
 
 147 et seq. 
 
 " First Bank of the, 74, 75, 76, 
 
 93- 
 Gazette, The, 66, 99, no. 
 Second Bank of the, 87. 
 " " Supreme Court of the, 146. 
 
 Valparaiso, 79. 
 
 Vanuxem, Louis, 130. 
 
 Various Girard Cases, List of the, 94. 
 
 Victoire Fenelon, 18. 
 
 Vidal, M. D., Jean Baptiste, 147. 
 ~ " vs. The Mayor, 146. 
 
 Visitation of Yellow Fever (First), 58. 
 
 " " " (Second and 
 
 Third), 67. 
 
 Visitors to College, App. 170, 171. 
 " " " Foreign, App. 171. 
 
 Voltaire, 124. 
 
 Voltairean philosophers, I37f 
 
 Voltaire, The, 55, 130. 
 
 Volunteers as yellow-fever nurse, Gi- 
 rard, 61. 
 
 Wagner Free Institute of Science, The, 
 xiv, xv, 130. 
 
 Wagner, Professor William, xiii, xiv, xv, 
 53, 81, 116, 118, 129, 130, 133, 136. 
 
 Wagner, Professor William, Lectures of, 
 referred to, viii, xiii, 43, 52, 53. 55, si t 
 77, 81, 85, 96, 109, no, in, 113, 116, 117, 
 118, 119, 121, 122, 125, 126, 127, 130.133, 
 136, i37» "39i 'So, App. 157. 
 
 Wagner, Samuel, 130. 
 
 Wagon, Run over by, 91.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 185 
 
 Walters, Thomas U., App. 157. 
 
 Wardens, Port, 69, 97. 
 
 Warder, John, 130. 
 
 Ware et al., Girard vs., 79, 80. 
 
 War panic in Philadelphia, Anecdote of 
 
 the, 80. 
 Warner, Doctor, 53. 
 Water Street, 32, 40, 43, 44, 52, 58, 121, 
 
 123. 
 Water Street house, 40, 43, 44, 52, 58, 96, 
 
 121, I23. 
 
 Water Witch, The, 42, 43, 55. 
 
 Water Works, City, 71. 
 
 Wealthy Citizens, Memoirs and Autobi- 
 ography 0/ Some, 33, 109. 
 
 Westcott's History 0/ Philadelphia, 
 Scharf and, 71, 72, 94, 107, 123. 
 
 West Indies, 30, 43. 
 
 What is an Orphan ? App. 165. 
 
 Wigwam Celebration, Tammany, 71. 
 
 William G. Malin, 52, 53, 86, 87. 
 " H. Allen, App. 164, 165. 
 
 William J. Duane, 102. 
 
 " L. Graham, 74. 
 
 " Parker farm, App. 157. 
 Will of Girard, 18, 29, 92, 100, 138, 140, 
 
 Mi. J 45. 146, App. 157, 166, 167. 
 Will of Girard, Opening of the, 100. 
 Wolfert, Mr., 92. 
 Women, Young orphaned, 113. 
 
 Yellow Fever in July, A Short History 0/ 
 
 the, 67. 
 Yellow fever, Interments from, 64. 
 Yellow fever, First outbreak of, 58. 
 
 " " Second and third outbreaks 
 
 of, 67. 
 Yellow-fever nurse, Girard volunteers as, 
 
 67. 
 Yellow-fever times, Anecdote of, 65. 
 Yellow-Fever Committee, Minutes 0/ the, 
 
 61, 63. 
 York, New, 29, 31, App. 166. 
 Young orphaned women, 113.
 
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