2^fl 1 i A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK A CENTURY OF BANKING 8:^2- 1Q:^2 By HENRY WYSHAM LANIER NEW ^SW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 1922 ^7 LZ Copyright, 1922, bjr Henry W. Lanier New York Q-^^ Dedicated to The FerocioLU City which devours and forgetd itj own hidtoty 518603 PREFATORY NOTE rHiS volume had Its origin in a plan to commemorate the centenary of a Trust Company — the first corporation ever authorized to accept trusts. A study of financial history showed a wealth of material, and an absence of any general work covering the development of banks and banking during this century of transformation; so the scope was enlarged to a comprehensive survey of the business and finan- cial conditions of a hundred years ago, with special emphasis on the personal side, and a narrative of the growth of New York to its present financial position. In the general picture, the intimate history of the particular trust company offers significant details of a "sample brick" in the whole edifice that has been built up. H. \V. L. =**^ PART I Chapter page I The Year the Banks Migrated 3 II The Old Order Begins to Change 25 III Individual Notes as Currency 41 IV The Banker oj 1820 54 V Who Was Who in Finance 75 VI Expansion and Panic 185 VII The Coming oj the Clearing House 207 VIII CUnl War and the National Banking System ... 219 IX A Jlar^'ellous Quarter-Century 240 X The Era oj the Trust Companies 251 XI The Federal Resen'e and the New Era 258 XII Then and Now 271 PART II XIII An Intimate Record 275 XIV History oj a Downtown Plot 319 ^:^'p-- PAGE A New York Bank on Hammond/ Streel Frontispiece Broadivai/ and City Hall in 1819 3 " Remo^'al Notices" from the Ei'ening Posi 6 Where the Bowery Joined Broadway 7 Attack upon the Quarantine Station 7 Dutch Cottage in Beaver Street, 1679 22 JFhen Men Sawed IFood on IFall Street 23 Old Dutch Deed to New York Property 38 Federal Hall 39 Bowling Green {JFest Side), 1826 54 Specimens oj Notes 55 Early Banks in Wall Street, 1797 70 The Government House 71 Tontine Coffee House, JVall Street ' 86 Union Square in 1820 87 New York Notables at the Play, 1822 102 Wall Street in 1789 103 IFall Street in 1825 118 Bowling Green {East Side), 1830 119 The First Jflerchants' Exchange 134 The JJIerchants' Room 134 IX X A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK PAGE Ruins oj the Merchants' Exchange 135 "Wealthy Citizens oj New York Cily" 150 First Adi'ertisement oJ the Farmers' Loan Co 187 The Great Fire oJ 1835 198 The New Merchants' Exchange 199 JFall Street in the Forties 214 JVall Street in the Fifties 215 The " Counterfeit Detector" 225 First Published Price-list oJ Stocks 230 Graph of Commodity Prices 245 Curbstone Brokers in 1864 246 Broad Street during the Panic of 1873 247 Modern Wall Street 294 Exchange Place in 1830 295 Broad Street in 1853 295 A Deed of 1719 310 IV here William Street Jleets Beaver 311 Plan of Wall Street in 1822 and 1922 337 PART I Chapter I THE YEAR THE BANKS MIGRATED The Great Plague of 1822 — The "Boom Town" of Greenwich — A Stranger's Impressions— Jf^hen Pigs Roamed JfaU Street — Pumps on Broadway — Condi- tions that Faced the 1822 Banker^ How Downtown Looked — The Banks a Century Ago — The Banks' Pul)lic in Old New York ^NE day in the early summerof 1822 a smart packet-boat was standing up New York harbor. The sight of the clustering houses, filling the whole width of the lower island and stretching away northward, was welcome enough to the weary passengers, who had been cooped up on board for weeks. Among these was an English gentleman, William Newnham Blanc, who was of that breed of Islanders who love to travel far and near — "For to admire and for to see. For to be' old this world so wide." He was using his keen eyes and mind now to their fullest capac- ity as his vessel approached the lusty young giant-city of the West. "The entrance to the bay of New York," he presently noted in his journal, "is one of the most beautiful sights in the world. On each side of the Narrows, where the steep and almost perpendicu- lar cliffs of Staten Island are only two miles distant from the shore of Long Island, the forts and fortifications that defend this cele- brated harbor" (it was but seven years after the War of 18121) "seem to frown upon the vessels that enter. We passed close to the formidable batteries of Fort La Fayette, which advances into the water with four tiers of guns, one of which tiers is occupied by a large kind of carronade, called Columbians" (he meant Colum- biads), "each throwing a hundred-pound shot. "After passing the Narrows, we entered the Bay which, ex- panding immediately, is about nine miles in width in the broadest part. On each side the shore, though wooded down to the 4" ' A 'C'E'N T UK Y O F B A N K I N G IN NEW YORK water's edge, is thickly studded with farms, villages and country- seats. At the upper end are seen the spires of the city; and in the distance the bold, precipitous banks of the Hudson. The day was beautiful, the sky without a cloud, and the vast sheet of water was covered with inward and outward bound vessels, the white sails of which were illuminated by the sunbeams. "We anchored just below the Battery, at the point of the island on which New York is built, and getting into a boat rowed to Greenwich, which, though once a separate town, now forms part of the city.* Looking up the streets that run down to the water, I perceived they were all barricaded at the upper ends, and strewed with lime. The houses, of course, were all shut up and deserted; and out of a population of 120,000t inhabitants not more than 7,000 or 8,000 remained in the city; and those only in the higher and more healthy parts." (In point of fact, there was nobody left but some negroes, nurses, doctors and under- takers, and the poor folk who could not manage to get away, from illness or lack of funds.) "I do not know a more sombre spectacle than a large deserted city. We are so accustomed to associate the idea of a town with that of an active and noisy multitude, that to see a number of houses quite deserted and hushed in perfect silence impresses the mind with the deepest melancholy. "Nothing endued with life was to be seen in any of the streets or neighboring quays, except here and there a cat; for these animals, in the hurry and confusion of moving from the town, had been left behind in considerable numbers, and formed at that time the only inhabitants of a great part of the city." And what was it that had caused over 125,000 out of the 135,000 citizens of the greatest American city to forsake their homes and business and flee, leaving New York to homeless cats? In iMay of that year, in spite of the rigid quarantine established at Staten Island the preceding summer, the community had been thrown into consternation by the news of an outbreak of yellow fever in Rector Street. This section of the city had been con- sidered immune: every previous epidemic had started in the lower quarter east of Broadway, and very few cases had been chronicled from the Rector Street neighborhood, even when the scourge was at its height. This happening produced a general panic. Manhattan knew only too well what yellow fever was: it had ravaged the city a * It was really quite outside of the cit\ — which was the reason wh^- the fugitives went there. t There were actually from 130,000 to 135,000 in that year. THEGREATPLAGUEOF1822 5 score of times. Every grown resident still recalled the frightful visitation of 1798, when 2,086 persons (a tenth of the population) had been slain by this invisible enemy,* who heeded the colum- biads of Fort La Fayette as little as the Columbiad of Joel Barlow or the vociferous admissions of newspapers, orators and "Stran- gers' Guides" that we had the healthiest, most progressive, most marvellous city of the civilized world. Now, it happened that there was at the city's very door a safe refuge. From the time of the "epidemical distemper or plague" reported by Mayor John Cruger in 1742, New Yorkers had discovered they could escape the infection by fleeing to the village of Greenwich, only two or three miles away. This haven was considered almost proof even against smallpox, for Lieutenant- Governor Clarke writes to the Duke of Newcastle, in 1739, beg- ging leave "to inform your Grace that the Smallpox being in town, and one-third part of the Assembly not having had it, I gave them leave to sit at Greenwich."! Certainly, odd as it seems, there is no record that yellow fever ever "crossed the swamp and the meadows between the town and the village." (Though it's hard to guess why not, since the slego- niyla mosquito, whom we now know to be the assassin that spreads yellow fever, could hardly fail to have been blown that far when the winds were right.) Anyhow, Greenwich became as important to New York as a "Sanctuary" to a medieval law-breaker; the farmers brought their produce thither instead of to the town during the scares, and many people remained as permanent residents after the danger had passed, since it was often impossible for long after- wards to get fresh food in the city markets. To this City of Refuge, then, did terrified New Yorkers begin to repair early in June, 1822, when the reports of the fever's rapid spread revived memories of the terrible scenes of twenty years before — all except those fortunate magnates who had estates and manors in the adjacent real country. James Hardie, another English visitor in that year, saw some unforgettable sights when this hegira was at its height: "On the same day, the 24th August, our city presented the appearance of a town besieged. From daybreak till night, one line of carts, containing boxes, merchandise and effects, were seen moving towards Greenwich Village and the upper part of * "Felix Oldbo^-" relates that one of the earHest victims happened to be a bookkeeper in the Bank of New York. t And William Hamilton, shipmaster, left his home at 14 Broadway, in 1812, and moved thither to escape the British shells which people feared would presently destroy the lower part of the town. 6 ACE NTURYOFBANKINGINNEW YORK the city. Carriages and hacks, wagons and horsemen were scouring the streets and filling the roads; persons with anxiety strongly marked on their countenances and with hurried gait were bustling through the streets. Temporary stores and offices were erecting, and even on the ensuing day (Sunday) carts were in motion and the saw and hammer busily at work. Within a few days thereafter, the Custom House, the Post Office" (even the Port Warden), "the Banks, the Insurance Offices and the printers of Newspapers located themselves in the village or in the upper part of Broadway, where they were free from the imjjend- ing danger, and these places almost instantaneously became the seat of the immense business usually carried on in the great metropolis." The poison of its great neighbor was necessarily meat to Green- wich Village. "The fever of 1822 built up many streets with numerous wooden buildings for the use of the merchants, banks (from which Bank Street took its name), offices, etc., and the celerity of putting up these buildings is better told by the Rev. Mr. Marcellus, who informed me that he saw corn growing on the present corner of Hammond and Fourth Streets on a Saturday morning and on the following JLonday 'Sykes and Niblo' had a house erected capable of holding three hundred boarders. Even the Brooklyn ferryboats ran up there daily."* From a "quiet, dreamy village where the magnates of the city loved to come for rural retirement and repose," old Greenwich was thus overnight transformed into something resembling a Western "boom town" on just-opened Government land. Banks, insurance companies, lotteries, merchants, auction-rooms, stores, warehouses, grog-shops, barber-shops — all the busy activities of the proud metropolis — were housed in anj^thing that could be picked up, some hundreds of businesses occupying a mushroom growth of small wooden booths "exactly resembling those at an English fair." The markets were moved to Chatham Square and Hudson Street, near St. John's Park — but even here they were little patronized, the country folk naturally preferring the air of Greenwich Village, where all their customers were. Some bankers and others had been more foresighted. As noted, one of the first deaths in the scourge of 1798 was a book- keeper in the Bank of New York. "Fearing another visitation of the pestilence, the bank made arrangements with the branch Bank of the United States to purchase two plots of eight city lots each, in Greenwich Village, far away from the city proper, to which they could remove in case of being placed in danger of * Devoe: "Market Book." • II lo 4BurjMj6rtnr,>»li 11* H-uiimon.1.1 e I Ore vt rh 1 V C o. *0 Br, 1 1 . "Mlree.B 1 1 ohn iCI Hwr y ittl A ''JOIr.aUav J«fVl. n<«r41 «». e c BojJDr ! Bc"-v. J T be Bo- 1 Be ^' Ch tr- 1 cup. C« 1 Ci 11 ,,, tu ' II c V c ^ ^o 1 __ 1 1 k H Kobn«n 1 t u e t'lT WHEN THE BANKS FLED FROM WALL STREET A corner ol' an entire page of "Removal Notices" of downtown Imsincss concerns during the 1822 epidemic. From the New York l^'cniuq Po.d of August 28, 1822 Ditiau h\ ( Billion Engraved by II. hossctte, 1S31 WHERE THE BOWERY JOINED BROADWAY The lone building, which stood near what is now Broadway and 17th Street, was occupied temporarilv bv the Manhattan Bank during the fever epidemic of 1822 ■ .'** From a iioodcul in Uarper s II eekl\ THE ATTACK UPON THE QUARANTINE STATION on Staten Island, September 1, 1858, to which institution the citizens atti buted the numerous yellow fever epidemics in New York THE GREAT PLAGUE OF 1822 7 quarantine. Here two houses were erected in the spring of 1799, and here the banks were removed in September of that year, giving their name. Bank Street, to the Kttle village lane that had been nameless before. The last removal was made in 1822, when the yellow fever raged with unusual virulence, and the plot which had been purchased for $500 was sold in 1843 for $30,000." So much was it worth while to be a health resort before Walter Reed and his devoted band of doctor experimenters taught the world the true cause of yellow fever and how to stamp it out! As for poor deserted New York, an eyewitness records the fact of having seen green beans picked by the watchmen from vines growing in Liberty Street, and muskmelons two or three inches in diameter, which grew on the pavement of Greenwich Street — from seeds dropped there by chance and flourishing unharmed in this depopulated region. Says that delightful gossip and man-about- town, Felix Oldboy : "It would be scarcely possible to exaggerate the terror which pervaded the city during the prevalence of the yellow fever. Colonel Tappan, whose home was then in Orchard Street, tells me that an iron chain was stretched across the streets at the Brick Church, which marked the boundaries of the quarantine, and he has a vivid recollection of the sudden and appalling in- roads of the pestilence upon the ranks of his stalwart young contemporaries. An old New Yorker, who was born in Green- wich Village in the first year of the century, and who, as I write, in the same spot is passing peacefully down to the grave, remem- bers that during one fever summer a hotel of rough boards, capable of holding 500 guests, had gone up between Saturday and Monday in a field where the ripe wheat was waving on Saturday."* In this jostling hurly-burly, where Finance found itself with a horde of singular bedfellows, the business activities of the Ameri- can capital accommodated themselves to the emergency with that adaptability and adequacy to the unexpected, which is our most striking characteristic, for a period of several months. Meanwhile the city proper was entirely deserted: the rattle of hearses through the empty streets, and the quick passage of some nurse or doctor, or those charged with burial of the dead, was the only sign of Hfe. The newspapers of August and Sep- * The magnifying effect of a half-century's retrospect is clearly similar to that of whatever emotion It was which multiplied beloved Falstaff's "men in buckram." I more than suspect this ripe field of wheat of being that same field of corn, this 500-room hotel of being Sykes & Niblo's rough shelter "capa- ble of holding three hundred boarders" just described from Devoe's accurate record. And at that: "What do you mean — 'holding'? " 8 ACENTURYOFBANKINGINNEWYORK tember show what a "stirring of dry bones" there was, and where some of the businesses went which did not migrate so far as Greenwich, but simply clear of the quarantined district below the Park, — from which those citizens who were unwilling to quit their homes had been forcibly removed by the Board of Health: The Phenix Bank is removed to the west wing of the Car Factory, at Greenwich, corner of Asylum and Ames street, and will be open for business during the usual hours. J. Delafield, Cashier. The Union Bank is removed to the three-story Marble House, 621 Broadway, opposite Bond Street. Daniel Ebbets, Jr., Cashier. The American Insurance Company have removed to No. 554 Broadway, the second house above Prince Street, in the rear of the Roman Catholic Cathedral, and have like- wise an office in the house of W. L. Underwood, Esq., Ham- mond Street, Greenwich. The North River Insurance Company have removed their office to 299>^ between Reade and Duane Streets. N.B. — For the convenience of persons residing at Green- wich and its vicinity, a box for the reception of appli- cations for insurance has been placed at the office of Charles Graham, Esq., in Perry, between Herring and Asylum Streets. The New York Insurance Company have removed their office to No. 594 Broadway. They will also attend at the Country House of J. W. Schmidt & Co. corner of Hammond and Hudson Streets, Greenwich, to receive orders and effect insurance. Fulton Fire Insurance Company, comer of Hammond and Greenwich, and also No. 508 Broadway, corner of Spring Street. Farmers' Fire Insurance and Loan Company. The office of this company is removed to 618 Broadway, two doors above the Branch Bank. Applications through the post office, or otherwise, for Insurance or for Trusts will receive prompt attention. The Farmers' (later the Farmers' Loan and Trust) was a new concern, chartered in the preceding February; naturally enough, under the circumstances, its business activities were slight till November; fire hazards seemed a slight thing to New Yorkers during those months. Half a dozen other fire insurance concerns — the Hope, Fulton, Mutual, Pacific, New York and Merchants — announced tem- porary removals to the same district. (There was also a Mer- chants Life Insurance and Coal Company established this year. T H E " B O O M T O W N " O F G R E E N W I C H 9 the first life insurance concern in the city.) There are similar establishments of barbers, tailors, stock and exchange brokers; counting rooms: Prime, Ward & Sands; Samuel Marsh, dealer in "British drygoods;" the Ei'ening Post itself; and "The Re- treat," formerly William Nelson's — "at the corner of Art Street and Broadway, having been located for the Exchange, the subscriber informs the merchants and others that he will do all in his power to make it accommodating to the public;" Richard Colrow, "Merchant Tailors, at 10 Wall Street have removed to the corner of Hammond and Herring Streets, Greenwich. Thev have also a house in More, Wood's-lane, opposite the Manhattan Bank, fork of the road, Broadway and Bowery, where all letters or directions left, shall be immediately attended to." We get a somewhat exaggerated reflection of New York's state of mind during this panicky year in the effect of the city upon a famous English actor, who happened to come here for the first time in September of 1822. Dr. John W. Francis tells in his delightful memoirs how he received one day an urgent call from Simpson, manager of the Park Theatre, begging him to hurry off to the ship lying out in the harbor where Charles Mathews, the great English comedian, was self-quarantined because he could not bring himself to face the risks of landing. He found Mathews in a state of extreme mental perturbation over the news that a hundred and forty people had died of the pestilence that day in New York. Though the vessel lay at least three miles from the Battery, the visitor insisted he could breathe the plague in the very atmosphere: "Every cloud came to him surcharged with mortality; every wave imparted from the deep exhalations of destruction." The demoralized comedian paced the deck, tottering and exhibiting a case of "blue funk" which, though natural enough, would have enhanced his reputation as a producer of mirth if exhibited on the stage. Being finally persuaded to go ashore at some remote and isolated spot, he was conducted to Hoboken and lodged in a gardener's cottage two miles on the road to Hackensack — where he passed the night striding up and down the little room and meditating upon the imminence of his prob- able decease.* In point of fact the gentleman was lucky if he had only known it; the authorities in New York had recently quarantined all vessels from Baltimore until the 1st of November, so that if he * That he survived the perils may be seen in the interesting view ot the interior of the Park Theatre reproduced elsewhere — where he is shown appear- ing, on November 7, 1822, in one of his famous parts, " Alonsieur Tonson," before an audience of well-known. New Yorkers. 10 ACENTURYOFBANKINGINNEWYORK had happened to come from that port, he could not have landed at all. The whole thing strikes a reader of to-day (protected by knowledge of what yellow fever is and by energetic Health Board activities), as prehistoric. That it really occurred in 1822 is a striking indication of the rapidity of our development during this incredible century. Our alert English friend, Mr. Blanc, had some experiences which throw light upon the surprising "holding" capacity of that Saturday- to-Monday, Aladdin's-lamp Greenwich lodging- house: "Mv first care on arriving at this town was to look out for some place where I could sleep — an almost hopeless task. At last, however, I found a lodging-house, in which I could be admitted. After settling the terms with my landlady, she said to me, T suppose. Sir, you have no objection to having another gentleman in the same room with you?' I replied that I had a very great objection: but that, in the present state of things, I supposed I must endure it. I then asked her to let me have the bed that was there, and to move in another for my companion; but, answered she, 'Ohl You are both to occupy the same bed!' I could at first hardly believe my ears; but upon repeating the question, whether she really meant we were both to sleep in one bed, and being answered in the affirmative, I made a precipitate retreat downstairs. I did not then know that, in many parts of the United States, this practice of sleeping double is very common. "This chance of having to sleep with some person, who, besides other amiable pecuharities, might perhaps be infected with the yellow fever, hindered me from looking any more for lodgings; and I was glad to accept tke invitation of the captain of the vessel I came over in, who politely offered to let me sleep on board his ship until I left New York." After "losing all patience" at the delay in getting his baggage through the Custom House, our traveller departed, journeying about through the South and West, and reached New York again during the following summer: "Very different indeed was the appearance of this great com- mercial city from that which it presented when I arrived there from Europe. Instead of a spectacle of desolation, all the houses were re-occupied, and the streets swarmed with an active and numerous population. "What moreover occasioned the city's being unusually full was the arrival of about 20,000 people, chiefly Virginians and South- erners, who had come to see a great horse-race which was to be decided in the neighborhood of the town. . . . A STRANGER'S IMPRESSIONS U "The city of New York is the great commercial capital of the United States. It is situated at the head of one of the most noble bays, and probably of the very finest harbour in the world; and vessels of the largest size can run alongside and discharge the cargoes on the spacious quays surrounding two sides of the city. From hence that magnificent river the Hudson is navigable for large sloops and other vessels, as high up as Albany, a distance of 150 miles. . . . "New York contains some fine buildings. Among these the City Hall is conspicuous, and is really a noble edifice. There is a very good Museum filled with objects extremely valuable to the zoologist, which are in fine preservation, and are kept very neat and clean. "The chief promenade in New York is a very spacious and long street called Broadway that runs through the middle of the town. One end of this terminates at the point of the island on which the city is built near a spot called 'The Battery,' from an old fort built there, and which is at present entirely useless. From hence to Fort Clinton, another useless old castle built in defiance of all the rules of fortification, is a very pretty little public walk, through an acre or two of ground containing some large trees. It is very agreeable during the hot months, because, from its running along the water's edge, it receives the sea-breeze of the evening. "But what must particularly be remarked with regard to New York is, that it contains one of the largest naval depots in the United States. ..." As indicated by this later picture. Yellow Jack's banner no longer flew over Manhattan. The November frosts had checked the microscopic bacterial growth of the insidious disease, as it checked the melons and pumpkins in the Greenwich gardens. The papers now bristle with announcements of "Returns:" The Bank for Savings (one of the earliest American savings banks,* established in 1819 and taking deposits as low as one dollar) returns to its Chambers Street house; George C. Morgan's Lottery and Exchange office opens at its "former residence;" Schieffelin's drug store is once more at 193 Pearl, and L. Tiffany * The first was at Philadelphia, and another was started almost simul- taneously in Boston. Thomas Eddy, a merchant philanthropist of New York, finally succeeded, after great difficulty, in getting a group of his associates (including such men as John Pintard, Peter A. Jay, Cadwallader D. Golden, Josiah H. Goggeshall, and Richard Varick) in 1816 to agree to start the New York Bank for Savings. It began operations in 1819, secured a charter in 1821 and, as the Bank for Savings, is successfully operating to-day. The present managers still treasure the little calfskin trunk in which the treasurer used to lock up the money each night and take it home for safe-keeping. 12 A C E N T U R Y O F BANKING IN NEW YORK and Co. at 147; the Coroner's office is again at 64 Vesey, and John Vanderbilt, Jr., offers himself once more as a candidate for this office, on his record; Rev. Samuel Nott's "Select School" receiv^es young ladies at 74 Chambers, and Mrs. Disbaye on Hud- son Street, and Burland Forrest on Warren also reopen the doors of learning; the Port Warden and the Customs House, the banks (declaring dividends), insurance companies, professional men, merchants, restaurants — not to mention the unchecked swarm of lotteries— all are back for business at the old stands. And one William Hammond injects color into these bald announcements by stating that his "noted establishment at 574 Pearl Street" is again running: With extreme pleasure he announces to the Ladies of this fashionable city, that during his absence, he has made every exertion in preparing a handsome assorting of Ornamental Hair Work, requisite for the Toilet. A variety of large Curls for the neck, double-sized bunches for the face, Frizettes, English fronts, fashionable Wigs, Toupies, Hair Bands (as a substitute for long hair). Hair cut, as usual, in a superior style. Razors set to suit the feelings of the face, and at the shortest notice. And besides all these beautifying activities the gentleman con- ducted the "World's End Intelligence Office." Let us look a little more closely at this city of our great- grandfathers, which could be completely thrown out of gear by yellow fever or smallpox. In 18 19 a distinguished Swedish traveller, Baron AxellKlinckow- strom, came to the United States, and made an extensive tour of the country. His account of New York City (which had ;ust outstripped Philadelphia in size and importance, and was brag- ging of having become the Metropolis of the West) was, in the main, most complimentary. (Indeed, it is quite surprising to see how flattering most cultured European visitors were in print at this period; such satirical lashings as those of Dickens and Mrs. Trollope are quite exceptional. Why was it? For we really were a bit raw in those days, you know. And they didn't owe us billions of dollars then. And it would be hard to find anything more arrogantly superior, or scurrilously denunciatory, than the British Reviews of the same time when they conde- scended to recognize the existence of a United States.) But the Baron notes what never fails to impress any foreign guest — except those from Ireland, where they evidently like to have their bacon-on-the-hoof handy, and the pig is literally liomesticated, a "P.G." sharing; bed and board: ASTRANGER'SIMPRESSIONS 13 "Another circumstance," he observes in his Letters, "no less dangerous to health is the fact that pigs are allowed to run loose in the streets. These pigs have on several occasions been the cause of remarkable scenes, jumping about here and there and bowling over richly dressed ladies." This feature of the proud American metropolis stuck in the Scandinavian artist-nobleman's mind. For when he returned and issued five years later his " Atlas til Frlherre KUnckowstroms Bref oni de Forenle Staterne" he commented on it in one of the most beautiful pictures we have of New York at this period. His charming aquatint, of "Broadway-street and the City Hall," shows shawled and furbelowed ladies bearing parasols, and dan- dies with top hats, long cutaway tailed coats and small-clothes or top boots, — strolling along Broadway by the fluted columns and urn-capped gate-posts of old St. Paul's church, or stopping to gossip. A pompous side-whiskered banker drives his Madam (in sunbonnet with gay bows as large as her pretty little curved and fringed French carriage-sunshade) down the street behind a spanking gray cob in a two-wheeled tilbury. A pair of grand ladies are taking the air along Chatham Street (now Park Row) in front of the City Hall's imposing elegance,* in a barouche set on arched springs, with caped coachman and footman perched in lofty grandeur on a seat two feet above the occupant's heads — while a panting spaniel gambols in front of the pair of horses he knows so well, striving to win from them the recognition so readily bestowed in the home stable. A closed hackney coach with the "fare's" valet standing on the trunk-rack behind rattles uptown. t A coatless liveried porter — looking as if he had stepped out of the pages of "Pickwick Papers" — wheels some small luggage over the cobbles on a barrow with curved handles but without any rear standards to rest it on. The background is the aristocratic residence section of the city; number 219, at the northwest corner of Vesey Street (later part of the Astor House), is the residence of Walter Rutherford, Esq., a former British officer who found American feminine charms as irresistible as * An iron railing had, in 1821, replaced the former wooden picket fence around City Hall Park. flames Gallatin in his Diary, "A Great Peace Maker," says: "luLY 4, 1823, New York. A horrible clay here; the noise of the luly 4 celebration intolerable . . . the difference in everything" (from Paris); "only about three private coaches in New York — no means of getting about. The streets absolutely filthy and the heat horrible. I have been nearly every night for a long walk. No roads — no paths. I never realized the absolutely unfinished state of American cities till I returned. The horrible chewing of tobacco — the spitting; all too awful. We have had a charming and hospitable reception, but all is so crude." 14 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Burgoyne found the Green Mountain Boys charging behind frenzied Benedict Arnold, or Ebenezer Stevens's and Alexander Hamilton's vomiting artillery at Saratoga; on up, facing the ten- acre Park and ending in an avenue of beautiful trees, are the homes (recently constructed in the formerly vacant "Fields") of Rufus King, Richard Harrison and Abijah Hammond, the former house of Vice-President Aaron Burr (vanished into the unsettled southwest), the residence of John Jacob Astor, already wealthiest of New Yorkers (occupied a few years earher by Mayor Edward Livingston), and so on. And on the sidewalk of the streets in this fashionable "dia- mond-back" section, corresponding to our Fifth Avenue from Sixtieth Street north, — a hog, in front of the crossing flags, rubs his itching back against the iron standard of a street oil-lamp, while a sow looks contemplatively on. And a third piglet, with curled tail twitching, trots across the street before the porter's barrow! Indeed, it was asserted by indignant reformers, ten years later than this, that at least twenty-thousand porcine scavengers were roaming wild about the city streets; and progress had then been so great as to cause some finicky persons actually to object to the great pig-sty \yhich graced the northwest corner of Broadway and Canal Street. It was stoutly asserted by sturdy upholders of tradition that this roving flock of unHcensed scavengers were really of great service in "cleaning the streets of bones, etc." "Could no other plan be devised to effect this?" asks honest John Duncan, earnestly. Now, looking back upon this early Victorian epoch from our own pinnacle of progress (when the municipal ordinances permit the presence of only the human species of porcines who crowd and jostle in our street cars and subways) — it is clear that the Manhattan of those Arcadian days was even more diiferent from our five-boroughed, six-miUioned Greater New York in kind than in size. And since banks, banking, and bankers are, after all, a direct expression of the social community whose monetary needs they serve, we shall get a much clearer understanding of the financial beginnings of this miraculous century — which has transformed New York from insignificance to the financial centre of the world, even London having been supplanted in this posi- tion since the World War — if we visualize the conditions under which our grandfathers lived and moved and loaned their money. Manhattan, then, was really in 1822 an overgrown country village of about 135,000 men, women and children (over 10,000 WHEN PIGS ROAMED WALL STREET 15 of them free blacks, 5,000 foreigners and 518 slaves) — having swelled dropsically from a population of only 8,000 in 1730 to 25,000 at the outbreak of the Revolution, 60,489 in 1800, and 96,373 in 1810. This chief city of the United States, twice as large as Portland or Sacramento is to-day, and ranking with, say, Springfield, Hartford, Paterson, Youngstown, Des Moines, Memphis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio and Spokane: — (1) Disposed of its garbage and ashes by the nonchalant method of providing that each householder should, {wice a week, from April to December, shovel and sweep the refuse, garbage and ashes (coal was just beginning, since 1820, to come into household use) to the middle of the street — where it fattened the pigs until it pleased the city officials to remove it. (This was the first "menace to health'' which caught the eye — and nose, doubtless — -of the Swedish baron.) Besides the hogs, cows still roamed some sections by day, milk being delivered from cans hung over the shoulders of the carriers — who were often women. There were no sewers, but each house had a pit "the very opening of which is enough to breed the plague itself. Moreover, their contents, instead of being carried to some distance from the town, are conveyed to the nearest slip or quay, and thrown into the water." (2) It had practically no water supply, drinking water coming from "numerous wells with pumps in all parts of the city." One of these pumps stood right opposite St. Paul's; it tapped a well sunk in 1754, as recorded in the Minutes of the Common Coun- cil of January 15:* "Ordered that Mr. Mayor Issue his Warrant to the Treasurer of this City to pay to Alderman De Peyster or his Order the sum of Eight pounds in Order to Defray the Ex- pence of Sinking a well opposite to Spring Gardenj in the West Ward of this City." Not till 1808 were all the pumps removed from the middle of Broadway, and others established at the sidewalks. Oddly enough, an "able report" by Mr. Weston, as early as 1799, noted that the drinking water was "deteriorating in goodness" all over the lower part of the city (the twenty thousand hogs would * "The Iconography of Manhattan Island," by I. N. Phelps Stokes — which reproduces a very rare print of St. Paul's and the pump opposite. t Spring Garden covered the space bounded by Broadway, Fulton, Nassau and Ann Streets. Hampden Hall, a famous resort, stood on the site of the Herald till the latter moved to 34th Street; in 1776 it was the headquarters of the Sons of Liberty. 16 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK have known this without any expert's report); and the wealthier citizens had by this time formed the habit of having pure drink- ing water brought down from the uninhabited upper portion of the island in casks — the stout old merchants doubtless inveigh- ing the while against the over-congestion, and bewailing the good old days when a man could drink plain water (if he had such a strange whim, without making it sanitary by infusing some beneficent Hollands), drawn from the very edge of his own stable yard. Blunt in his "Stranger's Guide" notes that it cost these magnates and the ships In the harbor $325,000 In 1817 to secure fresh drinking water in this way. To be sure, the "Manhattan Water Company" was chartered in 1790, the year after a severe yellow fever epidemic (ascribed to impure water), "the principal object of this corporation being to obtain a pure and wholesome water supply for the city of New York;" and on May 6th its water committee was authorized to "contract for as many fine logs as they may think necessary for pipes and also for boring the same." The company did sink wells and build tanks and "an extensive reservoir in 13th Street near Broadway" — a well 112 feet deep and 16 in diameter — and by 1836 it distributed (quite muddy and uninviting) water over twenty-five miles of mains to 2,000 homes. But in 1822 its contribution amounted to very little in the general water supply — there wasn't much "watered stock" in those days of pristine innocence; and the Bank of the Man- hattan Company would probably be the first to admit that, whatever was foremost in Aaron Burr's mind when he applied to the Legislature for his ambitious $2,000,000 charter, that in- conspicuous by-product clause permitting the Company "to em- ploy its surplus funds in banking" soon furnished the main reason for the Company's existence and activities. As for washing water, that fell Hke manna from heaven. "The drippings from the roofs," says a solemn "New Yorker" — whose volume of 1837 recounts "the Rise and Progress of the Metropolitan City of America" — "carefully preserved in cis- terns, and husbanded with proper frugality, served to preserve and promote that cleanliness of persons and apparel and habi- tations, which was the ;ust and honest pride of our grand- mothers before the name of Croton was heard among the deni- zens of the ancient Dutch metropolis." What happened to the cleanliness of persons, and apparel and habitations during a prolonged drought may be easily surmised by any one who has lived in those communities where roof- water, collected in cisterns, is still the main reliance. P U M P S O N B R O A D W A Y 17 (3) It had no gas. The New York Gas Light Company was or- ganized the next year, and in 1825 No. 7 Cherry Street, occupied by the president of the company, had the distinction of being the first New York house to display gasHght. It was regarded as a hazardous experiment. There were no street gas lamps tdl 1828, Broadway being then thus lighted from the Battery to Grand Street. (4) There were some two thousand buildings south of Spring Street, half of them dwellings, but "there were no lodgings or apartments," and the eight small hotels (two on Wall Street, one on Nassau, one on Pine and one on Pearl) provided quite in- adequate accommodations. James Stuart, a very intelligent Scotchman, paid us a visit in 1828. He found the fare quite luxurious for a doUar-and-a- half-a-day board and lodging: "Turtle soup twice without extra charge: beef good, poultry excellent: beef, fish, melons, tea and coffee for dinner: fish, steak, chicken and eggs in large quantities for breakfast;" but "beds without curtains; not a bit of carpet in the bedrooms; and water not as plentiful as requisite, most of all in a warm climate; neither hot nor cold baths in this, one of the two greatest in New York — nor proper accommodations of a different but still more necessary description. The waiter shrugged his shoulders in pointing out a court behind one of the piazzas at the back of the house, where I found a row of temples alternately for males and females." Such was the scarcity of dweUings three years later (in spite of the three thousand new buildings) that people were moving into half-finished residences, and a throng of homeless folk, cluttering the Park after May first Moving Day, were lodged in the gaol until houses they had rented could be gotten ready. And meetings of indignant tenants, in 1822, were "Resolving" that there should be some reductions in rents. Potters-field, which was next year to be levelled and becorne the Parade Ground (afterwards Washington Square), was still a rough burial ground for paupers — and an old New Yorker tells how his father, when going from his home in Warren Street "across lots" to Greenwich Village, to visit his fiancee, used to stumble over the graves in the darkness. Broadway ended at 10th Street, where it ran into the Bloomingdale Road. The whole city was four miles long nominally, extending to about 31st Street— but above Union Square it resembled one of the "developments" in the interior scrub-oak flats of Long Island. It consisted of street-names and nothing else. The Maverick Hthograph of Wall Street shows: a church. 18 ACENTURYOF BANKING IN NEW YORK hotels, two dandies riding blooded horses, four horses prancing along through the snow before a double sleigh, and a man sawing up fire- wood on the sidewalk at the corner of Wall and Broadway. (5) There were no poKce in the ill-lighted streets, but a few ununiformed watchmen, each carrying a lantern on a pole and crying out the hours of the night. (6) The few fire-engines were clumsy, primitive affairs dragged by hand. ^ (7) There were at least 2,500 grog-shops, hundreds of them dirty little holes where rum was dispensed as a side line. (8) The New York Hospital and Lunatic Asylum* stood at Broadway and Duane Street; the first Almshouse and Peniten- tiary, the Bible Society, Bloomingdale Asylum, and the first or- ganized effort for the prevention of pauperism all dated from a few years previous, 1816; while the New York Institute for the Deaf and Blind was founded in 1813. (9) The tide of immigration was already swelling: from 1816 to 1820 the city added some twenty-three thousand inhabitants — but of these, nearly all must have been immigrants, since 18,930 of these arrived between January, 1818, and November, 1820. (10) Three years previous the Savannah had been the first vessel to cross the ocean using auxihary steam-power. The usual means of ocean transport was by the packet lines, established ;ust after the Revolution: the British boats usually took from five to six weeks for the passage, while the American packets, of about 500 tons, averaged twenty-five days for the easterly trip (occasionally making it in eighteen or less), and charged thirty guineas' fare. (11) There were no street-cars or railroads. The first loco- motive, the "Stourbridge Lion," arrived here from England m 1829, the first horse-car in 1832; the earliest steam-cars in 1834. In May, 1822, there is announced as a sensational curiosity: Steam Coach. An elegant carriage, which carries two persons and is propelled by steam, is now exhibiting, and will continue for a few days at the Park Hall, No. 253 Broadway, opposite the Cit^' Hall. Price of admittance, 25 cents. The coach line to Albany started at four in the morning; an- other took twenty hours for the trip to Newburgh, where it con- nected with the fine for Ithaca. There were a few steamboat * Another monument to the benevolence of that fine old Philadelphia-New York Quaker, Thomas Eddy. He was also a leader in helping the miserable remnants of the Six Nations Indians, in pushing through the Erie Canal, m founding the Bible Society, and in all sorts of efforts for making the world a better place to live in for his fellow men. BANKING CONDITIONS OF 1822 19 ferries,* tri- weekly service to Albany (the Chancellor Livingston, the Chancellor Richmond and the Fire Fly) ; the Connecticut and Fulton ran to Providence; and a new service, "The Citizen's Pilot," took passengers by the steamer Bristol to Elizabeth- townport, thence by coach (via New Brunswick, Princeton, Trenton and Bristol) to Philadelphia in one day at a cost of four dollars. When in January the Citizens' Post Coach made the trip from Philadelphia in eleven and a half hours, the Com- mercial Advertiser chronicled the fact under the heading, "Rapid travelling." Yet it is well to realize that they looked back- ward with complacency, even as we do; it is recorded in 1823 that a traveller had just made the journey from New York to Boston, by steamboats and stages, 270 miles in 2b}4 hours and without fatigue, "being able to take a whole night's sleep in a comfortable bed, on the way] If any one, thirty years ago, had said that such a thing was possible, he would have been thought of as nearly insane." The Erie Canal was being built under the energetic sponsor- ship of De Witt Clinton, but it was not completed till 1825, when there was a tremendous celebration in honor of its opening. (12) Telephone and telegraph were, of course, undreamed of; and the mail from Pittsburgh east was "lost or stolen" four times in less than two months. (13) Lotteries were universal; the "lottery deed" given when one of the Bayards sold land on Broadway by this method is still in the city archives; and good moral citizens fifteen years later were pointing out the train of evils which followed from this gambling craze. To mention one instance among scores; in 1828 the old con- servative Hartford Bank (chartered in 1791) discovered that its cashier had during thirteen years stolen over thirty thousand dollars, most of which he confessed had been spent on lottery tickets. And yet, bad as conditions seem at this time, the Grand Jury reported in 1833: "In the year 1824 there were but eight or ten dealers in lottery tickets in the city, while at this time there are one hundred and forty-seven, and some of our principal streets are literally disfigured by their advertisements." A familiar name to modern sporting New Yorkers was over the door of 139 Broadway, where tickets to the Literature Lottery were sold, P. Canfield. Another name, not unfamiliar, was N. * Fulton and Chancellor Livingston had received in 1803 and 1808 a 50- year monopoly of the right to operate steamboats in New York waters — a grant bitterly attacked by New Jersey ferry owners in 1815. 20 A C E N T U R Y O F B A N K I N G I N N E W Y O R K Judah, at 157; and Allen's "Truly Luck Office" did business at 122. iM.r. Canfield's prize list of February 20th gives prizes of $500, $100 and $50, while the report notes: "Gain of the wheel, $25,000." (14) Insolvent debtors were still imprisoned, and for some decades thereafter reformers found a fertile source for outcry in the hardships these unfortunates were compelled to undergo. In the fall of 1921 a descendant of Gouverneur Morris, who had previously gone into voluntary bankruptcy, appealed to the court for release from the "jail Hmits" of Westchester County, testifying that he had nothing and his wife paid even his club dues — this restriction to such ample ";ail limits" being the only vestige left of the former universal custom of close imprison- ment for debt. (15) The level of the amusements is hinted at by these ad- vertisements in the New York Evening Post: Cautiox. To prevent mistakes, as there are /u'o elephants in this city, the proprietor of the large and learned Elephant would inform the citizens of New York and its vicinity, that this sagacious animal is to be seen at No. 1 1 Chatham Street, nearly opposite the City Hall, from 8 o'clock a.m. until 10 p.m. at the reduced price of 12/^ cents only. N.B. Good accommodations for the Ladies. [May 6, 1822] At the Circus — Broadway, a Grand Equestrian Melo Drama of "Timour the Tartar" is performed every night except Saturday. The performance commences at 7, tickets during the day may be purchased at the "Circus Retreat, opposite the Circus." [August 6, 1822] (16) There was no such thing as free education. The Free School Society was named the Public School Society in 1826, and then began a campaign to provide for the many poorer children who were not receiving any education. (17) The complete upset of business life by the yellow fever has already been described. This was but one of the plagues which were then considered unpreventable "acts of God." A few years later the Asiatic cholera descended upon the city via Quebec, and for three months thousands of people were in its deadly grip. Again most of the inhabitants fled to Greenwich and the country — often to find conditions only worse than at home. When the plague ceased, some 3,500 people had died of it. (18) The papers regularly carried advertisements of slaves for sale, and runaway slaves whose apprehension was demanded. (19) One thing, however, seems not to have altered, in the face ot all the adages as to its essentially mutable and uncertain BANKING CONDITIONS OF 1822 21 nature. "Broadway," says an English visitor, "the chosen resort of the young and gay, in these cold bright mornings, seems one moving crowd of painted butterflies. I sometimes tremble for the pretty creatures (and very pretty they are) as they flutter along through the biting air in dress more suited to an Italian winter than to one which approaches nearer to that of Norway." At this precise time, too, John M. Duncan was setting down in Glasgow his impressions of New York during his tour of the United States three years before: "The streets in the lower and older portion of the city are very narrow and crooked, and what is more immediately inex- cusable, kept in very bad order. Garbage and litter of almost every kind are thrown out upon the pavement, where a multi- tude of hogs of all ages riot in abundance. The foot walks are encumbered with projecting steps and cellar doors, lamp posts, pump wells, and occasionally poplar trees; and where any open space occurs, barrels, packing-boxes, and wheelbarrows are not infrequently piled up. . . . The city is throughout very in- differently lighted, and in many places the feeble glimmerings of a solitary oil lamp must struggle past two stately trees, which stand like sentinels to defend it. "Broadway, the Irongate of New York, passes longitudinally through the centre of the city, and occupies in general the highest part of the ground; it is wide and straight, and pretty compactly built for nearly two miles. It contains a great many well built houses of brick, but there is still a considerable intermixture of paltry wooden ones; a few scattered poplars skirt each side. . . . "In a summer evening the Battery is a deservedly favourite promenade, and the prospect which it affords is very rarely to be equalled." He goes on to various matters which arouse his interest: "During the time of public worship, it is quite common in the more narrow streets of New York to fmd a chain extended com- pletely across, from one post to another, to prevent the passage of carriages. This we should think with us a very glaring in- fringement on the liberty of the subject. . . . "The sleigh is an open carriage on two runners, shod with iron, exactly like a pair of large skates. They skim along so smoothly that a horse will manage eight or nine miles an hour with great ease. As there is no rattling of wheels, to warn pedes- trians of their approach, the horse carries, by law, a row of bells round his neck. . . . "The boarding-house system, which prevails here universally, is in many respects not agreeable. I pay eight dollars a-week. 22 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK 36s. sterling, for board and lodging. My bed-room contains a small bed, a fragment of carpet, two chairs, a table, looking glass and wash-hand basin, but the apartment, although larger than many that are to be met with, has httle more than space for the enumerated articles. . . . Should I dine out the whole week, there is no abatement of the charge; should I wish a friend or two to dine with me, they must take their places at the pubhc table, and I pay an extra dollar for each. . . . Liquors of every kind the boarder provides for himself. Should I wish a fire in my bed-room, I lay in my own wood, which is three times as expensive as coals are in Glasgow. ... "Housekeeping is very expensive, particularly in the item of rent. A comfortable lodging of six or eight apartments cannot be had, except in the outskirts of the city, for less than 800 to 1,000 dollars a year, including the city taxes, or £180 to £225 sterling. A boarding-house has recently been opened in Broadway, the landlady of which pays the enormous rent of 3,000 dollars, £675. It is to be sure a large building and a favorable situation, but it is more than three times the rent which such a house would bring in Glasgow or Edinburgh. The wages of domestics are also very high, and good servants are not easily to be got. . . . "In most other particulars household expenses are moderate, butcher meat 3d. or 4d. sterling a pound, fowls about eighteen pence a pair; bread, vegetables and butter in proportion. French wines are cheap, so is brandy; Madeira is rather dearer but is very generally used ; very good Port and rum are scarcely to be had. . . . " . . . Tammany Hall is one of the public hotels, and noted for the pubhc meetings of the democratic party or Bucktails* as they are called. Like the other hotels it is the residence of a good many permanent boarders; some of them merchants of considerable wealth, who sit down every day at the pubhc table. The inn is with us proverbially the traveller's home, but here it is the home of a great many besides travellers. This feature in the American system I cannot admire; nor can I imagme what comfort there can be amidst the bustle and noise of a public tavern, or in smoking segars and drinking spirits and water m the bar-room. * In 1791 the chief of the Creek Indians of Florida and Georgia (named, oddlv enough, Alexander McGilvery) was brought to New York bv Col. Marlnus Willett in an effort to impress these troublesome southern neighbors. The Tammany Society met the delegation of Indian brayes in full regalia, adding to the back of their feathered head-dress, as an extemporized symbol ot the visiting tribe, a buck's tail; the DeWitt Clinton faction derisively termed these bitter poHtical enemies "Bucktails"— and the name stuck for a genera- tion, being adopted by the Tammanyites and celebrated by the Bucktail Bards." H ^S ■5 o . . il^.i HOW DOWNTOWN LOOKED 23 "The dinner hour at Tammany Hall is three o'clock, and covers are every day set for from thirty to eighty. The resident boarders are generally found at the upper end of the table, and the travellers further down. They take their seats at the sound of the dinner bell, and in little more than a quarter of an hour most of them are ready to leave the table. During dinner rum and water is the usual beverage; few take wine unless they are entertaining a friend. . . . "The New York newspapers are like our own filled with lot- tery puffs, and 'Lucky Office' stares you in the face in every street. The prevalence of this licensed gambling in the United States is an evil token of the state of the public mind. . . . Here are lotteries for almost every purpose — for making roads, for building bridges, for erecting public buildings, for endowing universities, and would you believe it? for building churches! "They have what they call a 'Literature Lottery' in New York, going on regularly from year to year, and the price of tickets, and divisions of tickets, is so small as to be within the reach of almost the poorest classes. . . . "Another and a greater abomination, in the newspapers, are the advertisements of Slaves for Sale. . . . "Most of the churches here have sermons on New Year's day morning. . . . "It is the rule here that on New Year's day you visit every family of your acquaintance, even though the acquaintance should be very slight. . . . The ladies stay at home to receive visitors, the gentlemen go about. Clergymen, however, are in virtue of their office, entitled to the same attention as the ladies, and a call at their levee is never on any account omitted. As all these visits must be over before dinner, they are necessarily very short. . . . "We have had a considerable fall of snow for a few days, and yesterday afternoon I enjoyed for the first time a ride in a sleigh. Sleighs are in general open above, and have cross seats like those of a stage waggon, capable of accommodating eight or ten persons. The driver stands in front protected by a curved board which rises up to keep out the snow. "In a bleak December day, if there is a slight glimpse of sun- shine, you may see the ladies walking Broadway in gossamer dresses of silks and gauze, with their throats perfectly bare. In strong contrast with these fair daughters of the spring, the city sparks lounge along enveloped in thick box coats, with eight or ten capes, and roll after roll of cravats and silk hand- kerchiefs swathed under their chins. 24 A CENTURYOF BANKING IN NEW YORK "Another custom prevails among the ladies no less pernicious. On Sabbath they may be seen picking their steps to church through drifting snow, in silk or cotton stockings, and shoes scarcely thicker than a cobweb; so far as I can observe a worsted stocking is to American ladies an unknown comfort. Behind them comes a little black girl carrying a small tin box, pierced with holes, containing a little pan of live charcoal or the glowing- embers of hickory wood. The box is used as a footstool during service. "The number of banking companies in America surprises a stranger. In the city of New York there are ten or a dozen, all issuing their own notes, besides a multitude of others in the im- mediate neighborhood. A list of the banks in the United States has been recently published, containing between three and four hundred; although there is every reason to believe that it is not complete. Some of the memoranda in this catalogue are not a little inexplicable to a stranger. Under the name of one of the banks you will find; 'The notes of this bank signed with red ink, at a discount of 25 per cent, those signed with black 5 per cent discount;' after the name of another; 'Not in good credit.' The paper of one town is not received by the banks of another, unless when specially payable there and the conse- quence is that it requires not a little circumspection, in a stranger who is travelling about, to avoid losing by the discount upon notes, 'which increases regularly as he recedes from the place where they are issued. This in the paper of private companies is less remarkable, but the United States' Bank, which has eight or ten branches scattered over the country, issues notes dated at each of these places, none of which will be received by any of the other branches except for government duties and taxes; so that a merchant with his pocket full of the notes of the United States' Bank at Philadelphia, cannot pay his bill in the office of the same bank at New York, till he has gone to a broker and paid him a premium for exchanging them. This discount upon bank notes has given rise to a regular trade of buying and selling them. . . . The brokers, or shui'ers, as they are familiarly designated, are numerous in all the towns. "The legal rate of interest in the State of New York is seven per cent, but bills at 60 days are discounted by the banks at six. The banks make a dividend on their stock once in six months, which at present varies in amount from eight to twelve per cent per annum. Each company must be incorporated by an act of the State legislature, and it is illegal to commence banking without such an act." Chapter 1 1 THE OLD ORDER BEGINS TO CHANGE Back(j rounds of Our Forefatherd Financial AcLunt'ied — Beginning^) of American Commercial Enterpri.te — The W^edtward Trend of Bu/uieM — ITorlJ Unredt of a Century Ago — ltd Effect on American Finance — Growth of American Trade Abroad — Ri^e of American Indudtries — ■ New York, Auction- Sale Period A FEW more details in a bird's-eye view of this period mav jCx help in reconstructing the background of our forefathers' "^ "^ financial activities. Nominally New York extended from the Battery to what is now 31st Street, most of the island having been laid out ten years previously into streets on a regular and uniform system. In point of fact there was very little still above the City Hall, and almost nothing except isolated farms and country houses above Union Place (Square) — which Engineer John Randel had been instructed by the Commissioners ten years previously to lay out as a public square — because the junction of the Bowery and Bloomingdale Roads at 16th Street formed so acute an angle that there was not sufficient ground left for building pur- poses. The whole of Long Island outside of Brooklyn had but twelve or fifteen small villages, with a single road running through Bedford, Jamaica, Jericho, Dix Hills and Smithtown to serve the several hundred square miles from that backbone to the south shore. From the Harlem River to the Connecticut line a map shows settlements at West Farms, Eastchester, Kingsbridge, Yonkers, New Rochelle, Phillipsburg and White Plains — in place of what is already approaching a solidly built-up city along the Sound and the Hudson. The rest of the Commonwealth was as un- developed as one might expect; Maine just transformed from a 25 26 ACENTURYOFBANKINGINNEWYORK District to a State, had perhaps a quarter of a milKon people in its whole area, less than ten to a square mile; practically all the vast interior section was a howling wilderness of sixteen million acres, of which a quarter belonged to private individuals, the rest to the State of Massachusetts; and there were perhaps fifteen hundred pioneer families scattered about over this huge tract. The capital city of Washington was building at the prodigious rate of 88 private buildings in a year — "much progress made in the City Hall, a very large edifice; a new bridge erected over the Tyber; a fountain of water opened that yields sixty gallons a minute, with a head of at least fifty feet above the Pennsylvania avenue," and other details of rapid growth flattering to national pride. The original thirteen States had grown to twenty-four, six (Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine and Missouri) having been admitted in as many consecutive years. Texas and California were to be Mexican for another quarter of a century; Alaska was not only still an outlying Russian province, but Czar Alexander had just issued a ukase excluding ships from Bering Sea and Russia's Pacific coast; three years before, on Washing- ton's birthday, Florida had been ceded to the United States by Spain, and was kept in the public mind chiefly as the seat of our endless and humiliating war with the Seminoles.* The slowness of communication made what we now call the Middle West like a foreign wilderness land, and the Pacific Coast was many times twice as far away as Europe. A weekly of the time reports the departure of a company of 180 adventurers from St. Charles, Missouri, for an expedition to the Rocky Mountains: "they are reported to be of vigorous and masculine appearance, well armed and prepared for a three years' tour through this savage and almost unknown country." Even on the Atlantic seaboard it cost six cents to send a letter thirty miles and twenty-five cents to send it 400 miles — with double and triple rates for those overweight;- a package weighing half a pound cost $1.92 for the shortest distance; the freight on a ton of goods from Albany to Buffalo was $100. As a sample of the * Careful and shrewd James Stuart, an English visitor in 1850, declares the reason why the United States wished to own Florida was because of its abundance of live oaks "fit for building ships of war," and that the govern- ment had made extensive plantations for this purpose. "I have heard," he says, "of the formation of plantations of trees upon a great scale nowhere in North America but in Florida; but this need not occasion surprise, for there is no object which the people of the United States are so anxious to attain as the possession of a powerful navy." AMERICAN COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE 27 ease of travelling — ^the trip of ninety-six miles from Utica to Montezuma was performed in a scow drawn by two horses and generally required nearly two days, though the fare was only four dollars; the voyage up the Mississippi, from New Orleans to Cincinnati, no longer took ninety to one hundred days, as when the "arks" had to be warped up the current by ropes fastened to trees on the bank: but the average steamboat speed was hardly more than that of a good walker, and boilers blew up and boats hit snags and sank with a frequency quite disconcerting to strangers; newspapers and magazines naturally circulated only close to their place of publication — though New York State had ninety, eight being dailies, the rest weeklies or semi-weeklies. So, without railroad, telegraph or telephone, there was very slight commercial intercourse, and nothing to spread quickly the news and ideas, the simultaneous discussion of which is the cement of a modern nation. In spite of the four decades during which we had been evolving as the United States of America, there was strikingly little na- tional feeling observable, except when something like the War of 1812 pulled the country together. States' rights, and state, as opposed to national, feeling had focussed already on the hotly debated subject of slavery; and two years before this the Missouri Compromise had been placed as a plaster on a sore which was later to fester till it required that bloody capital operation of the Civil War to ease the body politic. * Far up on the Pacific Coast, the Northwest Company (which had taken over the unsuccessful colonization enterprise of John Jacob Astor) had, the year before, passed on the venture in its turn to the Hudson's Bay Company; and the American Board of Foreign Missions was receiving reports of the condition ot the natives there which resulted a few years later in the sending of missionaries — from the Sandwich Islands (!), to care for the bodies and souls of these Indians. Indeed, it is very hard for a modern traveller speeding in a sleeping car from coast to coast in five days, or whizzing by plane to Chicago in six or eight hours, to realize how vague was the sense of ownership in the whole region west of the AUeghenies. Indiana, for instance, was a state, but its four counties had * A good deal of stir was caused this very year by the execution in Charles- ton of thirty-five slaves, convicted of conspiracy- against their masters chiefly on the testimony of fellow slaves, not under oath. This, and some barbarous misuses of power observed by travellers, contributed ammunition for the abolitionists. 28 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK less than 30,000 inhabitants. Chicago did not exist * and lUinois, t larger than England, was still a frontier territory just beginning to develop towards a commonwealth. Detroit had, including the garrison of the fort, perhaps a thousand people; St. Louis was a headquarters for trading, exploring and fur hunting parties with a few hundred houses. Nor was there always real unity even within a given state or city. That indefatigable and reverend geographer, Jedidiah Morse, remarks in one of his descriptions of New York in 1818: "The English language is generally spoken throughout the state, but is much corrupted by the Dutch dialect, which is still spoken in some counties, particularly King's, Ulster, and Albany. Dutch schools are now discontinued, and the language will prob- ably soon cease to be used." And Stuart in 1830 noticed in New Orleans that "the American and French populations do not even yet amalgamate well together;" while in Chambersburg he was surprised, "on going out in the evening, to find a watchman, a German, calling the hours, who could not speak a word of English." Charles Fenno Hoffman, thirteen years after this, made a tour of the United States from New York, embodying his experi- ences in two volumes called "A Winter in the West. By a New Yorker." Through the Pennsylvania mountains he passed frequent emigrants: "A covered one-horse wagon generally contains the whole worldly substance of a family consisting not infrequently of a dozen members. The tolls are so high along this western turnpike, and horses are comparatively so cheap in the region whither the emigrant is bound, that he rarely pro- vides more than one miserable Rosinante to transport his whole family to the far west." That there was a considerable tide setting westward, how- ever, Spoffard testified as early as 1825: there were 1,000 stran- gers setting the little village of BuffaloJ agog, and a stream of 500 people was passing westward each day. Pittsburgh was the third most important town in the Mis- sissippi valley, supplying the whole region lor 2,000 miles to New Orleans with hardware, machinery and cutlery, mining * In 1855 C. F. Hoffman was invited to a public ball in "one of the few frame buildings yet to be found in Chicago; which although one of the most ancient French trading posts on the Lakes, can only date its growth as a village since the Indian war, eighteen months since." t The Supreme Court of Illinois was first organized in 1819. X It had been entirely destroyed by the British in 1815, but after the close of the war became the metropolis of the rapidly settling, four-million-acre "Holland Purchase," which took in the whole end of New York State west of the Genesee River. THEWESTWARDTRENDOFBUSINESS 29 soft coal, handling five million feet of lumber a year, sending her glass everywhere from Arkansas to Baltimore; taking bloom iron at St. Louis and returning it as rolled iron at $38 a ton. At Chicago the garrison officers drove up to the door of Hoff- man's lodging with a train of "carioles" and took him off to see a pacing match on the ice; seeing a wolf travelling along the prairie above the river, within range, a horseback hunt was arranged for the next day — and probably within what is now the city's limits, the hunters killed a gray wolf and two prairie wolves. Near Ottawa (Illinois) he saw the oaks within gunshot of the porch of his stopping place "so loaded with grouse (prairie hens) that they showed more like a flock of pigeons than a covey of game birds;" and in all this region men's minds were still full of the Indian outbreak of 1832, when the Sacs and Foxes butch- ered every member of two families except a pair of girls. After leaving Praine du Chien, he crossed the Ouisconsin River on poles and loose timber thrown out upon the frail ice, sliding the baggage over the open current on a smooth board. At Galena he found Colonel H., an aristocratic New York ac- quaintance with West Point education, who, clad in "leather shirt and drawers" drove hogs to market or teamed a load of lead into town with an ox-cart. St. Louis still showed its his- tory in its houses; "in one section you will find it built up entirely with the broad steep-roofed stone edifices of the French, and the Spaniards' tall stuccoed dwelling raising its tiers of open corri- dors above them, like a once showy but half-defaced galleon in a fleet of battered frigates; while another will present you only with the clipper-built brick houses of the American residents — light as a Baltimore schooner, and pert-looking as a Connecticut smack." And men in the bar-room of the hotels told personal stories of scalping Indians and leaving them to die. Cincinnati offered the traveller "literary soirees" and slaugh- ter-houses where 120,000 hogs were turned into pork products annually — a promise, at least, of future greatness; doubtless, she also justified her claim to be "the Athens of the drama be- yond the Blue Ridge" by theatrical offerings ranging from "The Forty Thieves" to "Hamlet," and continuing the interesting theatrical tradition since 1805, in the line of which came Sol Smith with his famous feat (in "Pizarro") of representing, all unaided : "High Priest! Volverdel ! ! I ! Almagrol I Guard! ! ! ! ! ! Blind Man! ! ! The Whole of the Spanish Sentinel! !!! Armv! ! ! ! ! ! !" 30 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK In Kentucky he found elk and buffalo on a great country estate which he visited; he stopped at White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, "one of the most celebrated watering places in the Union; second alone to Saratoga in the concourse of strangers it brings together every season, and even rivalled by the Lebanon Springs of New- York in beauty of situation;" but the guests were housed in cabins of logs or boards, and there seemed a "slovenliness and want of refined economy in many of the details." Let us take a little wider sweep for a moment. During March of this very year one of the chief subjects of discussion in Congress was the suppression of piracy in the West Indies and on the Barbary coast. It was an everyday occurrence for merchant vessels to be captured, the crews murdered, and the cargoes sold openly in Cuban ports; and it was reported that the famous Lafitte was among the captains operating in these waters without let or hindrance. A weekly of that period sum- marizes an investigation by the committee on Naval Affairs: "The Report states, that the system of plunder in the West India seas is truly alarming, and imperiously calls for the prompt interposition of government; that every mail brings such ac- counts of massacre and plunder, by the vicious and depraved of all nations, that, if not winked at by the authorities of Cuba, they are not restrained; that the danger of smuggling is thereby con- siderably increased on our coast; an ample force is, therefore, recommended to suppress it; that the force actually employed by our Government is, the Franklin, of 74 guns, in the Pacific, for the protection of our commerce in that quarter; that the Constellation frigate, of 36 guns, is in the same ocean, but ordered to return home upon the arrival of the Franklin; that the schooner Dolphin, of 12 guns, accompanies the Franklin, as absolutely necessary upon so long a voyage. "In relation to the instructions for this service, the committee think it would be inconsistent with public law and general usage to give any authority to destroy pirates and piratical vessels found at sea, or in uninhabited places. "The Committee are of opinion that it would be dangerous and productive of great evil, to vest in the commanders of our public vessels an authority to treat as pirates, and punish with- out trial, even such persons as those above described. It is not necessary for the accomplishment of the object in view that such an authority should be given, and it is essentially due to the rights of all, and the principles of 'public law, and the gen- eral usages,' that the consequences and punishment of piracy should follow only a legal adjudication of the fact. WORLD UNREST A CENTURY AGO 31 "That the frigate Constitution, of 44 guns, sloop of war On- tario, of 18 guns, and schooner Nonsuch, of 10 guns, are cruising in the Mediterranean, to keep the Barbary powers in awe and protect our commerce in that sea; and it is believed that a less force would be inadequate for these objects. "That the sloop of war Hornet, of 18 guns, the brigs Enter- prise and Spark, of 12 guns each, and the schooners Porpoise, Grampus, Shark and Alligator, of 12 guns each, are cruising in the West India seas and Gulf of Mexico, for the protection of trade, the suppression of piracy, etc.; and that the gun boats Nos. 158 and 168, are cruising along the coasts of Georgia and Florida, for the same purpose. "That the frigate JIacedonian is now equipping at Boston, and will soon sail on a cruise for the same object; and that it will be necessary to keep at least one vessel of war, either a corvette or schooner, on the coast of Africa, as the most efficient means for the suppression of the slave trade. "The committee are of opinion that no part of the foregoing enumerated force could be withdrawn from the service in which it is employed, without detriment to the public interest, and that the forces in the West India seas and Gulf of Mexico are inade- quate for the objects specified in the resolution referred to." New York had its mail bandits, requiring the aid of the United States marines, in 1921; and newspaper observers found a whole fleet of motor-launch law breakers at the edge of the three-mile limit in the Bahamas, busily engaged in conveying bottled and barrelled cheer to the metropolis in defiance of the 18th Amend- ment. But the notion of open piracy in the nineteenth century, requiring Congressional investigations, would certainly make one of our naval officers smile. A few months later the United States and Great Britain were receiving from the Czar of all the Russias his Imperial Decision in the dispute between them as to the true construction of the first article of that Treaty of peace and amity concluded at Ghent on Christmas Eve of 1814. Our claim was for indem- nification for private property, especially slaves, carried away by the British forces when they evacuated American territories; and His Imperial Majesty did us the honor to constitute and appoint as arbitrators to settle this little financial disagreement — "Charles Robert Count Nesselrode, His Imperial Majesty's Privy Counsellor, Member of the Council of State, Secretary of State directing the Imperial Department of Foreign Affairs, Chamberlain, Knight of the Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky, Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Vladimir of the first class, 52 ACENTURYOFBANKINGINNEWYORK Knight of that of the White Eagle of Poland, Grand Cross of the Order of St. Stephen of Hungary, of the Black and of the Red Eagle of Prussia, of the Legion of Honour of France, of Charles HI of Spain, of St. Ferdinand and of Merit of Naples, of the Annunciation of Sardinia, of the Polar Star of Sweden, of the Elephant of Denmark, of the Golden Eagle of Wirtemburg of Fidelity of Baden, of St. Constantine of Parma, and of Guelph of Hanover; "John Count Capodistrias, His Imperial Majesty's Privy Counsellor, and Secretary of State, Knight of the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky, Grand Cross of the order of St. Vladmir of the first class. Knight of that of the White Eagle of Poland, Grand Cross of the Order of St. Stephen of Hungary, of the Black and of the Red Eagle of Prussia, of the Legion of Honour of France, of Charles HI of Spain, of St. Ferdinand and of Merit of Naples, of St. Maurice and of St. Lazarus of Sardinia, of the Elephant of Denmark, of Fidelity and of the Lion of Zahringen of Baden, Burgher of the Canton of Vaud, and also of the Canton and of the Republic of Geneva" — who decided, sensibly enough, that we should be paid for any slaves or other property transferred to British vessels from territories which the Treaty allotted to us, but not for those from other regions, and proceeded to determine the exact amount of our bill. In England, the Prince Regent had come to the throne as George IV, and had given the scandalmongers of the world a feast by putting unfortunate Queen Caroline on trial for divorce. Castlereagh had just killed himself, and Canning had become Foreign Secretary — his task being somewhat lightened by the death of Napoleon at St. Helena and the consequent removal of the bogy still present in the minds of many who considered him the monster that had upset the orderly world they knew. As if to celebrate this return of sanity, the Bank of England was proposing to resume specie payments, to the vast relief of the business men and financiers of that country and our own, since violent panics in 1816 and 1819 had resulted from the demoral- ized banking situation. The step was postponed because of a great depression in business in 1822, but was finally taken three years later. In England, as on the Continent, the most superficial view of this decade betrays the ferment of liberal ideas. William Cob- bett had been loudly urging his followers to demand sweeping parliamentary reforms and agricultural riots had led, in 1816, to the suspension of the Habeas Corpus; in August 1819 troops I T S E F F E C T O N AMERICAN FINANCE 33 had to charge the rioters in Manchester and let out a gooti deal of hot blood upon St. Peter's Fields. There were mutterings in France: the assassination of the Due de Berri betrayed the deep-seated hostility to the restored Bourbons; nor did it improve matters when a French army, under the Duke of Angouleme, went to Spain to carry out the dictates of the reactionary Con- gress at Verona and put down the revolutionary movement which threatened King Ferdinand's absolute rule. Italy, too, was a source of deep anxiety to the upholders of the established order. The mutinies and revolutions of 1820 had been crushed by Austria, assisted by the fleets of Great Britain and France; with the mere change from a King Ferdi- nand to a King Charles Felix, absolute monarchy was restored for a while; but the Great Powers, met together at Laybach to take firm measures against the rabble, heartily approved of such measures as Metternich had forced through the German Confederation's Congress of Carlsbad for a strict censorship of the press which was helping to inflame these lawless radicals. Though less vocal, Mahmud II, Sultan of Turkey, doubtless felt much the same sense of outrage when the Greek revolution began. The year we are considering saw the proclamation by the National Assembly of the independence of Greece — after a subjection to Turkey which had begun nearly half a century before America was discovered. In the following year the whole civiHzed world was thrilled by the exploit of that Markos Boz- zaris with whom every schoolboy of the past generation became familiar; and Lord Byron's romantic expedition, and death at Missolonghi, aroused a popular fervor everywhere which was a material factor in producing the alliance of England, France and Russia that destroyed Turkish domination of Greece a few years later. Everywhere one turns there are visible some beginnings of this awakening national consciousness. Belgium was agitating for that independence from the Netherlands which it finally secured in 1830; the very rigors of the repressive actions in Germany reflect what was going on underneath and what was to culminate in the unsuccessful revolutions of 1848. In Nor- way the Storthing (though forced a few years previously at the point of Swedish bayonets to accept the decree of the Congress of Vienna giving Norway to Sweden) abolished all titles of nobility. Little Serbia was in the midst of her long struggle against the Turks, begun in 1804 by Kara George, and closed in 1830 when the Sultan recognized it as an autonomous Prov- ince with Milos Obrenovic as Prince of Serbia. 34 A C E N T U R Y O F B A X K I N G IN N E W YORK Portugal had a full fledged revolution at Oporto in 1820, Dom John, the Prince Regent, having run away with all his court to Rio de Janeiro in 1808 when Napoleon's armies invaded the land. King John hurried back and pacified the Junta with some modifications of the Constitution, leaving his son Dom Pedro as Regent in Brazil. Whereupon, in September 1822, he received the unwelcome news that Brazil had constituted itself an independent Empire with this same Dom Pedro as its ruler. It was undoubtedly Hobson's choice for the young Prince; this was a bad year for the old monarchies in South America. The patriot army in the Argentine gained a decisive victory over their Spanish masters in 1821 and proclaimed a republic; Paraguay had succeeded in throwing off the yoke ten years before, but Peru announced her independence in July of the same year. Bolivia began the final struggle, successful four years later, and Chile was working out the details of the fact proclaimed by its patriots in 1818, though not formally recognized by Spain for quarter of a century. Simon BoKvar had just combined New Granada and Venezuela into the Re- public of Colombia and overthrown the Spanish Viceroy alty; Ecuador came into this union during this exact year. The revolt in Central America too was in full swing and culminated in the formal confederation of these countries only two years later; Cuba alone refused to join in this general insurrectionary movement, remaining as almost the last memento of Spain's vast empire in the New World. All these political changes were of course but the outward manifestation of profound changes going on in men's minds — and threatening the old order of things on every side. We shall see some special manifestations of the same inner movement in the United States which had a very direct and radical effect on the banking situation. This internal revolution in men's ideas, in their attitude towards the most fundamental matters of precedent and of gov- ernment, seems to have so closely accompanied the industrial and mechanical revolution that one is tempted to perceive one as springing from the other. The Eighteenth Century was the flowering of aristocracy. It was a period of wits and beaux and beauties, of grace, of finish, of refinement, of gay trifling, of connoisseurship of art, music, and literature — among the rich, titled, leisure class. If you would see the other side, read Defoe or any of the realists of the period; consider the horrors of the French Revolution, and reflect what must have been the deeds of the people's natural GROWTH OF AMERICAN TRADE ABROAD 35 leaders to produce such feelings towards them in the people's hearts. In England we have Pope and Sir Joshua and Charles James Fox, helping his two brothers to roll up £140,000 of debts for his father. Lord Holland, to pay: down below, for a single instance, innocent prisoners detained through long years for non-payment of gaolers' fees, and all the horrible abuses, naked- ness, underground dungeons, fdth and disease of English gaols which caused John Howard to devote his life to bettering prison conditions.* Across the Channel, put beside that world-that- smiles of Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard, and Eisen, that con- temporary buried world-that-weeps of Hugo's "Les Miserables" or Sue's "Mysteries of Paris." Into this world of smiling face and blood-stained feet came: first, the French Revolution, presently Steam, harnessed to the Machine, — which had lately begun to substitute the factory for the individual craftsmen, a change that was to make the very word manufactures a misnomer, and to produce profoundly unsettling effects upon commerce, finance, politics and society. The first was a fiery, volcanic eruption lighting up for all the world the malebolgic depths beneath this pleasant luxury and gaiety. The second made millions its slaves, but it taught them something of their wrongs and of their power. For it will be found, by the most cursory study of the past, that ab- solutism and a self-centred court aristocracy are plants which do not flourish beside the expanding Industrial life that follows men's harnessing of nature's forces to make cheap clothing, food, and all of material civiHzation's needs. The downfall of a degenerated oppressive upper class has always come from the rise of a prosperous middle class — manu- facturers, merchants and the hke. Apparently only the man primitive enough to spend his whole life in laborious hard drudg- ery, applied to all the necessary everyday matters of life, can be permanently held in the inferior position which his fathers before him were content to accept as their divinely ordained lot. Put power into his hands, and he begins to think. Then comes a bad time for those whose too-comfortable existence is due to the exertions of some ancestor instead of to their own. Wells, in his "Outline of History," emphasizes as the result of this Industrial Revolution the hardening into opposing classes of employer and employed — insisting that the new engines and * By an odd coincidence, it was in the very year — 1774 — that Lord Holland was told of the little joke his sons had played on him, to the tune of £ 140,000 squandered In gambling and dissipation, that Howard appeared before the House of Commons to disclose the unspeakable horrors he had discovered as High Sheriff of Bedford the year before. 36 ACENTURYOFBANKING IN NEW YORK machines made a factory too vast and costly for the average artisan to have any hope of setting up for himself. Certainly this was not true in America; in those early days practically anybody capable of running his own business could start that business as one employing at least some of the modern improve- ments which were to make it more profitable. And that this means of manufacturing necessities and luxuries more largely and more cheaply quickened the building up ot a wealthy middle class is beyond question. Anyhow, it is a striking fact (and one quite intimately con- nected with the special subject of this volume), that the first quarter of the Nineteenth Century saw both a liberal awakening and a perfect outbreak of mechanical power-appliances in basic industries. Though forty years' growth had still left a vast body of the United States a pioneer region, the alert enterprise of Americans had been quick to lay hold of this new power of steam and ma- chines. Before the Revolution Christopher Colles set up an experimental stationary engine in Philadelphia, and within twenty years "steam power came into rather general use in the largest establishments along the seaboard.'' It was used in dredging the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, and, even in these early days, as soon as a Western community began to think of manufactures, some up-to-date man introduced the new idea. Lexington, Kentucky, had six of these primitive engines by 1815, there were a score in Cincinnati and half as many more in Pittsburgh by the time we are considering. In 1812 Niles was writing: "The progress of manufactures is astonishing. The world has no parallel for the population of the United States nor can it furnish any for the increase of our fabrications. . . . Let the present double duties on dry goods be continued three years, and there will be a dreary wilderness between the great body ot our citizens and the Egypt we fear. Its passes will be guarded by interest, and all will watch for spies from the enemy's camp, to seize and expose and render abortive all his designs of reducing us again to bondage, compelling us to make bricks without straw — as we have been compelled to purchase British goods while denied that commerce that best enabled us to pay for them." A couple of years later the same authority was figuring that we imported about one-seventh of the clothing used here, and that there were almost 200,000 spindles at work on cotton in the United States, producing perhaps $8,000,000 worth of cloth. He noted also that we were making all our own leather fabrics. R I S E O F A M E R I C A N I N D U S T R I E S 37 an astonishing list of brass and iron goods, glass, paints, druggists' supplies and so on. Albert Gallatin, too, ten years earlier, had reported to Con- gress, among the industries then "carried on to an extent that may be considered adequate to the consumption of the United States;" manufactures of wood and leather, soap, tallow candles, vermacetti oil and candles, flax seed oil, refined sugar, coarso earthenware, snuff, chocolate, hair powder and mustard. While, among those furnishing a large proportion at least of the home supply were products of iron, cotton, woolen, flax, printing types, paper, books, playing cards, spirituous and malt liquors, hemp, gunpowder, window glass, jewellery, clocks, lead products, straw bonnets and hats and wax candles. The average family outside of the large cities still produced and manufactured its own clothing; over ten million yards of woollen, linen and cotton cloth were made by hand in the families of New York State alone in 1820, and carpets were entirely woven by hand until 1840 in Philadelphia — always the centre of that industry. Yet it is quite clear that under the stimulus of the protecting tariffs, our infant industries were waxing at a rate quite suflicient to prevent any alarm as to their future. The report for this same year credited New York, for instance, with 184 cotton and woollen mills, 991 fulling machines, 1233 carding machines, and so on. A trying time had come with the Peace of 1815 so eagerly awaited by the country: "Pent-up English manufactures were delivered in our markets in such large quantities as to threaten the life of many new enter- prises. Many British merchants were no doubt eager to glut the American market so as to 'stifle in the cradle those rising manufactures in the United States which the war had forced into existence contrary to the natural course of things.' Imports into this countrv, which had been relatively small from 1808 to 1813, mounted to $77,000,000 in 1812, dropped to $22,000,000 in 1813 and to $12,000,000 in 1814, and then rose suddenly to $113,- 000,000 in 1815, and to $147,000,000 in 1816, the largest quanti- ties hitherto imported in a single year. Manufacturers in all parts of the country became alarmed and petitioned Congress for protection and were able to secure the passage of the Tariff Act of 1816." Yet in spite of these temporary set-backs, the manufacturing current steadily broadened and deepened over each five-year period, a host of eager minds laying hold of inventions and im- provements, native or foreign, testing them out, using those that 38 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK worked, changing one section after another from an agricultural to an industrial region. For example, Francis C. Lowell and Patrick S. Jackson of Bos- ton worked out in 1813, from Lowell's recollection of what he had seen in English cotton mills, a little experimental plant in Wal- tham — claimed to have been the first cotton factory in the world performing all the operations from lint to cloth under the same roof. In 1822 their success led them to buy a larger site else- where, and to inaugurate the vast congeries of manufacturing enterprises which make Lowell to-day a centre of the industry. The first paper-making machines were brought over from France in 1820. Mackintosh in Glasgow succeeded in using rubber for waterproofing in 1823; Jonas Chickering produced his first piano the same year. The first Macquard silk loom was brought here in 1824. One need only consider these few in- stances, in a country of only seven million people, to realize what a vital matter the tariff seemed to manufacturers, merchants, bankers, and solid business men generally. It should be remembered, however, that in New York, as in some of the other larger cities, an extraordinary proportion of the business still originated from cargoes of foreign goods sold at auction and purchased for re-sale by the merchants. The magnitude of these auctions in New York is indicated by a report showing that in 1818 the 43 auctioneers sold $15,578,- 831.09 worth of goods — on which the tax paid to the United States was $305,383.32. It is an interesting fact that some or all of the money thus raised went into the Canal fund which financed the building of the Erie Canal.* What this system meant to a young merchant ;ust starting out is strikingly illustrated in the reminiscences of Thomas Eddy, lor several decades one of the foremost business men and philan- * The success of this fund made it unnecessary for the State for instance to accept such an offer as that chronicled in the New York Columbian in April, 1819: "A Company of Gentlemen, of known capital, have offered to do the whole of this great work for the lease of the Salt Springs, etc. belonging to the State for 50 years, when they shall revert back to the present owners; and never to sell the salt at the works above the present price, which is only 37 K cents per bushel." Since the cost of the Canal, then the longest in the world, was $7,145,789.86 one gets an idea of the importance of this salt supply at the time. "Hibernicus" writing in 1820 of his trip to Salina, describes the Salt Springs in the marshes there, and says that the United States then con- sumed five million bushels, of which three million were imported and quarter of the rest manufactured at Salina, pointing out, too, that this salt, including a duty of \2}4 cents, could be delivered at Albany via the Canal for about 25 cents a bushel (it cost in New York 40 to 50, the duty on the imported article being 20 cents) — and declared that he considers "the salt manufacture of Salina the most important establishment in the United States." 'JT's m%^ '^^^^^r: . ^- l^ ^ }^ :]^ k^ yr"^ :^1:> r'.U xnt^ J < -'. t: %# 03 1) 15 y -ir, o ^i - ^^^ Artist, Peter Lacour (From an arigitial engraving, < of three known, Engraved by Ai. possession of Kennedy i OS Doolitlle, i~go Co.) The onlv known contemporary picture of Washington's inauguration. The building, which encroached upon Wall and Nassau Streets, was built as a City Hall in 1699 and remodelled for the Federal Government in 1788 NEW YORK'S AUCTION-SALE PERIOD 39 thropists of Manhattan. His people were members of the Society of Friends in Philadelphia. Upon the evacuation of that city by the British, young Thomas came to New York. He arrived here in 1779 with $96 in his pocket, very imperfectly educated, and quite ignorant of any kind of business. Here's the way he got his start: "I took board with William Backhouse, in the house now occu- pied by Daniel McCormick in Wall Street, at the rate of eight dollars per week, besides having to pay one dollar weekly for washing; Samuel Elain, late of Newport, deceased, John I. Glover, and two or three other respectable merchants, boarded at the same house; becoming acquainted with them was highly useful to me, as it was the first opportunity I ever had of acquir- ing a knowledge of commerce, and the course of mercantile dealing. I knew that it was out of my power to support myself with what I then possessed, and that I must soon come to want, unless I could succeed in business. The first thing to which my attention was turned, was daily to attend auctions at the Coffee House, and being sensible of my own ignorance, I endeavoured by every means in my power to acquire information, carefully inquiring of others the names of articles exposed for public sale, as it often happened that I was not even acquainted with the names of many of them. I then inquired their value, and advised with some persons previous to purchasing; sometimes, on noticing an article intended to be sold by auction, I would procure a sample, and call on some dealer in the article, and get them to offer me a fixed price on my furnishing it; in this way, by first ascertaining where I could dispose of the goods, I would purchase, provided the price would afford me a profit. On this plan I have found a purchaser for goods, bought and delivered them, and received the money, which enabled me to pay the auctioneer the cost of them, without my advancing one shilling. I was obliged to live by my wits, and this necessity was of great use to me afterwards. Some months after my arrival in New York, my brother Charles arrived from Ireland, and brought with him, on account of merchants there, provisions, linens, &c. shipped from Dublin, Cork, Belfast and other ports. He re- turned to Europe in 1780, previous to which we formed a copart- nership with Benjamin Svkes, under the firm of Eddy^ Svkes, Co." We get another side-light on the magnitude of the auction business from reading the list of City Ordinances regarding these sales, which the Strangers' Guide for 1817 lists among "Nui- sances"! 40 A C E N T U R Y O F B A N K I N G I N N E W YORK "Sales by Auction. — No goods to be sold on the streets except between 9 o'clock a. m. and 2 p. m.; penalty 10 dollars. "Goods not to be sold in the streets without the permission of the occupant of the house, store, or let, before which the goods are laid; not to be placed on the side walk, nor occupy more than a third part in width of the cart way, or lane; penalty 10 dollars. "Salted beef or pork, dried or pickled fish, blubber, hides, or cotton wool, not to be exposed for sale between 1st June and 1st November; penalty 50 dollars. "Household furniture to be sold only at Peck-slip, between Pearl and Water Street; at Fulton-street, between Water and Front-streets; at Bur ling-slip, between Pearl and Front-Streets; at Old-slip, between Water and Front Streets; in Broad-street, between Front and South-streets; and in l^esey-street, between Greenwich and Washington-streets; penalty 10 dollars. "Carriages and animals to be exposed to sale in Elm-street, between White- street and Canal-street; penalty 10 dollars. "Every article exposed to sale at auction, in the public streets, to be re- moved by 5 o'clock P. M. of the day of selling; penalty 10 dollars. "No bellman, cryer, drum, or fife, instrument of music, or any other show, signal, or flag, to be used at any place of sale by auction; penalty 10 dollars. "All dry goods, hardware, wooden or tin ware, exposed to sale by auction, in the streets, except articles of household furniture, to be sold wholesale, and not In small parcels or pieces; penalty 10 dollars." Chapter III INDIVIDUAL NOTES AS CURRENCY FlucluaHo/iJ- in Currency lvalues — Depreciation of Conli- nenlai Currency — Abuses of Our Financial System — the Injustice JF^orked by Depreciated Notes — How Unstable Values Hurt Business — When Banknotes Sold at Cut Rates— Paying Bills With Money Below Par PERHAPS the most striking condition in business and finance affecting the banks of this period was the chaotic state of our currency. It should be remembered that banking in America always implied a right and practice highly at variance with that of the great foreign banks — the right to issue paper money as a sub- stitute for specie currency.* Gallatin pointed out a little later that these bank notes had become "the local and sole currenc;^", in the various places where they were made payable, for nom- inally at least they were always payable on demand in coin.f The States, of course, had set the example in this. In 1652 the Massachusetts General Court worked out a crude sort of clearing house of bills, balanced up by the constables of indi- vidual towns, "for the prevention of the charge and trouble of transportation of the rates to be levyed, to the treasurer of the county" — -taxes being balanced by bills for wages, horses, pro- visions, and so on. Again in 1790, the Colony raised £7,000 to pay its clamorous soldiers, returned from the unsuccessful ex- pedition against Canada, by paper promises to pay. Carolina was driven to the same expedient a decade later; next came * Bank notes were current in China as early as 800 A.D. The first adapta- tion to European uses was when Palmstruck issued them from his govern- mental Riksbank in Sweden in 1658. t There were issues called Post-notes sold and purchased which were not payable on demand, varied in value, and were not considered a part of the currency proper. 41 42 ACENTURYOFBANKINGINNEWYORK Connecticut; and in 1709 New York adopted the same means for the same purpose. The money situation was compKcated enough even before the introduction of these doubtful pieces of paper; there were in use coins of Holland, France, Germany, Spain, England and the old Massachusetts coinage, each with the valuation of its respective country and in many cases each differing in different Colonies. For example pieces of eight, stamped six S. were worth 6s. 8 in New York, 7s. 8 in New Jersey, 4s. 6 in Mary- land and 5s. in Virginia and Carolina. With the introduction of this new form of currency, each colony putting out denominations and conditions after its own sweet will, the daily problem of purchasing and selling became more and more difficult. These first issues were, to be sure, protected with much care. It was a felony without benefit of clergy to counterfeit the bills of Massachusetts. * / Anyone who refused to accept New York's bills of 1714 as legal tender in the payment of debts on a par with gold or silver /forfeited the debt and was perpetually barred from its recovery, i^oreover, a tax on plate and spirits was laid to retire them — with the result that New York's bills were 25 per cent, better in New England than the ones issued there. As people became more and more habituated to the issue of such bills, matters grew steadily worse, though New York was generally far ahead of her neighbors in proper financial provisions and consequent credit for her issues. The violent fluctuation of values is in- dicated by these comparative rates of exchange on £100 sterhng during this middle period: 1740 1748 New England £ 525 £1,100 New York 160 190 New Jersey 160 180 and 190 Pennsylvania 170 180 Maryland 200 200 North Carolina 1,400 1,000 South Carolina 800 750 Virginia 120 and 125 * The New York record was: In 1704, such "evil disposed Persons" as counterfeited, clipped, forged, filed or otherwise lessened or debased the coin of the realm were liable to imprisonment for a year and a day, and the loss of all goods and chattels. When the evil grew worse it was provided in 1745 that such counterfeiters should suffer death without the benefit of clergy, as in cases of felony. The same penalty was in 1766 extended to imitatmg the bills of credit of any colony. In 1788 the privilege of benefit of clergy was abolished in all cases of felony, and the death penalty for forgery and counter- feiting was re-affirmed. A law of 1808 modified this to imprisonment for life; and a year later this was still further softened to a seven-year term. DEPRECIATION OF CURRENCY 45 Then came the final war against the French in Canada, re- quiring £416,000 in paper money for payments, and the Revolu- tion with the flood of notes by the Continental Congress and by each of the Confederated Colonies. Here, again. New York was conspicuous by the moderation and sanity of its financing, but through the country at large there was a ruinous depreciation thoroughly unsettling to busi- ness large and small. The following advertisement was prob- ably the product of Tory spleen, but later on it was much too near the truth for comfort: 1776. Oct. 28. Wanted, by a gentleman fond of curiosi- ties, who is shortly going to England, a parcel of congress notes, with which he intends to paper some rooms. Those who wish to make something of their stock in that com- modity, shall if they are clean and fit for the purpose, receive at the rate of one guinea per thousand for all they can bring before the expiration of the present month. Inquire of the printer. N. B. It is expected that they will be much lower. New York Gazette. As if the situation were not already bad enough. Sir Henry Clinton allowed himself to be persuaded to adopt some of the modern methods of warfare and permitted Continental money to be counterfeited and sold in New York. Tom Paine has an outburst of righteous indignation about this in the Crisis. Indeed the poetry and prose of Revolutionary times is full of references to this everyday phenomenon of money which would not purchase anything, and the wits found in it a never failing subject of humor. The fourth canto of Trumbull's "McFingall" contains a full-length portrait of a ghastly spectre " the ghost of Continental Money" bearing upon its tattered robes the device "the faith of all th' United States." Then, as now, it was easier for poets and wits to see the hu- morous side of business hardships than for the sober merchant or banker, with obligations to meet. One cannot fail to feel sympathy with honest, old John Blakey, whose pair of letters that follow take one right back into the personal worries of a reputable merchant strugghng with the situation: "Concord, April 18, 1777 "My Esteemed Friend, &c: "I am almost sick of this world, and the plane coats that are in it (and wish I had a good title to a better), some of those stif rumps pretend to be in the world, and not off it, high in profes- sion, whose practice gives them the lie; they are some of the keenest fellows we have amongst us, and to a discerning eye it is evident that gain is their God. If they have anything to sell. 44 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK they are sure to ask a Continental price for it, and then make many evasions now to take ye money. Notwithstanding what I have said, I love and revere an honest man, let his profession in religion be what it will. I have taken about a thousand pounds of Continental and resolve money, first and last, three hundred of which I have passed since I have been in Concord. I believe I have not taken twenty shillings in any other money but continental and resolve this twelve months or more. Yes- terday, Jacob Keyser, of Germantown, paid me £200 in con- tinental money; he gave the widow Warner 380 for the place he mortgaged to me, and is now about selling it for 800. I have a mind to buy a place myself, but the money is so depre- ciated, that one must give as much again as a place is worth, and it's but few that will take it at any rate. They are less afraid of old Nick. "I shall endeavour to make myself as easy under my present circumstances as I possibly can. I well remember the time when I was not worth 20s. in the world; if I should live to see that time again, I desire to bless God that I have not been a beggar all my life time. If the money I have should die in my hands, I must go to work again, and if I can't do much, I must do little. I gratefully remain for the many kindnesses I received from you and your loving consort, during a series of years in your servis. May God's choicest blessing be your reward. My best respect to Mrs Paschall, love to Polly, and the rest of the family. I remain with the utmost respect, sir, "Your very humble servant, John Blakey "N.B. I should come to town to discharge two mortgages in the office, but John works almost every day 4 of his horses, the 5th is lame and like to be so, the 6th and last is a coalt of a year old, not fit for the saddle." "Concord, November 29th 1778 "My dear Sir: "We live in an age, and revolution of the world, when too many of its inhabitants have neither faith, honour nor con- science, or the feeling of humanity or common honesty. The other day when my cousin John was at your house, he told me the widow Jones was there inquiring after me, in order I suppose to settle with me in a continental way, that is, to give me for a hundred pounds what is not worth twenty. The money has ABUSESOFOURFINANCIALSYSTEM 45 been on interest six years and almost seven months and but one year's interest paid. The principal of a hundred pounds in continental money at five to one is £500, 00 00 the interest for 5 years and 7 months is .... 167, 10 00 £667, 10 00 "I am not fond of it at any rate, as it is of such a depreciating nature. If she has a mind to pay me in hard money, it comes to £133, 10. I don't intend to take any pay that is not equiva- lent to it; please to tell her so the first opportunity, and I shall take it as a great favour. * * * The conditions in her husbands bonds says I shall be paid without fraud; that is all I desire. "Sometime ago when I had the honour and happiness to live in your family, Mrs. Jones came to me and acquainted me she had buried her husband, had lost a young negro wench, was left with six children and bursted into tears, prop'd I would not be hard with her, and I should be — HonesLly Paid. I told her she must not cry, nor break her heart, I had never sued any body, that I was not going to begin then, if she could not pay me then, I should endeavour to do without it. If I had less feeling for other people, and more for myself, it would perhaps been better for me this day. Had I gone to Philadelphia last summer when the English was there, and sold her house for hard money, and paid myself out of it, I doubt not but she whould have said, I was a gungry fellow that had us'd her badly, but if I know my own heart, I should rather lose all the money than do an ill thing to save it. My dear friend, I wish you the recovery of your just debts, to your sattisfaction, but least, I should tire your patience and my pen, I shall conclude with subscribing myself your and Mrs. Paschall's unalterable friend, and humble servant, John Blakey. "N.B. Love to my little Polly and all inquiring friends. — When a mortgage is paid off, it is required of the mortgagee to give a receit in the margin of the recorded deed in the office, and say receiv'd full satisfaction without fraud, defalcation, or abatement. How can I do this, when I am not paid its valua- tion or sum total? "Yours, &c." Even after the Continental currency was retirecl and some of the grotesque features of its depreciation disappeared, business and finance in the United States was confronted with the same 46 ACENTURYOFBANKINGINNEWYORK problem — due to the fact already mentioned, that our banking system was based on that of England and differed from those of all the Continental countries in giving this right of issuing bills supposed to pass currently for money. How this was abused in the outlying communities is indicated in a report of January 1822 covering the New England banks: Seven banks in Boston with capital of $6,500,000 had outstanding $1,231,381— 18^"% 15 near Boston with capital of $2,400,000, had outstanding $1,033,860— 43% 7 distant banks with capital of only $950,000, had outstanding $1,246,214—131% No wonder that wise old Albert Gallatin remarked shortly afterwards in one of his sane summaries of the financial situation: "The present situation of the banking system has proved but too conclusively the general inclination to Increase immod- erately the banking capital and the number of banks; and also the general tendency of all the banks to extend their loans and discounts beyond what prudence and their primary duty would dictate; and it is believed that this defect Is Inherent to all Joint Stock Banking Companies." Of course, when one considers the complete ignorance of finance In this country, * and the fact that we were building up new and unsettled regions with incredible rapidity, these errors are little to be wondered at. Moreover, our superior English cousins had really shown us the way towards this confusion. The British Government, In 1797, had broken a precedent cover- ing a century which saw many terrific wars, and had suspended specie payments — for more than twenty years. "The effect In "^ America has been to familiarize the idea that a continued sus- pension might become the ordinary state of things, and that banks might fail without becoming bankrupts." But what our people failed to realize was the stabilizing effect of the Bank of England's control over the whole system in Great Britain. We saw only that even this mighty Institution's notes were steadily declining from their parity with gold and silver, V until they were worth twenty percent, less than their nominal value. But these notes alone were legal tender; all other banks of issue. Including the English private bankers and the Scotch joint stock companies, were still obliged upon demand to re- deem their own Issues in Bank of England notes (or, what amounted to the same thing, drafts on London). "Whatever * And we were not at all alone in this: it was in Ireland that a mob made a bon- fire of a great pile of notes issued by an unpopular banker, crying out "The bank will surely break now"! DEPRECIATION WORKED INJUSTICE 47 the depreciation might be, whatever evils might be caused by its fluctuation, still that depreciation was, at the same time the same throughout every district of Great Britain and of Ireland: it affected in a direct manner all foreign exchanges and trans- actions: it had no immediate and direct effect on domestic ex- changes." Here, on the contrary, we had a score of independent legisla- tures authorizing all sorts of ill-secured issues — producing de- preciated notes whose values were different "at the same time in the different States, in different districts of the same State, and occasionally in the different banks of the same district." A banker, or even a merchant, had to consult a daily changing schedule of values as complicated as a modern tariff list. At this very time it took $180 in notes of the Kentucky Bank to pur- chase $100 of specie. "The effect on the moral feeling of the community," observes the old banker, "has been most lamentable." "When banks suspend specie payments, their debtors have a right to discharge the debt in the depreciated paper of those institutions. But, because the banks offer to pay their own debts with the same paper, it is not perceived whence the right accrues to individuals to pursue the same course towards each other. They have not the legal right, since, in case of a suit, the debt can only be discharged in the legal coin of the country: nothing but gold or silver is by the constitution a legal tender. Morally, every debtor is still bound to pay his creditors, the suspended banks only excepted, in coin, or at least in the de- preciated currency at its market price in gold or silver. It happens, however, that the great mass of merchants, who reside in the same place, being at the same time debtors and creditors, find it more convenient still to pay each other by the transfer of bank deposits, or to take and pay the bank paper at its nominal value. This, whilst confined to those who have a common interest in pursuing that course, may not be improper, and is convenient. But it is utterly unjust toward those who are creditors at home and debtors abroad, towards all those who have only debts to collect and none to pay, or who, if they have payments to make as consumers, are obliged to purchase at enhanced prices. The loss falls, heavily and most unjustly, on those who live on wages, which do not advance with the enhanced prices of articles of consumption, but which, on the contrary, generally fall during a period of universal derangement. "The injustice is still greater between those different cities and States where the depreciation is not the same. When the 48 A CENTURYOF BANKING IN NEW YORK parties have failed or are unable at once to meet their engage- ments, amicable arrangements must take place, and the creditors, in such cases, are satisfied to receive what the debtor can pay. But those debtors, residing in States or places where the local currency is most depreciated, who can pay, now begin to think that, because they pay and are paid at home with that currency, they are absolved from the obligation to pay in any other way their creditors who reside in other places or States. It amounts to this; you must receive this depreciated paper at par, or you may institute a suit, and the creditor, who knows the expenses and delays of the law, and who must realize his active debts in order to meet his own engagements, is compelled to submit. In process of time, the people generally acquiesce; the banks seem to forget altogether in what consists their primary duty, and, under pretence of alleviating the distress, consult only their own convenience. The same feeling at last penetrates into the legis- lative halls; and the State legislatures, which at first had appeared disposed to enforce a prompt return of the banks to their duty, yield and authorize, sometimes even encourage, an almost indefinite continuance of the suspension. "It would be painful to pursue the subject any farther, and to advert to the recklessness, gross neglect, inconceivable mis- management, amounting to a breach of trust, to the disgraceful and heretofore unheard-of frauds, which have occasionally occurred, or to that which is perhaps still worse, the apathy or lenity with which those enormities are viewed. "It may with truth be affirmed, that the present situation of the currency of the United States is worse than that of any other country. The value even of the irredeemable paper money of Russia has, during the last forty years, been more uniform, and in its fluctuations, the tendency has been to improve and not to deteriorate that value. No hesitation is felt in saying that, whatever may be the presumed advantages of a moderate use of N^a paper currency, convertible into specie on demand, to have no issue of paper would be far preferable to the present state of things." Just to increase the joyous and haphazard casualness of finan- cial transactions, our coinage, too, demanded a mathematical calculation to determine its true value. England's standard of value was based on gold, ours on silver; hence one had to know the market price of silver per ounce in the actual currency of England in order to pay a bill there. The legal proportion was: in England, one ounce of gold to 15 9/124ths of silver; in France, ^. 1 to 15}4 ounces; in this country, 1 to 15. Nominally, our dollar HOW UNSTABLE VALUES HURT BUSINESS 49 was equivalent to 4s. 6d. sterling so that $444.44 should have been equivalent in pure silver to £100 standard. But the Ameri- can dollar, which the Mint regulation declared to be I7d. 8 grs., was of a metal so much less pure than that used abroad that it actually had 8>^ grains less of real silver, losing here 2)44- Then the actual weight of the dollars in general circulation was 2 grains short of the theoretical; so, when the market value of silver was equal to its legal parity with gold, there was a 5 per-cent. premium on exchange here besides the cost of remit- tance. In addition, since comparatively httle silver was coined (it was legal tender only for sums not exceeding 40s.) there was a regular market for it as bullion, and the price fluctuated in accordance with its fineness and by the supply and demand at the time. In the period we are considering, therefore, the premium on exchange probably averaged as high as 10 per cent, and was often much more. Such a state of affairs would be a severe handicap, even in a community where business men had been trained for generations in the principles and practice of financial matters, but Eleazar Lord (at this time President of the Manhattan Insurance Com- pany and later head of the Erie Railroad) stated the case quite mildly in his very intelligent treatise on "Credit, Currency and Banking" when he dryly remarked: "At present, the proportion, even of merchants and bankers, who knew anything of our laws respecting our own and foreign coins, or of the degrees of alloy in those coins, or who could deter- mine the true power of exchange between this and any other country, is, probably, not very great." Imagine a pioneer "banker," growing up with the newly settled community in a backwoods region, struggling with these recondite matters — amid people whose main idea was that there had to be plenty of money in order that each of them might have plenty of it, and that banks were to be suspected because they were concentrations and issuers of money — and some high lights of the true picture of those times will begin to appear. Not only did we have the same inevitable phenomenon of rising prices which disconcerted England during the latter years of the Napoleonic wars, but the utter instabihty of ya^Jyes was a clog on business between different sections, and often worked the severest hardships. Much of the ammunition of the supporters of a National Bank was drawn from this source. A Congressional report thus x7' 50 ACENTURYOFBANKINGINNEWYORK summarized the situation some years after the date we are con- sidering: "The price current appended to this report will exhibit a scale of depreciation in the local currency, ranging, through various degrees, to twenty, and even twenty-five percent. Among the principal eastern cities, Washington and Baltimore were the points at which the depreciation was the greatest. The paper of the banks in these places was from twenty to twenty- two percent, below par." At Philadelphia, the depreciation was considerably less, though, even there it was from seventeen to eighteen percent. In New York and Charleston, it was from seven to ten percent. But in the interior of the country, where banks were established, the depreciation was even greater than in Washington and Bal- timore. In the western part of Pennsylvania, and particularly at Pittsburgh, it was twenty-five percent. These statements, however, of the relative depreciation of bank paper, at various places, as compared with specie, give a very inadequate idea of the enormous evil inflicted upon the community by the excessive issues of bank paper. "A very serious evil already hinted at, which grew out of the relative depreciation of bank paper, at the different points of importation, was its inevitable tendency to draw all the im- pprtations of foreign merchandise to the cities where the depre- ciation was the greatest, and divert them from those where the currency was comparatively sound. If the Bank of the United States had not been established, and the Government had been left without any alternative but to receive the depreciated local currency, it is difficult to imagine the extent to which the eva- sion of the revenue laws would have been carried. Every State would have had an interest to encourage the excessive issues of its banks, and increase the degradation of its currency, with a view to attract foreign commerce. "Even in the condition which the currency had reached in 1816, Boston, New York and Charleston, would have found it advantageous to derive the supplies of foreign merchandise through Baltimore; and commerce would, undoubtedly, have taken that direction, had not the currency been corrected. To avoid this injurious diversion of foreign imports, Massachusetts, New York and South Carolina, would have been driven, by all motives of self-defence and self-interest, to degrade their re- spective currencies at least to a par with the currency of Balti- more; thus a rivalry in the career of depreciation would have sprung up, to which no limit can be assigned. As the tendency WHEN BANKNOTES SOLD AT CUT RATES 51 of this state of things would have been tojcause the largest ppij: tion of the revenue to be collected at a few places, and in the most depreciated of the local currenc3\ it would have followed that a very small part of the revenue would have been disbursed at the points where it was collected. The Government, conse- quently, would have been compelled to sustain a heavy loss upon the transfer of its funds to the points of expenditure. The annual loss which would have resulted from these causes alone cannot be estimated at a less sum than two millions oj dollars. "But the principal loss which resulted from the relative de- preciation of bank paper at different places, and its want of general credit, was that sustained by the community in the great operations of commercial exchange. The extent of these opera- tions, annually, may be sajely estimated at sixti/ millions oj dol- lars. Upon this sum the loss sustained by the merchants, and planters, and farmers, and manufacturers, was not, probably, less than an average of ten percent., being the excess oj the rale oj ex change between its natural rale, in a sound slate oj the currency, and beyond the rate to which it has been actually reduced by the opera- tions oj the Bank oj the United States. "It will be thus perceived, that an annual tax of six millions of dollars was levied from the industrious and productive classes by the large moneyed capitalists in our commercial cities, who were engaged in the business of brokerage." Announcements like the following were fairly common in the newspapers at this time: "Uncurrent bank notes. Notes of the banks in this State and the other States in the Union purchased at the lowest rates at Allen's Lottery and Exchange Office, 122 Broadway, opposite the City Hotel." Another shortly after indicates the movement of specie and bullion out of the country which reduced the amount in the United States by nearly $9,000,000 in 1821-1829: "October 25, 1822. Doubloons wanted. Apply to Levi Coit, 621 Broadway, marble houses." The report goes on: "It is impossible to form anything like an accurate estimate of the injuries and losses sustained by the community, in various ways, b\^ the disorders and fluctuations of the currency. In the period which intervened between the expiration of the old bank charter, and the establishment of the present bank. But some tolerable notion may be formed of the losses sustained by the Government in its fiscal operation during the war. "The Committee have given this part of the subject an at- tentive and careful examination; and they cannot estimate the 52 ACENTURYOFBANKINGINNEWYORK pecuniary losses of the Government, sustained exclusively for the want of a sound currency and an efficient system of finance, at a sum less than Jorty-six millions oj dollars. If they shall make this apparent, the House will have something like a stand- ard for estimating the individual losses of the community." During the suspension of specie payments by the banks from 1814 to 1817, the Corporation of New York attempted to meet the scarcity of specie in small change by putting out $100,000 worth of 6>^-, \2y2-, 25-and 50-cent bills. These were accepted everywhere in the city, but they proved to be insufficient to meet the public needs, so that it was a common practice with many tradesmen to issue their own bills. Even these informal prom- ises to pay had a far better standing than the notes of the coun- try banks, some of them little more than names, which came into New York in great quantities just about this time. One gets an illuminating glimpse of some of the financial practices of those days In DeVoe's record that some of these institutions "were every few weeks or months stopping specie payments or closing for a period; then, with their agents, buying up their bills for 25 or 50 cents on a dollar, while others stopped entirely, defrauding thousands of poor mechanics and others." These practices reached such a pitch that in June of 1819 a mass meeting of butchers was held in the old Fly Market, which, after animated discussion and retailing individual expe- riences, resolved: "That after the 30th instant, they will receive no country bank notes that are below par in New York." Elsewhere the conditions were far worse, especially before the Second United States Bank helped somewhat to stabilize mat- ters. A writer who had held the office of tax-collector up the State declared that frequently a person receiving a dollar bill in the morning would do his best to get rid of it before noon. "For the purposes of small change individuals issued their own bills from 2 to 87>^ cents — the possession of a piece of coin, say a 6-, 25- or 50-cent piece, was almost a curiosity; and such was the want of confidence in what passed Jor money that a person could scarcely travel from one town to another with the same bills." This official had orders from the Secretary of the Treasury to accept no bills for tax payments, save those which were current and would be received in deposit at the New York banks; "I have frequently known a poor man, who kept a small grocery or tavern for the support of himself and family on paying from $15 to $25 for a licence, to be obliged to pay a discount of 5 to 15 per- cent, on what he had received as money at par in order to furnish me with such monev as I could receive." PAYING BILLS WITH MONEY BELOW PAR 53 The banks themselves set the example in this general distrust of the common circulating medium. The twenty different branches of the Bank of the United States itself were not required by law to redeem each other's bills, and certainly during one period there were bills of Branch Banks which were not accepted at par by other branches. The situation in Boston was very clearly set forth in a pam- phlet by an editor of one of the newspapers there in 1826. Though the paper of out-of-town banks was accepted as perfectly good in every other kind of transaction, the Boston banks had con- sistently refused to accept it. One merchant who had a large country trade testified that it had cost him in a single year $1800 for mere exchange of current money, received at par in the course of his business, into Boston money which his local banks would accept. This naturally kept in circulation a highly disproportionate amount of these out-of-town bills, and established a vicious circle. The three Boston banks in 1809, with a capital of $3,800,000, had outstanding $646,221 of bills; five other banks in the State, with a combined capital of $700,000 had $797,863 out. Again in 1819, when the ratio of circulation to capital among the Boston institutions was approximately one to seven, eight main banks had shovelled out fifty percent, more than their capital in notes. It is not at all surprising to note that several of these banks- exhibited as security for heavy loans pledges of their own stock, and that all the five banks first mentioned and several of the latter group presently failed. Interestingly enough, when an attempt was made to reform one main cause of this system, and eight banks agreed to give these out-of-town bills the same credit granted to each other, calhng themselves the AlUed Banks, there was a tremendous outcry against this unholy "Holy Alliance" of moneyed interests! ^J^- Chapter IV THE BANKER OF 1820 Ho^^ the 1822 Magnate Lived — Bank Scandals a Century Ago- Recreatlond of the OLd-tlnie Banker — HU Ajjociation JFith the Arts — The Banker's Social Obligations — The Old Merchant- Bankers — Letters of John Crodby Brown — American Finance During the jr^arof 1812 — The Banker's C> Duties in Old New York — Salar and Rents — Banking Hours in 1822 rHE working conditions and habit of thought of the financier of those days would seem archaic enough to the men who now spend their Hves in our maelstrom of colossal finan- cial enterprises. The "big men" nowadays come daily to Man- hattan on a "Bankers' Special" from Southampton, or a club car from Southern Connecticut, or motor in, in comfortable limousines, from anywhere within a circuit of forty miles; they even swing down from their homes up the Hudson, or the Long Island or New Jersey shore, in big private yachts at railroad speed. In those days a large number of the magnates strolled from their homes to their offices — naturally enough, when Wall Street itself had private houses, boarding houses and hotels (not to mention a church!), and when the usual residential section of the city would hardly extend above Warren Street. In fact, conditions were not infrequently more primitive still: Nathaniel Prime, the first real private banker in New York (and founder of the later very famous Wall Street banking house of Prime, Ward and Sands) had his counting-house in his residence, the historic No. 1, Broadway.* Even down into the '40s and '50s "everybody walked to and from business," as Felix Oldboy declared, "except those who lived in the outskirts of Greenwich * In Philadelphia "distinguished and well-to-do merchants" had their large and handsome homes, full of imported furniture, on Water Street, with counting-house or store beneath, and living apartments above. 54 I ^ ■O'^ \ H 1 w mHran i !ll~ n M ^ ..V vz-X;:/. wW /...y n H --" Hovk /— --'-Ar-* / — H H-- '//"//■" > fif/Trr^"/- ) "" i /•>()»/ the collection oj Charles F. Graff, .V. 1'. SPECLMENS OF NOTES Issued by the hanks during tlie early part of the 19th century. Engni William Rollinson 5db HOVVTHE1822MAGNATELIVED 55 Village and Chelsea, who came by stages, or a few invalids and octogenarians. It told against a man to pamper himself with sixpenny rides in an omnibus." In fact, this daily promenade was for a generation a social function where all the distinguished figures of the city could be seen joining the tide that stepped briskly, yet with dignity, down to work in the morning, and which at rather an early hour saun- tered back up Broadway to club house, home or political head- quarters. If the important men did not walk, they drove down in a high- wheeled gig behind a fast-stepping horse — for there was a prodi- gious amount of interest in fine horses and trotting races. In the Maverick view of Wall Street in 1834 a very prominent feature is no less than seven riders mounted either on sturdy cobs or mettle- some thoroughbreds; the same view displays two four-horse sleighs careering across and down the street which now is solidly filled with pedestrian humanity for a large part of each working day.* As a final touch, too, one sled is backing up against the sidewalk to deliver a load of cordwood for heating purposes, and a man at the corner of Wall and Broadway is sawing up four-foot lengths into firewood; while another feature not shown was the horde of begrimed chimney sweeps, in leather breeches, who went about seeking soot to remove. If we can trust the eyes of the artists then, these gentlemen had a dignity of carriage and an atmosphere of leisure entirely corresponding to what they have expressed in diaries and letters — and completely expressive of the essential difference between those times and our own somewhat tense and hectic business attitude. Yet they seem naive enough at times to our own sell- conscious generation. It was quite the thing for a rich man to have a country place where he raised cattle, poultry, flowers and other agricultural products which he sent in to the shows of the New York County Agricultural Society and part of which was sold; and there was at times the most intense rivalry among them, especially, it seems, in the matter of prize cattle for "Fat Beef.' In March, 1821, a Mr. Philip Fink, of Orange County, dis- covering that the sale of his exhibits to the butchers of Washing- ton Market was materially affected through his thirty-two steers having taken only the second premium, whereas the first pre- mium steers of Mr. Ebenezer Stevens had aroused great excite- * In 1800 there were said to be only seventeen persons in New York who kept private carriages; but there had been a great extension of wealth and luxuries even in these first two decades. 56 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK ment in the Fly Market, publishes a card in the local paper announcing that he is going to expose for sale these thirty-two head of cattle and requests his friends to view them "from 2 to 6 o'clock p. m. at Slaughter Houses 166, 172 and 174 Mott Street, where he will be ready to attend them." He continues by issuing a defiance to his successful competitor: "P. Fink hereby offers Mr. Ebenezer Stevens, of Dutch- ess County, a bet of 1,000 dollars, on the production of 20 head of the largest and best cattle at the next March fair in New York. The cattle to be raised and fatted in the State of New York, and to be kept at least eight months on our respective farms." Two days after: "Mr. Ebenezer Stevens begs leave to inform Mr. P. Fink, that he is no gambler, but does not apprehend any difficulty in beating him at any future time, as he has done in his twenty premium cattle; besides, he does not believe that the New York County Agricultural Society was established for the encouragement of that art, and he further begs leave to say, that if Mr. P. Fink thinks that his rage will influence any wise man in his favor and by that means insure him a market for his opposition cattle, he may perhaps find hirnself mistaken. Another thing Mr. Stevens thinks, that if he had acted towards Mr. Fink as Mr. Fink has done towards him, he would have expected to have been excluded by the ' Society from offering cattle again for any premium. "E. Stevens." Presently there was a procession of sixty carts "accompanied with music and flags and streamers" which conveyed these fat cattle through the streets to the market — "the finest and largest display of the kind that ever took place in this city"; and it was duly chronicled that Mr. Fink's cattle had weighed 185>^ lbs. "rough fat" each, while those of Mr. Stevens were 182 >^ lbs. each. So there was a great celebration among the Fink-ites, the various stalls and meat being "beautifully dressed" and "the market for it satisfactory;" finally, to close the affair, the prisoners in the debtors' prison came out with an acknowledg- ment of "a donation of excellent steaks from P. Fink, Esquire, of Washington Market. They also offer sincere thanks to Jonas Humbert, Esquire {Baker), for repeated supplies of bread; he that gli>eth to the poor lendeth to the Lord." From that time on there were frequent exhibitions and pa- rades of fat cattle with appropriate display of the star spangled banner and premiums of silver pitchers, some of them, as Mr. DeVoe narrates, "got up in the most imposing as well as the most expensive manner." (Ebenezer Stevens was, of course, a well-known army officer, a prominent merchant, and a mem- ber of society) . B A N K S C A N D A L S A C E N T U R Y A G O 57 That the magnate's "lady" used her time similarly is shown by the list of premiums for the best butter brought to Fulton Market this very year, — when Mrs. Morris, of Morrisania, was awarded the first prize, a silver pitcher, valued at $15. In ad- dition, the wealthy women were prominent in the Lydia So- ciety, the Dorcas, the New York Auxiliary Female Bible Society, the Society for the Promotion of Industry among the Poor, the Female Cent Societies (each Presbyterian member contributing a cent a day towards the education of a divinity student), the Association for the Relief of Respectable Aged Indigent Females — and other similar highly superior charities with resounding titles. For, with all the fine qualities which make us love the folk of this generation even while we smile superiorly at some of their manifestations, ■ it should be clearly understood that the upper class accepted without the least protest the decree of Providence which had constituted them upper; a modern soap- box orator would have been looked upon and treated much as an Indian brave on the warpath. And there was a comfortable basic assurance that since America was the land of equal oppor- tunity, and even the vast forests were full of that opportunity — why, it was a man's own fault if he were unsuccessful, and those who had amassed wealth were well entitled to all the respectful admiration their fortunes and influence could command. Anything else would have been like a quaking of social founda- tions to these solid business men (sometimes, I fear, smug — though there were plenty of magnificently human figures among them). To be sure, there had been, within the memory of all, a thing called the French Revolution; but that was an excitable Gallic nation revolting against effete kings and a vicious aris- tocracy; it might become right to revolt — they themselves had proved it was by doing it; but they had performed the opera- tion decently and with Anglo-Saxon restraint. Our banker ancestor was probably reading James Fenimore Cooper's novels, "Precaution" and "The Spy," if he read novels at all; and almost certainly Washington Irving's "Sketch Book" and the ;ust-issued "Bracebridge Hall, or the Humourists." Without any doubt he would have shortly Governor Chnton's Message to the Legislature, and would have also very strong views as to the Governor's recommendations regarding franchise and taxes, canals, and the attempt to bring canal tolls into the coasting trade controlled by the United States. The delight taken in gossipy and lampoony humor would probably too have made him familiar with Gulian C. Verplanck's onslaught on 58 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Clinton in his rhymed account of "The State Triumvirate: A Pohtical Tale and The Epistles of Brevet-Major Pindar Puff," which set the town laughing in 1819.* With particular glee or rage, according to his party, our banker would note the anonymous writer's barbed references to the Bank of America scandal, where the anti-Clintonians charged that bank shares were sold at very large premiums without the advance of a single instalment payment by the lucky insiders. Personal journalism was still personal enough: it was only a few years before that the editor and proprietor of the New York Morning Post and Morning Star laid before the world the inside facts about a certain supper at Dyde's Hotel which had set poUtics by the ears: he did not only intimate, but charged and produced "evidence," that the Burr party had come to Clinton's support because of a httle arrangement by which the Manhattan Bank lent a distinguished Burr-ite $18,000 on his notes, as well as that the Governor had taken most violent liberties with the truth. Again, in January of this year we are considering, Jacob Barker who was interested in the newly-chartered North River Bank, was tried for challenging David Rogers, one of the di- rectors, to fight a duel; and Mr. Rogers's testimony was not only to the effect that his opponent's anger was due to his unsuc- cessful effort to start an opposition movement, but more than hinted that Mr. Barker was a thief anyway! He would have read with pride, too, the sketch of the resources of New York published by young John A. Dix, presently to start his political career of Secretary of State, United States Senator, War Governor, and so on — showing that the 14 State banks, the U.S. Bank, the 11 Marine Insurance Companies, the 33 concerns doing fire insurance, the new Savings Bank and "several other incorporations" footed up a total amount of stocks exceeding $24,000,000, or four times as much as in 1800, while the whole United States, even with the outburst of new banks of fictitious exaggerated capitahzation, had only $150,- 000,000; that the business done on the Erie Canal was nearly seven times as great in 1826 as in 1823; or the latest valuation report showing that property in the city and county had swelled * "Major Puff" particularly paid his respects to the Governor for the passaee in the latter's discourse in which he "elegantly and perspicuously" described the New York Historical Society as having a "rare, invaluable and extensive collection of books, pamphlets, newspapers, and so forth worth at least $10,000;" and dismissed the learned societies with the encomium: "Thev are institutions which want nothing but more encouragement from. the public, and more attention from the members, to become useful." RECREATIONS OF THE OLD-TIME BANKER 59 to the prodigious total of $71,285,141; and many other pleasant statistics proving that his city of New York, "having its origin in commercial interests" had swept steadily on to opulence and greatness; though he, being a conservative person, probably took as spread-eagleism Mr. Dix's peroration that "there is no instance on record, ancient or modern, of so rapid a growth as this city has had since its liberation from the embarrassments of Colonial servitude; and it is confidently believed that its growth will continue undiminished until it transcends the bounds of every commercial city in Europe." Not much of the flap- doodle of that braggart period would be so well justified at the end of a hundred years as that particular prophecy. He went to church regularly on Sunday (in fact, it is declared, three times), this banker of ours, walking as he did to business; in the afternoon, as well as on holidays and summer evenings, he was apt to drive back into the country to Cato's, Burnham's, Rogers', Rose Hill Tavern or some favorite resort on the Hud- son or the Sound, Mount Vernon being not at all out of the range.* Apparently a large part of the pleasure in these excursions consisted in having a speedy trotter, and one of the irresistible entertainments (to all except the strictest sectarians and the Friends) was a horse race — as witness the surprising statement of the English traveller who found twenty thousand visitors, largely Virginians, crowding up to New York for a race between two celebrated horses. Some indication has already been given of what seems to us a rather childish quality in the formal amusements of the time. It was not at all beneath the dignity of these distinguished gen- tlemen to walk down to Catharine Market and watch "Ned," Martin Ryerson's little negro slave, and "Bobolink Bob," and "Jack," and other noted negro dancers, who would flock over from Long Island with leave for holidays, especially on "Pink- ster day" (Easter). These cheerful blacks would come in skiffs loaded with yellowleg snipe, ducks, fish, clams, oysters, berries and herbs, selling them for what they would bring; then, * "I made, on horseback," says "an English Farmer" in 1820, "the tour of New York Island, about ten miles in length and two in breadth, on one side is the noble Hudson, or great North River, and on the other the East River and Hell-gate, and the beautiful villages of Manhattan, Haarlem and Greenwich. All the road from the city to the extremity of, and beyond the isle is adorned on both sides with the country seats and pleasure-grounds of rich citizens, who, like those of London every morning and evening drive to and fro in great numbers. . . . The houses on the roads, thus leading through the isle to the city, have each from five to ten acres of green pasture, park or pleasure-gardens." 60 ACENTURYOFBANKINGINNEWYORK with three days' leave, they would hire out to some enterprising butcher to dance jigs, breakdowns, and otherwise keep the cus- tomers in good humor — not failing to pass around the hat. If there wasn't any money, they would dance for a mess of eels. These fellows, of course, could make their own music, "patting Juba," and had the natural birthright of dance and song which gave such color to plantation life in the South. Even the staidest city magnates deHghted in these first public exhibitions of negro dancing, and in the jokes and comical dialect of the grinning darkies. He probably shared with his contemporaries that fondness for childish practical jokes which impresses a modern reader in looking over the vaunted humor of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Just at this time, for example, everybody was smiling over a most elaborate hoax gotten out by an old carpenter, "Lozier," and his uncle John, who spread the news among the butchers and hangers-on at Mulberry and Spring Streets that Manhattan Island was getting too heavy on the Battery end, and that therefore it was to be sawed off and the lower section turned down. Daily the country visitors heard the practical details of this plan discussed; whether Long Island must be moved; if the Bay and Harbor were large enough to turn around Manhattan in, and so on. After some months, "Lozier" w-as actually engaging mechanics and laborers to build barracks and construct sweeps 250 feet in length; an enterprising blacksmith, despite the incredulity of his wife, was pulling wires to get the job of making the ironwork for this apparatus. The whole thing cul- minated when "Lozier," no longer able to stave off pressing ap- plicants by talk, appointed a rendezvous for one section of the working army at the "Forks of the Broadway and the Bowery;" and the other at No. 1, Bowery, corner of Spring Street, where they were to drive up an equal army of live hogs and other provisions. Of course, there was almost a riot when every- body appeared except "Lozier" and the hogs. The same lofty superiority of the Manhattanite attitude towards the surrounding regions, which is said to be observable to-day, was so titillated, that the whole town discussed the credulity of these gullible country folk during the weeks that the practical joker had to remain concealed. While even the dignitaries did not consider it beneath them to see such prodigies as the "learned elephants" and other prodigies announced through the newspapers, the better-class stage attractions would make our own amusement columns HISASSOCIATIONWITHTHEARTS 61 seem cheap enough. It was still necessary, apparently, for a manager to assure the fashionable public of his "attraction" — in this case Mrs. Meline — that "the respectability of this Lady both in deportment and talents, will, no doubt, give general satisfaction;" but even Italian opera, with its dangerous foreign songstresses, was on the way. It came, presently, through the efforts of Dominick Lynch (whose son represented his interests as director of the North River Insurance Co. and of the Branch Bank of the United States), "the acknowledged head of the fashionable festive board, a gentleman of the ton, and a melodist of great powers and of exquisite taste." He induced Stephen Price, manager of the Park, to make the venture, and on October 29, 1825, Rossini's "Barber of Seville" was sung, the great Garcia and his daughter Maria (afterwards the famous Mme. Malibran) and the basso Angrisoni taking the leading roles, while Lorenza da Ponte, librettist of "Don Giovanni" and "The Marriage of Figaro," acted as master of ceremonies. "The indomitable energy of Garcia," says rapt Dr. Francis, "aided by his melodious strains and his exhaustless powers, the bewitching talents of his daughter, the Signorina Garcia, with her artistic faculties as an actress, and her flights of inspirations, the novelty of her conception, and her captivating person, proved that a galaxy of genius in a novel vocation unknown to the New World, demanded now its patronage." It got it from that time on. In 1833 the Italian Opera House was built, at the northwest corner of Church and Leonard streets, six "proprietors" subscribing each $6,000 and each own- ing a private box and half a dozen free seats in the second tier. Our wealthy fashionables had discovered the public entertain- ment which they were to stamp as peculiarly their own, and which was to develop through the years until it blossomed into the be-;ewelled splendor of the golden horseshoe at the Metro- politan. Edmund Kean was ;ust terminating his first American engage- ment in the summer of 1821, after thrilHng New York audiences with the prodigious range of his genius in his favorite parts, from Richard, Lear and Othello to Sir Giles Overreach. George Frederic Cooke had displayed the plenitude of his ripe powers before unprecedented audiences in the Park Theatre from 1810 to 1812— and his funeral in September of the latter year was an imposing public spectacle, "the reverend clergy, the physicians, the members of the Bar, officers of the army and navy, the lite- rati and men of science, members of the dramatic corps and a large concourse of citizens" moving in the procession. 62 ACENTURYOFBANKINGINNEWYORK Our "lucky friend was later to see Macready, perhaps to witness the quarrel between him and Edwin Forrest which produced the memorable riot. We have already witnessed the famous come- dian Charles Mathews arriving here, and being debarked with much the same difficulty attending the landing of a nervous horse. One of our illustrations shows the kind of audience which turned out to witness his triumph at the Park in Moncrieffe's farce of "Monsieur Tonson." This painting of John Searle's represents a scene on the opening night of November 7, when cold weather had permitted New York to return to its business, homes and amusements; Mathews is on the stage as "Monsieur Morbleau," and Miss Johnston as "Madame Bellgarde."* Through an inspiration of Thomas W. C. Moore, forty-five years later (who prepared a key to the painting then owned by Mrs. William Bayard), we know the names of some eighty odd of the representative New Yorkers whom the artist portrayed as witnessing this important appearance. They are all here. Bayards, and Coldens and de Peysters and Livingstons, Cru- gers. Van Wycks, Clintons, Beekmans, Lenoxes, Brevoorts and the rest; not to mention the prodigious Doctor Mitchell, Doctor Hosack, Doctor Francis, James K. Paulding, Mrs. Daniel Web- ster and many another of the outstanding figures in the financial and social life of the period. He was also witnessing no less a person than Junius Brutus Booth, who had made his appearance in New York October 5, 1821, in the ;ust-rebuilt Park Theatre, and in Baltimore on November 2, creating a sensation as Richard III (and drawing a house of $383). To be sure. Booth had already produced a great impression at Covent Garden in London, though the over- shadowing reputation of Kean in "Lear" at Drury Lane made the joint effort of Booth, Kemble and Macready a failure — and the former used to relate, with humor, that the benefit which \yas part of his remuneration had brought him a deficit of £80 which he had to pay. There were, too, youthful prodigies of the stage in those days: like the juvenile Master George Frederick Smith, who^ tore passion to tatters at the age of ten as the "Young Norval" and * "Mr. Mathews. We last night paid our dollar to witness this gentle- man's far-famed exhibitions, and confess that we do not regret the time or the money spent on the occasion . . . Mr. M. played Goldfinch, in the ' Road to Ruin,' a character, we believe, that has no existence in this country, but, as we are informed, very common in the fashionable part of London called the west end of the town. . . . The farce of 'Monsieur Tonson' was per- formed for the first time, in which Mr. Mathews supported the principal character with great eclat." Commercial Advertiser. THEBANKER'SSOCIALOBLIGATIONS 63 "Octavlan" and was exploited as the American Roscius. A more enduring prodigy who came along just then was sixteen- year-old Edwin Forrest, not turned from his notable career by his initial failure in his native city of Philadelphia. Patriotically he would have patronized some of the native attempts to furnish American drama: M. M. Noah's "She Would be a Soldier," perhaps, "Wall Street; or Ten Minutes before Three O'clock," or John Burk's "Bunker Hill," or one of William Dunlap's many dramas and comedies. Chatham Garden, a pleasant retreat on the north side of Chatham Street, between Duane and Pearl, and running through to Augustus Street, was to this period what Niblo's was to a later. It was run by a French gentlemen, Henry Barriere, and the city's beauty and fashion flocked here to concerts and light dramatic entertainments by Mrs. Meline, Mrs. Dorion, Mrs. Garner and Alexander Simpson — an irresistible favorite in a comic song. Our banker also probably belonged to the Athenaeum Society, the Literary and Philosophical Society, and the few other learned associations, listening occasionally on winter evenings to such a discourse as that on "The Application of Chemistry to Agricul- ture" delivered by a distinguished professor, who, after dis- coursing with pleasing frankness upon "the talent, the informa- tion and refined taste to be found in this highly gifted city," went on to inform his audience that "unceasing compositions and decompositions vivify the surface of the globe;" who dipped into literature, broke into poetical similes, drew illustrations from the classics, referred to those luckless young men of fortune who had lost the wise guidance of their parents and consequently were not prepared to use the dangerous blessing of wealth wisely and virtuously, worked up to a culminating suggestion that the opulent country gentleman should have beside him in his rural retreat an expert in the physical sciences (modestly not named) — but in the course of a half-hour's talk did not present one single practical fact of the vast subject of his lecture. At the annual fairs of the American Institute he helped to award premiums for the best native manufactures silks, cottons, woollens, ironmongery, oil cloths, pottery, glass, plated and silver ware, hats, boots, pianos and cabinet work, even paintings and sculpture; Browere was thus honored one year for a "full length Plaister Casting of a boy kneeling," Gad Ely for plain and Ornamental Penmanship, Miss Louise Hewlett for Silk Cocoons and Sewing Silk, Mrs. Joshua Stow for several pounds of fine Linen Thread spun by her in her 69th year, Mrs. Stevens, 64 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK corner of Broadway and Pearl-street, for a Wliite Ouilt, and so on. Just at this time, also, the men of means here were devoting a good deal of their leisure to starting the first organized philan- thropic societies. , Our first Savings Bank was inaugurated as a definite effort to lessen the alarming tide of pauperism; for the almshouse cost our citizens about a dollar apiece a year, and the report from Philadelphia showed even more per capita spent there; and our progenitor surely read with approval (if he did not write him- self) the report of the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, showing that this expenditure had doubled in ten years, that the public buildings for the poor had cost a million dollars, that in winter nearly a tenth of the whole number of citizens received help, and that the whole system of offering support, even to voluntary idlers, was perfectly calculated to produce a more and more rapid increase of the load. Altogether this composite predecessor was, despite his naivete in certain particulars, an exceedingly shrewd, capable, hard- working citizen — as may be easily seen from a few magnificent specimens who have long outlived the biblical span — like Mr. John A. Stewart, still coming in three times a week, at the age C of ninety-nine, to the Trust Company he founded. He still did his business personally, so that his individual character impressed a definite stamp on all his financial transactions and relations. In discussing these early days with men who remember conditions as they were in the forties and fifties, there seem to be few changes so radical as the lessening of this personal relation between the banker and his clients. Some of these gentlemen of the old school do not hesitate to comment upon what they term the "department store" features which have crept into banking, the change from a semi-profession to a straight business, the substitution of a huge corporation for an individual. He w^ill mention such incidents as the tale of John Mason, president of the Chemical in the '30's, who one day met a journahst whose work he admired going out of the bank. "I hope the world goes well with you," said the old banker- merchant. "What brings you to the bank?" "I have ;ust been an unsuccessful applicant for a discount," said the other. "That should not be. Times are hard, to be sure, but they ought to try to accommodate you. Is the amount you require a large one, and do you wish to employ it in your business?" "I do, sir." THEOLDMERCHANT-BANKERS 65 "Then you shall have it. If the Bank cannot accommodate you, I will do it out of my own private funds. Walk in, sir." The ;ournalist got his money. The late John Crosby Brown, too, was an admirable repre- sentative of this fine type of the old merchant banker; a volume which he issued some time back on the history of his firm for a hundred years (correcting the last proof on the very day of his death at the age of seventy-one) has a number of letters which, though written during the Second War with England, give a most illuminating picture of the matters which engaged a bank- er's attention during this pre-railroad period. Here, for instance, are some business communications from American members of the business to their partner relatives abroad.* "Baltimore, 24 Mar., 1812. "Mr. Geo. Brown. "Dear George: I am in receipt of your favours up to No. 6 dated 10 Jan'y* and think it's as well you did not invest more money in goods. The opening of the Intercourse seems as doubtful as ever. The majority of the people say unless the orders in Coun- cil are off, we must have War. For my part, I think it impos- sible our Government can be so mad as to declare War until they are prepared to make it. It's impossible to give you any decided opinion what is likely to be the result of the present order of things. You would be surprised to find the ship Armata arriving in Lpool our property. She must be a very cheap Ship if we have peace. If the orders in Council should be off, so that a good f. [freight] is got back to this country, she will cost us very little. If she should even return in ballast her outward f. will reduce her price to about $21,000. John left letters in N York to be forwarded, directing her, if the orders in Council were not off, to return with all possible dispatch to Hampton Roads, and to send up to Norfolk to Wood & Hastings where we would have orders waiting for her where to proceed. Since then immense shipments of flour and corn have gone from this port to Spain and Portugal which has scarcely left a ship in port for charter. I think the chances of getting a good f. from this port immediately on arrival so good that you had better direct Captain Leeds if the wind answers to proceed up here without stopping. Should the wind not answer then there would be no great loss of time. He may stop and send up to Norfolk. I hope, however, unless there is a prospect of a return f. that she * From "A Hundred Years of Merchant Banking," by John Crosby Brown, New York, 1909. 66 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK will have sailed before you receive this. With respect to your remaining in Europe until we see what's to be clone, can form a better judgment some time hence. In the meantime, if you can be conveniently spared fm. Lpool, I think it would be well to go over about June to see your friends in Ireland and to return to Liverpool in July or in August to be ready to embrace any view of business that may offer, either by opening the Intercourse or otherwise. William will probably leave this for England in May or June so that you will meet him on your return to Lpool. "Alex. Brown & Sons." "Baltimore, 7 April, 1812. "Dear George: " "William has wrote you by this conveyance that an Embargo has been laid for 90 days. Some think it will be followed by War. Many, however, are of the opinion that the Non-importa- tion law will be repealed to give the Americans an opportunity of getting home their funds. I cannot help having considerable hopes this will be the course that will be taken previous to hos- tilities, even if they should be determined on. I still think it impossible our Executive can have any serious intention of going to War with England, in the unprepared state of this country, and particularly so, as we are equally ill treated by France as respects capturing and burning American ships. If the Non- importation act is removed, the orders for coarse goods suitable for this fall trade will be immense and they will get up rapidly in England. I should think it a safe and good speculation for you on rec. of this to have Three or Four Thousand Pounds invested in those articles. If the intercourse should be opened when that news reaches England, it will be impossible to procure the goods, so many will be wanted. . . . "Your aff. Father, "A. Brown. "P. S. There is to be a meeting this evening to petition Con- gress to take off the Non importation law." "Baltimore, 18th April, 1812. "Mr. William Brown (Mr William A. Brown, of Liverpool). "Dear Sir: I do not find there is any difficulty in getting little things ashore here, alto there appears to be in New York. M. LETTERSOFJOHNCROSBY BROWN 67 Bings therefore wishes you to send him per Rising Sun — One End of ps s.p. fine London cloth, black — One do Best Quality Pantaloon Stuff, Ten Dozen Ale, Ten Dozen Porter, Three Cheeses, Three Kegs Herrings, One Crate Blue and White Staf- fordshire Ware, Dishes, Plates, Basons, Chambers, &c. — for M. Bings' own use of the best, and one of common Ware for Ship's use. If anything opens the Intercourse, send double quantity of all but the two first mentioned articles but don't run the risk of getting the Ship seized. George might send Mr Smith's gold scales, and my Mother's table cloths, and she wants also 2>2 doz. of napkins to match them. Am sorry you forgot to send Mr Appleton's seeds. Enclosed you have £150 Stg. which place to the cr of Brown D. Hollins. The News from Washington to the most knowing Federal and Democratic characters yesterday and to-day is, that the Executive are pledged to France to go to War with England, and that the measure if fully determined on and is shortly to be brought forward. The most sanguine in their expectations of the re- moval of the Non importation act have now lost all hope, and it is even doubtful whether it is brought forward again. Monday, the 20th was the day fixed. Probably the packet may not go until after that and may have later news upon the subject. George had better not make any purchases in expectation of the renewal of the Intercourse, but remain in Lpool until my arrival. We shall then know better what new projects of business it will be advisable to pursue. "Don't by any means touch Exchequer Bills of any kind of Government security. A War with this country would depre- ciate anything of that kind prodigiously. If you cannot get as much private paper from E. R. & Co. with which there cannot be any risk, you must leave it with our Bankers. I cannot con- ceive for a moment there can be the smallest risk with them, and the object whether we get 4 or 5% until I arrive is of no impor- tance. The primary object is safety. If you have loaned a part of Her (?) Montgomery & Co. it is well, as it divides the risk if any. Should War take place, it's probable we shall have in- structions to place by some means a large amount of the funds in our hands in a neutral country if such is to be found, that the owners may get it here, but nothing specifick can be said upon this subject until we see further. "Yours, "Wm. Brown." 68 ACENTURYOF BANKING IN NEW YORK "Baltimore, 29 Dec. 1812. "Mr George Brown. "Dear George: Yours and Wms. Letters with the several enclosures per George Washington came safe to hand and am truly sorry to find Wm. A. has acted in such a manner as to induce Wm. to dissolve the partnership, but I do not see how he could do otherwise. It would be such a weight on his mind to have a partner in whom he had not full confidence. Your Uncle John's letters surprise me and are very unwarranted and very unbecoming. Still it will give me a great pleasure if the dissolution can be accomplished without making a family quar- rel, which of all quarrels is the most distressing. I have written to Wm. by a cartel on the point of sailing from New York and a copy goes by this conveyance, which I would have enclosed you open, had I been certain of your being in Lisbon, but I think it's possible you may be on your way home as it would be useless Jno. and you both staying. I think it was very well your going by Lisbon and procuring all the information you can as to the mode of managing a neutral trade. We can give very little information on the subject here. What occurred to me has been written to John directed to the care of Mr James Creighton at L Bulkely & Sons. I shall direct this letter as you desire to Gold Brothers & Co. I have also written John directed to Creighton. If John should not be in Lisbon, get his letters and open them. A law has at length passed Congress relieving the merchants from their bond for all goods bought in England before the official declaration of War was known there, provided they were shipped between the 23 June and 15th Sept. last, bona fide American property. This will we think embrace all the goods we had out. I am fully convinced this Government are greatly disappointed in the success of their War measures. It is now certain there will be a majority in next Congress for Peace (if not of Federalists). This circumstance will make them very anxious to meet the views of the British as soon as possible in making an honorable adjustment, provided the British still continue willing to meet them. Congress are afraid to lay the direct Taxes, and I do not think they can borrow money unless they give more than 6 pet. which would be unpopular. Thus circumstanced, many well informed people think a peace in the course of the spring extremely probable. This should make any circuitous voyage be undertaken with great caution. In- deed I am clearly of opinion before any thing material is done, you ought after getting all the information you can get, to come home and if the War continues consult and arrange FINANCEIN\VAROF1812 69 matters with your friends here, as, (if) settlement is Lisbon should be thought advisable, you will be able to carry out with you the views and arrangements that may be necessary, much better than by letter. If the Armata gets safe to Lisbon and home again, not being insured, we cannot make less than 60 or 70 Thousand Dollars by this year's trade. Circumstanced as we now are, it would be wrong for us to run the risk of com- mencing any establishment or trade that could not be carried on without hazard. "Believe me, dear George, "Your affectionate father, "Alex. Brown." "Baltimore, 2 April, 1813. "Mr Wm. Brown. "Dear Wm.: "A report is in circulation that Gallatin is going as a nego- tiator to Russia to treat with Great Britain for Peace. If so, we may still hope that desirable event may be at no great dis- tance, which induced us to make a speculation in Exchange in conjunction with P. E. Thomas & George in the enclosed bill George Tyson on Cropper Benson & Co. £10,000, Six Thousand of which place to our credit and Four to their credit. 2d of both those bills will go by the Francis Freeling Cartels. We have already advised that all letters coming and going by Car- tels are opened. D. A. Smith is going to Phila. We shall give him some bills if he can get a good Exchange to take advantage of it. We have received your letter of 23 Jan'y by way of Lisbon accompanied by a postscript from John of 27 February. We hope the next account will bring us an account of everything we are concerned in being sold at the then prices. We cannot think this War will continue long. Mr. E. Riggs is now in town and will be extremely glad to hear of the sale of all his Tobacco in your hands at the prices you mention in your last to him dated early in Jan'y. He requests us to say that he would be well pleased to hear of sale at even less. We are all well and your little daughter enjoys uninterrupted good health and spirits, "Believe us, dear William, "Yours affectionately, "Alex. Brown & Sons." 70 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK "Baltimore, 8th September, 1813. "Mr John Brown. "Dear Brother: I am in receipt of your esteemed favor of the 24th of May and rejoice most sincerely that my letter had in some measure the effect of opening a door to a reconcilia- tion between you and William. I hope and trust it may be a source of happy end, for of all disputes those between relations are generally carried on with the greatest acrimony and interest the public no further than to amuse them. On the subject of exchange, it fluctuates according to the public expectations of peace. On Admiral Warren's mission to this country in November last Exchange got up to 10 to 11 percent, discount. On the failure of that negotiation it declined again to about the price you mention. Immediately, however, on its being known that our Government had accepted the Russian Media- tion and were about sending Commissioners there to negotiate. It got up again early in April. We sold £12,000 to the Govern- ment at 13 percent, discount, and they have lately been buying largely at 14 which is now considered the current price. Peace we think would advance it considerably and the continuance of the war and our present prohibitory system of British goods would have a contrary effect. Am I to understand from your letter that you wish the £1,000 loaned to Brother Stewart to be repaid and remitted? If so he will no doubt comply, although you may readily suppose he cannot yet have made so much as will enable him to repay these loans and continue to carry on his business as it requires a considerable capital to do it to ad- vantage. I loaned him £3,000 sterling exclusive of the loan from you. In a little time I hope he will be able to begin re- ducing it by degrees without impairing his means of carrying on the business. Referring you to the Thomas letters of 19th of June and 10th of August which have been inclosed to Liver- pool for reasons which will explain themselves, believe me, &c., " (Signed) A. Brown." Our friend probably belonged to one of the Ancient and Honorable Masonic Societies, either the Royal Arch or the Free and Accepted Masons or Knight Templars: a httle unpublished diary in a pocket almanac of the period belonging to a member of the financial fraternity tells of his swing around the circle of Lodges on Long Island; he being a Worshipful Grand Master or Grand Deacon or something grand, spent a week in journey- ing down to Smithtown, through Suffolk County to Riverhead ^i ^ o -is is C 03 FINANCEINWAROF1812 71 and Sag Harbor and working his way back through Hempstead to bring the country brethren in touch with the Central Order. It was also the thing to be enrolled in a Militia Regiment, the Horse Artillery being quite as much a social club as some squadrons have been in our day. If a fire broke out, it was not only the younger generation who rushed to the excitement; dignity and leisure disappeared be- fore the necessity of taking one's place in one's particular com- pany of the volunteer fire organization — the forty companies of which, with their hand-drawn hose and hook-and-ladder outfits were our only protection until the whole volunteer service was abolished and the Metropolitan Fire Department created in 1865. The clumsy hand-pump engines and their excitable, half-organized workers were not extremely effective in putting out fires — as was only too evident a few years later. But over a period of half a century it was at first a social and then a polit- ical distinction to belong to certain companies: the rivalry over Hberty poles, water throwing contests, speed of getting out apparatus (and even fist fights between respective champions) were so intense that when a chief engineer of the department was removed in the '30's, apparently for political reasons, the whole force quit work in the midst of fighting a fire, and could only be induced to start again when their hero himself appeared and assured them the rumor was an error. Though he frowned on extravagances for himself, this old financier devoted what seems to us rather a formidable amount of attention to good eating and good — and plentiful — drinking. He was apt to know exactly where to go in the particular mar- ket he preferred to get the choicest game and shell fish and country produce. When the crop of soft clams reached per- fection, his sea-food dealer would send him word and he would sally down on the first opportunity to partake of a delectable mess of steamed clams at one of the little market restaurants where alone, as the real epicure knew, such dehcacies were to be had in their proper freshness and succulence.* And as for drinking — look over the list of duties paid at any of the ports on the Atlantic seaboard during this half century and you will come to the conclusion that the main activity of importers in those days was due to a feverish anxiety lest the country should perish of thirst. The number of puncheons of * Up to twenty years ago there was such a sea-food eating place at Fulton Market, where a few old-time New Yorkers of this school made regular pil- grimages upon being notified that the hour had arrived, as some of them had done for over half a century. 72 ACENTURYOFBANKINGINNEWYORK rum from the West Indies and pipes of gin from Holland and barrels and cases of brandy and wines from Bordeaux, divided into the number of inhabitants, would seem to indicate that every man, woman and child in the United States did his duty in this respect. Gossippy Walter Barrett gives an entertaining list of the various liquid appeals to the palate which were considered neces- sary about this time: "Wines: — Madeira, Sherry, Tenneriffe, Lisbon, Malaga, Fayal, Port, Claret. No Champagne was ever advertised. "Brandy: — Cognac, Spanish, Cette, Peach, Country. "Cordials: — York Rum, All Fours, Stoughton Bitters, Metheglin, Cherry Bounce, Cherry Brandy, Raspberry, Liquor d'Or, Creme de Caffe, Anizette, Pennyroyal, Baum, Wintergreen, Mint, Aqua Mirables, No^'eau, Rosa Solis, Mount Pelieur, Rattifia, Citron, Cinnamon, Ladies Comfort, Usquebaugh, Orange, Life of Man double distilled. Life of Man single distilled. Peppermint double and single dis- tilled. "Spirits: — Jamaica, Antigua, St. Croix, W. I. Island, N. England. "Gin: — Holland, York Anchor, Country, Old Irish Whis- key, Old Shrub, Cider Spirits, Alcohol, Highwines, Spirits of Wine. "And iron liquor for leather dressers' use." Nor were they content with variety and quantity alone; even such a truly devout old Scotch Presbyterian merchant as John Johnston left in his attic, after his demise, "huge demi- johns and magnums of Madeira and other wines which had been sent on the long sea voyage to India and back, some of them twice, to improve their flavor, each container being care- fully labelled with these details." Nearly all of these essential supplies were imported, and their sale was a most important factor in the fortunes which the mer- chants of those days were building up, though at least two well- knovi'n New Yorkers, Stephen Jumel and John Juvel, had es- tabhshed themselves here as dealers in the wines and spirits of their native France. There was, however, a local distillery of cordials, which was quite successful, though the product was considered inferior to the foreign article by connoisseurs.* It would be a great mistake to conclude from these facts that the substantial men of the time were in any way given to drunk- enness. The testimony of James Stuart, who spent a couple of years travelling all over the United States m the early '30's is * Oddly enough this patriotic venture was established by an ex-tailor who married the sister of the richest man in the United States — and acquiring from her the secrets of the business left by her first husband, a German dis- tiller, opened a similar business and flourished exceedingly. BANKER'S CIVIC DUTIES 73 very striking; in commenting on some ardent temperance out- bursts which began about then, he notes that in three months' travelhng about the only intoxicated person he had seen was an Oneida Indian, and that in three years of meeting all sorts and conditions of people here he had not seen a dozen people "the worse for liquor." There is plenty of evidence, of course, that the young blades were apt to become over-patriotic around July 4th, to the vast detriment of sober citizens' windows, and, as would naturally be the case, such a gentleman traveller probably saw little of the places where the harm was really done — the same sort of places, by the way, which finally brought prohibition a hundred years later. New York had a couple of thousand grog shops, many of them dives of the worst description, where enough vile liquor could be obtained for three or four cents to get drunk, since the stand- ard price for this grade of stuff was a quarter cent a glass. The earliest reports of the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism recommended, as an essential feature of the campaign, the clos- ing of all "tippling shops." Since, however, these worthy, and entirely sincere, gentlemen would have been completely outraged at the mere suggestion of setting an example by sup- pressing their own well-stocked cellars, this recommendation was not particularly effective. Our banker had probably an office on Wall Street — perhaps a former residence — for which he would pay from one to two thousand dollars a year rent. His own salary, if he was President or Cashier, would not have been over three or four thousand dol- lars a year, though naturally this did not tell the whole story as to his income. In fact, these recorded salaries would have been entirely inade- quate in view of the rents often paid for residence in the housing shortage. An unfurnished house in Greenwich Street, "not at all a large one," cost John Johnston $125 a month, and he wrote his father in 1827: "We have now four children of our own alive and one adopted, which fills our parlour very well." When a young relative spent the night he slept with his boy cousin "m a little trundle bed drawn out from under Aunt Johnston's bed, which was in the second story front room. In his hours of work, he had not yet forgotten certain natural divisions of the day. Most merchants were in their places of business by eight in the morning, and the initial announcement of the Farmer's Fire Insurance and Loan Company (the earliest recorded announcement, by the way, of a company offering to 74 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK execute the trusts formerly assigned to individuals) states that the new concern is open for business at 34 Wall Street "from 9 o'clock a. m. to sunset." The dinner hour must have been early enough, since the City Theatre advertises its comic opera "Rosina" ("Box 50 cents. Pit "hiy^ and Gallery 25") "Doors open at half past 5 and per- formance to commence at half past 6 o'clock precisely." At three o'clock. Wall Street would be for a few minutes crowded with solid brokers and merchants; young sparks eager to escape from bonds, ledgers and bills of lading and exchange to the fashionable rout in the Broadway promenade; a whole tribe of shady "bill-shavers" and other kites existing on the offal dis- carded by their betters; and an occasional country or foreign sight-seer. The "accommodations" or private equipages, or their own feet would soon carry them off— and presently the financial centre would become "as gloomy and deserted as though it had recently been visited by the yellow fever." During the migration to Greenwich because of the yellow fever, the regular banking hours seem to have been changed, since the announcements specify from ten o'clock to one, and from three o'clock to five. Where the morning working hours were from eight or nine till twelve, it was customary for the mer- chant and his clerks to shut up the shop and go off home to dinner — rarely over half a mile away. The responsible financier might vary his labors, as versatile Philip Hone did, by riding out on horseback to Bloomingdale Asylum to inspect conditions and accounts; returning to spend the afternoon at a meeting of the philanthropic Bank for Sav- ings; thence to a meeting of the Trinity Vestry or the Mercantile Library Association — with a possible bank directors' meeting at home, at seven in the evening (to discuss perhaps what premium their bank should offer on the State loan of a million dollars in six percents.) or a fancy ball at the Brugieres or Schermerhorns, or to see Wallack in "Julius Caesar" — relating, between acts, how he had passed on Broadway the celebrated Indian Chief, Red Jacket, and the equally famous ancient Harvey Birch, the orig- inal of Cooper's "Spy." ■^J^- Chapter V imO JFAS WHO IN FINANCE The PrcdeceMors of Nc<,'^ York'j JIUrLonaireo' — The JT'eallhi/ Men of the Dutch PerioJ-— The Capltat'uts of the EncjLiM? PerioJ^The Rich Aleii of 1822—'" Biography of IT^ealthy Citizens" of 18^7-^0 'N the year 1840 a number of leading New York merchants n the course of calculations connected with business," made a joint list of the available capital employed by the men they knew. This was probably to some extent the outcome of the disastrous experiences of 1837. New businesses and banks had been spring- ing up in many sections that had lately been pioneer settlements; it took weeks to communicate with some of these distant towns, and a business man, in times of stress, might be accepting the. paper of a merchant who had actually failed. It was believed that the extreme severity of the collapse in 1837 was caused by the difficulty of securing accurate and prompt information as to credits, assignments and failures; and the first mercantile agency in New York, four years later, grew directly from the discussion of this need. Undoubtedly the same conditions and the talk concerning them led to the pooling of the information on which this unique memorandum was based. As the list was added to, it grew to such size and was referred to so frequently that its authors decided to print enough copies for the original contributions, and it was placed for this purpose in charge of Moses Y. Beach, Editor of the Sun. A small edition was struck off — a little pamphlet of seven or eight pages, giving merely names and amounts. It was, however, the first thing of the sort to be put into type, and the only available authority on perhaps the most interesting subject in the world to business men, for it answered questions about which everybody speculated or whispered, and its appeal was personal and social as well as commercial. Every copy was at once snapped up by the originators and their friends, and everybody else wanted one. So urgent did the de- mand become that the publisher, after making some corrections 75 76 ACENTURYOFBANKINGINNEWYORK and additions, put the forms to press a second time. It was reprinted twice more in the next couple of years, not a copy of any edition remaining unsold. Then in December, 1844, a fifth edition was put out, greatly enlarged, under the title, "Wealth and Biography of the Wealthy Citizens of New York City; Com- prising an Alphabetical Arrangement of Persons Estimated to be Worth $100,000 and Upwards, with the Sums Appended to Each Name; Being Useful to Banks, Merchants and Others." It now had ten times the matter in the original pamphlet, with the new feature of brief genealogical and historical or bio- graphical returns of some of the more remarkable men and families in this community into Avhose hands "wealth has con- centrated." The editor proclaimed his endeavor "to do equal and exact justice to the parties, and have deemed that we have been rendering an especial service to those, more particularly, who by honest and laborious industry have raised themselves from the obscure and humble walks of Kfe, to great wealth and consideration." This absorbing publication was an instant success. It con- tained everybody who had money, from a retired Jew tobac- conist and "a respectable Irish gent," to John Jacob Astor with his twenty-five millions and Peter P. Stuyvesant, with a tenth as much but the social position of the grandson of the redoubta- ble Dutch Governor-General. And it narrated just how the dol- lars were piled up in a manner intimate, racy, and sometimes verging on the Impudent. It had to be reprinted in a month. Before the end of the next year it had reached the tenth edition; the issue of 1855, when it had grown to 80 pages, was the thirteenth. By this time, how- ever, the mercantile agency founded by Lewis Tappan, editor of the Journal of Commerce, in 1841, and Bradstreet's system of commercial reporting and financial credit rating (Inaugurated In 1849), had begun to manifest their value; and the day of the entertaining "Wealth and Biography" pamphlets passed. Its success had, however, caused the idea to be copied in other cities. A member of the Philadelphia bar in 1845 applied the scheme to that city, lowering the admission price to $50,000. Ela in Boston got out the following year; "Our First Men: A Calendar of Wealth, Fashion and Gentility," with the original $100,000 requisite for admission. And Brooklyn, not to be outdone, contributed in 1847, "The Wealthy Men and Women of Brooklyn and Willlamsburgh, Embracing a Complete List of All Whose Estimated Possessions (in Real and Personal Property) Amount to the Sum of Ten Thousand Dollars and Upwards." NEWYORK'SRICHMEN 77 There may have been others; these, with some hundreds of pages of tax Hsts and lists of bankrupts, were bound up into a fat, blue cloth volume, titled (in gold, naturally) "The Blue Book of our Monied Aristocracyf"; and a reading of these annotated lists seemed to illuminate so brightly the bygone personalities and conditions which made our banking history, that the pamphlet of 1845 is given here in facsimile, and it is supplemented as far as possible with some lists of the men whose possessions made banks possible at various periods. The Dutch Period On October 11, 1654, Governor Stuyvesant and his Council at Fort Amsterdam called for a voluntary subscription to pay the cost of repairing the defences and of the necessary expenses of government. The consequent "summoning by the Court Mes- senger" brought forward the first definite grouping of Manhat- tan's rich men. It should be remembered that there were at this time just twenty holders of the Great Burgher Right for all its six classes; members of the Government, burgomasters and schepens, minis- ters of the Gospel, commissioned officers, all who applied and paid 50 florins, all descendants in the male line of the foregoing; even the small Burgher Right had been granted to but 204. Quite a number of these twenty Great Citizens did not appear among the contributors listed: The Honble Lord Petrus Cornelis van Ruyven, Secre- Stuyvesant offers for his share tary, 30 fl. 50 above the most, being fl. 150 Lieut. Pieter Wolferts van {a florin amounted to 40 cts.) CouWENHOVEN, voluntary. 100 Herr Cornelis van Tien- Lieut. Daniel Litschoe, 50 HOVEN offers. 100 Ensign John Pr Verbrugge Allard Anthony, 100 offers with others; requests to Oloff Stevenson, (this was Van be assessed; taxed at. 100 Cortlandt), 50 Cornelis Steenvvyck, Item, 100 OH. Nevins, (not wealthy). 50 JoosT VAN Beeck, taxed at. 50 OH. d'Peyster, 50 Skipper Jan J. Bestevaer and ^ACOB StRYCKER, 30 brother, voluntary. 150 fAN VeRIGE, 30 Govert Lookermans, \ 100 Jacob Kip, Secretary, 20 Pieter Corns, van Veen ) 60 Capt. Martin Krygier taxed Pieter Jacobs, Burg., ( * 80 at. 50 Jacobus Backer, / 100 Capt. Paul Leenderts van Rymer Rycken, \ 60 DIE Grift, 60 Abram Nichels, / 70 DoM Megapolensis, volun- tary, 50 *are willing; request to be assessed. Samuel Drisius, Item, 50 Therejore are taxed each at t The author's copy of the absorbing work is stamped on the title page; "Property of Jas. G. Bennett, Herald Building." 78 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Of the others taxed, on Oct. 12, the following are the heaviest: Hend'k Jansen van Vin taxed at Jacob Moerman, Item, CoRNELis ScHUT, voluntary, 50 taxed at Three skippers, Ptr Emilius of the Speckled Cow, Ptrd'Wat- ERHOUT of the one N. Amster- dam, and Unnamed Skipper of the White Horse were each taxed 100 150 Abram la Cuia is voluntarilv taxed at " 100 Joseph de Coster, Item, 100 David Frerie, Item, 100 Salvader Dandrado, Item, 100 Jacob Cawyn, Item, 100 Mr. Thomas Willett, volun- tary, 60 Jacob van Couwenhoven, vol- untarv, 100 Many of these were well-known figures in our early annals: Anthony, AUard* Was one of the leading men in New Amsterdam; a lawyer who at various times served the city as Burgomaster, City Treasurer and Schont. W^hen the voluntary tax of 1654 was levied for city de- fences, Anthony subscribed 100 fl. He left New Amsterdam and identified himself with the Mass- achusetts Colony at Plymouth. In 1656 he married Henrica Wes- sels of Utrecht. Bayard, Nicholas Came from Holland to New Neth- erland with Stuyvesant, his Uncle. In 1666 he married Judith Verlett who had suffered imprisonment as a witch in Hartford, Conn. He was a brewer; by 1676 he had acquired a small fortune of £1500. Under the Dutch regime he held several public offices; in politics Bayard was a bitter opponent of Leisler. He was tried for treason under Gov. Bellomont, and sen- tenced to death, but the sentence was reversed by the English courts. He died in 1711. His residence was in Stone Street, near Hanover Square. Bayard, Balthazer Taxed £3. 2. 6. in 1676 on £500. Married Marretza Lockermans. He was a brewer and a man of as fine character as his brother. Bayard, Peter Brother of Balthazar and Nicholas. Married Blandina Kierstede. Bay- ard was a Ship Captain. Bickers, Aaltje Died before 1664. The curators of his estate lent the city 1500 11. in 1664. Boon, Francis In 1664 he loaned the city 400 11. CousSEAU, Jacques Cousseau was a Huguenot mer- chant who came to New Amster- dam in 1658. He was evidently a man of means, for he soon became associated with Cornelis Steen- wyck, one of the wealthiest men of the times, in trading to the West Indies and France. In 1664 he loaned the city 1000 fl. for re- pairing defences. He died some time before 1682. Bout, Jan Eberzen In 1664 he loaned the city 500 fl. In 1674 he was not listed as a wealthy man. Cregier, Martin Was a captain. In 1654 he was taxed 50 fl., and in 1664 loaned the city 100 fl. De Forest, Isaack A brewer, and for some time a magistrate. The De Forest family does not seem to have been very rich in the early days; no member is listed in 1674 among the wealth- iest families. In 1664, however, Isaac loaned the city 250 fl. DE MarsCHALCK, William Loaned the citv 800 fl. in 1664. Not listed in 1674. De Haert, Matthys The De Haerts were among the wealthy citizens of New Amster- dam; Balthazar De Haert was one of the leading citizens who aided the city by lending money for repairing defences in 1664. He gave 250 fl. Matthys was included among the "best and most affluent inhabitants" in 1674 his propertv being valued at 12.000 fl., while * For further data on Allard Anthony, see preceding page. WEALTHY MEN OF DUTCH PERIOD 79 Balthazar De Haert's house was deemed to be worth 2,000 fl. The "Widdow Matthias Dehart' in 1676 was worth £1200, while a Daniel De Haert was taxed £5. 15s. on property assessed at £600. De Meyer, Nicolaes In the earliest records De Meyer is called "Nicolaes Van Holsteyn." He came about 1655 froni Ham- burg, in Schleswig Holstein, and was a baker by trade. In the city of New Amsterdam he served as Schepen, and under English rule in New York as Alderman and Mayor. He possessed considerable real estate. His name does not occur in the list of citizens who aided the city in 1664 by lending money to repair the fortifications, yet be Meyer must have been wealthy at the time, for ten years later he was worth 50,000 fl., only one man in the city (Frederick Philipsen) being rated as wealthier than he. In 1655 he married Lydia Van Dyck; after her death he married Sarah, widow of John Wicksteen. He died in 1690. De Peyster, Johannes The founder of the De Peyster family. For the city's defences he was taxed 50 fl. in 1654. He loaned no money to the city in 1664 for repairing defences, but he was worth 15,000 fl. in 1674. Under the Dutch, De Peyster served as Burgomaster and Schep- en, and when the city fell to the English, he officiated as Alderman and Deputy Mayor. Ebbingh, Jeronimus He married Johanna De Laet in 1659. When the city borrowed monev in 1664, to repair its de- fences. Ebbingh loaned 200 fl. He is listed in 1674, with a fortune of 30,000 fl. ($12,000); two years later, his property was valued at £1,000. ExTON, Thomas One of the British officers engaged in the conquest of New Amster- dam; died in 1668. His will gave seven beavers to buy wine for the officers and gentlemen accompany- ing his corpse to the grave; gave his shirt to Matthias Nichols (a lawyer) ; some silver to Mrs. Nichols, and a good seal ring to Richard Nichols; to Richard Haymer his two goats in the fort, and to Richard Charlton (for writing his will), four pieces of eight. Hall, Thomas An Englishman who was taken prisoner by the Dutch, and who, on his release, took up his per- manent residence in New York. He was the proprietor of a farm near the present Beekman Street, which was afterwards purchased by William Beekman. He filled various public offices. He died in 1670. Heiji, Jacob (Haey) A prosperous Dutchman in the city of New Amsterdam as early as 1658. He had a plantation on Long Island, and in New Amster- dam he owned several pieces of real estate. He had been a trader in Curacao and Santa Cruz, but was in New Amsterdam before 1648. Not listed in 1674. Herrman, Augustine Came to America as agent for firm of Peter Gabry & Sons, Amsterdam, in 1635. He was largest and most propserous mer- chant of New Amsterdam in 1650; he had a warehouse on the Strand (Pearl Street) and dealt in furs, tobacco, wines, and slaves; he was also a banker and lawyer. For making a survey of the colonies of Maryland and Virginia he was rewarded by Lord Baltimore by a grant of from 24,000 to 40,000 acres in Maryland, where he estab- lished a manor. Kierstede, Doctor Hans The chief physician of his time; one of the early settlers. He built the first habitation on the present corner of Pearl and Whitehall Streets, where he lived until his death in 1666. Kip, Hendrick Hendricksen Kip was founder of the family in America, coming to New Nether- land before 1643. He was a tailor by trade. In 1664 Kip loaned the city for repairing defences, 100 fl. He was one of the most prosperous citizens of his period. Kip, Jacobus Came to America before 1643. 80 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Was first clerk of City of New Amsterdam, later he became re- ceiver and book-keeper of city's revenues. He married Maria, daughter of Johannes de la Mon- tagne. Owned property on present 36, 38, 40 and 42 Broad Street, which remained in the family until 1794; he also owned other real estate. When the voluntary tax for the city defences was made in 1654, Jacobus Kip gave 20 fl.; in 1664 he loaned the city 100 fl. for repairing its defences. In 1674 he was credited with a fortune of 4,000 fl. Lkvy, Asser One of the first Tews who settled in New Amsterdam. He was a butcher by trade, but was also a general dealer, and he loaned money. Levy came forward with a loan of 100 11. to the city in 1664 for repairing its defences. In 1674 he was estimated to be worth 2,500 fl.; two years later he was obliged to pay an assessment of £2. 10s. on property valued at £400. LOOCKERMANS, Govert The first regular packet captain on the North River, a man of great wealth and distinction. Taxed 100 fl. in 1654; in 1664 he loaned the city 500 fl. Philipse, Frederick An emigrant from Holland, com- ing to New Netherland as a young man. He married, first, Margar- etta Hardenbrook, widow of Peter Rudolphus, a rich fur merchant, and by this marriage he laid the foundation of the largest fortune acquired by any man at that time. He married, second, Catharena Van Cortlandt, widow of John Dervall, a rich English merchant, and the pair became possessors of almost unbounded wealth. Mr. Philipse became patentee of a manor on the Hudson, embracing a large portion of the present Westchester County. He erected a manor house where he and his wife spent the rest of their days in the felicity which wealth and social position can give. In 1674 his fortune was estimated at 80,000 fl. In 1676 his assessment was £81. 18. 9. on property valued at £13,000. ROMBOUTS, Francois Came to New Netherland in 1654 as supercargo of a merchant vessel, and meeting with misfortunes that prevented his return, settled in America. He became successful in business and was a magistrate for some years. He was Mayor in 1679. He resided on the west side of Broadway, below Rector Street, on property formerly occupied by Paulus Peendersen Vandiegrist, embracing a large house and garden. He died in 1691. Rycken, Rymer Taxed 60 fl. in 1654; in 1664 he loaned the cHy 200 fl. Not men- tioned in 1674. ScHUT, Cornelis A wealthy Amsterdam merchant who lived in New Amsterdam but a short time. He returned to Holland before July 1656. Sub- scribed 50 fl., but this was deemed insufficient for one of his means and the authorities raised the tax to 100 fl. Stein, Hans In 1664 he loaned the city 300 fl. In 1674 he was not listed among the wealthy citizens. Strycker, In 1654 his assessment was 30 fl. In 1664 he loaned the city 150 fl. In 1674 he was not listed among the wealthy citizens. Stuyvesant, Peter Governor Stuyvesant subscribed 150 fl. voluntary tax, in 1654, be- ing "fl. 50 above most," and for repairing the defences in 1664 he loaned 1000 fl._ The Stuyvesants are not listed in 1674 among the wealthy citizens, probably because they lived outside the city, on the Bowery Van Borsum, Eghbert In 1664 he loaned the city 100 fl. for defences. In 1674 Cornelis Van Borsum's fortune amounted to 8,000 fl. In 1676 he was taxed £5. on property assessed at £800. Van Brugh, Johannes Van Brugh began his career as a merchant under Dutch rule; under the English he served as a member of the Common Council. A "Carl Van Brugge" loaned the city 100 fl. in 1664; in 1654 "Ensign John Pr. Verbrugge" was taxed 100 fl. for the same purpose. He was WEALTHY MEN OF DUTCH PERIOD 81 listed in 1674, at 14,000 fl.; in English money this amounted, in 1676, to £900, upon which he was taxed £5.12.6. In 1658 Van Brugh married Catherine Roelofs. Van Cortlandt, Oloff Stevenson Van Cortlandt came to New Netherland in 1638. In 1642 he married Anneken Loockermans. Under the Dutch he held many offices, including that of City Treasurer. He soon acquired ex- tensive property, including a brew- ery. In the voluntary tax he gave 50 fl. His fortune "^in 1674 was estimated at 45,000 fl., and in 1676 he was taxed £18.1 5s. on property assessed at £5,000. He died in 1683. Vanderdonck, Adrian The most distinguished man of letters in the Province. He was the author of a description of New Netherland as it was in 1650. Died in 1655. Vander Grift, Paulus Leenderzen Was one of the leading men in. New Amsterdam; as a burgomaster he was in high favor with the authorities. In the "Representa- tion of New Netherland,' written in 1649, the following caustic com- ment was made regarding him: "Though Paulus L. Lenaertssen has small wages, he has built a better dwelling-house here than anybody else. How this has happened is mysterious to us.' For the voluntary assessment to repair defences in 1654, Vander Grift subscribed 60 fl., and in 1664 he loaned the city 2000 fl. for the same purpose. In 1670, after the English occupation, Vander Grift returned to Holland. Vandespeagle, Lawrence (Vander- speigle) Was a baker. In 1664 he loaned the city 100 fl. In 1676 his fortune amounted to £800, and his name is listed in 1674 among the best and wealthiest citizens. A daughter of Vandespelgle married Rip Van Dam, one of the most prominent men of the city. Vander Vin, Hendrick Jansen Vander Vin came to New Nether- land in 1651; he was a talented man and was an accountant in the * See page 77. service of the West India Co. In 1657 and. 1659 he was a Schepen of the city, and was churcli warden in 1658. In 1662 he purchased property at Harlem, where later he was made Secretary of the village. He was taxed 60 fl., in 1654 for city defences. Van Ruyven, Cornells He was sent to America by the West India Co. as provincial secretary in 1653; he remained as such until the surrender to the English in 1664. He married the daughter of Dominie Megapolen- sls. He built a fine house on Broadway. In 1674 returned to Holland. Was a prominent citizen for twenty years. His voluntary ta.x for defences was 30 fl. Van Steenwyck, Cornells Steenwyck appears to have settled in New Amsterdam about 1651, and In spite of disagreements with Governor Stuyvesant (which are duly recorded in the early records of the city), he succeeded in ac- cumulating one of the largest fortunes possessed by any of the early Dutchmen. In the voluntary tax, Steenwyck gave 100 fl.; in 1663 he loaned Stuyvesant 12,000 guilders (about $4,800) in wampum upon a draft of the West India Co. At this time he was one of the leading merchants, handling slaves, salt and other commodities. When New Amsterdam fell into the hands of the English, Steenwyck becarne a member of the Colonial Council; and was Mayor of the city from 1661 to 1670. He lived as lu.xurl- ously as any man in the province. His estate in 1674 was valued at 50,000 fl. ($20,000). A portrait of Steenwyck hangs in the New York Historical Society. An inventory of his estate in 1686 gives value as £15,841. Van Tienhoven, Cornells* Secretary of the Province; writers give a very disagreeable account of his character. He owned some valuable real estate, including a farm between the present Maiden Lane and Ann Street. Van Tien- hoven disappeared very suddenly in 1656. In the voluntary assess- ment gave 100 fl. 82 A CENTURYOF BANKING IN NEW YORK Waldron, Resolved Was in New Amsterdam before 1655. Served as Under Schont, Constable, and Overseer; died in Harlem, leaving a good estate of lands, slaves and farm stock. If not one of the richest, he was at least one of the best known of the early settlers in New York. Van CouwENHOVEN, Jacob Wolfertsen One of the very first settlers and a man of great distinction; died in 1670. He was a son of Wolfert Gerritsen, also one of the first settlers, and carried on a brewing establishment on the corner of Pearl and Broad Streets. Florins 1,000 200 Van Tright, Gerrit He loaned the city, in 1664, 800 11. His name is not mentioned in 1674 among the wealthy citizens. Verplanck, Guleyn A gay figure. He was a merchant in New Amsterdam, having been formerly a clerk of Allard An- thony's. He married Hendrickje Wessels in 1668. Verplanck served the city as Schepen in 1673, and later, under English government, was an Alderman. In 1674 "Gelyn Verplanck" was listed among the wealthy men of the city with a fortune of 5000 fl. He was taxed £3.2.6. on £500 in 1676. Again, ten years later, we get a banking list, at the time when New Amsterdam borrowed money from its burghers "to strengthen the place with a stone wall on the land side and palisadoes along the river front." The men who subscribed to this first bond issue were: Florins Paulus Leenderzen van der Grift, 2000 Dirck Janzen, 100 Antony de Milt, 100 Hendrick Kip, the elder, 100 Albert Couneirck, 100 Jan Janzen van Brestee, 150 Evert Duyckengle, 100 Tomas Francen, 100 Jan Hendrickzen van Bommel, 100 Jacob Strycker, 150 Cornelis Aarzen, 100 Gerrit Fullewever, 100 Hendrick van der Water, 100 Guliam d'Honneur, 200 AssER Levy, 100 IsAACK de Forrest, 250 Aegidius Luyck, 200 Joannes Dirckzen Meyer, 200 Paulus Richard, one Cargo, 500 AmBROSIUS de WEERHEiM, 100 Claas Bordingh, 100 Jonas Barteltzen, 100 Arien Van Laar, 150 Franz Janzen van Hooghten, 100 Abel Hardenbroeck, 100 Daniel Verveelen, 200 Alexander Stertaer, 100 WiLLEM Abraham van der Borden, 100 Denys Isaackzen van Hart- welt, 100 Jurrien Blanck, 100 Pieter Jacobzen Marius, 100 Eghbert Memderzen, 100 Jacques Cousseau, Reinout Reinoutsen, Jacob Kip, 100 Gerrit van Treght, 400 Willem de Marschalck, 800 Jeronimus Ebbinck, 200 Francois Boon, 400 Balthazar de Haart, 250 Reinier Rycken, 200 Hendrick Willemzen, baker, 250 Jacob Teienizen Kay, 250 Freryck Flipzen, (Phillipsen), 200 Jacob Leisler, 250 Coenraat ten Wyck, 200 Roeloef Roelofzen, 100 Hans Stein, 300 Hendrick Obe, 300 Matthews de Vos, 200 Reiner Willemzen, baker, 100 Bartholdus Maan, 100 Lauwerens, Van der Spygel, 100 Claas Lock, 200 C. I. Verbraack 100 Derck Van der Clyf, as agent of Sieur Arent Jansen Moesman, 300 Carel van Brugge, 100 MiGHiEL Tadens, 100 Tomas Lamberzen, 200 Tomas Lauwerens, 100 Jan Eberzen Bout, 300 Jan Schryver, 200 Stoffel Van Laar 200 Freryck Gysberzen van den Bergh, 250 Claas Gangelofzen Visser, 250 WEALTHY MEN OF DUTCH PERIOD 83 Florins Andries Rees, 100 Jan Joosten, 100 Lucas Andriezen, 100 Claas Janzen, baker, 150 Sybrant Janzen Galma, 100 Jan Gerrizen van Buyten- huyzen, 100 Eghbert van Bursum, 100 Huge Barenzen Clein, 100 PiETER Janzen Schell, 100 Herman Wessels, 100 Symon Janzen Romain, 200 Symon Felle, 100 Florins Evert Pieterzen, schoolmaster, 100 t as curators of Coenraet tenEyck, f the estate cf BOELTE RoSELOFZEN, ( AaLTJE BlCK- ers, - - li)00 The Rt. Honbie ' Director Genl. P. Stuyvesant, 1,000 Dr Johannes Megapolensis, 500 Dr Samuel Drisius, 500 NicoLAEs Verlett, 400 Govert Loockermans, 500 Marten Cregier, 100 And in March, 1674, an actual valuation of the "best and most affluent inhabitants" was filed at the City Hall: Florins (Holland cur- rency worth about 40 cents) AnoLPH Pieterse, 1,000 Andrew Jochems, 300 Albert Bosch, 500 Abraham Carmar, 500 Allard Anthony, 1,000 Abraham Jansen, 600 Anthony Jansen Van Sale, 1,000 Adrian Vincent, 1,000 Abel Hardenbroeck, 1,000 Abraham Verplanck, 300 AsHER Levy, 2,500 Abram Lubbertsen, 300 Anthony De, 1.000 Anna Van Borssum, 2,000 Barent Coersen, 3,500 Balthazar Bayard, 1,500 BoELE Roelofsen, 600 Barnadus Hasfalt, 300 Bay Rosevelt, 1,000 Balthaser De Haert's house, 2,000 Claes Lock, 600 Carsten Leursen, 5,000 Cornelius Steenwyck, 50,000 Cornelius Van Ruyven, 18,000 Cornelius Janse Van Hooren, 500 Claes Bordingh, 1,500 Conrad Ten Eyck, 5,000 Christopher Hoogland, 5,000 Cornelius Chopper, 5,000 Charles Van Brugge's houses,l,000 Cornelius Van Borssum, 8,000 David Wessels, 800 Cornelius Dircksen Van West- veen, 1,200 Cornelius Barentse Van der CUYL, 400 DiRCK Smet, 2,000 David Jochems, 1,000 Daniel Hindecontre, 5,000 Florins (Holland cur- rency worth about 40 cents) Daniel Hendricks, 500 DiRCK Van Cleef, 1,500 DiRCK Wiggerse, 800 DiRCK Claessen, 400 DiRCK SlECKEN, 2,000 Egidius Luyck, 5,000 Egbert Wouterse, 300 Evert Pieterse, 2,000 Evert Wesselse Kuyper, 300 Evert Duyckingh, 1,600 Ephraim Harmans, 1,000 Elizabeth Drisius, 2,000 Elizabeth Bedloo, 1,000 Francois Rombouts, 5,000 Ffredr^ck Philipse, 80,000 Frederick Arentse, 400 Frederick Gisberts, 400 Gelyn Verplanck, 5,000 Gilliam De Honioud, 400 Gabriel Minvielle, 10,000 Garret Gullevever, 500 Mary Loockermans, 2,000 Harmanus Burger & Co., 400 Henry Kip, Sr., 300 Henry Bosch, 400 Hendrick Wesselse Smit, 1,200 Henry Gillesse, 300 Hendrick Willemse Backer, 2,000 Herman Van Borsum, 600 Hans Kierstede, 2,000 Henry Van Dyke, 300 Hartman Wessels, 300 Harm EN Smeeman, 300 Henry Bresier, 300 Lsaac Van Vlecq, 1.500 Isaack De Forest, 1,500 Johannes Van Breugh, 1,400 Johannes d'Peyster, 15,000 Jeronimus Ebbingh, 50,000 84 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN N E \\' YORK Florins (Holland cur- Florins (Holland cur- rency worth about 40 cents) rency worth about 40 cents) Jacob Kip, John Meleynderse Karman, JUN^^N BlANCK, Jacob d'Haert, Jacob De Naers, John- Henry Van Bommel, Jacob Leumen, Jeremiah Jansen Haganaer, Jacob Van de Water, John Dirckse Meyer, Isaac Van Tricht, Jacob Abrahamse, John Van Breestede, Jonah Bartels, John Herberdingh, Jacob Theenesse Kay, John Spiegelaer, John Jansen, Jan Lawrence, James Matheus, John Reay, John Coely Smet, John Schakerley, John Joosten, banker, Jacob Leyslaer, (Leisler), John Vigne, Jacob Varrevanger, Lawrence Jansen Smet, Luke Andries, banker, Lawrens van der Speigel, Financial Figures of the English Colony Although the new EngKsh Governor, Sir Edmund Andros, on his arrival off Staten Island, on October 22, 1674, received most graciously the discomfited Dutch deputation on his vessel, treating them "to ye best of victuals and drink," and although he issued, before he landed, a proclamation confirming "all former grants, privileges or concessions heretofore granted, and also all legal and judicial proceedings, during the late Dutch Govern- ment," the change naturally banished a number of the Dutch magnates and soon ruined others. We find some of the old names still in the various lists of wealthy citizens— scanty enough in any details during the cen- tury between this and the Revolution. The following is the merest sketchy suggestion of some of the men who controlled the business and finance of the city during those years: 4,000 Lambert Huybertse Moll, 300 300 Lawrence Holst, 500 1,600 Luke Tienhoven, 600 6,000 AUrtin Kregier, Sr., 2,000 5,000 Martin Jansen Meyer, 500 1,500 ALvtthew de Haert, 12,000 500 Nicolaes de Meyer, 50,000 400 Nicolaes Bayard, 1,000 2,500 Nicholas Du Puy, 600 600 Nicholas Jansen Backer, 700 2,500 Olof Stevense Van Cortlan dt. 2,000 45,000 500 Petzr Jacobs Marius, 5,000 5,000 Peter Nys, 500 2,000 Paul Richard, 5,000 8,000 Peter De Riemer, 800 500 Paul Turcq, 300 500 Peter Van de Water, 400 40,000 Peter Jansen Mesier, 300 1,000 Philip Johns, 600 500 Reynier Willemse Backer, 5,000 1,200 Stephanus Van Cortlandt, 5,000 1,400 Simon Jautz Romeyn. 1,200 2,500 SiBOUT Claes, 500 15,000 Souwert Olphertsen, 600 1,000 Thomas Leurs, 6.000 8,000 Thomas Lauwerss Backer, 1,000 500 William Beeckman, 3,000 1,500 Wander Wessels, 600 6,000 William Van der Schueven 300 Alexander. James A Scotchman; an officer of engin- eers in the service of the Pretender. He removed to New York in 1715 for political motives, and soon afterward he received an appoint- ment in the office of the Secretary of the Province and was appointed Surveyor-General of New York and New Jersey. In 1720 he was called to the Council under Gov. Burnet's administration: while CAPITALISTS OF ENGLISH PERIOD 85 there he studied law, in which pro- fession he is said to have attained great eminence. In 1726 he married the widow of David Provoost, a wealthy Dutch merchant and ex- Mayor of New York. He died in 1756. His children were William (afterwards Lord Stirling); Mary, married to Peter Van Burgh Liv- ingston; Elizabeth, married to John Stevens; Catherine, married to Walter Rutherford, and Sus- sannah, married to John Reed. His wife, who outlived him, left to her eldest son John Provoost £5,000, and large sums of money and furniture and jewels, to her other children. Her son William Alexander, Lord Stirling, was one of the bravest generals of the Revolution. Banyar, Goldsborow Born in London in 1724, he came to the U. S. about 1737. He was appointed Auditor-General in 1746, and served as Deputy Clerk of the Council for some years. In 1752 he was appointed Register of the Court of Chancery and in the following year Judge of Probate; he remained in office until the termination of British rule, and subsequently continued his resi- dence at Albany, N. Y., where he died in 1815 at the age of ninety- one, leaving a large estate to his family. He married, in 1767, Elizabeth Mortimer, daughter of the British Paymaster-General; she died in 1809. Beekman, William The ancestor of the Beekman family. He married Catharine De Boagh, daughter of a skipper on the North River; she was said to have been a beautiful woman. Beekman was for some time Vice- Director or Deputy Governor of the Dutch colony on the Delaware River. In 1670 he purchased the farm in the present vicinity of Beekman Street, a property that covered several blocks. The old mansion house stood on an emin- ence above the East River. He died in 1707. Block, Martin A cooper who resided on the north- west corner of Pearl Street and Hanover Square. He accumulated money and retired from business. bought a farm in the country and went into politics. BoELEN, Jacob A merchant who lived on the west side of Broadway, above Liberty Street. Chambers, John A native of New York, and a suc- cessful member of the legal pro- fession. He married Anna Van Cortland in 1737. He held several municipal offices and was also a member of the Provincial Council for several years. He was appointed in 1751, Second Judge of the Supreme Court, but resigned that position before his death. He was described as "a gentleman of un- exceptional character, opulent for- tune, and perfectly skilled in the Constitution of this Province, having been a noted practitioner of the law for many years." His wife, who outlived him, died in 1774; in her will she makes be- quests to many members of her family, including a house and double lot to "my nephew, Peter Jay, Jr. and Maricka Jay, the two blind children of my sister, Mary Jay." She left a very large estate. Clarke, George Born in England, he arrived in the U. S. in 1703, with a commission as Secretary of the Province. He was appointed a member of the Council in 1715, and became Lieut. - Governor in 1736; he administered the government until 1743, when he was superceded by Mr. Clinton and returned to England in 1745, having accumulated a fortune esti- mated at £100,000. He married Ann Hyde, a distant relative of Lord-Chancellor Clarendon; she died in New York. He succeeded William Cosby as Governor of the Province. The Abstract of Wills states that "through the advan- tages of his position he amassed a large fortune." He died in Chelsea, England about 1759. Clarke, George, Jr. Son of George Clarke, {q.v.). On the recommendation of his father he was appointed a member of the Council in 1739. He went to Eng- land about two years after and stayed there twenty years. He procured, by purchase, the office A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK of Provincial Secretary of New York, that was formerly held by his father; he also held several other offices which were said to have been in his hands or those of his father for over seventy years, and the emoluments from which were considered as lucrative as those of the Governor. Clinton, Admiral George Second son of Francis, 6th Earl of Lincoln, by his second wife Susan Penniston of Oxfordshire, England. He became captain in the Navy, 1716; in 1732 he was Governor of New Foundland and Commodore of the squadron there; in 1737, Commodore of the Mediterranean fleet, and was commissioned as Governor of New York in 1741. He held that office until 1753, when he retired, it is reported, with £80,000 sterling, accumulated in that office. On his return to England he became Governor of Greenwich Hospital and a member of Parliament. He died in 1761. CoLDEN, Dr. Cadwalader Appointed Surveyor of Lands in the Province in 1720; in this office he learned much on the subject of Indian trade. He became Speaker of the Council and Lieutenant Governor, and administered the affairs of the Province as Acting Governor at several periods; he occupied that position at the time of the events which immediately preceded the Revolutionary War. He died at Flushing in 1776. He was a gentleman of fine scientific and political attainments, and had great influence during many 3'ears of the Colonial history. CoLSART, John A merchant of New York. He died about the close of the 17th century, leaving a considerable estate. CoRBETT, Abraham He kept the "Royal Oak" tavern on Broadway, below Exchange Place, and represented that ward in the Common Council. DERSSALL,WiIliam(ProbablyDarvall) Was taxed £18, 15s. on property valued at £3000 in 1676; only two men in the city were taxed higher at this time. William Darvall mar- ried the daughter of Capt. Thomas Delavall. DeLancey, James Son of Stephen DeLancey (^-f.) Born at New York in 1702, the eldest of seven children. He at- tended New York schools, and then went to Cambridge Univer- sity. Returning to New York in 1725, he was admitted to the bar and soon rose to eminence. In 1728 he became a member of the Provincial Council. He married Anne Heathcote, daughter of the Hon. Caleb Heathcote. Already rich, this marriage made him a very wealthy man, for his wife in- herited half of her father's estate, the latter alone amounting to up- wards of £10,000 sterling and the former being one of the largest landed estates in the Province. He was presented with the freedom of the city in 1730. Was one of the chief leaders of the Conserva- tive party. Became a Judge in 1731. Became Lieutenant Gover- nor in 1747, and upon the death of Sir Danvers Osborne, he acted as Governor. He was concerned in most of the important affairs of the State, and died in 1760. He was the fourth, and last native of New- York to administer the affairs of the Colony. Delancey, Stephen Born in Normandy, he came to New York during the time of the British possession. He married, 1700, Anna Van Cortlandt. His place of business was that formerly occupied by Stephen Van Cort- landt, on the corner of Broad and Pearl Streets. He was distinguished for wealth and social position and held several political positions. One of his daughters married Sir Peter Warren, at that time in com- mand of the naval station. In 1700 Colonel Van Courtlandt gave them the lot at the corner of Broad and Pearl Streets, on which the famous Fraunce's Tavern stands. He died In 1741, more than eighty years old, "worth at least £100,- 000 gained by his own honest in- dustry, with credit, honor and reputation." Besides this he also possessed large tracts of land on New York Island, Westchester and in Ulster County. Delavall, Thomas Came to New Netherland In 1664 rrrrp fecek: c -, CAPITALISTS OF ENGLISH PERIOD 87 with the EngHsh expedition which captured the city, and was one of the Commissioners for receiving the surrender of the city when the British took it from the Dutch. He settled in New York as a mer- chant, and also acted as agent for the Duke of York. Was an Alder- man several times and Mayor in 1666, 1671 and 1678; he also held prominent official positions in the province. In 1676 his fortune was estimated at £3,000. He died in 1682. De Peyster, Abraham The son of one of the leading mer- chants of New Amsterdam, born 1657. He married, in Holland, Catharine De Peyster, 1684. He was alderman in 1685, Mavor of New York from 1691 to 1695, and was called to the Provincial Council in 1698 under Bellomont. He was one of the judges of the Supreme Court, and in the absence of the Lieutenant Governor, he admin- istered the Goverment. He was suspended from the Council by Lord Cornbury; in 1706 he was appointed Treasurer of the Pro- vince, and he held that office until 1721, when he was succeeded by his son. He died in 1728, aged seventy-one years. De Peyster, Abraham, Jr. Son of Abraham De Peyster, he succeeded to the office of his father in 1721 and became Treas- urer, which office he held until his death in 1767. His estate was in- ventoried at £20,000 — a very large sum at that time. DuANE, James Born in New York, 1752. His father came from Galway and his mother was a daughter of Abraham Kettletas, an important merchant and Alderman of New York. He became a lawyer and was admitted attorney of the Supreme Court, 1754; in 1759 he married a daughter of Colonel Robert Livingston, then proprietor of Livingston's Manor. He took part in most of the cele- brated lawsuits of the day. In 1764, when it was decided that Vermont was part of New York State, he bought about 64,000 acres there, costing $8,000 and sub- sequently large sums for fees and expenses. He attended the Phila- delphia Conference as delegate from New York and after the con- ference had discussed the matter he recommended that some means be found to safeguard Colonies though retaining allegiance to the King. In 1775 he was elected a member of the Provincial Council. He con- tinued in Congress until 1777, and became Mayor of New York in 1784. He died in 1797. Emot, James A lawyer who resided on Broad- way, just above Wall Street. He was engaged in several State trials. Gordon, Rev. Patrick For many years chaplain of the Fort in New York; his library was very extensive for those times, be- ing valued at about £200. He died about 1704. Graham, James Of Scotch descent, and a relative of the Earl of Montrose. He established himself in New York soon after the British accession. Well versed in law, he held several offices in New York and Boston; he was for nine years Speaker of the Assembly, was called to the Council in 1699; at the same time acted as Attorney General. He died in Morrissania in 1701, leav- ing all of his property to his six children. He resided on the Morris property, with a household con- sisting, besides his family, of one overseer, two white servants and thirty-three slaves. Griffith, Edward In 1676 he was assessed £12.13.0_9 on property valued at £2050 :00 :05. Harpending, John A leather dealer who lived on State Street, east of Broad Street; he owned, with five others, the Shoemakers' Pasture, but he deeded his part to the Dutch Church; the Evening Post building stands on a part of this property. Heathcote, Caleb Born in England in 1665, of a wealthy father. His uncle, George Heathcote, was in New York in 1676 when he was listed as among the wealthiest citizens, with a fortune of £2056. Caleb Heath- cote, upon his arrival, in 1690, became actively engaged in the public service; he was appointed by Governor Fletcher in 1695 to A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK a seat in the Provincial Council, he became also a resident of West- chester Co. and commanded the Militia there. He purchased the Scarsdale Manor House, which was destroyed by fire in the Revolu- tionary War, and married Patty, a daughter of Chief Justice WilHam Smith of New York. He was active in trying to get the Govern- ment to build ships and foster trade. He was Mayor of the city from 1711 to 1714 and held other high offices; his fortune at the time of his death in 1771 was large, his legacies including £10,000, besides valuable real estate. Only two of his daughters survived him, Anne, who married James De Lancey, and Martha, who married Louis Livingston of Perth Am- boy. Howe, General Sir William Born in 1729, the son of Viscount Scrope. He served in many mili- tary positions; in 1775 he arrived in Boston as Commander-in-Chief of the British army in America, and commanded at Bunker Hill. He arrived in Staten Island in 1776 and participated in the battles near New York, his headquarters being in the city. Was made Lieu- tenant-General in 1777, and super- seded as Commander in America by Sir Henry Clinton. On his return to England he received the sinecure appointment of Governor of Berwick; in 1808 he became Governor of Plymouth. He died in 1814 without issue. Jay, Augustus Born in France; married the daugh- ter of Balthazar Bayard ('^ ^m ■ V. fro :22^ --^ ryst-v • -Y»" 'mmmk Wwd ■■iiiii awl /<)»,// u -water lolor hv John Searle In the colltUion uj the A . 1 . Uutoiual bouwty NEW YORK NOTABLES AT THE PLAY Attending a performance of "Monsieur Tonson" at the Park Theatre (which stood opposite the City Hall until 1848 when it was burned down), on the evening of November 7, 1822 ^ CD a c ^ (U WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 103 Corse, Israel Taxed on $35,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $18,000 In 1820. Israel Corse & Co. was an old Quaker house of tanners and leather dealers. Israel was one of the Directors of the Franklin Bank when it first started in 1818. He was born in Chestertown, Md., in 1769; not liking his stepfather, he ran away and apprenticed himself in a tannery in Camden, Del. There he served his time; when he finished he was worth 75 cents. Nothing daunted, he began busi- ness. He married Lydia Troth, who brought him about $5,000; she is described as "a most amia- ble, prudent and industrious wife." They had several children. He staved in Camden until he had $10,000, In 1803: then came to New York. He died in 1842. Coster, Henry A. and John G. (See later edition and also below). These brothers took $100,000 of the U. S. Government Loan, 1813-14. John G. Coster was director of the Hope Insurance Co., 1822. Henry came to the United States as agent of an Amsterdam house. His brother came later. They dealt In all kinds of Holland goods at their store at 26 William Street. Coster, Mrs. Henry (Estate oj Henry Cosier!) The tax list of 1823 gives 85 Chambers Street; real, $17,500; personal, $100,000. Taxed on personal prop- erty, 1815, of $200,000; In 1820, $500,000. Coster, John G. {See above). Born at Haarlem, Holland, he was educated as a physician. He came to New York after the Revolution and went Into partnership with his brother Henry (who died In 1821) as "Henry A. & John G. Coster." They were a splendid pair of old merchants. Their house was at 26 William Street, where John Coster kept store until 1825. They dealt in Holland goods and Imported oil- cloth. They were model mer- chants. Each wore a queue. Both were Masons and belonged to the lodge of which John Jacob Astor was master. John left several children; he died about 1846. One of the wealthiest men In New York of his time. He was taxed on personal property, 1815, of $180,- 000 and In 1820 of $300,000. The ta-x list of 1822, gives real estate; 26 William Street, $7,000; 177 Broadway, $9,000; 227 Broadway, $20,000, and a personal estate of $200,000. Coster, Washington Was a member of the firm of Christmas, Livingston, Prime & Coster. He married a daughter of Francis Depau, and both were very wealthy. Was known as an epi- cure. He died on a sofa at Blanch- ard's Globe Hotel; he had had no sleep for several days and a cele- brated Irish adventurer gave him a dose of morphine to make him doze oflf; It was so successful that the patient never awakened. He was a nephew of John G. Coster and son of Henry Coster. Couch, William The tax list of 1823 gives 58 Beek- man Street; real, $6,750; personal, $15,000. He was taxed In 1820 on $10,000 personal property. Cowman, John He owned the land on Fifth Avenue between 16th and 17th Streets. Fifth Avenue opened through this tract In 1836. Cowman's were lots 1 to 7. Three were sold to Gardiner S. Howland for $24,800. Crary, Peter Took $10,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan, 1813-14. He was a member of the great drvgoods house of P. & I. S. Crary '& Co. in Pearl Street. Crary, Peter, Jr. Director of the North River In- surance Co., 1822 and of the Globe Insurance Co., 1822. His firm was largely In the drygoods trade, and dealt extensively In silks imported from China. The firm speculated. Both partners were much esteemed. He died In 1843. He was taxed on $20,000 personal propertv, 1815, and $15,000 In 1820. Dash, Daniel B. A Director of the North River In- surance Co., 1822. The son of John B. Dash, who kept a hardware store on the southwest corner of Liberty Street and Broadwav Tae- fore 1801. It was John B. Dash & Son up to 1824 when the old gen- tleman died. The family became 104 ACENTURYOFBANKINGINNEWYORK wealthy by the rise of real estate that originally belonged to the elder Mr. Dash. The tax list of 1822 gives 147 Broadwav; house, $12,000; personal, SIS.OOO*; He was taxed on $5,000 personal property in 1820. Dash, John B. (See aboi'e). Was taxed on $30,- 000 personal propertv in 1815 and $25,000 in 1820. He'was a member of the German Society. Lived above his hardware store for many years. He belonged to the Mora- vian Church in Fulton Street, where he was buried in 1824. When the church was moved, his bones were put in a box, carried up Hous- ton Street and placed under the steps of the new edifice. Mrs. Dash, although a strict Moravian, refused ever after to go to the Houston Street church, as she said she "would not walk over her hus- band's bones." Davis, Matthew L. Secretary and actuary of the Me- chanics Life Insurance and Coal Co., 1822. He was one of the last friends that Aaron Burr had. He made" theonly bet with John Robins that that worthy ever made," and that was for a hat. He was taxed on $50,000 personal property in 1815, but paid none in 1820. Davis, William H. A Director of the Mechanics Life Insurance and Coal Co., 1822. Was taxed on $5,000 personal property in 1815, but paid no tax in 1820. De Forest, Benjamin The tax list of 1825 gives 20 Beek- man Street; real, $8,500; personal, $10,000. He came to New York from Connecticut in 1805. He had learned the shoemaker's trade, but not content to make shoes all his life, he opened a store at 51 Peck Slip. He married Miss Mary Bur- lock, 1804, but as they had no children for many years, he took his nephew into partnership. One of his two daughters married a ?'\r. DeForest of another branch. He became verv rich and died in 1855, worth about $1,500,000. He was taxed on $40,000 personal property-, 1815, and $20,000 in 1820. De Groot, Henrv The tax list of 1823 gives 226 Pearl Street; real, $10,000; personal. $2,500. Was taxed on $5,000 per- sonal property in 1820. Delafield, Jolm Born at New York in 1786, and died on his farm at Oaklands near Geneva, Seneca County, New York, Oct. 22, 1853. He gradu- ated from Columbia College in 1802 and secured a position with the firm of LeRoy Bayard & Mc- Evers, representing them abroad. Returning to New York in 1820, he was appointed in August, 1821, Cashier of the Phenix Bank; in 1858 he was elected President, but resigned the same year to become President of New York Banking Co. During these years he had a small farm on the East River, at Hell Gate. He was much inter- ested in agriculture and made his farm, Oaklands, which he pur- chased 1842, the model farm of the State. The tax list of 1822 shows Mr. Delafield at the Phenix Bank, 24 Wall Street. His personal taxes were $4,000. Delafield, Rufus King Son of John and Ann Delafield, born at his father's residence 16 Wall Street, Nov. 18, 1802; died at his son-in-law's, John T. Hall, 253 Fifth Avenue, Feb. 6, 1874. He was an officer of the Phenix Bank, 1823 to 1855, and Actuary and Sec- retary of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Co. June 1835 to July 1852. Afterwards he occupied himself in the manufacture of hydraulic ce- ment, and was for many vears President of the Delafield & Baxter Cement Co. As soon as business permitted, he moved to New Brigh- ton, Staten Island, where he had a fine country seat. He married Nov. 8. 1836 Eliza Bard. Delaplaine, John F. (See later edition). Owned 71 South Street, and was taxed on $7,500 in 1822. The tax list of 1822 gives 78 Broadwav; house, $14,000; per- sonal, $10,000. Taxed on $15,000 Personal property in 1815 and 6,000 in 1820. He took $10,000 of U. S. Government Loan, 1813-14. His son Isaac, who succeeded him, became very rich and was a mem- ber of Congress from New York City. Depau, Francis Ran a regular line of Havre packets WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 105 in 1822. He was a prompt and exact merchant. Two of his clerks. Fox and Livingstone, married his daughters. During the most pros- perous time of the French packet ships, old Francis Depau named one of the best after his friend H. C. De Rham. She was commanded by Captain De Peyster, the super- intendent of the Sailors Snug Har- bor. He was a Director of the U. S. Branch Bank, 1816 and a. Director of the Farmers' Fire Insurance and Loan Co., 1822. De Peyster, Fred. He took $25,000 of the U. S. Gov- ernment Loan, 1813-14. Secretary of the Tontine Association, 1794, and a Director of the Merchants' Fire Insurance Co., 1822. The tax list of 1822 tiives 24 Broad Street, house, $14,000; personal, $6,000. Taxed on $40,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $6,000 in 1820. DePeyster, Gerard Alderman of the city of New York 1822. De Rham, H. C. {See later edition). The Tax list of 1823 gives 66 Chambers Street; real, $5,800; personal, $30,000. Born in Switzerland. He had one of the largest importing houses, prin- cipally in French goods. He started business at 79 Washington Street about 1808. He was described as "a. very handsome man." Married Maria Teresa Moore. He acted as Swiss Consul for some years. He w^as taxed on $50,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. He sulascribed $32,- 300 towards U. S. Government Loan of 1813-14. A Director of the Mechanics Bank, 1822 and a Direc- tor of the Farmers' Fire Insurance and Loan Co., 1822. Desobry, Benjamin Director of the Hope Insurance Co., 1822. Was a French emigre. He kept a drv goods store from 1800 till the fall of Napoleon at 261 William Street. His wife, Madame Desobry, was called the most beautiful woman in New York. "The very first sight of her set many men crazy." DeWolf, James A Director of the Farmers' Fire In- surance and Loan Co., 1822. James DeWolf, Jr. owned 54 South Street and was taxed on $7,500,1822; he lived in 1822 at 19 State Street, in a house valued on the tax list at $18,000; personal tax, $50,000. The tax list of 1823 gives 231 Pearl Street. Taxed on $15,000 per- sonal property in 1820. Dey, Anthony The tax list of 1822 gives 17 Nassau Street; house, $14,000. Was taxed on $24,000 personal property in 1815; nothing paid in 1820. Dickey, Robert Taxed on $20,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. Dickinson, Charles Was taxed on $30,000 personal property in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. Dobbins, James A Director of the Washington In- surance Co., 1822. Taxed on $6,500 personal property in 1815. Douglas, Mrs. The tax list of 1822 gives 55 Broad- way: house, $19,000; personal, $160,000. Taxed on personal prop- erty of $60,000 in 1815 and $100,- 000 in 1820. Douglas, Alanson He took $50,000 of the U. S. Gov- ernment Loan, 1813-14. Doyle, Dennis . A Director of the Mechanics In- surance Co., 1822. Taxed on $6,000 personal property in 1815. Drake, Jacob {See later edition). Ta.xed on $20,- 000 personal propertv in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. John and Jacob Drake took $10,000 of the U. S. Government Loan of 1813-14. Jacob was a Director of the Fulton Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Dubois, Cornelius He bought 16 Bridge Street in 1815 for $5,700, was taxed on $30,000 fersonal property in 1815 and 25,000 in 1820. The tax list of 1822 gives house, $12,000, and per- sonal, 25.000. A Director of the Fulton Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Dunham, David Subscribed to $10,000 of the U. S. Government Loan, 1813—14. He was an auctioneer, of Moore Street. The firm name was Dunham & Davis. The tax list of 1822 gives 45 Broadwav: house, $18,000; per- sonal, $40,000. W^as ta.xed on $45,- 000 personal propertv in 1815 and $50,000 in 1820. 106 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Dunn, Richard Secretarv of the Globe Insurance Co., 1822. The tax list of 1822 gives 27 Wall Street; real, $12,000. DUYCKINCK, Evert Was taxed on $14,000 personal propertv in 1815 and $15,000 in 1820. DyCKMAN, William N. The tax list of 1822 gives 1 Wall Street: house, $6,000; personal, $500, Eastburn, James Director of the Bank for Savings, 1819-29. The tax list of 1822 gives 108 Broadway: house, $17,000. ECKFORD, Henry A shipbuilder and naval architect. His yard was in Water Street near Clinton Street in 1810. "He built several ships for the South Anieri- can Governments. He was mi.xed up in the panic times of 1826 when so many banks, including the Frank- lin Bank, Hudson Bank of New Jersey, Jeiferson Insurance Co. and others went to the wall. He was taxed on $50,000 personal property in 1815 and $50,000 in 1820. He was a Director of the U. S. Branch Bank, 1816, Government Director of the U. S. Bank, Philadelphia, 1823-24, a Trustee of the Bank for Savings, 1819-24, and President of the Mechanics Life Insurance & Coal Co., 1822. His portrait was painted in 1809 by Robert Fulton. Edgar, William N. " Taxed on $20,000 personal pnop- erty in 1815 and $50,000 in 1820. Eddy, Thomas Born 1758; died 1827. An Irishman and a Quaker. Began as an insur- ance broker about 1790, the first broker of that kind known. ^He made monev rapidly. In 1791, when the public debt of the United States was funded, he speculated heavilv and lost money; he then lived at 277 Pearl Street. He was a member of many companies, one of the Governors of the New York Hospital, and was for eleven years secretary to the Board of Gover- nors. Was also a Trustee of the Bank for Savings from 1819-1827. He was taxed at $8,000 personal property in 1820. Edgar, William Began business at 7 Wall Street in 1786 and continued there for some years. For twenty vears, com- mencing at 1800, he'Uved at 39 Broadway. His daughter married Gardner G. Howland. Director of the Bank of New York; Member of the St. Patrick's Society. Was taxed on $200,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $140,000 in 1820; the tax list of 1822 values his house at 7 Greenwich Street at $16,000; personal ta.x, $80,000. Ellison, Thomas Was ta.xed on $50,000 personal property in 1820. Ely, Richard Tax list of 1825 gives him at 200 Front Street; real, $12,500. Was employed in the counting house of Scoville & Britton. Afterwards distinguished himself in various ways. Embree, Effingham "Gentleman;" born September 24, 1759, died December 5, 1817. In 1817 he purchased a large tract of land iu ^^^lat is now the heart of the city; this was then a part of the old Bayard farm and extended from "Meadow Street" (Grand) to be- low "Sugar Loaf" Street, now Franklin, and from Broadway to the land of Trinity Church. He be- came one of the largest landowners in the city by this purchase, which cost him but a few thousand pounds. His country place was at Flushing, L. I., which was still standing in 1907. He was one of the Trustees of the American Museum, founded by the Tammany Society in 1791; its collection was housed in a room in the City Hall. Emmett, T. a. Tax list gives 1 Nassau Street: house, $10,000; personal. $5,000. Taxed on $5,000 personal propertv in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. Englis, John Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. EvARTS, Fred'k Tax list of 1825 gives him at 509 Pearl Street: real, $7,500; personal, $2,500. Everingham, Gilbert Taxed on $10,000 personal propertv in 1815 and 1820. Ferris, Benjamin Director, Washington Insurance Co, 1822. Taxed on $6,000 per- sonal property in 1815. WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 107 Few, Wm. Trustee of the Bank for Savings, 1819-28; Director Manhattan Fire Insurance Co , 1822. Tax Hst, 1823 gives 10 Park Place: real, $8,200; personal, $14,000. Farmer, Thomas Tax list of 1822 gives 6 Greenwich Street: house, $8,500; personal, $12,000. He was one of the Port Wardens with Elias Nexsen and Samuel Gelston; also one of the original twenty-three members of the Masonic Society of the Citv of New York. Taxed on $25;000 worth of personal property in 1815 and $12,000 in 1820. Fish, Hamilton Son of Colonel Nicholas Fish; born in New York, 1808. He was edu- cated at Columbia and studied and practised law. Became a great poli- tician, and took part in many elec- tions; was active in international disputes. President of the New York Historical Society. Fish, Nicholas, Colonel Born in New York City, 1758 and died there in 1835. Entered the College of New Jersey at sixteen but soon left and began to study law. In 1776 he entered the army of the Revolution, served through the war in various capacities and after the war was appointed Adjutant General of the State of New York, an office he held from 1786 to 1793. Taxed on $7,500 per- sonal property 1815 and 1820. Fish, Whitehead Cashier of the celebrated Franklin Bank. He took $250,000 of the U. S. Government Loan, 1813-14, (possibly, however, for some one else). Taxed on $6,000 personal property in 1815. Flack, James C. Took $10,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan, 1813-14. Flack, John Tax list of 1822 gives; personal $40,000. He lived at 21 Broadway, in a house owned by Mrs. E. Woods, which was assessed at $20,- 000. Taxed on $20,000 personal property in 1820. Flewelling, Samuel Took $257,800 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan, 1813-4. Succeeded Whitehead Fish (see above) as Cashier of the Franklin Bank. Floyd, Samuel Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. Foster, Andrew His house at 3 State Street was taxed at $12,000 in 1822; personal property, $20,000. Taxed on $30,- 000 personal property in 1815 and $20,000 in 1820. FouLKE, Joseph {See later edition). Tax list of 1823 eives 81 Chambers Street; real, $6,500; personal, $20,000. Bought "Gracie's Point," near Hellgate, from Mr. Charles King for $17,000 about 1815. Taxed on $15,000 per- sonal property in 1820. Director of the Hope Insurance Co., 1822. Fowler, Theodocius {See later edition). Took $150,000 of the U. S. Government Loan, 1813-14. Fox, Daniel Taxed on $12,000 personal propertv in 1820. Fox, William \V. {See later edition). Director of the Merchants' Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Tax list of 1823 gives 308 Pearl Street; real, $8,000; personal, $10,000. Son-in-law of Thomas Leggett. The firm started as Leg- gett. Fox & Co. in 1809. Was Presi- dent of the New York Gas Light Co. He was taxed on $30,000 per- sonal property in 1815. Fulton, Robert (Estate of) Ground, wharf and store on Wash- ington Street; real, $27,000. The man to whom the world is indebted for steamboats. FuRMAN, Gabriel {See later edition). Director of the Mechanics' Bank, 1822; Trustee of the Bank for Savings, 1821-38; President of the Mutual Insurance Co., 1822. FuRMAN, Garrit Bought two lots in 1827 on Madi- son Street, on one of which he built an elegant house; on the other he built stables and gardens for his winter residence; his country seat was at Maspeth, L. I. He was born at "White Pot," near Newtown, in 1782, and was engaged in business in New York for many years. He married Mary Eaton of Rocky Point, L. I. He was a collector and owned one of the finest mineralogi- cal collections in the State. He was 108 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK a writer. He died at Maspeth in 1848. Gallagher. George Tax list of 1823 gives him at 6 War- ren Street; real, $7,000; personal, $15,000. In partnership with J. B. Murray' at 72 South Street, — a large concern, and in existence from 1820 to 1857. In 1834 George Gal- lagher died. Taxed on $10,000 per- sonal property in 1815. Gallatin, Albert _ {See later edition). Refused the office of President of the Bank of the United States in 1822, wishing to stay longer in Paris; John Jacob Astor did much to make him change his mind, but without effect. Gantley, Daniel Taxed on $20,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $25,000 in 1820. Partner with Henry Laverty at 149 Pearl Street, drygoods dealers. Garner, Frederick Tax list of 1823 gives 305 Pearl Street; real. $9,000; personal, $12.- 000. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1815. Gassner, John Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1815 and $16,000 in 1820. Gebhard, F. Tax of 1822 gives his house as 91 Greenwich Street, valued at $7,500; personal, $25,000. Came from Am- sterdam, Holland in 1800. Was at first an agent for a Dutch concern, but later he began business on his own account, living and maintain- ing his office at the above house. He was the first importer of the celebrated Swan gin; was in part- nership with his brother in Amster- dam. He died in 1835. Taxed on $30,000 personal propertv, 1815 and 1820. Gelston, David {See later edition). Tax list of 1822 gives 26 Broad Street; house, $12,- 000; personal, $40,000. Taxed on $40,000 personal propertv in 1815 and 1820. One of the first Direc- tors of the U. S. Branch Bank, 1816. Gelston, Maltby Ta.xed on $10,000 personal propertv in 1815 and $15,000 in 1820. Presi- dent of the Manhattan Bank until 1840. Gilbert, William W. Tax list of 1823 eives 155 and 157 Broad wav; real, $14,400. Gilford, Samuel Tax list of 1823 gives 126 William Street; real, $7,200; personal, $15,- 000. Estate of S. Gilford, Dec'd 124 William Street; real, $7,000; personal, $15,000. Gilford married Eliza Buchanan. Was taxed on $20,000 personal propertv in 1815 and $15,000 in 1820. GiRAUD, Jacob P. Lived at 3 State Street; was taxed on $20,000 worth of personal prop- erty in 1822; on $30,000 worth in 1815, and $20,000 in 1820. Goelet, Peter P. {See later edition). Tax list of 1822 gives 53 Broadwav; house, $19,000; personal. $60,000. Son of Peter Goelet, an ironmonger during the War of the Revolution. Began the same business about 1790 at 6 Great Dock Street. He lived at 53 Broadwav and did business up to 1826 at '63 Water Street. Mar- ried Miss Buchanan, daughter of Thomas Buchanan, and left two sons; one married a daughter of Jonathan Ogden. Died a very old man. Taxed on $50,000 personal propertv in 1815 and $60,000 in 1820. Director, 1812-26, of the Bank of New York. Connelly, John Tax list of 1823 gives 284 Pearl Street; real, $10,300; personal, $10,- 000. Goodhue, Jonathan {See later edition). Founder of <^he firm of Goodhue & Co. in 1809. He was a Salem boy, and was originally emploj'ed in a Salem counting house. His employer sent him to New York, and he established him- self there in business. The growth of his house was slow but sure. He had correspondents in all parts of the world and acted as agent for commercial firms everywhere. Goodhue married a Miss Cushing. Director of the American Insur- ance Company, 1816; Director of the Globe Insurance Co., 1822. He died in 1848. He was an uncom- promising Republican. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1815 and $15,000 in 1820. GoRHAM. Stephen Tax list of 1823 gives him at 279 Pearl Street; real, $9,750. WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 109 GouvERNEUR, Samuel Member of an ancient and distin- guished family; he married Maria, daughter of President Monroe, who appointed him Postmaster of New York. Bought two lots in Orange and Prince Street in 1823 from Philip Brasher for $2159 each and built two houses on them; these houses were sold in 1829 and 1832 for $8,000 and $10,700. Gracie, Archibald Came from Scotland as supercargo of a small vessel soon after the Revolutionary War. He became one of the greatest merchants of New York; in his prime, he was doing business all over the world. He is said to have taken more pains in educating his clerks than Colum- bia College took with its students. "When they were set to copying letters" (says Old Merchants) "it (the letter) was read to the first blot or error and then destroyed, and the unhappy clerk was set at his task again and made to copv it correctly. This achieved, the clerk was promoted to making 'dupli- cates' and even 'triplicates' of letters, and had the honor of know- ing that his 'fist' went to ports in the uttermost parts of the earth." He married, first, a daughter of Oliver Wolcott, who died on the wedding day of a ruptured blood vessel; later he married Esther Rogers, by whom he had several children. Died in 1829 and was buried in the graveyard of St. Thomas's Church in Broadwav. A Director of the U. S. Bank, Phila- delphia, 1811, and of the Globe In- surance Co. 1822. He paid taxes on $60,000 personal proper tv in 1815 and on only $20,000 in 1820. The tax lists of 1822 value his house at 15 State Street at $18,000, with personal tax $20,000, and his store at 22 Whitehall Street at $9,000. Graham, Chas. Director of the North River Insur- ance Co., 1822. Graham, John Director of the Washington Insur- ance Co., 1822. In 1798 was a Cap- tain of the New York Militia. Tax list of 1822 gives 58 Greenwich Street; house, $9,000; personal, $5,000. Taxed on $50,000 personal property in 1815 and only $20,000 in 1820. Graves, John B. Tax list of 1823 gives 59 Beekman St.; real, $9,500; personal, $10,000. Of Dutch descent. A member of the firm of Boonen, Graves & Co., chiefly engaged in trade with Hol- land. He lived over his store at first, but in 1817 he moved his busi- ness to 65 Ann Street and his resi- dence to 59 Beekman. Active member of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Co. Died about 1831. His sons were identified with his business for a while. Taxed on $20,000 personal property in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. Griffith, Nathaniel Taxed on $20,000 personal propertv in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. Griswold, George {See later edition). Son of George Griswold, 3d of the name; born at Giant's Neck, Lyme, New-London Co., Conn., 1777. Removed to New York City in 1796, having been previously clerk in a store in Hartford. His brother, Nathaniel Lynde Griswold, came to New York in 1795, and entered the ship- ping business under the firm name of Hayden & Griswold, which was dissolved in February, 1796. The two brothers then formed a partner- ship under the firm name of Na- thaniel L. & George Griswold, which continued until the death of Nathaniel in 1846; it was carried on t'.nder the same name by George and his descendants until it was dissolved January 1, 1876. "George Griswold early rose to the very front rank of merchants for intelli- gence, comprehensiveness of view and signal ability. He maintained this position during the whole of his life." "He served as Director in various corporations, insurance companies, banks and other asso- ciations connected with commerce, . . . He made the law of marine insurance a subject of special study, and his opinion on difficult cases is believed to have pos- sessed for many years a weight not surpassed hy any contempo- rary, lay or professional." "During the prevalence of yellow fever and the cholera, he remained in the City and administered of his 110 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK substance to the suffering. He was amongst the first to reheve those suffering from fire or other calami- ties, in other cities as well as his own." "He died, after a short illness, at New Brighton, Staten Island, on September 5th, 1859, in the 85d year of his age, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery." A marble bust of Griswold, executed 1844 by J. Battin, is now in the Chamber of Commerce. Tax list of 1822 gives him at 13 Wall Street; real, $16,- 000; personal, $22,000. In 1823, N. L. & G. Griswold, are recorded at 86 South Street; real, $7,500. Taxed on $40,000 personal property in 1815 and $22,000 in 1820. One of the first Directors of the Farm- ers' Fire Insurance and Loan Co. Griswold, N. L. (See George Griswold). Tax list of 1823 gives 78 Chambers Street; real, $5,800; personal, $12,000. Of the firm of N. L. & G. Griswold, a house that traded mostly in Chinese goods. Their regular ship was the Panama. He moved to 79 Cham- bers Street in 1819 and died there in 1847. Taxed on $60,000 personal property in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. Hadden, David Married a granddaughter of Cap- tain John Aspinwall. He was an eminent merchant and one of the most respected men in New York; was President of the St. Andrews Society for many years and a great favorite with the Scotch people in town. "A prudent, careful man." Was taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1815 and $20,000 in 1820. Haggerty, John [See later edition). Taxed on $40,- 000 personal property in 1815 and $25,000 in 1820. Director of the Branch Bank of the U. S., 1822. Haight, Benjamin, Jr. Tax list of 1823 gives 4 Park Place; real, $4,300. Formed a partnership with his cousin, Halsted E. Haight, at 207 Broadway in 1807; Halsted died in 1831, after which Benjamin continued the business alone. He married Miss Catherine Holly, 1806. The firm were wholesale deal- ers in bed ticking, sheets and cham- brays. He died in 1848, "a. fine old man," and an upright citizen. He and his cousin Halsted were taxed together on $40,000 worth of per- sonal property in 1815, and on $20,000 worth in 1820. Haight, David L. {See later edition). Director, Man- hattan Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Haight, Halstead E. Director of the Manhattan Fire Insurance Co., 1822. In 1807 he formed a partnership with Ben- jamin Haight, Jr. (the son of Al- dernian Benjamin Haight), his cousin under the firm of B. & H. Haight at 207 Broadway. Died at his residence, 213 Fulton Street, in 1831. The tax list of 1823 gives him at 207 Broadway; B. & H. Haight, real, $6,500; personal. $15,000. {See Benjamin Haight). Hall, James Alderman of the Citv of New York, 1822. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1815. Hammersley, L. C. The tax list of 1823 gives 55 Mur- ray Street; real, $9,000; personal, $10,000. L. C. & T. Hammersley did business at 109 Pearl Street, as ironmongers and dry goods mer- chants; went into business in 1801. The sons of L. C, Sr. "Do not do any business," says Walter Barrett. "They have plenty of money and are considered at the top of the local aristocracy, have a coat of arms on their carriage, &c." Ta.xed on $15,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and 1820. Hammersley, Thomas Taxed on $15,000 personal property in 1815 and 1820. Tax list of 1822 .'alues his house at 53 Greenwich Street at $8,000; personal tax, $10,00r ~ ■ - - ~ aboi'e) . $10,000. Brother 'I L. C. {Se Halstead, C. O. Tax list of 1823 gives 26 Cliff Street; real, $7,000; personal, $10,000. Hardenbrook, I. W. Tax list of 1823 gives him at 293 Pearl Street; real, $4,750; personal, $10,000. Taxed on $12,000 per- sonal property in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. Hardenbrook, William J. {See later edition). Director of the Mechanics Insurance Co., 1822. WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY III ^IARMONY, Peter {Sec later edition). Tax list of 1822 records a personal tax on $80,000. He lived at Mrs. Saidler's House at 56 Broadvvav, the assessed value of which was $20,000. Peter Har- mony & Co. was a large foreign house, and its founder was a great merchant in his day. Taxed on $50,000 personal propertv in 1815 and $55,000 In 1820. Director of the Branch Bank of the U. S., 1822. Harriman, Orlando Tax list of 1822 gives him at 19 Lumber Street; house (or store), $5,500; personal, $1,000. Harrison, Richard A Director of the Branch Bank of the U. S., 1792-5. A prominent lawyer; he lived at the corner of Broadway and Robinson Street, (now Park Place). He was Secre- tary of the Regents of the Univer- sitv of the State of New York in 1784, and first United States Attor- ney for New York in 1789. He was appointed by Washington first Auditor of the United States Treasury In 1791, and served In that position through the succes- sive administrations to 1856. His death occurred July 10, 1841 at the age of ninety-one. He was by trade a trunk and harness maker at 150 Fulton Street; he paid ta.xes on $50,000 personal property in 1815 and 1820, and was the first Chairman of the Farmers' Fire Insurance and Loan Co. 1822. Harper, Samuel Baker Bought 28 Cliff Street in 1825 for $1,120. He married Christina Arcularius, daughter of Philip J. Arcularlus, a well known leather merchant of his day. They had five children. Hart, Eli {See later edition). One of the Erie Canal Commissioners. Hart, Peter G. Tax list of 1825 gives him at 22 Beekman Street; real, $8,500; per- sonal, $50,000. A clerk in the firm of Thos. H. Smith; leaving there in 1806, he started for himself In the wholesale grocery business. His store was at 196 Front Street, but he resided at 22 Beekman Street. He left a wife and several charming daughters when he died In 1827. He was a rich man; he was taxed on $20,000 personal propertv in 1815 and $50,000 In 1820. Hartman, Lewis Director Mechanics Insurance Co. 1822. Taxed on $8,000 personal property in 1815. Havens, Gabriel Took $10,000 of U. S. Government loan of 1815-14. Taxed on $5,000 personal property in 1820. Havens, Rensacler Took $20,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan, 1815-14. Taxed on $5,000 personal property in 1820. Hazard, Thomas Tax list of 1825 gives 29 Beekman Street; real, $11,750; personal, $20,000. Heard, James {See later edition). Director of the Merchants Bank, 1820-56. Heevey, Cornelius Taxed on $20,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. Was one of the lead- ing Irishmen In New York at that time. Hendricks, Harman {See later edition). Tax list of 1822 values house at 61 Greenwich Street at $12,000; personal proper- ty, $80,000. Ttixed on $60,000 per- sonal propertv in 1815 and $80,000 in 1820. He' took $42,000 of the U. S. Government Loan of 1815-14, and made a large profit. He died leaving a large fortune. Director of the Manhattan Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Heyer, Cornelius Born in 1775, he entered the service of the Bank of New York at the age of eighteen. After acting as teller he resigned and went Into business; later, at the invitation of the officers of the bank, he re- turned. Appointed Cashier In 1825, and succeeaed Mr. Wilkes as Presi- dent In 1852. He was highly es- teemed. For many years President of the Board of Corporation of the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church and prominent In Its councils. He was for fifty-two years In the service of the Bank of "New York. Heyer, Isaac Taxed on $25,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $20,000 in 1820. Of the firm of Suydam & Heyer. He married Jane Suvdam, sister oi his partner. They began business 112 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Jn 1794 at 67 Front Street; the firm lasted until Samuel Suydam died in 1797. Isaac Heyer con- tinued the business for many years and was one of the most respected of merchants. The^^ dealt in teas, wines and groceries. He was brother-in-law of Stephen Whitney, and brother of Cornelius and Wal- ter Heyer. Hicks, O. H. A very eminent and extensive merchant who did a large commis- sion business and sold more pipes of imported Holland gin than any other importer of his day. He went into business in 1800; his counting house was at 85 South Street and he lived at 87 Maiden Lane. He continued to do a large business up to 1819; in that year the Fulton Fire Insurance Co. was incorporated with a capital of $500,000 and he became the Secre- tary, where he remained until 1828. In 1851 he was elected President of the Farmers' Fire Insurance and Loan Company and continued to be its President until 1852 when he died of the cholera. He was a man universally respected. The tax list, 1822, gives him at 50 Wall Street; real, $15,000. Hicks, Samuel {See later edition). Tax list of 1825 gives 245 Broadway; real, $12,500; personal, $75,000. A brother of Isaac and Valentine Hicks. He became a member of the firm of Samuel Hicks & Son; in 1806 Isaac retired from business with a large fortune and gave his business to his brothers. Samuel moved to 245 Broadway in 1814 and there he lived many years; he died in 1857. He was much respected. His sons carried on his business after his death. They did an extensive com- mission business. Taxed on $70,000 personal property in 1815 and $50,000 in 1820. Director of the Globe Insurance Co., 1822. Hicks, Silas Tax list of 1825 gives him at 46 Cliff Street; real, $9,000; personal, $15,000. Taxed on $8,000 personal propertv in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. HoDKiNSON, Thomas Tax list of 1825 gives him at 55 Nassau Street; real, $10,500. Taxed on $5,000 personal property on 1815. Hoffman, Jonas Ogden Director of the Mechanics Life In- surance and Coal Co., 1822. Hoffman, Martin Of the firm of Hoffman Son & Pell, a great auction house in Coffee House Slip, 65 Wall Street, in 1825. He brought up many clerks who made good merchants afterwards. Hold EN, H. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1820. Holt, Stephen Came to New York from Salem in 1808 and opened a small victualing house, managed by his wife; in 1814 he had a boarding house for the accommodation of officers of the army, and shortly after took larger premises in Front Street, He was burned out there, but obtained on credit another house in Fulton Street, which was highly successful. His idea was to make his prices moderate and get his profits from the numbers served. Holt's later hotel was, in its day, one of the wonders of the town. It was the largest and most magnificent hotel that had been erected up to that time, and its price of $1.50 a day was considered exorbitant. Bag- gage was carried upstairs by steam power, — probably the first steam engine used in a hotel to facilitate the labor. Hone, Isaac S. Son of John Hone; the family was considered one of the best in New York society. He was at one time a member of the firm of Hone & Fleming. After John Hone's death the firm continued, but when the law was passed that stated that no individual's name should appear in a mercantile firm name unless such a person was actually in the firm, the designation was changed to "John Hone's Sons" which in- cluded Isaac. He later was member of the firm of Tredwell & Hone, which did much business during the War of 1812, but the firm failed and John Hone had to pay $150,000 of their debts; he was obliged to sell his U. S. stock to keep the name of Hone from dishonor. Tax list of 1825 gives 68 Chambers Street; real, $6,200; personal, $25,000. A WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 115 Director of the North River In- surance Co., 1822. Hone, John, Jr. Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. In 1822, on Warren Street property, $8,500, and per- sonal, $10,000. 40 Warren Street. Hone, John (See later edition; also see Isaac Hone and Philip Hone). Taxed on $160,000 personal property in 1816 and only $60,000 in 1820f taxed in 1822 on the house at 1 Bowling Green, $19,000; personal tax, $60.- 000. Brother of Philip Hone. He helped to establish the Savings Bank; the Chnton Hall Association and Mercantile Library are in- debted to him as their founder and benefactor. One of the ablest May- ors of New York and a brilliantly educated man. As a member of the great firm of Hone & Sons, auc- tioneers, he made a large fortune. The firm dissolved in 1826. Hone died, 1851, in his seventy-first year. One of the first Directors of the U. S. Branch Bank, 1816; a Direc- tor of the Merchants Bank, 1803- 30; and of the Globe Insurance Co., 1822. Hone, Philip "Gentleman" Mayor of New York in 1826. He lived at 716 Broadway and paid a rent of $1,600 a year. The nouse was sold in 1836 for $30,000 The ta» list of 1822 gives the I. & P. Hone store at 61 Wall Street, $15,000; in 1823 at 235 Broadwav; real, $21,000; personal, $45,000; lot and stable on Washing- ton Street; real, $4,500; 32 Warren Street; real, $6,000. Taxed on per- sonal propertv in 1815 and 1820 on $60,000. He kept a diary, which is now famous. Hooker, William The tax list of 1823 gives him at 202 Water Street; real, $12,500. Horton, Caleb Tax list of 1823 gives 208 Front Street; real, $10,000; 49 Cliff Street; real, $9,000; personal, $15,000. Taxed on $20,000 personal proper- ty in 1815, and $10,000 in 1820. HosACK, Dr. Tax list of 1823 gives him at 14 Vesey Street; real, $14,500. A celebrated physician; student of the eminent Dr^ Bard. Howard, William Tax list of 1 825 gives 1 8 De v Street ; real, $6,000; personal, $24,000. Taxed on $15,000 personal prop- erty in 1815, and $35,000 in 1820. Howland, Gardner G. He married a daughter of William Edgar; from her he received capital and credit sufficient to establish the firm of G. G. & S. S. Howland. He called his first vessel the Edgar. Mr. Howland was a son of Joseph Howland of New London, Conn.; his brother and partner was Samuel Shaw Howland. When they came to New York, Gardner was a clerk in Leroy, Bayard & McEvers; he rose to be head clerk, and then went into business for himself. The firm weathered the cotton panic of 1826, and after this Howland went to England, travelled through Europe, and procured an enormous business there. Taxed on personal propertv, $12,000 in 1815 and $20,- 000 in 1820. Taxed, 1822, $9,000 on the house at Greenwich Street, and $20,000 personal. Howland, John H. {See later edition). Taxed on $15,- 000 personal propertv in 1815 and $25,000 in 1820. He took $50,000 of the U. S. Government Loan of 1813-14. Howland, Samuel Shaw Son of Joseph Howland of New London, Conn, and brother of Gardner G. Howland. He founded the firm of G. G. & S. S. Howland. Was taxed on $5,000 personal property in 1820. HoYT, Goold {See later edition). Tax list of 1822 gives 30 Broadway-; house, $10,000; personal, $20,000. Director of the Globe Insurance Co., 1822. Hubbard, David G. Taxed on $50,000 personal property in 1815 and $20,000 in 1820. Hubbard, N. T. Born at Mattituck, L. I., in 1785, he moved to New York in 1798. He was brought up by his aunt and was employed by his uncle, Daniel Hubbard, "during his youth, in the^ provision business. At the age of twenty-one he was in the office ot James Roosevelt, sugar broker, where he received a salary of $400 a year. He founded the firm of Fanning & Hubbard, but this did 14 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK not last more than a year; then he entered the produce brokerage busi- ness and remained in that until he became wealthy. In 1811 he mar- ried Susan Logan, who died in 1867; they had live sons and two daughters. He was one of the first members of the Produce Exchange, and was identified with many musical activities in New York; a man universally respected. He lived to be over ninety years old. Hunter, Robert R. Director of the Merchants Fire Insurance Co., 1822. One of the firm of George Hunter & Co., auc- tioneers, 155 Pearl Street. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1815, and only $5,000 in 1820. Huntington, Benjamin Took $10,000 of U. S. Government Loan of 1815-14. Was one of the twenty-eight members of the New York Exchange Board, as recorded in its first list made in 1817. HuRD, James (See later edilion). A Director of the Globe Insurance Co., 1822. HusTACE (or Hustan), Benjamin Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $15,000 in 1820. He became a partner in the firm of Underbill & Hustace in 1797, iron- mongers and hardware merchants; when the partnership dissolved in 1802, Hustace started for himself, next door to his old partner. Hyde, John E. Trustee of the Bank of Savings, 1819-42. Taxed on $5,000 personal property in 1815 and 1820. Hyer, Garret Director of the Hope Insurance Co., 1822. Taxed on $50,C00 per- sonal property in 1815. Icard, Joseph Took $20,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan, 1815-14. An important PVench merchant. He started in business at 85 Greenwich, corner of Rector, in 1798; afterwards he moved to 14 Rector Street, and lived at 508 Broadway. Following the downfall of the Emperor Na- poleon he went back to Paris and became a celebrated man. He took a contract for cleaning the streets of Paris and was said to have made a million francs out of it. Ireland, George {See later edition). A Director of the Mechanics' Bank, 1822. Ireland, W. H. {See later edition). Took $2,000 on U. S. Government loan of 1815-14. A rich and prosperous man, and Director of the Fulton Fire Insur- ance Co., 1822. Irving, Eben The tax list of 1822 gives his house at 5 Bridge Street, valued at $12,- 000. Of the firm of Paulding & Ir- ving, engaged in the wine business. From 1801 the firm did business at 162 Front Street; it dissolved in 1811. Eben then went Into part- nership with his brother Peter at 155 Pearl Street; this business also dissolved In 1820. He lived at 5 Bridge Street. He was burned out in the great fire of 1855, but did business up to 1841, when he died. Taxed on $25,000 personal prop- erty In 1815. Took $20,000 U. S. Government Loan, 1815-14, for the firm of F. & E. Irving. Irving & Smith Took $50,000 of U. S. Government Loan, 1815-14. The firm was founded In 1805 in Pearl Street; it continued until 1816 when the part- ners separated their auction and Commission businesses, keeping the former firm at 142 Pearl Street un- til 1818 when it became Irving, Smith & Hyslop. All closed up previous to 1825. Mr. Irving was a brother of Washington Irving. Iselin, Isaac Director of U. S. Branch Bank, 1816. After the war, Dr. H. C. DeRham formed a partnership with Mr. I. Iselin, who had been a part- ner In the house of LeRoy Bayard & Co. Mr. Iselin was "a fine man" and an old school merchant. When DeRham & Iselin were at 44 Broad Street, Mr. Iselin lived at 56 Laight Street. He was drowned in a lake near Geneva, Switzerland, about the time of the great panic of 1857. He had several sons, all well known figures. Jackson, Amasa President of the Globe Insurance Co., 1822. Taxed on $20,000 per- sonal property in 1815 and $10,000 In 1820. Jackson, Nathan Tax list of 1825 gives 205 Water WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 115 Street: real, $10,000; personal, $1,000. James, Samuel Director of the Mechanics Insur- ance Co., 1822. One of first Direc- tors of the Franklin Bank, 1818. Jarvis, James Tax list of 1823, gives 6 Maiden Lane: real, $8,200; personal, $8,000. JaunCey, William Tax list of 1822, gives him at 24 Broad vvav: house, $28,000; per- sonal, $120,000. Jay, Peter Augustus (See later edition). Director of the North River Bank; Trustee of the Bank for Savings, 1819-38. Jennings, Chester Tax list of 1822 gives Citv Hotel, HI Broadway; house, $75,000; personal. $2,000. Johnson, John Taxed on $14,000 personal property in 1815, and $10,000 in 1820. Johnston, John {See later edition). A Scotchman who came to America in 1804 with his cousin, George Johnston. They became clerks in the counting house of James Lenox & William Mait- land; the members of the firm were from Galloway — Lenox being the brother of Robert Lenox, whose son James presented the Lenox Library to New York City. He went into partnership later with James Boorman, another Scotch boy, and sold Scotch goods; devel- oped a large iron business and re- ceived cargoes from England and Sweden. In 1828, Adam Boorman came from Scotland and joined the firm, adding so much to its busi- ness that part of it had to be given up. He married Margaret Taylor Howard, widov.' of Resha Howard. Resigned from the firm of Boorman & Johnson in 1844 because of ill- health. He died wealthy. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1815. One of the first Directors of the Farmers' Fire Insurance & Loan Co. Jones, Edward R. {Sec later edition) . Tax list of 1 822 gives 72 Broadwav; house, $12,- 000; personal, $20,000. Taxed on $10,000 personal, property in 1815 and 1820. Director of the Globe Insurance Co., 1822. JoNF.s, Isaac (See later edition). Taxed on $25,- 000 personal property in 1815 and $20,000 in 1820. Director of the North River Insurance Co., 1822. He took $4,000 of the U. S. Gov- ernment loan, 1813-14. Jones, John (See later edition). Director of the Merchants' Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Jones, Joshua Taxed on $50,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $60,000 in 1820. Jones, Samuel Tax list of 1822 gives 5 Pine Street; house, $11,500; personal, $2,000. A counsellor-at-law; shareholder in the Tontine Association. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1815, and $5,000 in 1820. JuDD, Samuel Tax list of 1823, gives 57 Fulton Street; real, $9,000; personal, $5,- 000. A peddler. At first he kept no shop but peddled his oil, pure and good, which he mixed to suit himself, about town. After a while he prospered and took a store near the old Fly Market. He finally became very rich. His daughters married merchants. President of the Merchants' Exchange Com- pany. JuMEL, Stephen A wealthy French importer of brandy and wine; his only rival in that business was another French- man, John Juhel. He married but had no children. He bought the famous Morris Mansion in 1810 from Leonard Parkinson for $10,- 000; the house was so luxurious that "lordly as a Jumel banquet" became a proverb. He died May 22, 1832, from a fall; his widow married Aaron Burr, but they sepa- rated after a stormy married life. Kemp, John Director of the Washington Insur- ance Co., 1822. Taxed on $20,000 personal property in 1815, and $16,000 in 1820. Kelley, Robert Tax list of 1823 gives 13 Cliff Street; real, $9,000; personal, $10,- 000. Kennedy, David Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. 116 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Kennedy, Duncan Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. King, Ellsha W. Tax list of 1823 gives 42 Beekman Street; real, $11,000; personal, $5,- 000. A renowned lawyer, who came from Westchester County. King, James G. Son of the famous Charles King, and a member of the firm of Prime, Ward & King. Formerly a mer- chant in England. Was noted as a financier. "A very domestic man, fond of his children and would make any sacrifice for them." He married a daughter of Archibald Gracie. At one time Mr. King was so powerful that he was called "the Almighty of Wall Street." A member of Congress from New Jersey, and a Trustee of the Sail- ors' Snug Harbor. King, John Alsop Educated in England and France; admitted to the bar in New York. Served in the War of 1812, becom- ing a lieutenant of cavalry. In 1819 he was elected to the Assem- bly; in 1823 he became a State Senator, and in 1825 Secretary of the American Legation in London. In 1856 he was elected Governor of New York. King, Rufus Lived at 223 Broadway in 1795, when he was U. S. Senator; he built the house a few years before he became Ambassador to the Court of St. James'. Mr. Astor bought the house in 1803. His son Charles King, born 1781, was f (resident of Columbia College. Tax ist of 1823 gives 26 Park Place; real $15,000. Kip, Isaac L. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1820 and 1815. The Ki^ family was of the old Dutch regime of New York. A lawyer, son of Leon- ard Kip who lost his property in the Revolution. Was for many years the partner of Judge Brock- hoist Livingston, who appointed him his executor. He left three sons. Kip, Leonard Finding his family almost ruined by the Revolution, he went into business as an importing merchant, but he was not well fitted for it and retired, building a country seat near Hartford, where he died in 1846. He left a large fortune. He mar- ried a daughter of Duncan In- graham. From 1817 to 1821 he was a member of the Common Council of New York; President of the North River Bank, 1821, and a Director of the Washington In- surance Co. 1822. He was taxed in 1823 on 182-4 Greenwich Street, on real estate $11,500; and on 167 Fulton Street, $7,500. Kneeland, Henr^' Director of the Merchants' Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Of the firm of Bogart & Kneeland, one of the oldest and most respected com- mercial houses in New York, whicli started in business at 71 South Street in 1804. A native of New York. Taxed on $40,000 per- sonal property in 1815. Knox, Thomas Married in 1793 a daughter of Mr. Lawrence Cortright, and lived at 45 Pearl Street. An eminent mer- chant whose business was at 17 Broad Street up to 1828. He died in 1834. His only daughter mar- ried Alexander Hamilton, son of the celebrated Alexander. He was one of the first Directors of the U. S. Branch Bank, 1816 and 1822, a director of the U. S. Bank, Phila- delphia, 1824. Ta.xed on $7,500 personal propertv in 1815; on $16,- 000 in 1820; and' in 1822, $9,000 on his house, in addition to the $10,- 000 personal. KusE, J. D. Tax list of 1823 gives 42 Dev Street; real, $4,300; personal, $15,000. Laight, Edward W. Tax list of 1823 gives 38 Warren Street; real, $8,500; personal, $8,- 000. Lambert, David R. Of the firm of Rogers & Lambert, founded in 1799 at 232 Pearl Street where it was twenty-eight years later. He was killed near the Sailors' Snug Harbor (near Tenth Street) by a gang of rowdies while on his way home from a party. Taxed on $30,000 personal prop- erty in 1815, and $20,000 in 1820. Tax list of 1822 gives 1 Bridge Street; house $20,000; personal, $15,000. In 1823, 115 Flv Market Place; real, $25,000. A' Director WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 117 of the Merchants' Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Lang, John A Director of the Fulton Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Old Mer- chants says he was one of the "Old Battery walkers," or "Peep o'day boys," that up to 1837 used to go down to the lonely Battery at daybreak and walk about there until breakfast and then go to their stores. Langham, William Bought, in 1818, a large lot on which he built nine houses, which he sold in 1819 for $10,500. Larue, Louis Took $25,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan, 1815-14. One of the Directors of the famous French "Economical School." Taxed on $40,000 personal property in 1815, and $25,000 in 1820. Laverty, Henrv Tax list of 1825 gives 247 Broad- wav; real, $14,000; personal, $20,- 000. Of the firm of Laverty & Gantley, of 173 Pearl Street. John Robins was one of his clerks. Henry Laverty became rich as a wholesale and retail drvgoods mer- chant; was taxed on $50,000 per- sonal property in 1815, but only $20,000 in 1820. Lawrence, Augustus H. Was in business in 1795 at 40 Wall Street under the firm of Augustus H. Lawrence and Co.; he kept his office there until 1801. In that year he took residence at 25 Rob- inson Street and there he lived for many years. He died in 1828 and his widow moved to 40 Hudson Street. The firm were members of the first organization of the "Brok- ers of the N. Y. Exchange Board" which started about 1818. He was one of the most distinguished hosts of the time. He was a Director of the Farmers' Fire Insurance & Loan Co., Director of the Globe Insurance Co., and other institu- tions. Taxed on $60,000 personal property in 1815, and on $30,000 in 1820. Ta.xed in 1823 on $12,500 real estate at 25 Park Place as well as on $17,300 personal. His son Augustus was also a broker in Wall Street. He married the daughter of Champlin of the firm of Minturn & Champlin. Lawrence, A. M. Tax list of 1823 gives 15 Park Place; real, $8,800; personal, $1,000. Lawrence, Isaac Was educated at Princeton with the intent to be a lawyer, but his health was poor so he went into his broth- er's business in 1795. They were owners of vessels, shippers of goods abroad and importers; they did a big West Indian business. He be- came President of the United States Bank in 1817 (succeeding J. J. Astor), and a Director of the Bank of the United States, Phila- delphia, 1817-19. Lawrence, John B. Entered the wholesale drug busi- ness at 195 Pearl Street about 1794, and was well known and distin- guished for his affable manners and amiable disposition. He accumu- lated a large property and died about 1845. He was a Quaker. Taxed on $30,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $15,000 in 1820. Director of the Washington Insur- ance Co., 1822. He bought 199 Pearl Street in 1809 for $15,600 — a fancy price for those davs, and considered extravagant, although it was sold in 1836 to Amos Palmer for $100,000. Lawrence, Richard R. (Estate) Tax list of 1823 gives 251 Pearl Street; personal, $25,000. An auc- tioneer. Lawrence, Thomas A Director of the Merchants' Fire Insurance Co., 1822 Of the firm of Thomas & John F. Lawrence. Taxed on $30,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $15,000 in 1820. One of the first Directors of the U. S. Branch Bank, 1816. Lawrence, William Beach Director of the Merchants' Fire Insurance Co., 1822. The son of Isaac Lawrence. Well educated. he was appointed Secretary of Le- gation at London shortly after John Ouincy Adams became Presi- dent in 1825, and became very pop- ular in London. He returned and resided in Rhode Island, and was elected Lieut. Governor of the State. Tax list of 1822 gives 35 Broadwav; house, $20,000; per- sonal, $50,000. Leake, I. G. Taxed on $40,000 personal prop- 18 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK erty, 1815, and $50,000, 1820. Tax list of 1825 gives 55 Park Street; real, $12,000; personal, $50,000. Lee, Gideon Taxed on $20,000 personal prop- ertv in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. A leather merchant; an Alderman and later Mayor of New York. He lived in what was called "The Swamp," the famous tannery part of New York. This district was bounded by Jacob and Skinner Streets, ani on the other side bv Gold, Frankfort, Ferry and Pearl. He was "a stern man." When he ran for Alderman, Peter Cooper was elected assistant Alderman. He was the last Mayor elected by the Council (1855); in 1854 the system was changed and the choice was submitted to the people. In 1856 he was elected to Congress. In 1858 he left New York and went to reside at Geneva, where he had purchased a large property; he died there in August 1841, aged sixty- four, leaving sons and daughters, and a large fortune. Leggett, Samuel {See later edition). Taxed on $50,- 000 personal propertv in 1815 and 1820. Secretary of the Mechanics Life Insurance Co., 1822; Director of the Mechanics' Insurance Co., 1822; President of the Franklin Bank, 1818. 0/d Jlerchanls says of Samuel Leggett: "He walked through this world treading as softly as any Quaker merchant, yet in his earlier years he trod heavily in the commercial and financial walks. He was President for many years of the famed Franklin Bank, that he got an in- ;unction upon, and stopped it at twenty minutes past ten o'clock on the morning of the 29th May, 1828." Lenox, Robert {See later edition). One of the five richest men in New York about 1850. J. J. Astor was the wealth- iest and the others were Lenox, J. G. Coster, Stephen Whitney and Nathaniel Prime. Lenox was a Scotchman. He lived in Green- wich Street, and was president of the St. Andrews' Societv, 1799. He bought 10 State Street in 1815 for $8,250, was taxed on $200,000 personal property in 1815, and $160,000 in 1820; the list of 1822 gives him at 59 Broadway on a $20,000 basis, and his personal estate at $160,000. Director of the U. S. Bank, Philadelphia, 1821. A conservative merchant of the first standing, and a trusted Direc- tor of both the First and Second banks of the United States. Was adviser to Nicholas Biddle in the management of the Second Bank of the United States during the latter's Presidency. Leggett, Thomas H. $50,000 personal propertv in 1815 and onlv $6,000 in 1820' List of 1825 gives 250 Pearl Street; real. $12,000. "A good business man," but he met with overwhelming financial misfortunes. His brother left him $60,000. LeRoy, Herman Taxed on $6,000 personal propertv in 1815 and $60,000 in 1820. Founder of the house of LeRoy, Bayard & Co., dry goods dealers, shipowners, and so on, one of the most famous New York houses, which started in 1790. At the be- ginning, Herman lived over the store at 5 Hanover Square. Many prominent men were taken into the firm and it changed addresses sev- eral times. The Bayards, Mc- Evers, Howlands and others were all concerned in many of the large operations of the tmies. i^lr. Le- Roy was one of the wealthiest of the old New York merchants. He had a large family; one of his daughters married Daniel Webster; another married William Edgar. In 1799 he became President of the Bank of New York, and continued in that office until 1804. He died at 7 Greenwich Street, March 51, 1841. LeRoy, Robert Taxed on $40,000 personal propertv in 1815 and 1820. One of the members of the firm of LeRoy, Bayard. Levy, Jacob, Jr. {See later edition). Taxed on $50,- 000 personal propertv in 1815 and $20,000 in 1820. Tax list of 1822 gives 74 Broad Street; house, $10,- 000; personal $20,000. Director, 1820-25, of the Bank of New York. Lewis, F. Tax list of 1825 eives 77 Chambers WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 119 Street; real, $5,800; personal, $6,- 000. Lewis, Gabriel L. Son of Francis Lewis; he married Ann Champlin, a daughter of John Champlin of the house of Minturn & Champlin. He was a merchant who lived at 12 Leonard Street; he had a store on 52 South Street on which he was taxed $7,500 in 1822. He was at one time clerk to the Board of Brokers, and was one of the first Directors of the Farmers' Fire Insurance & Loan Co. Lewis, Zachariah Trustee of the Bank for Savings, 1819-40. Little, Jonathan Jonathan Little & Co. was a large silk importing house; its head was also President of the Marine So- ciety of New York in 1817, and a Sachem of St. Tammany's Society; also a Director of the Manhattan Fire Insurance Co., 1822. He was taxed on $50,000 personal property in 1815 and on $25,000 in 1320. His store at 15 John Street was taxed in 1823 on the basis of $7,500. Livingston, Brockholst Son of William Livingston, once Governor of New Jersey; born in New York, November, 1757. He graduated from Princeton in 1774, served in the Revolutionary War, went to Spain with his brother-in- law, John Jay, as private secretary; was captured on his return and thrown into prison in New York. He was liberated on the arrival of General Carleton and began to study law; was admitted to the bar in 1783. In 1802 he became Judge of the New York Supreme Court and in 1807 a Judge of the U. S. Supreme Court. Died March, 1823. Director of the Bank of the United States, Philadelphia, 1816; Trustee of the Bank for Savings, 1819-23. Taxed on $30,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and 1820. Livingston, John R. Tax list of 1822 gives 2 Greenwich Street; house, $16,500. Taxed on $50,000 personal property in 1815. Livingston, Robert L. Taxed on $5,000 personal property in 1815 and $30,000 in 1820. When John B. Church, an English- man, sold out, Mr. Livingston bought all of his silver. Church was said to have been the most expensive liver in New York and gave dinner parties on silver plates nearly every day of the week. Livingston was a brother of Morti- mer Livingston of the Havre packet agents. Loom IS, Luther (See later edition). Took $5,000 of the U. S. Government Loan, 1813-14. Lord, Eleazar President, Manhattan Fire Insur- ance Co., 1822; President of the Erie Railroad at one time. Author of a very sane treatise on Banking and Currency. Lord, Rufus Taxed on $25,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. One of the partners of Lord & 01m- stead, with Ralph Olmstead, drv goods merchants of 172 Pearl. The firm started in 1817 and was dissolved in 1822; Mr. Lord then took in B. F. Lee, under the firm name of Lord & Lee. A bachelor. He owned a good share of Exchanye Place. Lord, Silas Taxed on $12,000 personal prop- erty in 1815, and $13,000 in 1820. LORILLARD, Jacob {See later edition). Director of the Merchanics Bank, 1822. LovELL, Thomas Tax list of 1823 gives 213 Pearl Street; real, $11,250; personal, $500. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1815. LovETT, George [See later edition). Director, Me- chanics' Insurance Co., 1822. LovETT, James {See later edition). Took $5,000 U. S. Government loan, 1813-14. Director of the Merchants' Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Low, Nicholas Taxed on $40,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $20,000 in 1820. A Director of the Bank of New York. He did business in Water Street as Low & Wallace, mer- chants. His daughter married Mr. Charles King {q.y.). Ludlow, G. Taxed on $20,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and 1820. Tax list of 1822 gives 15 Whitehall Street; 120 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK house, $10,000; personal, $25,000. Of English descent. The Ludlows were a celebrated family. LuTSON, Arthur Taxed on $20,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. Lydig, David Born 1764; died May 16, 1840. He was described as a man of good education, carefully brought up, handsome in person, of good sense and judgment, refined and courte- ous in manner. He was a leading member of "the Club" of about thirty prominent citizens, and a Director of the Merchants Bank, incorporated 1805. He first re- sided at 21 Peck Slip, over his store; he then moved to 55 Beekman Street, later to 225 Broadway, which was two doors from Barclay. He paid $25,250 for this property to Jonathan Fisk, and sold it to John Jacob Astor in 1831 for $32,- 500. He was in every prominent bank and insurance company for nearly half a century. The tax list of 1823 gives his real estate at 225 Broadway as $13,000 and his personal property at $1,000. Lynch, Dominick Tax list of 1822 values his house at 1 Greenwich Street at $12,000; personal tax, $5,000. A man of family and wealth and a social leader; it was his effort which brought the first Italian opera to New York. When peace was de- clared with Great Britain in 1815, a great banquet was given to cele- brate the occasion at Washington Hall, at which Dominick Lynch presided — as he had at dozens of similar social functions. Lynch, Dominick, Jr. Director of the North River Insur- ance Co., and of the Branch Bank of U.S., 1822. McAdam, Mrs. Ann Tax list of 1822 gives 57 Broadway; house, $14,000; personal, $20,000. McBride, James (See later edition). "Few mer- chants of this city have been of more note than James McBride. He was from Armagh, in Ireland, and commenced business in New York in 1795." In 1796 there was a large firm of McBride & Watson, soap and tallow chandlers, 98 Beek- man Street; the firm consisted of James McBride and William Wat- son. The house dissolved, and in 1803 McBride started in business for himself at 101 William Street. He was later better known as an importer of Irish linens. In 1805 he owned vessels, had a steamboat wharf at foot of Cortland Street; he lived at 4 Dey Street and had a counting house at 2 Dey Street. He accumulated a large fortune. He was one of the incorporators of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, organized in 1784 but not incorpo- rated until February 1827; was a Director in banks, and insurance companies, and was one of the first Directors of the Farmers' Fire Insurance and Loan Co. in 1822. He subscribed $10,000 to the Government Loan of 1813. Was taxed on $30,000 personal property in 1815 and on $20,000 in 1820; in 1822 his house was valued at $9,000 and his personal estate at $15,000. He died at 70 Fifth Avenue in 1858. McCall, James Tax list of 1823 gives 233 Broad- way; real, $8,500; personal, $500. President of the Metropolitan Bank. McCoMB, John Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $8,000 in 1820. Director of the Mechanics Bank, 1822, and of the Fulton Fire Insur- ance Co. McCoRMiCK, Daniel Taxed on $40,000 personal estate in 1815 and $25,000 in 1820. Tax list of 1822 gives 57 Wall Street; house, $10,000; personal, $35,000. A fine old Irish mer- chant; one of the first Directors of the Bank of New York. A bache- lor, he intended to make his nephew his heir, but the two did not agree and the nephew returned to Ireland and became a great man there. He died in 1834; he wore short breeches, white stockings and buckles to the last. He was very hospitable, fond of his friends, and was very rich McCowN, Samuel Director of the Globe Insurance Co., 1822. Taxed on $6,000 per- sonal property in 1820. McCra, Robert Tax list of 1823 gives 65 Fulton WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 121 Street; real, $10 000; personal $10,000. McEvERS, Charles Taxed on $9,000 personal property in 1815 and 1820. Tax list of 1822 gives 56 Wall Street; real, $18,000. In 1825, 18 Park Place; real, $7,500; personal, $5,000. Of the house of LeRoy, Bayard & Mc- Evers, whose counting house was for many years at 66 Broadway. G. G. Howland (if. f.) was with this house and rose to be chief clerk. McEvers lived at 56 Wall Street, a famous mansion, next door to the Bank of New York. McEvERS, John Director, 1816-40, of the Bank of New York. McFarlan, Henry {See later edition). Tax list of 1825 gives 12 Vesev Street; real, $7,500; personal $20,000. Taxed on $50,- 000 personal property in 1815 and 1820. Director of the Fulton Fire Insurance Co., 1822. MacGregor, John, Jr. Tax list of 1822 values his house at 49 Greenwich Street at $12,000; personal tax, $15,000. McIntyre, Archibald Appointed Secretary of the Far- mers' Fire Insurance and Loan Co., 1822. Owned ten shares of stock in the Second Branch Bank of the United States. M'Queen, Robert Director of the Mechanics' Life Insurance and Coal Co., 1822. Alderman of the city of New York, 1822. Mc Vicar, Archibald Director of the U. S. Branch Bank, 1816. Second son of John Mc- Vicar; a lawyer; he married a daughter of Judge Brockholst Liv- ingston iq. c). After he gradu- ated at Columbia went to England and finished his education at Cam- bridge. McViCKAR, John A large Irish shipowner and mer- chant; John and Philip Hone were among his clerks. He came to New York soon after the war. Tax list of 1825 gives 251 Broad- way; real, $15,000. Mackie, William Tax list of 1822 gives 110 Green- wich Street; house, $8,000; per- sonal, $12,000. Mactier, Henry Lived at 141 Chambers Street. He was one of the first Directors of the Farmers' Fire Insurance & Loan Co. Went into business in 1818 with William Stevens, son of Ebe- nezer Stevens, under the name of Stevens & Mactier; they continued till 1825. "I think at that time Mr. Mactier died. He married one of the beautiful daughters of Augustus H. Lawrence, by whom he had three children." Magee, James {See later edition). James McGce & Co., Grocers, 72 South Street, was taxed on $7,500 in 1822. The head of the house was one of the first Directors of the Farmers' Fire Insurance and Loan Co. Majestre & Tardy Took $10,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment loan, 1815—14. Partnership was formed in 1812. Tardy had vessels running the blockade to Bordeaux and other European ports in 1812. Mr. Majestre was from Marseilles and was in the United States only a short time; he died in 1851. Mann, Asa Director of the Fulton Fire Insur- ance Co., 1822. Taxed on $7,000 personal property in 1815 and 1820. Alderman of the city of New York, 1822. Mark, Jacob Of the German house of Jacob and Philip Mark, largely in the Holland trade. The firm dissolved in 1795; in 1795 Mr. Mark took John Speyer into partnership. The firm failed in 1799 and out of this failure grew a lawsuit for $500,000 which was not settled till 1820. Jacob Mark, it is supposed, returned to Ger- many after he received the money from the lawsuit. Taxed on $15,- 000 personal property in 1815, and $5,000 in 1820. A shareholder in the Tontine Coffee House. Marshall, Benjamin {See later edition). Came with his brother Joseph from England with considerable capital. A Director of the City Bank about 1825. In- terested in cotton. He established himself in Oneida County and prospered. Taxed on $20,000 per- sonal property in 1815, and on $5,000 in 1820. One of the first 122 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Directors of the Farmers' Fire In- surance & Loan Co. Martin, Henry Director of the Farmers' Fire In- surance and Loan Co., 1822. Mason, John (See later edition). Began life as a workman, but became one of the "Old New York merchant princes," and subscribed $5,000 to the first Government Loan of 1813. He lived on Broadway between An- thony and Leonard Streets, and paid taxes on $60,000 personal property in 1815. He was a Direc- tor of the Bank of New York, 1814-41; a Trustee of the Bank for Savings, 1819-53, and virtually controlled the destiny of the Chem- ical Bank from 1831 until his death in 1839, first as Director and later as President. His estate was estimated at $800,000, equalling in importance that of A. T. Stewart. Masters, Thurman Owned 118 Liberty Street, valued at $5,000, in 1822. Tax shows in addition personal property of $1,000. McGee, James Taxed on $20,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $15,000 in 1820. One of the old Irish merchants of New York. Mead, A. B. Director of the North River Bank, 1821. Taxed on $7,000 personal property in 1820. Mead, Benjamin A partner with S. Tooker around 1806. The house went into the privateer business in 1812, as did manv other houses of the time. Benjamin Mead died in 1860. The Meads were all from Greenwich, Conn. Mead, Henry Alderman of the city of New York, J822. Mead, S. The tax list of 1823 gives 274 Pearl Street; real, $10,000. Melick, Balthazar P. A prosperous wholesale grocer of Greenwich Village, he was a man of influence; a Director in the Equitable Fire Insurance Co., the Greenwich Fire Insurance Co. and the Union Marine and Life Insur- ance Co. His name first appears in the city directory for 1795, where, as "Baltus P. Melick," he is described as grocer of 183 Wash- ington Street. He became the first President of the Chemical Banii in 1824, and in his leisure hours was Secretary of the Black Friars Soci- ety, a musical and social club. Merritt, Benjamin Tax list of 1823 gives 277 Pearl Street; real, $10,250; personal, $5,000. Mesier, Peter A. Tax list of 1822 gives 28 Wall Street; real, $8,000. A bookseller. At the celebration of the opening of the Erie Canal, Mr. Mesier was assistant standard bearer. Miller, John B. Tax list of 1822 gives his house at 109 Greenwich Street as worth $9,000; personal, $10,000. Miller, Thomas Director of the North River Insur- ance Co., 1822. Taxed on $5,000 personal property in 1815. MiLNER, Joseph K. Tax list of 1822 gives 6 Pearl Street; house, $12,000; personal $15,000. Taxed on $30,000 per- sonal property in 1815 and $15,000 in 1820. MiNTURN, A. G. Tax list of 1823 gives his house at 78 Murray Street; personal, $5,000. MiNTURN, Jonas One of three commissioners ap- pointed to receive stock subscrip- tions of the Mechanics' Life In- surance and Coal Co., 1822; also a Director of that company and a Director of the Mechanics' Insur- ance Co., 1822. One of the three Minturns in the firm of Champlin & Minturn which failed in 1815. Later Jonas went into the auction business under the name of Frank- lin & Minturn. "The Minturns are a good-looking lot of men, six feet tall, rosy cheeks, and black curly hair." MoLLAR & Rankin This firm took $20,000 of the U. S. Government Loan of 1813—14. Montgomery, John B. Owned 78 and 80 Maiden Lane in 1822, valued at $5,000; personal estate, $5,000. Moore, B. (Estate of) Tax list of 1823 gives 2 John Street; Eersonal, $35,000. The Moores oasted direct descent from Thorn- WEALTHY C I T I Z E xN S ' BIOGRAPHY 123 as DeMoore, a Norman, who came with WilHam the Conqueror into England in 1066. B. Moore was clerk to H. C. De Rham. Taxed on $50,000 personal property in 1820. Moore, Clement C. Taxed on $17,000 personal estate in 1820. He was the son of Bishop Moore, and author of "The Visit of St. Nicholas," 1822. Born, 1781; in 1818 he presented to the Epis- copal Theological Seminary the block on which the Seminary build- ings were erected. Morris, Andrew Director of the Mechanics Bank, 1822, and Trustee of the Bank for Savings, 1819-23. Taxed on $60,- 000 personal property in 1815. Morrison, John C. Director of the North River Bank, 1821. Druggist; lived at 188 Greenwich Street. Taxed on $10,- 000 personal property in 1820. Morse, John (See later edition). Director, Ful- ton Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Morse, Oliver Tax list of 1825 gives 31 Park; real, $13,000; personal, $500. Morton, Jacob Counsellor-at-law, and Clerk of the Common Council until 1835. Morton, Thomas C. Tax list of 1823 gives 92 William Street; real, $9,250; personal, $7,- 000. Morton, Walter Took $10,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan, 1813-14. MoTT, Henrv Tax list of 1823 gives 259 Pearl Street; real, $11,000; personal $10,- 000. MoTT, Doctor A celebrated phvsician of 25 Park Row; real, $16,000. MoTT, William F. (See later edition). Taxed on $12,- 500 personal property in 1820. One of the first Directors of the Manhattan Fire Insurance Co., 1822. MowATT, John (Estate of) Tax list of 1823 gives 217 Pearl Street; real, $15,000; personal, $40,- 000. Taxed on $60,000 personal propertv in 1815 and $40,000 in 1820. MuiR, Alexander M. Director of the North River Bank, 1821; and North River Insurance Company, 1822. MUMFORD, Gurdon S. Took $20,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan, 1813—14. One of the llrst members mentioned in the "Brokers of the New York Stock Exchange." In 1817 there were only 28 members. When the New Eng- land Society for friendship, char- ity and mutual assistance was formed in 1805, four Mumfords ;oined it. He was elected to the 9th Congress for the City of New York in 1805; re-elected to the 10th and 11th Congress, and held his seat until 1811. Came as a broker to Wall Street in 1816, and was one of the founders of the Stock Board. He died in 1830; his fu- neral was one of the largest ever held in New York. Munson, Reuben Director, Fulton Fire Insurance Co., 1822 MuLFORD, Hervey Owned 61 South Street, taxed at $7,000, 1822. Murray, George W. Took $10,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan of 1813-14. Murray, James B. Tax list of 1823 gives 54 Warren Street: real, $6,300; personal, $3,- 000. Murray, John Treasurer of the Bank for Sav- ings, 1819-23. Partner of Richard Cunningham and Hugh McCor- mick, who owned a tannery and manufactory near the old powder house and sun-fish pond at the foot of Murray Hill. Was treasurer of the New York Hospital, and in 1792 a Director of the Bank of New York. Murray Hill was named after him; he once owned it all. Murray, John B. Taxed on $25,000 personal prop- ertv in 1815; on 45 Barclay Street, 1823, $7,500, and $15,000 personal. Murray, Lindley The well-known grammarian. Old Jlerchants says that he used often to leap across Burling Slip, twenty- one feet, with a pair ot fowls in his hand, as he came from mar- ket; his lameness was afterwards imputed to this cause. It was his mother who entertained the British 124 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK officers so charmingly for two hours, at her house on Murray Hill, while General Putnam, with a large detachment of the Con- tinental army, retreating in haste before a superior force, success- fully reachea the main body at Harlem Heights. He earned an immense sum by his various works, but the profit was invariably de- voted to charity. When he died, he left by will several bequests to charities in England. The resi- dence, after his wife's death, was to be transferred to New York for a permanent fund to be used to help liberate the slaves. Murray, R. I. Tax list of 1823 gives 47 Cliff Street: real, $8,500; personal, $5,- 000. Neilson, William A merchant who owned ships trad- ing between New York and Newry, in Ireland. He married twice, the second time Lady Catherine Duer, 1801. After the war he resumed business at Great Dock Street. In 1797, he took his son into the firm. His house at 1 State Street was taxed at $16,000, 1822. Nevins, p. I. _ . {See later edition). Director, Hope Insurance Co., 1822. Nevins, R. L. Tax list of 1822 gives 42 Wall Street: personal, $1,000. Nevins & Townsend 40 Wall Street: real, $14,000. A highly respected Wall Street bro- kerage firm. New BOLD, George Taxed on $15,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. One of the Directors of the Bank of America. Newton, Joseph Director of the North River In- surance Co., 1822. NiBLO, William Tax list of 1822 gives 47 Pine Street; house, $2,400; 45 Pine Street; house, $10,000; personal, $5,000. He kept the Bank Coffee House. The following poster is interesting: "Niblo's Garden. The greatest curiosity in the world, and the most interesting, particularly to Americans, is now exhibiting at the Saloon fronting on Broadway, in the building recently erected for the dioramic view, Joice Heth, nurse to General George Washing- ton, (the father of our country), who has arrived at the astonish- ing age of 161, as authentic docu- ments will prove and is in full possession of^her faculties. She is cheerful and healthy, although she weighs but 49 pounds. She re- lates many anecdotes of her young master; she speaks also of the red- coats during the Revolutionary War, but does not appear to hold them in high estimation. She has been visited by crowds of ladies and gentlemen, among whom were many clergymen and physicians, who have pronounced her the most ancient specimen of mortality the oldest of them has ever seen or heard of, and consider her a very great curiosity. She has been a member of the Baptist Church for upwards of one hundred years, and seems to take great satisfaction in the conversation of ministers who visit her. She frequently sings and repeats parts of hymns and psalms." NiCOLL, Edward H. Director, Globe Insurance Co., 1822, and of the Branch Bank of U. S. He married Mary Town- send, daughter of Capt. Solomon Townsend. Was of the firm of Smith & Nicoll. A stepson of Hon. John Smith, of the U. S. Senate. Tax list of 1822 gives 8 Green- wich Street; house, $7,500; per- sonal, $40 000. NiCOLL, Francis H. Director, Merchants Fire Insur- ance Co., 1822. Taxed on $25,000 property in 1815, and $10,000 in 1820. NiLES, P. F. Tax list of 1823 gives 221 Pearl Street; real, $15,000. Nixon, Thomas Taxed on $20,000 personal prop- Noble, John erty in 1815, and $25,000 ir The tax list of 1822 values his house at 29 Greenwich Street at $7,500; personal tax, $6,000. Oakey, Charles Taxed on $5,000 personal propertv in 1820. Bousjht, in 1819, twent'v lots in Cornelia Street for $8,000. Oakley, James Owned 114 Libertv Street in 1822 WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 12f Tax reports show his estate $5,000 in real and $2,500 personal. OgdeN, Abraham Tax list of 1822 gives 52 Green- wich Street; house, $10,000. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1815. Ogden, Isaac G. Tax list of 1822 gives 48 Wall Street; real, $8,000; tax list in 1823, 75 Warren Street; real, $7,000; personal, $2,000. One of the first twenty-eight members of the Stock Exchange. Ogden, Jonathan Began his business career in 1793 and ended it in 1833, when he died. He founded the house of Ogden, Fersiuson and Co. Married, 1804, Miss Charlotte Walton. An Eng- lishman by birth, he was one of the first members of the St. George's Society. Barrett says "he was small in size, thick-set, and was one of those pleasant, jolly-countenanced English gentle- men of great moral worth and in- tegrity." In 1811 he moved to 4 State Street and lived in handsome style. He did a great business, owned ships and was a great ship- per on his own account. He had a house in Liverpool to which he sent cargoes of cotton, flour and other goods. He was a Director of the Merchants Bank from 1814 to 1832. He paid taxes on $85,000 personal property in 1815 and in 1822 was taxed on 4 State Street $16,000, with $20,000 personal. Ogden, Thomas L. Director, Globe Insurance Co., 1822. Tax list of 1822 gives 17 Nassau Street; house, $14,000; per- sonal, $2,000. Olmsted, Ralph Owned 86 Liberty Street in 1822. His estate was valued at $7,000, and his personal property at $3,- 000. A rich dry goods merchant. OoTHOUT, John^ {See later edition). Director of the Bank of New York, 1819-58. OoTWOUT, Mrs. Tax list of 1823 gives 32 Court- landt Street; real, $6,600; personal, $22,000. OOTWOUT, Miss Personal, $25,000. OsBORN, William Tax list of 1823 gives 20 Cliff Street; real, $8,000; personal, $10,- 000. A celebrated merchant; when he failed in 1830, his collapse created a small panic. Overing, Henry Taxed on $70,000 personal property in 1820. Painter, Henry H. Tax list of 1823 gives 28 Warren Street; real, $6,000. Palmer, John J. He owned 96 Liberty Street, in 1822. His real estate"^ was valued at $6,000 and his personal prop- erty at $8,000. Taxed on $20,000 fersonal property in 1815, and 8,000 in 1820. Palmer, William Tax list of 1822 gives 8 Wall Street; house, $6,000; personal, $2,000. Parish, Henry Taxed on $5,000 personal property in 1815 and 1820. The tax list of 1822 gives his personal property as $15,000. Of the firm of HenrV & Daniel Parish, drygoods mer- chants. He was born in 1788, and came to New York about 1809. He lived at 115 Pearl Street in 1822, and retired from business in 1825. He went to work again in 1827 with another partner and built 49 and 51 Barclay Street (one for himself and the other for his brother), which were regarded as palaces in those days. He mar- ried Miss Susan Maria Delafield in 1829. He went to Europe for his health in 1842 and made a will at that time, leaving his wife $331,000, and left other property valued at about $2,000,000. After his return from Europe his mind gave way and he died shortly after. Patten, Richard Tax list of 1823 i^nves 180 Water Street; real, $8,500; personal, $7,- 500. Patton, James Owned a stable valued at $6,000 on Liberty Street, 1822. Paulding, William Born at Tarrytown, N. Y. and came to New York City in 1795 to practise law. He married a daughter of Philip Rhinelander. In the War of 1812 he rose to the rank of Brigadier General of mili- tia. Elected to Congress, 1811. 126 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK He lived in one of the finest blocks $15,000; personal, $20,000. Direc- of the citv. called Paulding's Row, tor of the Manhattan Fire Insur- in Jay Street at the corner of Green- ance Co., 1 822. wich.' He was taxed on $28,000 personal property in 1815. Died in 1854. Pearson, Isaac G. Taxed on $15,000 personal prop- erty in 1815. He was a builder, an3 purchased in 1827 all the lots on both sides of Bleecker Street, between Mercer and Greene, for about $400 to $600 a lot. Phelps, Anson G. (See later edition). Tax list of 1823, gives 52 Cliff Street; real, $8,500; personal, $15,000. A New Eng- lander. Founded the firm of Phelps & Peck. He was a tinman and was apprenticed to that trade; then he became a peddler and sold wooden clocks as well as tin ware, and this business was the founda- tion of his fortune. He started in New York In 1814; Mr. Peck be- came a partner in 1818. Their prosperity increased so that they were able to purchase 32 Cliff Street and erect a large store, — which fell down the following year, killing several people. Mr. Peck left a princely fortune when he died. Director of the Hope In- surance Co., 1822. Phelps. Thaddeus Located at 109 Liberty Street; real, $7,500; personal, $5,000. Took $10,000 of the U. S. Government loan, 1813-14. He lived In Park Place many years. "He was a great merchant but awfully pro- fane," says Old Jlerchants. Was a great Democrat In Jackson's time. His daughter married Gov- ernor Mason of Michigan. Phelps & Co., Thaddeus Owned 72 South Street, taxed on $9,000 In 1822. Phelps & Peck Tax list of 1823 gives 181 Front Street; real, $10,000. Pfister, Alex. V. Tax list of 1822 gives 13 Broad- way; house, $20,000. Phyfe, Duncan {See later edition). Director of the North River Bank, 1821. PlERSON, Isaac {See later edition). Tax list of 1822 gives 9 Whitehall Street; house. Pike. Benjamin Tax list of 1822 gives 12 Wall Street; house, $5,000; personal, $500. PiNTARD, John Born In 1759. Brought up by his uncle after his parents' death and educated at the famous grammar school at Hempstead, L. I., where he was considered the best Latin scholar. Joined the armv during the war and was deputed to pro- cure articles for the prisoners and relieve their necessities. After the war he married Eliza Brashear. daughter of Colonel Brashear. He was engaged in many different businesses, both In the South and New York. In 1805 was appointed clerk to the Corporation of New York and City Inspector, and made many wise laws for the firemen of the city. In 1812 there was a scarcity of small coinage, and the Corporation appointed Pintard to sign all the paper notes of a small denomination issued then; he was eminent in all financial matters. He left the Corporation In 1809, when he was appointed Secretary of the Mutual Insurance Co.; he continued to be a Director after he ceased to be capable of per- forming the duties of Secretary. He was seventy when he resigned In 1829, but he had a desk in the office as long as he lived, though he was both blind and deaf in his later years. He was Secretary of the American Museum, founded In 1791 by the Tammanv Society. The Museum was housed in a room In the City Hall and articles were sent to Mr. Pintard for exhibi- tion; it was open every Tuesday and Friday afternoons. Mr. Pin- tard was also a Trustee of the Bank for Savings 1819-41. The tax list of 1822. shows that he was taxed on real estate $12,000 and personal $1,000, at 57 King Street. He died in 1844. Post. Allison [See later edition). Tax list of 1823 Indicates that he lived at 15 Court- landt Street, and owned personal property valued at $18,000. WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 127 Post, Gerardus Taxed on $40,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $20,000 In 1820. Post, Henry, Jr. Director of the Mechanics' In- surance Co.. 1822. Member of the firm of Post & Russell, in the cot- ton business. He had been in busi- ness since 1798. He married, in 1805, Miss Mary Minturn, daugh- ter of William Minturn of the firm of Minturn & Champlin. He did a heavy business for some years; in 1812 the house became Post & Minturn, which was dissolved in 1817. Became one of the founders of the Board of Brokers. He was cashier of the Franklin Bank from 1818 to 1826, when he became Presi- dent, but the bank failed at about that time. Post, William Taxed on $40,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $25,000 in 1820. The tax list of 1823 gives 177 Water Street; real, $6,000; per- sonal, $10,000. He was a paint dealer in Water Street. He was called a miser, and died rich. Post, Wright The tax list of 1822 values his house at 4 Bowling Green at $20,- 000; personal tax, $20,000. Power, L. Tax list of 1822 values his real estate at $10,000. Prall, Ichabod Director of the Manhattan Fire Insurance Co., 1822. He took $10,- 000 of the U. S. Government Loan, 1815-14. Lived at 168 Water Street, where the water came up to the door. "A fine man, but unfortunate in business." General Jackson gave him a place in the Custom House. Taxed on $6,000 personal property in 1820. Price, Ichabod Tax list of 1825 gives 190 Broad- way; real, $12,750. Price, Thompson (See later edition). Director of the Mechanics' Insurance Co., 1822. Prime, Nathaniel {See later edition). Lived at the famous No. 1 Broadway- Head of the firm of Prime, Ward & King, of 5 State Street. He is said to have once been in the ser- vice of a rich man of Boston, who loaned him money to commence a brokerage business in a small way. One of the wealthiest men of New York of his time, but not considered to be worth a million. In 1832 he retired, but was forever possessed by a fear that he would c^ie in poverty. His children mar- ried into the first families of New York society. He was the first genuine private banker in New York, and a shrewd, far-seeing man of business. Taxed on $75,000 personal property in 1820; the tax list of 1822 ^ives taxes on 3 Broadway at $20";'000 in addition. New York Director of the U. S. Bank, Philadelphia, 1818, and Director of the Globe Insurance Co., 1818. Prince, William A. Tax list of 1823 gives 178 Broad- wav; real, $11,000; personal, $5,- 000. Randall, Thomas Mariner. A member of the Ton- tine, 1794. He left an estate to found the Sailors' Snug Harbor. Randolph, Jeremiah F. Took $10,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan, 1813-14. Taxed on $20,000 personal property in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. List of 1822 gives 11 Bridge Street; house, $13,- 000; personal, $6,000. Rankin, Henry {See later edition). Taxed on $30,- 000 personal property in 1815 and $25,000 in 1820; tax list of 1822 gives 3 Carlile Street; house, $4,- 500; personal, $25,000. Went into partnership with Isaac He3'er in 1815 as hardware merchants; this was dissolved about 1824. Was one of the first Directors of the U. S. Branch Bank, 1815; Director of the Merchants Bank, 1820-30; Director of the North River In- surance Co., 1822. Rapelye, George Born at Newtown, February 15, 1793 and became a prominent New York merchant. Carried on for many years a wholesale grocery business on Catharine Street, where he accumulated a fortune. He owned a fine residence on Madison Street, which was then a fashionable part of the city. Taxed on $15,000 personal property in 1815, and $10,000 in 1820. 128 ACENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Rathbone, I. {See later edition). Taxed on $50,- 000 personal property in 1815 and $15,000 in 1820; the tax list of 1823 gives 46 Cliff Street; real, $9,000; personal, $5,000. Of the firm of John Rathbone & Co. He died in 1843, aged ninety-two. He was a Connecticut boy, and came to New York soon after the close of the Revolutionary War. He was a clerk for some time, but went into business for himself about 1795. He has two sons and one daughter; his son John was a member of the State Legislature in •1823 and made a reputation for himself in politics. John Rathbone & Son subscribed $10,000 to the U. S. Government Loan of 1813-14. Ray, Cornelius (See later edition). Director of Branch Bank of U. S., 1822. One of the early trustees of the Sailors' Snug Harbor, given by Captain Randall. One of the four members of the Committee appointed to set- tle all the accounts of the purchase and building of the Tontine Coffee- House. Taxed on $80,000 personal propertv in 1815 and $60,000 in 1820. List of 1822 gives 56 Broad- way'; house, $28,000; personal, $60,000. Ray, Robert Born July 14, 1797; died March 11, 1879. He married, November 25, 1819, Cornelia, daughter of Nathaniel and Cornelia Prime. On their marriage Mr. Prime ic}-i>.) presented his daughter with a three-story house at No. 3 Mar- ketfield Street, which was in later vears the site of the Washington Building. In 1829 he purchased from Dr. Alexander H. Stevens the house at No. 17-19 Broadway for $19,500; in earlier days this had been the home and office of John Chambers, a noted lawyer and Judge of the Supreme Court. Upon these lots Mr. Ray erected a man- sion which still existed in 1907, when it had been converted into offices of the Anchor Steamship Line. For a description of his home, at 2 University Place, on January 23, 1834, see Philip Hone's Diary. He was one of the most noted men of the day and his home one of the most beautiful. He paid taxes on 3 Marketfield Street, $9,000, in 1822. Reed, Stephen Tax list of 1822 gives 37 Wall Street; real, $10,000. Taxed on $30,000 personal property in 1815. Reade, Robert L. (See later edition). Director, Mer- chants' Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Remsen, Daniel Taxed on $6,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $20,000 in 1820. Married a sister of Henry F. Rogers. Was of the house of Peter Remsen. Remsen, Peter (See later edition). Taxed on $50,- 000 personal property in 1815 and 1820; tax list of 1822 gives 2 Broadway; house, $14,000; per- sonal, $50,000. Bought 2 Bowling Green in 1815 for $9,500. He had a grocery store in Coenties Slip, where he did business for over fortv vears, commencing about 1796. Died about 1836. He did an immense trade, and had many partners who all made for- tunes. He was an extraordinary man, and served as director of many important corporations, in- cluding the Merchants Bank, the Globe Insurance Co., and the Farmers' Fire Insurance & Loan Co. Rhinelander, William (See later edition). Tax list of 1823 gives 243 Broadway; real, $12,500; also 5 lots on Washington Street; real, $6,600. Taxed on $30,000 personal propertv in 1815, and $40,000 in 1820. Director of the North River Insurance Co., 1822. Rhodes, Chris Tax list of 1823 gives 209 Pearl Street; real, $12,500. Rich, Thomas L. Tax list of 1822 gives 9 Wall Street; house, $6,000; personal, $2,000. Richards, Nathaniel Director, Washington Insurance Co., 1822. Taxed on $25,000 per- sonal property in 1815. List of 1823 gives 133 Chambers Street; real, $6,500; personal, $10,000. Richards, Abraham Director, Hope Insurance Co., 1822. Richards, Stephen Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty in 1815. WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 129 RiKER, Richard Recorder for New York City, 1822. Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. Roberts, William Assistant to the President, Hope Insurance Co., 1822. Bookkeeper in Thos. N. Small Co. when they failed. Carried on business under his own name at the store of Wm. H. Smith & Son, 166 South Street, and was there up to 1829; he then established himself at 1 Wall Street. He kept fine brandies and wines. He resided, from 1831, at 2 Vesey Street, which he had rented from John Jacob Astor. He adopted a young lady as his daughter who became the wife of Dr. Alexander F. Vache. Robins, John Born in 1779. He had an adven- turous youth travelling between New York and Philadelphia. Went as supercargo twice on his brother's boat. He started a dry goods business in Pearl Street. He was a bachelor and his mother, "a. clever woman and a good cook" kept house for him; she lived to be ninety-five and died in 1833. He became exceedingly wealthy and in 1861 paid a larger personal tax than John Jacob Astor. "He has washed his hands and face daily in the same shilling tin basin for sixty and odd years, and in the open yard. He has done his own marketing all the time. . . . He has never fooled away his money on beggars." He never carried an umbrella, and never had a fire in his sleeping apartment. Director of the Merchants' Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Robinson, Morris In 1820, he became Cashier, Branch Bank of the U. S. One of the best financiers of his day. He had sev- eral sons. Tax list of 1822 gives 65 Broadwav; house, $30,000; per- sonal, $3,000. Robinson, William H. Tax list of 1822 gives 44 Wall Street; real, $13,000. Roe, William Director, North River Bank, 1821, and North River Insurance Co., 1822. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1815. Rogers, B. W. Born 1775, the son of Moses Rogers, a famous merchant. Be- gan business as a hardware mer- chant in 1804, and lived at 5 State Street in 1826. Was a vestryman of Trinity Church from 1821 to 1826. Married first a daughter of William Ba^'ard, and second a Miss Elwyn. Each of his daughters married W. P. Van Rensselaer. He had three sons. He died in 1859 in New York. Tax list of 1822 values his house at 5 State Street at $16,000; personal tax, $25,000. In 1823 his house is given as 235 Pearl Street; B. W. Rogers & Co., real, $13,000. Director of the U. S. Bank at Philadelphia, and of the Globe Insurance Co., 1822. Rogers, David Director, Manhattan Fire Insur- ance Co., and North River Insur- ance Co., 1822. Of the firm of David Rogers & Co., large sugar merchants. In his earlier days he commanded the Cliase, a vessel belonging to Melick & Burger in the St. Croix trade. Rogers, John {See later edition). Director of the North River Insurance Co., 1822. Rogers, Moses Tax list of 1822 places tax on his house at 7 State Street of $19,000; personal tax, $60,000; $80,000 per- sonal property in 1815, and $60,000 in 1820. Rogers, Nehemiah Came to New York from New Brunsw'ick in 1792 and founded the house of Rogers & Aspinwall at 45 Queen Street. In 1796 the firm dissolved and Mr. Rogers founded the house of N. Rogers & Co., with David R. Lambert as a partner; the firm changed to Rogers & Lambert in 1799. Be- fore he came to New York he was the first Mayor of St. John, N. B., and entertained the Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria. He mar- ried a daughter of James Bell of Frederickton, N. B. about 1786. He was born in 1754 and died in 1849, aged ninety-five, — almost the last of the old merchants in active business during the 18th century. His wife outlived him, dying at ninety-four. He paid taxes on 130 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK $50,000 personal property in 1815 and $20,000 In 1820; the tax list of 1822 gave him as at 4 Greenwich Street, house, $16,000, and personal, $20,000. He was a Director of the New York Bank, 1807 to 1827. RouLET, Jonas S. He was of the firm of Rossler & Roulet, 21 Broadway, who were among the largest merchants; the house began business In 1800. Subscribed to $10,000 of U. S. Government Loan of 1813-14. Roosevelt, James Taxed on $50,000 personal prop- erty In 1815 and $20,000 In 1820; In 1823 was taxed on 201 Pearl Street, $15,000, and personal, $15- 000. Roosevelt, James C. Taxed on $50,000 personal prop- erty In 1815, and $10,000 In 1820. Roosevelt, James J. Taxed on $50,000 personal prop- erty In 1815 and $10,000 In 1820; in 1822 was taxed on 63 Broadway, $15,000, and personal, $10,000. Russell, John W. Owned 73 South Street; was taxed on $7,500. Russell, William W. (See later edition). Was one of the first Directors of the Farmers' Fire Insurance and Loan Co. Rutgers, Colonel Henry In 1798 he lived three or four blocks above Rutgers Street; the grounds about his house occupied an entire block. He was one of the most prominent men of the day, and possessed an Immense landed estate of several thousands of lots In the immediate neigh- borhood of his private dwelling. He was never married. Was highly respected by all who knew him, a quiet and unostentatious man, very charitable, and distributed his great wealth with a liberal hand. He gave the land on which the Rutgers Street Presbyterian Church was built, and contributed large- ly to the erection of the church. He sold two lots to Garrlt Furman In 1827 In Madison Street, for $4,300. Salle, Laurent (or Lawrence) Tax list of 1822 gives 136 Water Street; house, $5,000; personal, $50,000. Was an auctioneer, and bought all the paper that some of the firms took. When he died, he left over $600,000 In business paper, and every dollar of these notes was taken at maturity. Taxed on $50,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and 1820. He was said to have such a huge appetite that one boarding-house proprietor informed him he could not afford to keep him for $4 a week, so he was raised to $6. Even then the man requested him to leave, so he was In turn raised to $8 and then $10. When he again requested Salle to leave, he said "Charge all you want," but the landlord, with tears In his eyes, replied, "It's no use. I will not have you at any price. The more I charge, the more you eat." Salter, Thomas Tax list of 1823 gives 173 Broad- way; real, $16,500. Saltus, Francis (See later edition). Taxed on $10,- 000 personal property in 1815 and 1820. Director of the Farmers' Fire Insurance and Loan Co., 1822. Sands, A. L. Taxed on $15,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. The tax list of 1823 gives 103 Chambers Street; real, $5,300; per- sonal, $15,000. Sands, Austen L. Director, Globe Insurance Co., 1822. Taxed on $15,000 personal property In 1815, and $12,000 In 1820. Sanford, Charles W. Bought several lots In York Street, 1823. Sanford, Nathan Director of the Mechanics Bank, 1822. U. S. District Attorney about 1806. Tax list of 1822 gives 27 Pine Street; house, $4,000; personal, $40,000; 29 Pine Street, house, $2,500. Taxed on $60,000 personal property in 1815, and $40,000 in 1820. Sands, Joseph Tax list of 1822 ^Ives 5 Market- field Street; house, $9,000; per- sonal, $10,000. Son of Comfort Sands; he was a member of the firm of Prime, Ward & Sands In 1816. SchenCK, David Tax list of 1823 gives his residence WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 131 at 213 Pearl. (Thos. Lovell); personal, $10,000. ScHENCK, Peter H. Built a cotton factory at Matte- wan; when New York was block- aded cotton was carted by land from Charleston, S. C. to Fishkill Landing, New York, about 900 miles. He did business as a grocer until 1824 at 49 Front Street. He was taxed on personal property of $10,000 in 1815; the tax list of 1822 values his house at 2 Bowling Green at $18,000. He added greatly to the wealth of New York. Apparently had no descendants. He was one of the first Directors of the U. S. Branch Bank, 1816, and a Director of the Manhattan Fire Insurance Co., 1822. He took $10,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan of 1813-14. ScHERMERHORN, Abraham (See later edition). Director of the North River Insurance Co., 1822. SCHERMERHORN, Peter {See later edition). Tax list of 1822 eives 68 Broadwav; house, $15,- 000; personal, $40,000; in 1823, it gives 225 and 227 Front Street; real, $14,000; 224 Water Street; real, $7,250; 241 Water Street; $5,500; 243 Water Street, $5,500; 70 Gold Street, $4,250; 21 Park Place, real $10,000; personal, $12,- 000. He married Miss White. Was an extensive ship chandler about 1800 in Water Street. Died about 1823, leaving much prop- erty for those days. SCHERiMERHORN, John S. Tax list of 1822 gives 32 Broad- wav; house, $10,000; personal, $25,000. Schmidt, J. W. Taxed on $12,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. SCHOFIELD, I (or J.) Tax list of 1823 gives 6 Park Place; real, $11,000; personal, $3,- 000. Taxed on $15,000 personal property in 1815. Schuyler, Cornelius Director, Mechanics' Insurance Co., 1822. Taxed on $8,000 per- sonal property in 1815. Seaman, Edmund Tax list of 1822 gives 29 Broad- way; house, $19,000; personal, $45,000. Taxed on $30,000 per- sonal property in 1815 and $45,000 in 1820. Seaman, Robert Tax list of 1822 shows that he lived at the above address; per- sonal, $40,000. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1815. Senchich, Nicolo Took $40,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan, 1813-14. Schieffelin, Jacob Was among the wealthiest and most prosperous men in 1822. He died on April 19, 1835, leaving what was then considered a large fortune. He lived at 107 East Broadway and had a country seat at 143rd Street in Harlem. He retired from the drug busi- ness in 1811 and the business was carried on by Henry H. Schieffelin and his brothers, Ef- fingham and Jacob H. In 1794, he ^rented, for $1,000 a year, W^il- liam Walton's house, built in 1752, at the present 326 Pearl Street. John Pintard, founder of the N. Y. Historical Society, describes it: "A brick edifice, fifty feet in front and three stories high, built with Holland brick, relieved by brown stone water tables and jambs, with walls as substantial as many modern churches and stand- ing along the south side of Pearl Street, lately called Queen Street. The superb staircase in the ample hall, with mahogany hand rails and bannisters, by age as dark as ebony, would not disgrace a nobleman's palace. It is the only relic of the kind that probably at this period remains in the city, the appearance of which affords an air of grandeur not to be seen in the lighter staircases of modern buildings." Sharp, John He bought 17 Bridge Street in 1815 for $5,100; was taxed on $10,000 personal propertv in 1815 and 1820. Sharpe, Peter {See later edition). Tax list of 1823 gives 43 Nassau Street; real, $9,- 000; personal, $10,000. Director of the Mechanics Bank, 1822. and Director of the Fulton Fire In- surance Co., 1822. 132 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Shaw, N. A. Tax list of 1823 gives 174 Broad- way; real, $12,500. Shepherd, Allen Taxed on $25,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and on $28,000 in 1820. Sherman, Jacob Taxed on $40,000 personal prop- erty in 1815. Sh ERRED, Jacob Taxed on $30,000 personal prop- perty in 1820. One of the founders of tbe General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen, who erected their building on the corner of Park Place in 1805; this Society was one of the unique institutions of the city. It was started after the war, in 1786, but was not chartered by the Legis- lature until 1792. Sherred was a painter and glazier at 37 Broad Street; he had no children nor near relations, so John Pintard thought he would apply to him for help in es- tablishing the Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church. Sherred was of the Dutch Reformed Church. Inaddition towriting him a beseech- ing letter, Pintard convinced Sher- red's wife of the value of the prop- osition, with the result that when Sherred died the Seminary was his "residuary legatee" and benefited some $60,000. Shotwell, Joseph Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- ertv in 1815 and $20,000 in 1820. Of 'the firm of Shotwell, Fox & Co.; they succeeded Leggett Pearsall & Co., an auction and commission house. Shute, John Took $10,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan, 1815—14. Taxed on $15,000 personal property in 1815. Smith, Benjamin Director, Globe Insurance Co., 1822. Ta.xed on $10,000 personal property in 1815 and $9,000 in 1820. Smith, David V. Taxed on $12,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. Smith, Edmund (See laLer edition). Bought 15 Bridge Street in 1815 for $5,200. Taxed on $45,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $50,000 in 1820; taxed, 1822, on house $12,000, and personal $40,000. Director of the Globe Insurance Co., 1822. Smith, Flovd Tax list^f 1823 gives 182 Broad- way; real, $11,000. Smith, Gamaliel Director, Globe Insurance Co., 1822. Taxed on $20,000 personal propertv, 1815 and 1820. Tax list of 1822 eives 232 Front Street: real, $6,500; personal, $10,000. Smith, Gershom Ta.xed on $20,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. Was a partner of Benjamin De Forest in the firm of De Forest & Smith, which began business in 1809. Smith, John N. Tax Hst of 1823 gives 172 Broad- way; real, $13,000. Smith, Joseph Trustee, Bank for Savings, 1819-32. Taxed on $8,000 personal property in 1815. Smith, Jotham Taxed on $25,000 personal property in 1820. Smith, Stephen Director, Mechanics' Life Insurance and Coal Co., 1822. Smith, Thomas H. Started business before 1800; in 1801 he was at 196 Front Street as a wholesale and retail grocer. He prospered. He took $10,000 of the U. S. Government Loan of 1813-4. Besides being the greatest tea mer- chant of his dav, he was also Presi- dent of a Club called the "Fire Club," at which the members in- dulged in a sort of "Follow my leader" game; the fine for refusing to follow the leader was a dozen bottles of champagne, and many adventures befell the members in following this rule. On one occa- sion a bath in the frozen water of the harbor was in the program; on another occasion a stranger from the South, elected chairman for the evening, took a keg of gunpowder, put a piece of fuse on the table with the other end in the keg and invited the club to await develop- ments. As the cotton began to burn the room gradually cleared, until the stranger was left alone. He then extinguished the cotton and awaited the return of the mem- bers. When they came he called for his champagne and read them a severe lecture on cowardice. Smith's WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 135 business failed in 1827 and he died owing the Government $5,000,000. Smith, Thomas R. Director, Fulton Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Taxed on $20,000 per- sonal property in 1815 and $6,000 in 1820. Smith & Nicoll Tea merchants; took $100,000 of U. S. Government Loan of 1813-14. They failed afterwards but the partners died rich. Smith, Wilham Taxed on $70,000 personal prop- erty in 1815. An alderman of New York at one time. Spier, Robert Taxed on $15,000 personal prop- erty in 1815, and $10,000 in 1820. Stebbins, David Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. Stebbins, William One of the first Cashiers of the Chemical Bank. Had been Teller of the North River Bank, where his brother John was Cashier. He resigned this in 1828 to accept the position of Assistant Cashier. Steenback, Anthony Director, Mechanics Bank, and of Mechanics' Insurance Co., 1822. Member of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of New York, 1804; a tax list, 1823, gives four lots beyond 247 Broadwav: real, $28,000. Stephens, Benjamin {See later edition). Taxed on $18,000 personal propertv in 1815 and $15,- 000 in 1820. Tax list of 1823 gives 51 Dev Street: real, $5,500; personal, $5,000. Director of the North River Insurance Co., 1822. Stevens, E. & Son The tax list of 1823 gives 221 and 223 Front Street; real, $11,000; 42 Warren Street; real, $8,500; per- sonal, $5,000. Ebenezer Stevens, head of the house, was one of the founders of the Tammany Society in 1789. Had been a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and was a member of the New England So- ciety. In 1786 he went into the lumber business. He lived at 226 Water Street; his store was on "Stevens Wharf." He sold wines and spirits which he imported. Was elected to the Assembly in 1800. He did remarkable business betvveen 1800 and 1820. Died in 1823. Was a very witty man. His house at 59 Beekman Street had a Dutch door, as was the custom then; he often stood looking out from the upper part. It had a large brass knocker, which was alwavs well polished. He had one daugh- ter, and several sons, one of whom was president of the Bank of Com- merce for many years. Stewart, John Tax list of 1825 gives 192 Front Street; real, $12,000; personal, $500. Stephens, Garet Taxed on $20,000 personal prop- erty in 1815, and $10,000 in 1820. Stewart, Alexander L. Taxed on $20,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $25,000 in 1820. Stilwell, Samuel Took $10,000 of U. S. Government Loan, 1813-14. Lived with his wife in the Bowery for forty years; they had no children, but adopted Eliza Taylor who married Edward Dough- ty. Samuel Stilwell was the uncle of Silas M. Stilwell, who was said to have spent $60,000 a year at one time. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1815. Storm, Garret {See later edition). Taxed on $50,- 000 personal property in 1815 and $22,000 in 1820; tax list of 1822 gives 13 Wall Street; real, $16,000; personal, $22,000. Son of Thomas Storm, a grocer. He went into partnership with his father in 1796. He and his brother Stephen were largely identified with the growth of the city. He married in 1808 a widow, Susan Murgatroyd, with two children. He had two children; one of them, Louisa, married Rob- ert J. Livingston, the other Samuel V. Hoffman. He retired in 1824. "He was never guilty of the im- propriety of paying large wages" says Old Merchants; if any of them, "like Oliver Twist, in their inno- cency, asked for more. Garret would have certainly collapsed." Took $10,000 U. S. Government Loan of 1813-14. Director of the Globe Insurance Co., 1822. Storm, Stephen {See later edition). Director of the North River Insurance Co.. 1822. 134 ACENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Storm, Thomas Taxed on $15,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. Married in 1771 Elizabeth Gra- ham. Was in the grocery business under the name of Storm & Sickles in 1785; the firm dissolved and iMr. Storm kept on alone. In 1796 he took his son Garret into partnership. He went into politics, and was elected a member of the Legislature at Al- banv. Was a Director of the New Yorlt Sugar Refining Co. A promi- nent and leading merchant of extra- ordinary energy, he always en;oyed good credit. He retired from busi- ness and purchased a farm at Kipp's Bay (near 40th Street and East River), where he built a fine man- sion and lived until his death in 1853. St. John, Sam. (See later edition). Tax list of 1823 gives 65 Alaiden Lane; real, $10,- 000; personal, $10,000. Director of the Manhattan Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Strong, Benjamin President of the New York Sugar Refining Company about 1804. Taxed on $28,000 personal proper- tv, 1815 and 1820. Director of the Alerchants Bank, 1817-32, and of the North River Insurance Co., 1822. Strong, George W. Taxed on $11,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and 1820. Strong, Joseph Taxed on $20,000 personal prop- erty in 1815. Director of the Hope Insurance Co. SuFFERX, Thomas Taxed on $20,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. An Irishman who succeeded to his uncle's business as a tobacco merchant in 1810, but changed to the Irish drygoods im- porting business. A pupil of Joseph Boeuf, the celebrated French teach- er, and worked very hard at the language, although at that time (1834) he was about 56 years old. He married a daughter of William Wilson, a wealthy merchant. SuYDAM, John {See later edition). Taxed on $40,- 000 personal propertv in 1815 and $15,000 in 1820; the tax list of 1822 gives 4 Broadwav; house, $12,000; personal, $15,000. R. & J. Suydam were in business in 1791; in 1794 this was changed to Suydam & Wyckoff, at 11 and 13 Coenties Slip. John Suydam lived over the store at 11. The firm dealt in teas, wines and groceries generally. John Suydam was called "Boss John;" He was the son of Hendrick Suy- dam, and brother of Samuel, who became a partner of Suydam & Heyer. Air. Heyer married Jane Suydam, the sister of John. Direc- tor of the Globe Insurance Co., and the Fulton Fire Insurance Co. SuYDAiM, L. & C. Tax list of 1823 sives 212 Pearl Street; real, $13,000. SUYDA.M, L. Located at 13 Dev Street; real, $6,500; personal, $5,000. Suydam, James Tax list, 1823, records that he lived at Mrs. Todd's, 170 Broadway; per- sonal property, $5,000. Suydam, Ferdinand Tax list of 1822 gives 5 Bridge Street; house, $11,000; personal, $4,000. Born in 1786. he started in business in New York at 37 Front Street in 1808; previously he had been a clerk with Suydam & Wyck- off. He lived at 5 Bridge Street with his brother Henry. He married a daughter of Anthony Lispenard Underbill, and left three sons. He paid $5,000 for his house in 1815. Swan, Benjamin Taxed on $26,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $30,000 in 1820. Swan, Joseph Tax list of 1822 gives 68 Greenwich Street; house, $9,000; personal, $40,000. Swift, Joseph G. Chairman and Director, Mechanics Life Insurance and Coal Company, 1822. One of the fifteen members of the Committee appointed to celebrate the completion of the Great Western Canal. Swords, James (See later edition). Director and President of the Washington In- surance Co., 1822. SwARTWOUT, John Son of Abraham Swartwout. He came to New York after the Rev- olutionary War and went into business in 1787. He married Miss Smith, a relative of Melancthon Smith. In 1794 he went into part- IB iil IT m m«, ^ I «l ll f Drawn by C Burton Engraved by IJ bo\\elte THE FIRST merchants' EXCHANGE Erected in 1826 on Wall Street east of William Street, on the present site of the National City Bank; (Below) the Merchants' Room of the Exchange. as it looked in 1831 Drvwn by A. Duk, I Uiiaudhx I \i,h, WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY nership with his brother-in-law at 66 Water Street, where they did a large business in paints and dye woods, buvin? the latter bv cargoes. Went into politics and in 1798-99, 1800 and 1801 was elected to the Assembly of the State; he was again elected in 1821. Was a friend of Aaron Burr and this attachment led to a duel between him and DeWitt Clinton in which he was wounded in the thigh. In conse- quence of some unfavorable com- ments arising out of this duel, Swartwout challenged Dickey Rik- er; they fought, and Riker received a wound that made him limp all the rest of his life. He reclaimed 4,200 acres of salt marsh at Hoboken and near Newark. He w^as a Director of the Merchants Bank, and of the North River Bank, 1821, which was started to aid him in "reclaim- ing certain meadows lying in New Jersev opposite to the Citv of New- York." Was taxed on $10,000 per- sonal property in 1815, and in that year bousiht 12 State Street for $20,000. He died in 1822. Targee, John (See later edition). Director of the Fulton Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Taylor, Edward Ta.xed on $6,000 personal property in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820; the tax list of 1822 gives personal prop- erty, $10,000. _ He lived at 174 Water Street, in house owned by Hubbs. He was one of twenty- six pall bearers, corresponding with number of states in union, at Wash- ington's funeral services in New York. Talcot, Noah Owned 64 South Street, taxed on $7,500 in 1822; was taxed on $30,000 personal property in 1815. Was one of the principal cotton brokers; others were G. iMerle and D. Crassons. N. & D. Talcott. the firm name, survived the War of 1812 with unimpaired credit. Taylor, Jacob B. Alderman of the city of New York, 1822. Was one of the pall bearers at the funeral of John Jacob Astor, held April 1, 1848. Was Alderman, 8th Ward, from 1817 to 1826; father of Moses Taylor, and the chief business man for John Jacob Astor. He started in business as a cabinet maker at 94 Broad Street in 1804. Taylor, John Prominent merchant; married Miss Waddell, daughter of Captain John Waddell. Tax list of 1822 sjives 183-5 Pearl Street; house, $12,000; personal, $40,000. Ta.xed on $100.- 000 personal propertv in 1815 and $35,000 in 1820. A Director of the Merchants Bank, 1804-29. He took $150,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan, 1813-14. Taylor, Moses The tax list of 1822 gives 27 Broad way ; house, $4,000 ; personal,$2, 000 Son of Jacob B. Tavlor {(J.i>-) Was clerk for G. G. & S. S. How- land; was backed in business b\ John Jacob Astor and became very rich. Was a speculator in notes at 2 or 3 percent, a month. Finally became millionaire & President of the City Bank. Was mentioned socially by Philip Hone. Taylor, Najah Was taxed on $50,000 personal propertv in 1815, but onlv $5,000 in 1820'. Tax list of 1823 'gives 10 Courtlandt Street: real, $11,000; personal, $5,000. Trustee of the Bank for Savings, 1819-60. TeTEREL & WiLLIAiMS Took $20,000 in U. S. Government Loan, 1813-14. Thomas, Henrv Was ta.xed' on $10,000 personal propertv in 1815 and $15,000 in 1820. Tax list of 1823 gives IS CHff Street; real, $8,000; personal, $15,000. Director of the Globe In- surance Co., 1822. Thompson, Ab'm G. Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty in 1820; tax list gives 91 Beek- man Street; real, $7,000; personal, $20,000. Was of firm of Boggs, Sampson & Thompson. Abraham G. Thompson paid $5,676.01 duties as vendue merchant in 1830. Thompson, Alexander Taxed on $15,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. Thompson, Fran's Taxed on $100,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $50,000 in 1820; tax list of 1823 gives 35 Beekman Street; real, $12,500; personal, $50,000. One of the proprietors with Isaac Wright & Son, of a line of Liverpool packets — the famous 136 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK old Black Ball line. Was of Quaker stock. He organized the firm of Francis Thompson & Nephews [Francis, Jr. and Samuel]; it failed about 1829. Thompson, G. L. Taxed on $25,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. Thompson, James {See later edition). Taxed on $160,- 000 personal property in 1815 and $90,000 in 1820; tai list of 1822 gives 49 Broadway; house, $19,000; personal, $60,000.^ Subscribed $20,- 000 to the U. S. Government Loan, 1813. Director of the Globe In- surance Co., 1822. Thompson, Jeremiah Taxed on $25,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $50,000 in 1820. A bachelor, of large, well-propor- tioned dimensions and withal a true specimen of an English Quaker. Was largest shipper of cotton from this country to Europe, and also the heaviest importer of British clothes. Next to Brown Brothers & Co. and Prime, Ward, & Sands, he was the largest bill drawer in America. Went to pieces in 1827, financially, and lived only a few years afterward. A Trustee of the Bank for Savings, 1819-23. Thompson, Jonathan {See later edition). Tax list of 1823 gives 24 Beekman Street; real, $11,000; personal, $1,000. Collector of the Port of New York under John O. Adams; father of Jeremiah Thompson. Of the firm of Thomp- son & Adams. Elected, 1840, to succeed Maltby Gelston as Presi- dent of the Manhattan Bank. Was a power in the land and the inti- mate acquaintance of five Presi- dents. Thompson & Edgar Took $10,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan, 1813-14. Thorn, Stephen, Jr. Director of the Washington In- surance Co., 1822. Taxed on $30,- 000 personal property in 1815 and $25,000 in 1820. Thurston, William R. Taxed on $18,000 personal prop- erty in 1820 TiBBETTS, Elisha Taxed on $15,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. TiBBETTS, iMrS. Taxed on $60,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. TiGHE, Richard Born in Ireland, 1806, and came to New York when thirty-two years old; the second son of an Irish baronet. The title reverted to him but he would not accept it. He bought, in 1841, No. 18 Union Square for $14,000. He was for years a Director of the Manhattan Fire Insurance Co. Was a man of learning, having been educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He mar- ried Miss Caroline CheesebrouRh. Died in 1896. TiLLOTsoN, Robert Appointed U. S. District Attorney by his relative. President Monroe, in 1820, and held office until 1829. Taxed on $5,000 personal property in 1820. Director of the Mechanics Life Insurance and Coal Co., 1822. Titus, Walter Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $12,000 in 1820. Todd, William W. Director, Hope Insurance Co., 1822. Born, 1781, in Washington County-; son of Adam Todd, a shipbuilder. His daughter married John M. Bruce. Entered employ of John Jacob Astor, and went on perilous expeditions for furs at the age of sixteen. He remained with Astor until 1797, when he left to enter the employ of John Duffie. He obtained a fortune by the judicious Purchase of real estate. Taxed on 9,000 personal property in 1815 and $5,000 in 1820. Tom, Thomas Paid taxes on $60,000 personal property in 1815. Was associated in business with Edward Lawrence, on Pearl Street. ToOKER, Samuel Originally a clerk to John Duffie. He started in business in 1798 and did an immense trade. He took as a partner, in 1806, Benjamin Mead, and the house went largely into the privateering business dur- ing the war. He came from New- burg. Had no children, but adopted Ellen Laverty, who married Joseph Hudson. He died about 1823. He was a Universalist, and the head of the church. In 1820 he was Alderman ofthe First Ward. Taxed WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 137 on $20,000 personal property in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. Director of the Manhattan Fire Insurance Co., 1822; took $20,000 of the U. S. Government Loan, 1813-14. Town, Charles Director of the North River In- surance Co., 1822. A partner in business of John Hone, auctioneer. Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and 1820. TowNSEND, Thomas S. (See later edition). Ta.xed on $28,- 000 personal propertv in 1815 and $18,000 in 1820. He lived at 92 BceUman Street and was taxed at rate of $7,500. Director of the Mer- chants' Fire Insurance Co., 1822. He was probably the principal capitalist in the house of Hicks, Lawrence & Co. when it first started. One of the first Directors of the Farmers' Fire Insurance & Loan Co. Tracy, Frederick A. In 1822 he was a broker at 43 Wall Street; home, 74 Leonard Street. His son, Frederick, Jr., was for many y^ears a clerk in the silk house of Nelson Carleton Co. in Pearl Street, about three doors from Wall; this was among the first stores burned on the night of the great fire in December, 1835. Old Frederick Tracy, "though a Wall Street broker, was a pure, devoted, sincere Christian, if ever there lived such a man." Tax list of 1822 values his house at $14,000. Tredwell, Seabury Taxed on $17,500 personal prop- erty in 1815 and 1920. Trumbull, Mrs. The tax list of 1823 gives 27 Park Place; real, $14,500. Tucker, Richard, Jr. Of the ancient firm of Tucker & Lauries — all English, or rather Bermudians. Richard Tucker lived for many years in Bond Street; he was a stately merchant of the old school. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1820. A Director of the Merchants Bank, 1815-30, and also of the Fulton Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Underhill, a. L. President Fulton Fire Insurance Co., 1822. He started business as a grocer about 1795. He lived at 44 Dey Street until 1835, when he moved to 28 Courtlandt Street, but kept his office at the Fulton Fire Insurance Co., of which he was President from 1819 to 1835, when the great fire made the company go into liquidation. Moved to Fourth Street in 1837, and then retired. Was vestryman of Trinity Church from 181 Tto 1847. Taxed on $25,000 personal property in 1815. Underhill, Isaac He built 28 Cliff Street in 1815, but met with financial reverses and sold it in 1825 for $6,120. Valentine, Abraham Taxed on $30,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $16,000 in 1820; the tax list of 1823 gives 58 John Street: real, $8,000; personal, $16,- 000. Van Antwerp, James Tax list of 1823 gives 38 Maiden Lane; real, $5,400; personal, $10,- 000. Van Giesen, M. Taxed on $60,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and on $15,000 in 1820. Vanden Huvil, J. C. Taxed on $30,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $110,000 in 1820; the tax list of 1823 gives 229 Broad- way: real, $23,000; personal, $200,- 000. Gave his daughter $70,000 when she married Thomas Gibbs, a large sum for those days. Vanderbilt, R. K. The tax list of 1822 gives 218 Front Street; real, $9,000. Vandevoort, p. L. Taxed on $20,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and on $12,000 in 1820; tax list of 1822 gives 111 Broadwav; house, $17,000; person- al, $112,000. Of the firm of Vander- voort & Flanders, celebrated dry- goods dealers. He married the daughter of Robert Bruce. Vandevoort, William L. The tax list of 1822 gives 21 Nassau Street: house, $14,000; personal, $5,000. He also married a daughter of Robert Bruce. Van Horne, Gerrit Taxed on $25,000 personal prop- ertv in 1815 and on $8,000 in 1820; the tax list of 1822 gives 31 Broad- way; house. $9,000; personal, $7,- OOO. He was senior member of firm of Van Horne & Clarkson, merchants, shippers and importers. 158 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK at 129 Pearl Street; his junior partner was David M. Clarkson. The firm dissolved about 1810. He lived at 31 Broadway, where the firm formerly was; in later years Clarkson occupied the house. He died about 1826. Van Horne, J. P. Taxed on $15,000 personal prop- erty. 1815 and 1820; tax list of 1823 gives 99 Libertv Street: real, $7,500; personal, $10,000. Van Ness, Abraham {See later edition). Bought a house on the block bounded by Bleecker, Perrv, Charles and West 4th Streets for $15,000 in 1819. and lived in it many years; the land became very valuable. The house was called the famous "Van Ness" Alansion at Greenwich. Tax list of 1822 gives 13 William Street; house, $6,000; personal, $12,000. Director of the Washington Insur- ance Co., 1822. Van Ness. W. P. Took $25,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan, 1813-14. Van Schaik, Minard Taxed on $8,000 personal prop- erty in 1820; tax list of 1823 gives .■^4 Courtlandt Street; real, $6,600; personal, $10,000. Was President and Director of the Croton Water project. Held many municipal offices. Member of firm of John Hone & Sons. He married the daughter of John Hone. He retired with a modest sum, but became rich in real estate. Van Wagenen. Hubert Taxed on $22,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820. He was in partnership with his father, as ironmongers in Beekman Slip. The old Hubert lived to be very aged; the younger was a very religious man, and for years at- tended St. George's Church in Beekman Street with his "inter- esting family." Few men were more universally respected than the Van Wagenens. Van Wyck. S. Taxed on $25,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and 1820; tax hst of 18^3 eives 30 Beekman Street: real. $12,000; personal, $10,000. Van Zandt, Thomas Director, Farmers' Fire Insurance and Loan Co., 1822, Varick, Colonel Richard Born at Hackensack, N. J., March 25. 1753; a lawyer by profession. Joined the Revolutionary Army in 1775 and was appointed Captain in the First N. Y. Continental In- fantry under Colonel MacDougall. On April 10, 1777, when he was military secretary to General Scar- lett, Congress conferred upon him the position of Deputy-Muster- General of the Northern Depart- ment, with the rank of Lieut. Colonel. In 1778 he was Inspector- General at West Point on the staff of General Arnold, and after the discovery of Arnold's treason, Varick was Recording Secretary for General Washington. He was tried as being implicated with Arnold but was fully acquitted. He held many other offices. He married the daughter of Isaac Roosevelt, but had no children. Paid taxes on $100,000 personal property in 1815 and $70,000 in 1820; the tax list of 1822 gives taxes on 110 Broad- way at $16,000 and personal, $70,000; the list of 1823 elves 11 Park Place, $7,000. Varet, Lewis F. Tax list of 1823 gives 129 Chambers Street: real, $6,100; personal. $25,- 000. Of the firm of F. Varet & Co.. French importers, which did a large business in silks; this house was established in 1798. Verplanck, Gulian {See later edition). Born in 1786 at Wall Street. He was brought up by his grandmother when his mother died. Graduated from Columbia at fifteen, studied law and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one. He married in 1811. Miss' Mary Fenno of Boston, who died in Paris in 1817. Returning to America, he was elected to the Legislature in 1819 from New York, and in 1815 was elected to Congress. He was for more than fifty years a Trustee of the Society Library, and for four- teen years a Regent of the Uni- versity of the State of New York; for twenty-six years a member ot the vestry of Trinity Church and for twenty-four years President of the Board of Education. He never married again. He was one of the best known literary men of his WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY [39 time. He died in 1870, but did not leave a very large estate. Vroom, G. B. Tax list of 1822 gives his address in the Merchants Bank, 25 Wall Street; personal, $1,000. Cashier of the Merchants' Bank, 1817-24. He took $500,000 of the U. S. Govern- ment Loan, 1813—14, — possibly for somebody else. Waddington, Joshua A native of England. Was elected a Director of the Bank of New York at the first meeting of the subscribers in 1784, and continued to serve until 1843. He died in 1844 in his ninetieth year, uni- versally respected and esteemed. Waite, George Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. Waite, Thomas Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty in 1820. Wakeman, Thaddeus B. Taxed on $13,000 personal prop- ertv in 1815 and on onlv $5,000 in 1820. Tax Hst of 1823^ gives 279 Pearl Street; personal, $10,000; also Stephen Gorham's house, 129 Flv Market Place (T. B. Wakeman & Co.), real, $15,000. Director of the Manhattan Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Wallis, John Owned 116 Liberty Street, 1822; his estate for taxation was valued at $6,000. Walton, Gerard Taxed on $80,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $60,000 in 1820. He was the son of the first William (called "Boss") Walton. Was governor of the New York Hos- pital till 1799. All of the family was connected with the Chamber of Commerce. Gerard was six feet, two inches in height. He attended Trinity Church and sat in the family pew. It was believed all the Waltons sided with the English in the war, for, as soon as it was over, thev joined the St. George's Society. 'Died in 1821. Old Jler- cliants says that the Waltons were a singular, proud race; they had their dignified style of amusement, but the mass of the community knew no more about them than if thev had lived in London. Walton, William H. The tax list of 1823 gives 85 P^ulton Street; real, $6,000; personal, $5,- 000. Ward, Samuel The tax list of 1822 values his house at 5 Bowling Green at $18,000; personal tax, $30,000. Taxed on $15,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $20,000 in 1820. Warren, John G. Taxed on $5,000 personal propertv in 1815 and $10,000 in 1820; tax list of 1822 gives 46 Wall Street; real, $12,000. He was one of the brokers of the New York Exchange Board, 1817. His daughter married Philip Kearny. Firm name: John G. Warren & Son. Watts, John A rich man — worth perhaps $300,- 000. His daughter married John W. Kearny. He was one of the in- corporators of the Society Library, and helped to raise the money for the Merchants' Exchange. Taxed on $30,000 personal propertv, 1815 and 1820; the tax Hst of 1822 gives taxes on 5 Broadwav; house, $18,- 000; personal, $30,000. Weed, Nathanial {See later edition). Director of the Fulton Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Weeks, Ezra Director, Washington Insurance Co., 1822. He owned the City Hotel, and was a vestryman of Trinity Church. Wells, Nathaniel Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty, 1815 and 1820. Wendell, John G. Tax list of 1823 gives 9 Gold Street; real, $4,250; personal, $8,- 000. Brother-in-law of John Jacob Astor. He kept a furrier's store. Werckmister, M. Tax list of 1823 gives 150 Broad- way; real, $16,500; personal, $5,000. Weston, Abijah He bought 6 Bowling Green for $11,150 in 1815; 8 and 9 State Street for $16,004, and 13 Bridge Street for $5,000, in 1815. WeYxMAN, Abner Tax list of 1823 gives 33 and 35 Maiden Lane; real, $14,000. Whelten, John President, Hope Insurance Co., 1822. Taxed on $30,000 personal property in 1815. A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK 140 White, Campbell P. Director, Branch Bank of the U.S.. 1822. On the Committee appointed to make arrangements for celebrat- ing the completion of the Erie Canal. Son of Doctor White, who came to Baltimore from Ireland after the Revolution. He was a leading politician of Tammany Hall; in 1826 and 1828 he was Alderman of the Third Ward; m 1829 he was elected to Congress from New York. He married Miss LeRov in 1808 and had a large familv. His store was burned in the great fire of 1835, when he moved to 51 Stone Street and con- tinued there. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1820. White, Mrs. E. Tax list of 1822 gives 11 Broadway; house. $11,000; personal, $20,000; also 24 Dey Street: real, $5,300; personal, $12,000. White, J. , r>, , Owned 106 and 108 Liberty Street in 1822, valued at $8,800, with personal property, $1,000. White, Thomas Owned a lot in W'all Street that was sold by his heirs in 1828 to the Fulton Fire Insurance Co.; this lot was again sold in 1836 for $40,100. Whitehouse, James Taxed on $10,000 personal prop- erty in 1815, and $15,000 in 1820. Whitney, Stephen {See later edition). One of the richest men in New York of his time, through his Investments in real estate. Old Merchants states that "very few merchants of the past fifty years have stood up and retired \vith means unless thev have invested largely in real estate. Born in Derbv, Conn., he marred Miss Harriet 'Suvdam in 1803. He began business in 1805 at 4 Stone Street. Taxed on $130,000 personal propertv in 1815, and $160,000 in 1820. Whitney, Stephen ,. ^ nooo {See later edition). Tax list of 1822 gives 23 Pearl Street; store, $2,000; house at 25 Pearl Street. $10,000; personal, $160,000. Director of the Bank of America. Son ot Stephen Whitney. He married the daughter of Isaac Lawrence. Tax list of 1822 gives 3 Wall Street: house, $6,000; personal, $2,000. W'lLKES, John Born in London August 30, 1764, and came to the U. S. in 1784 at the suasestion of William Seton. Soon after the organization of the Bank of New York he entered its service, and In 1792, while acting as Teller, he was appointed Cashier of the Branch Bank of the U. S., then just established In New York. He declined the appointment and was afterwards elected Assistant Cashier of the Bank of New York, becoming Cashier in 1794. He carried out his duties with signal ablHtv. In 1802 he received six months' vacation and went to Eng- land; in 1822 he was again sent to London to negotiate a loan of £200,000 through Baring Brothers, which he concluded successfully at 5 percent, for eight years and 170 certificates of indebtedness, vary- ing in amount from £500 to £4000. He was elected President m 1825, succeeding General Matthew Clark- son. He died in 1853, leaving six children, the eldest of whom mar- ried Francis Jeffrey, afterwards Lord Jeffrev, who .visited U. S. in 1815. He was Treasurer of the Historical Society, was taxed on $20,000 personal property in 1820, and lived at 51 Wall Street; he also had a house in Greenwich, where he entertained lavishly; many great men were frequent visitors. He died In Europe, leav- ing a daughter who married Count Quelkechow, a member of the body- guard of the Pope. He is described, by a writer of the time, as ' an humble ujiassuming young Enghsh- man, who boarded with Mr. Seton. Williams, Ellphalet Taxed on $50,000 personal prop- erty In 1815 and $10,000 In 1820. Williams, John „,„„ , Tax list of 1825 gives 212 Broad- way; real. $12,000; personal, $5,- 000.' Master of the packet ship Albion; he sailed April 1. 1822, but the ship was lost and the captain perished. Williams, Richard S. Tax list of 1823 gives 9o South Street; real, $12,500. WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 141 Willis, John Taxed on $20,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $15,000 in 1820; tax list of 1823 gives 35 Murray Street: real, $8,500; personal, $8,- 000. Wilson, Joslah Tax list of 1823 gives 160 Broad- way; real, $1 1,000; personal, $2,000. Wilson, William A Scotchman who came to New York soon after the Revolutionarv War. He kept a store in 1790 at 215 Pearl Street; was a heavy importer of British drygoods. His correspondent in Manchester was the firm of Peel, Yates & Co., that Peel being the first Sir Robert Peel, father of the great Prime Minister. When he retired uptown, he gave up housekeeping and went to boarding. He furnished the money to build the Scotch Church in Murray Street, which was finished in 1812,— about the time Mr. Wilson went out of business. Taxed on $40,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $35,000 in 1820; Trustee of the Bank for Savings, 1819-36. WiNTHROP, Francis B. Taxed on $15,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and 1820. He married a daughter of Moses Rogers and became a partner in the firm of Rogers Sons & Co.; this firm be- came Rogers & Winthrop in 1811, but continued at the old store, 229 Pearl Street. WiTHINGTON, John Director, Fulton Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1820. WoLCOTT, Oliver First President of the Merchants Bank, 1803. One of Washington's Secretaries of the Treasury, and son of the first Governor of Con- necticut; he was also Governor of Connecticut. Taxed on $15,000 personal property, 1815. Wolfe, C. Tax list of 1823 gives 160 Fulton Street; real, $7,200; personal, $15,- 000. Wolfe, David Taxed on $25,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and $8,000 in 1820; tax list of 1823 gives 115 Fulton Street: real, $4,400; personal, $8,- 000. Wolfe, John D. (Sec later edition). One of the first Directors of the Farmers' Fire Insurance and Loan Co. Woodhull, Ezra C. Director, Hope Insurance Co., 1822. Woodhull & David Tax list of 1823 gives 187 Front Street; real, $10,500. Woodruff, Aaron B. Director of the Mechanics' Insur- ance Co., 1822. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1815 and $8,000 in 1820. Woodruff, Thomas T. [See later edition). Director of the Fulton Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Woodward, John The tax list of 1822 gives 21 Wall Street; real, $9,000. Taxed on $5,000 personal property in 1815. Woolesey, William W. Tax list of 1822 values his house at 59 Greenwich Street at $12,000; personal tax, $18,000. Wright, Augustus (Estate) Tax list of 1823 gives 99 Beekman Street; personal, $40,000. Taxed on $35,000 personal property in 1815. Wright, Grove Director, Merchants' Fire Insur- ance Co., 1822, and of the North River Insurance Co., 1822. Mar- ried Harriet Ludlow. An eminent merchant who left a large estate. His business was at 185 Pearl Street. Wright Isaac Tax list of 1823 gives 3i Beekman Street; real, $11,750; personal, $25,000. Wright, William Tax list of 1823 gives his address as corner of Beekman Street, near No. 20; real, $12,500; personal, $10,000. WyCkoff, Henrv I. Alderman of New York, 1822. The tax list of 1822 gives 6 Broadwav: house, $12,000; personal, $15,000. Taxed on $30,000 personal prop- erty in 1815, and onlv $15,000 in 1820. Wynkoop, Augustus Director, Fulton Fire Insurance Co., 1822. Tax list of 1822 gives ,32 Greenwich Street: house, $5,500; personal, $10,000. Ta.xed on $12,- 5(X) personal property in 1815 and $11,000 in 1820. 142 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Yates, Dr. The tax list of 1822 gives 19 Wall Street; real, $8,000; personal, $2,- 000. Yates, Joseph C. He bought 15 LeRov Place in 1822 for $12,500. YouLE, George Director, Mechanics' Insurance Co., 1822. Plumber and pewter- er, of 284 Water Street. Taxed on $10,000 personal property in 1815, and on $35,000 in 1820. Zabriskie, Andrew Taxed on $15,000 personal prop- erty in 1815 and 1820; the tax list" of 1823 gives 187 Broadwav; real, $12,000; personal, $5,000. As already noted, even Brooklyn had its separate list of finan- cial magnates by 1847 — including in its capitulation all those worth $10,000 and upwards, and significantly listing men "and women/' The editor remarks of his "maiden production in this department of literature": "Of one thing we are certain; that the statistical matter will compare to our advantage with that of a similar pamphlet pub- lished in New York, which has had an enormous sale and obtamed magnificent pecuniary reward. "Strange as it may appear, it is undoubtedly true that the great city of Brooklyn — its wealth, importance, and extent, the opulence of its merchants and traders and the exalted monetary standing of a large body of its inhabitants (of those who tenant its unpretending dwellings, as well as the occupants of its many palaces) — are scarcely known beyond its geographical limits. We hope to obtain for it, by the issue of this book, an acquisition of greater general importance than it has heretofore possessed; and show, to adjacent as well as remote communities, its right and title to be regarded, in all that constitutes a city, as the sixth in greatness in the United States." The following are the names, in this collection of more than a thousand, of Brooklyn's leading men who were supposed to have more than $30,000: Allen, Moses $75,000 Anthony, Edward 100,000 Appleton, William H. 55,000 Arnold, Daniel H. 150,000 Attwater, G. M. 40,000 Austin, Mrs. S. E. 75,000 Ayres, Daniel 35,000 Bach, Robert, (estate of) 70,000 Baird, William 50,000 (This gentleman, a native of Erin Isle, commenced his career in Brooklyn as a humble laborer, and by economy, frugality and untiring industry amassed sufficient means to enable him to commence busi- ness as a contractor on public roads. He soon manifested an aptitude and ability for such under- takings as to place him in the first rank of the profession, and has, by a series of fortunate operations, amassed his present large posses- sions. He is one of the leading Democrats of the county, and has considerable influence as a politi- cian). Baker, John H. $35,000 (This gentleman is the owner of a large pin factory in Raymond Street, and resides in a magnificent house in Myrtle Avenue. He has contributed largely to the prosper- ity of the eastern section of the city, is exceedingly popular with all WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 143 classes of his fellow citizens, and, if ambitious of political distinction, may hereafter oecome the repre- sentative of this district in the national councils. He is, we be- lieve, one of the most prominent leaders of the Wliig party in Kings Co.)- Bartow, E. J. and G. A. $500,000 (Few, if any of our citizens are more distinguished for their munificence and liberality than these enter- prising and opulent merchants. Edgar J. has at his own expense, erected the "Church of the Holy Trinity", an edifice far surpassing in architectural grandeur and cost- liness of material and workmanship any similar structure in this city. It may appropriately be termed the Cathedral of Brooklyn, and will serve to perpetuate the name and munificence of its founder in ages to come. He is, we believe, in politics, a democrat, and was selected by that party as its chosen candidate for mayor; but he de- clined the honors offered him, not- withstanding that he would, be- yond all reasonable doubt, have been elected. His heart and abundant means are ever open to the appeals of charity, and no one in this community has done more than he has towards relieving the necessities of the poor). Bassett, Isaac H. $50,000 Becar, Noel 350,000 Bedell, Mott 50,000 Benson, John 50,000 Bergen, Tunis G. 50,000 Berry, Richard (Williamsburgh) 120,000 Bidwell, Rev. Walter H. 140,000 Blackburn, Robbins 40,000 Blake, Anson, jun. 100,000 (The in^mense and rapid growth of the southern section of the city is chiefly owing to the indomitable enterprise, perseverance and public spirit of the father of this gentle- man. The latter became unfortu- nate in business matters some years ago, arising from the panic which prostrated so many men of prop- erty, and the consequent fluctua- tions in value of real estate. He is now,, however, in the full tide of successful experiment, and will soon, we doubt not, reach as high a position in wealth as his fortunate son, whose extensive business in New York has mainly contributed to his success.) Bogert, James $200,000 Bogert, Judith 150,000 BoKEE, David A. 40,000 (Few persons in the community have obtained a more widely spread popularity than this gentleman; and his public career, as a member of the Common Council, has ob- tained for him the high estimation of all classes of society, and the friendly regard of a large majority of his political opponents. Pos- sessed of great ability as a debater, and an uprightness and integrity impregnable to party considera- tions, he is eminently worthy of the highest station which the people of this district can confer upon him. Though a prominent secta- rian in religious matters, he is liberal and tolerant to all others, and has unostentatiously contrib- uted to many charitable institu- tions, besides being munificent in his donations to the distressed and poor). Boorman, James $35,000 BowNE, Samuel 500,000 (Mr. Bowne is now the sole pro- prietor of the Main and Catherine Street ferry, from which he derives a large income, which has lately been considerably augmented by the legacy of a deceased brother. Is, like many other rich men of Brooklyn, distinguished for his liberality to the unfortunate and destitute of his fellow creatures, and in any movement tending to ad- vance the interests of this flourish- ing city, and the welfare of its population, is among the foremost and most generous contributors.) Brice, John $40,000 (This gentleman, now far advanced in years, commenced his career in this country about fifteen years ago as the proprietor of a small drug store in James Street, opposite the Fulton Market, which has since become one of the most popular retail establishments of the kind in Brooklyn. The business done there is immense, and its founder some time since retired with a large fortune, leaving the profitable concern to his son Israel B. Brice). 144 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Broadhead, Jacob $55,000 Brodie. J. W. 35,000 Brouwer, John 35,000 Brownson, Jolin 100,000 Bruen, Matthias (estate of) 70,000 Brush, Conklin 60,000 BULKLEY, Wilham F. 35,000 Burt, Edwin C. 40,000 Callaghan, Charles 40,000 Gary, William H. 100,000 (One of the most opulent and successful merchants, and by his active enterprise, has added very materially to the prosperit3' and growth of Brooklyn). Chapin, L. W. $35,000 Chapman, W. P. 35,000 Chew, Thomas J. 50,000 Church, Rodney S. 35,000 (A distinguished attorney and a prominent democratic politician., A judge in the municipal court for three years and has been honored as bearer of despatches from U. S. Government to our Ministers abroad. Married twice, receiving with his present wife a dowry of £6,000 sterling). Clafflin, Aaron $60,000 Claflin Horace 35,000 Clark, Aaron 100,000 (Formerly Mayor of New York, and for many years one of the leaders of the Whig party of that City. He is a man of most e.xem- plary character; generous to the poor; and possessed ol splendid attainments. Successful lottery speculations, it is said, laid the foundation of his fortune). Clark, Chester (estate of) $100,000 Cochrane, Charles P. 50,000 Cochrane, John W. 40,000 Coleman, E. W. 35,000 Collins, George 35,000 CoNGDON, Samuel 35,000 Conklin, Henry N. 40,000 Cook, Moses 35,000 Cook, Thomas 35,000 CooPE, David 45,000 CooPE, Jacob M. 65,000 Cornell, Peter C. 100,000 Cornell, Simon (estate of) 100,000 Cornell, Sarah 50,000 Cornell, Whitehead J. (estate of) 150,000 Crawford, George N. 100,000 Cross, John A. 35.000 (Now one of the Aldermen of the Seventh Ward of Brooklyn and one of the "shining lights" of the W^hig party. Possessed of brilliant talents and a superior address, he is de- servedly popular in the district in which he lives, and wherever else he is known). Cunningham, George D. $40,000 CuMMiNGS, Abijah P. (Williamsburgh) 35,000 Dart, Norman 50,000 Davis, Ann 50,000 Davis, Benjamin W. 85,000 Debevoise, James 75,000 (Is one of the oldest residents of Brooklyn — a plain, unpretending man — once owner of the valuable property upon which Pierrepont and adjacent streets now stand, which he tilled as a farm, and sub- sequently sold for a considerable sum.) , Degraw.A. J.S. $30,000 (A commission merchant, doing business in New York, of which city he is a native. Mr. D. com- menced his mercantile career with N. H. Jewett, Esq., of New York, then Inspector of Pot and Pearl Ashes for that city; as a re- muneration for his services he was allowed to speculate in what is known among the dealers in those articles as "scrapings" and soon became well known for his in- dustry, perseverance, and the punc- tuality with which he met his en- gagements. His speculations proved eminently successful, enabling him in the short space of four years to commence, what has since proved to be, a highly prosperous busi- ness from his own resources. He is now but twenty-four years of age; and if the future should prove as brilliant as the past and present he will undoubtedly rank with the wealthiest of our city — having made the above sum by his own individual exertions in business). Delaplaine, John F. $100,000 Dellicker, L. iyi. 50,000 Deming, Frederick 150,000 Denton. N. (estate of) 76,000 Dodge, Richard J. 35,000 Duckwitz, George F. 40,000 Duffield. Mar£;aret, (estate of) 50,000 Duryea, Harmanus B. 30,000 (General Duryea will, in all prob- ability, ere many years elapse, be one of the richest men in Brooklyn, having married the only daughter WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 145 of Samuel Bovvne, Esq., who is also a millionaire. He Is eminently de- serving of any good fortune lie mav attain, and possesses qualities botli of head and heart which endear him to all who are ac- quainted with him, and render him exceedingly popular among all classes of the community). DuYCKiNCK, Richard $75,000 Elwell, James W. 100,000 Embury, Abraham B. 70,000 Embury, Daniel 60,000 Emmanuel, Michael 150,000 EvERTSON, Bernardus 100.000 Felt, David 100,000 Field, Richard 40,000 Filly, Edward 50,000 Fish, Edmond 35,000 Fisher, William 40,000 FiSKE, George B. 45.000 (President of the L. I. R. R. Co. Through his instrumentality chief- ly, the Company has obtained its present flourishing position, and the stock obtained a value which renders an investment in it certain of profitable return). Fleet, Samuel (Is descended from an old English family. The ancestor, Thomas Fleet, a captain in the British Navy, came to this country about the year 1650 and purchased a tract of land on the north side of Long Island, near Huntington; and transmitted it to his posterity, one of whom is now in possession. The subject of this article was brought up a farmer, and made a snug property during the last war with England, when grain and produce were very high. He afterwards removed to Brooklyn, where he f)urchased two farms which have ong been valuable as citv lots). Forbes, James $45,000 Freeland, James 35,000 Frere Thomas 50,000 Frost, Jacob 50,000 Garretson, Samuel I. 120,000 Gascoigne, Thomas 35,000 Gerald, Thomas J. 30,000 (An enterprising and upright man of business; president of the board of aldermen in this city, and the acknowledged leader of the demo- cratic party in the common coun- cil. He is an able debater, and possesses a thorough knowledge ot the affairs of the citv. He was f(3rmerly a schoolmaster and came to this section of the country some years since from his native state (Vermont) in quest of fortune, which, by industry and good man- agement, he has obtained). Godfrey, George $50,000 Goodman, Mvran S. 50,000 Graham, Augustus 150,000 (This gentleman, and his brother John B. are well known as enter- prising merchants, and the liberality of their contributions for benevolent purposes. They were born in Scotland, and have risen, from comparatively humble stations, to their present position). Graham, J. B. $75,000 Greacen, John ■ 40,000 Griffin, F. 50,000 Griswold, N. L. 100,000 Hale, Joslah L. 40,000 Hall, Valentine G. 250,000 Hamblin, Asher P. 40,000 Hamilton, E. C. 40,000 Hang rave, Clifton 40,000 Harper, Joseph W. 100,000 Harris, Captain Isaac 35,000 Harris, William M. 35,000 Haslett, John 50,000 Hastings, George 100,000 Hatch, William T. 40,000 Haviland, D. G. 50,000 Haviland, R. B. 75,000 Haxton, a. 130,000 Hazard, W. H. 50,000 Heaney, Cornelius 200,000 (A native of Ireland. Was con- nected with Mr. Astor in the fur trade some years since, with whom he realised a large amount of money. His liberality to the poor knows no bounds. He was the greatest donor to the Catholic Or- phan Asylum, In Court Street, and presented to the Trustees of Free- man's Hall the ground upon which It stands). Hebard, Frederick H. $35,000 Heerdt, Clement 35,000 Herriman, William S. 100,000 Hicks, Edwin 40,000 Hicks, George 50,000 Hicks, Jacob M., estate of 75,000 Hicks, John M. 10,000 (Was formerly very wealthy, but lost a large fortune by reverses In busi- ness and fluctuations in the value of real estate. He now, however, thanks to the efforts of warm per- sonal friends, many of whom sup- 146 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK ported him without reference to political considerations, holds for a second term, the most valuable public office in the countv). HiNMAN, William J. $40,000 Hicks, Robert T. 50,000 HoLBROOK, Lowell 55,000 Hopkins, Lucius 35,000 HoRTON, A. B. 100,000 How, Calvin F. 200,000 How, Fisher 200,000 HowLAND, George S. 200,000 HoYT, Charles estate of 80,000 HuESTED, S. L. 25.000 (A self made and self taught man. At his father's death he was thrown upon the world penniless, with a widowed mother and sister depend- ing upon him for their support. By hard labor he acquired means to embark in business in the fur trade on his own account, and is now the proprietor of a large and flourishing factory; in addition to which, he is the proprietor of the splendid line of stages running to and from Ful- ton Ferry and East Brooklyn.) Humphreys, James $50,000 (A lawyer of distinguished ability and extensive practice. He repre- sents the First Ward of this city in the Common Council, and at the last state election was the Whig nominee for Senator, but declined being a candidate. His manners are very popular, and he is highly esteemed bv all parties). Hunter, William, jun. $40,000 HuRLBUT, E. D. 100,000 HuRLBUT, George 50,000 HuRLBUT, John^D. 55,000 HuRLBUT, Samuel 50,000 HuRLBUT, William W. 35,000 HuTTLESON, Henrv 35,000 Illius, Charles ' 75,000 IsNARD, Augustus 35,000 Ives, George R. 100,000 Ives, David W. 40,000 Jackson, Maria 35,000 Jackson, Richard 35,000 Jewett, John 75,000 Johnson, B. K. 35,000 Johnson, David 100,000 (One of the Directors of the L. I. Bank; resides at Flatbush; made his money in the grocery business in New York and is a most amiable and e.xemplarv man). Johnson. Evan'M. $150,000 Johnson, Jeremiah 100,000 Johnson, John 40,000 Johnson, Oscar $50,000 Johnson, Parmenus 100,000 Johnson, Samuel E. 100,000 Johnson, William L. 100.000 Johnson, William 35,000 Kellogg, E. 60,000 Kelsey, Charles 80,000 Kelsey, Charles and Walter 30.000 (These \'Oung men commenced bus- iness a few years ago with very slender means, and are rapidly, by their industry and economy, ac- quiring a large fortune.) Ketch AM, Joseph $35,000 Kiersted, C. N. 35,000 Kimberly, David 35,000 KiMBERLY. Henry A. 50,000 Kumbel. William 40,000 Laidlaw, John 75,000 (One of the rich proprietors of the great White Lead works of this citv). Lamar, G. B. $500,000 (Brother of the e.\-President of Te.xas; of exalted attainments, un- blemished reputation and a heart ever "open to melting charity." One of nature's true noblemen). Lapham, Anson $50,000 Lake, Richard (Williams- burgh) ^ 50.000 Lake. Thomas (Williams- burgh) 50.000 Lake. William (Williams- burgh) 40,000 Laytin, William (Williams- burgh) 50,000 Leavitt"; David 500,000 Leavitt, Edward 50,000 Leavitt, Henry S. 100,000 Leavitt, Sheldon 75,000 Leavitt, Sheldon C. 75,000 Leay'CRAFT, Richard (Williams- burgh) 200,000 Lefferts, Leffert 500,000 Lefferts, Remson 150.000 Lefferts, Sarah 100,000 Leggett, John 40,000 Lewis, Zachariah 50,000 LoTT. Jeremiah 100.000 Lott, John A. 750,000 Low, Seth 40,000 Luquier, Nicholas 50,000 Lyon, Robert A. 100,000 Madden. Amos 50.000 Mali. Hvpolite 50.000 Manley; Robert F. 55,000 AUrch, Thomas 50,000 Marquand, Henry 60,000 Martense, Garritt (Flatbush) 100,000 i WEALTHY CITIZENS' BIOGRAPHY 147 Martense, Helen $150,000 Marvin, A. B. 35,000 Maulsy, Robert F. 60,000 MiDDAGH, Martha 50,000 MiNTURN, E. & H. (Williams- burgh) 150,000 Moon, John 50,000 Morgan, Samuel 75,000 Morse, N. B. 30,000 (For some years past, the prose- cuting attorney of Kings County; an able lawyer; an accomplished scholar, and a most worthv man). Morton, Peter (estate of) $100,00 Murphy, Henry C. 35,000 (Laid the foundation of his fortune by holding the office of corporation attorney of Brooklyn when it was very lucrative, infinitely more so than at present; and has since held a very prominent position as a politician. Although yet a young man, he has been Mayor of the City, and twice elected to Con- gress. He possesses very superior abilities, untiring energy and in- dustry, and, from his many amiable and excellent qualities, is deser- vedly popular with the masses. He is a large stock holder in, and one of the principal Directors of, the Atlantic Bank, and has honorably distinguished himself on numerous occasions by his liberal contribu- tions for charitable purposes). M'Bride, James $300,000 M'Murray, Joseph 130,000 (The history of this gentleman fur- nishes a brilliant example to per- sons of humble means as to what may be accomplished by industry and integrity in business transac- tions. In 1824 he arrived in New York poor and friendless, but, by the possession of superior abilities, and a diligence in the performance of the subordinate duties of a mer- chant's office in which he found em- ployment, he obtained the confi- dence and respect of all who knew him. After laboring many years for others, and being thoroughly acquainted with mercantile opera- tions, he embarked, with slender means, in the emigrant passenger business, and soon, by pursuing a course of fairness and liberality to his countrymen and others on their arrival here from their native land, acquired celebrity and wealth. Emigrants from Europe are sub- jected to many impositions and ex- tortions from persons who charter \essels for their passage to this land of promise; but the subject of this sketch stands proudly aloof from the herd of "land pirates" who victimize the poor emigrant. Mr. M'Murray has one of the largest shipping establishments in New York, and is the principal agent in this countrv for the Pro- vincial Bank of Ireland. He has two sons connected with him in business, who, with their father, stand prominent in the commercial world as honorable men). Nelson, Thomas S. $40,000 Nesmith, James 75,000 Nevins, Thomas 35,000 Oakes, Ann 10,000 (The amiable and much esteemed widow of the late lamented Coroner of this city; universally known for her charitable and humane dis- position, and for the possession of virtues which adorn humanity, and give lustre to her sex). O'Brien, Francis $25,000 (A gentleman of Herculean pro- portions, with a heart capacious as his body for the virtues and chari- ties of life. Although for many years a resident of Brooklyn, his sphere of business operations and political mo^•ements has been in New York, where he is regarded as one of the most influential men of the Whig party. Few men are to be found who possess so many rare and good qualities as Mr. O'Brien). O'DoNNELL, Jeremiah $35,000 (Like Messrs. Baird, Collins and other fortunate Irishmen, has accu- mulated his wealth by successful operations as a contractor upon public roads). O'Hara, Peter $35,000 Packer, William S. 300,000 Paine, John 200,000 Pares, Francis 40,000 Patch en, George M. and Henry 200,000 Peck, Curtis 50,000 Peck, John 100,000 Peck, William N. 40,000 Peet, F. J. 50,000 Perkins, Dennis 100,000 Petit, Joseph 40,000 Philly. Edward 35,000 Pierrepont, H. B. (estate of) 350,000 148 A C E N T U R Y O F B A N K I N G 1 N N E W YORK PlERREPONT, H. E. $100,000 Pitcher, Benjamin L. 40,000 PoLHAMUS, Theodore 40,000 PoLLEY, Grahams (Williams- bureh) 40,000 Porter,^ Charles 100,000 Powers, Mary L. 100,000 PR./VTT, H. Z. 100,000 Prentice. John H. 100,000 Prince, Amy 40,000 Prince, Anna (estate of) 70,000 Prince, Christopher 35,000 PRiNCE,7ohn D. 20,000 (This gentleman is said recently to have become heir to an estate in England, valued at nearly half a million of dollars). Putnam, Nathaniel $55,000 Rankin, John 600,000 Ransom, Brazilla _ 40,000 Rathbone, Captain John 40,000 Raymond, Henry S. 50,000 R.'^ynor, Phebe (widow of Eli- jah) 75,000 (Mrs. R. belongs to that much honored class of citizens the "oldest inhabitant," having been born on Long Island and resided for the last forty years in Brooklyn; and is emphatically one of the "old school" holding the antiquated, and almost obsolete doctrine, that honesty and sobriety should be a principle of the heart, and not an outward garment to be put on and off at pleasure; and that female accomplishments should ha^e a wider range than the salon and drawing room afford; and should be made as familiar with kitchen uten- sils as with the piano forte, dancing, light reading, and other thousand blandishments esteemed in modern refinement indispensable. Her husband was for many years a mer- chant in New York and Brooklvn). Reed, John, Jr. $100:000 Remsen, Abraham 60,000 RiCH.ARDS, Benjamin 40,000 Richards, Daniel 100,000 RiLLETT, John 50,000 Ripley, George C. 55,000 Robinson, Francis 40,000 Rockwell, William 55,000 (Formerly District Attorney of Brooklyn, and twice candidate for Mayor of the City as the nominee of tlie native American party. As a lawyer, he has few, if any superi- ors; and in private life is greatly beloved) . Rockwell, William $35,000 Rowland, Henrv and James 35,000 Russell, William H. 40,000 Sales, L. (estate of) 50,000 Sampson, George L. 50,000 Sanderson, Svdnev 40,000 Sands, Austin S. " 100,000 Sands, Christian H. 50,000 Sands, Captain Joshua R. 50,000 Sands, Joseph 100,000 Sands, Oliver H. 50,000 Sands, Wilson H. 40,000 Saunders, George 35,000 (The well known razor strop manu- facturer of New York, formerly a hair dresser of considerable cele- brity, and a portrait painter and artist of no common ability. He is rapidly adding to his comfortable possessions by an immense busi- ness, and is well deserving of his good fortune). ScHENCK, John $100,000 Schermerhorn, Abraham (estate of) 500,000 Schermerhorn, Peter 600,000 Scoles, Maris 50,000 (Widow of James Scoles, deceased, an Englishman of very eccentric habits but profuse liberality). Selleck, William $50,000 Sergeant, Wilson H. 40,000 Seymour, W. A. 35,000 Sharpe, Alexander W. 40,000 Sheldon, James 100,000 Sheldon, Henry 200,000 SiLLIMAN, B. D". ^ 35,000 Skillman, John (Williams- burgh) 35,000 Skinner, Salmon 55,000 Smart, Marv, Hannah and Elizabeth 45,000 Smith, Caleb 100,000 Smith, Cyrus P. 40,000 (Formerly Mayor of Brooklyn; a distinguished politician on the Whig side; a very prominent churchman; and very active in promoting the welfare of the common schools and the cause ot education in this city). Smith, D. W. $50,000 Smith, Eliza 40,000 Smith, Ira 150,000 Smith, Samuel 200,000 Smith, William C. 40,000 Spark.man, James D. (Williamsburgh) 300,000 Spader, Mrs. 100,000 Speir, Henrv 75,000 Speir, Robek 35,000 WEALTHY C I T I Z Spencer, William $50,000 Spies, Francis 40,000 Sprague, Joseph 45,000 Spring, Marcus 55,000 Squire, Charles 100,000 Stacy, George Stanford, David 40,000 75,000 Stanton, Amos P. 200,000 Stanton, Charles r.5,000 Starr, Chandler 50,000 BIOGRAPHY [49 (A distinguished merchant and well known leading politician of the Whig school. His prominence as a party man is, however, better known in New York than in Brooklyn, not having as yet taken any conspicuous action in the public affairs of the day). Steele, Joseph $35,000 Sterling, Woolsey G. 35,000 St. Felix, George E. 150,000 St. Felix, John R. 75,000 Stoddard, Charles 40,000 Storm, Isaac A. 200,000 Story, Henrv (estate of) 50,000 Striker, Gerrett 100,000 Studwell, John J. 35,000 Sullivan, Marv 35,000 Talbot, George A. 75,000 Talmage, Thomas G. 50,000 Tappan, Arthur 40,000 Tappan, Lewis 50,000 Tatham, Benjamin 100,000 (One of the firm of Tatham and Brothers, the largest manufacturers and importers of lead pipes in the U. S). Taylor, Charles T. $50,000 Taylor, Elisha S. 50,000 Taylor, Jeremiah 40,000 Taylor, John Allen 75,000 Taylor Peter G. 35,000 (One of the Aldermen of the Fourth Ward; an upright merchant; an excellent and charitable man; and much esteemed by all who know him). Thomas, Luke W. $35,000 Thompson, George C. 50,000 Thompson, Samuel 150,000 Thorne, Richard 35,000 Thorne, Richard V. W. 50,000 (A distinguished Democrat, and a general favorite with the people). Thurston, F. G. $50,000 Thwing, J. C. 75.000 (A shrewd and successful Wall Street broker. For many years he ploughed the ocean as the master and owner of several vessels. During his early life, he contracted an asthmatic disease which has been a great aftliction to him, and has prevented his taking repose in a recumbent position). TiENCKiN, Henry $35,000 (A native of Holland, from which country he emigrated a few years ago, with slender means, but an indomitable perseverance, and en- terprising spirit. He has realized his present fortune by his success in business as a retail grocer). Trappal, Michael $75,000 Trask, Alanson 35,000 Tread WELL, Adam 100,000 Treadwell, John 100,000 Trowbridge, Edwin L. 40,000 Tryon, E. G. 100,000 (Formerly a merchant tailor in ex- tensive business in New York, but realized the bulk of his present for- tune by a successful "hit" in an entirely accidental lottery specu- lation). Tucker, Jonathan $35,000 Tucker, Thatcher 35,000 Tucker, Dr. Joseph 40,000 Ulfard, Levi W. (Williamsburg) 40,000 Underhill, a. 50,000 (One of the wealthy owners of the large milk establishment at East Brooklyn). Underhill, Samuel T. $35,000 Underwood, J. A. 35,000 Unkart, Edward 40,000 Upjohn, Richard 35,000 Vanderbilt, John 100,000 (First Judge of the County of Kings, an accomplished scholar, and able lawyer. Of remarkable suavity of manners, and amiability of dis- position, he is eminently popular with all who know him. His talents and his virtues will adorn any station to which he may be ele- vated by the people). Vanderveer, Adrian $100,000 Victor, Theodore 35,000 VooRHis, John 35,000 VOORHIS, William and Peter 40,000 (Manufacturers of, and dealers in, lime, bv which business they have made their present capital, having commenced with comparatively nothing. They are yet young, and afford an example of what may be accomplished by untiring industry and bold enterprise). Vreeland, James $40,000 Van Beuren, E. K. 40,000 50 A CENTURYOFBANKING INNEW YORK Van Brunt, A. $150,000 Van Cleef, Cornelius 40,000 Van Doren, Rev. W. H. (Wil- llamsburgh) 40,000 Van Kleeck, Charles A. 35,000 Van Nostrand, James 100,000 Van Nostrand, John 150,000 Van Nostrand, John S. 50,000 Van Nostrand, Henry 50,000 Van Pelt, Dr. A. 60,000 Van Sinderin, Mrs. Adrian 150,000 Van Wagenen, Gerrett 100,000 Van WiNCKLE, George W. 40,000 Wardwell, Ben 40,000 Waring, H. P. 35,000 Warren, John D. 40,000 Waterbury, J. (Williams- burgh) 175,000 Waterbury, L. (Williams- burgh) 40,000 Waterbury, N. (Williams- burgh) 200.000 (Realized a great portion of his wealth as lessee of the Grand Street ferrv) . Webster, Hosea $100,000 Weed, H. A. 50,000 (Son of Nathaniel Weed, E President of the North River Ba X New York. Mr. W. is a young lawyer of great eminence; e.xten- sive and lucrative practice; and, in all the relations of life, a most worth V man). Weed, Maltbie $40,000 Wells, Phoebe R. 50,000 Wendell, John 50,000 Wesson, David 40,000 Wetmore, David W. 150,000 Wheeler, Allen 35,000 Wheelock, Clark 40,000 Whitcomb, Moses $50,000 White, Chandler 50,000 White, George 50,000 White. W. A. and A. M. 250,000 (These gentlemen are extensively engaged in the fur business in New York, and are greatly respected as honorable merchants and estimable citizens. They reside in a splendid mansion in Washington Street). Whitehouse, Edward $100,000 Whiting, W. E. 50,000 Whittlesy, Elijah 75,000 Wily, George S. 75,000 Wily, John S. 75,000 Willard, George L. 40,000 Williams, George 40,000 Willink, John A. 300,000 Wilson, Charles 40,000 Wintringham, Sidney 50,000 Wood, George ^ 100,000 (An eminent counsellor and dis- tinguished ;unst, formerly of New Jersey, but for a few years past a resident of a splendid mansion in the Third Ward). Wood, Samuel S. $75,000 Woodruff, Albert 50,000 Woodward, Charles and Thomas 70,000 Wright, Amasa 75,000 Wright, Daniel 100,000 Wrigley, Joseph 40,000 Wyckoff, Henrv S. 75,000 Wyckoff, J. M.' 40,000 Wyckoff, Richard L. 40,000 Yelverton, John T. 35,000 Young. Daniel T. 40,000 Young, Henry 500,000 Young, Nathan 40,000 The pages following present a photographic facsimile of the sixth edition of the "Wealth and Biography" pamphlet. A former owner of this particular copy has inscribed it "A curiosity- to-be-kept," and he has also corrected minor details and added the omitted name of Dominick Lynch "son of Wm. Lynch, my father's brother/' WEALTHY CITIZENS NEW YORK CITY COMPRlSlfCO AN ALPHABETICAL ARRANGEMENT OF PERSONS ESTL'^ATED TO BE WORTH $100,000, AND UPWARDS. WITH THE SUMS APPENDED TO EACH NAME; Bciaa osKFVt> to BANKS, MERCHANTS, AND OTHERS. SIXTH EDITION, ENLARGED TO TEN TIMES THE OBIOINAL MATTER, AND NOW CONTAINING BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL NOTICES OK THS PRINCIPAL PERSONS IN THIS CATALOGUE. ALSO. A VALUABLE TABLE OF STATISTICS. NEW YORK; COMPILED WITH MUCH CAKE AND PUBLISHED AT THE SUN OFFICE. 1845. PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION. To render this publication' more interesting to the general reader, we have proc^red from varioua authentic sources, brieC genealogical and historical or biographical notices of some of thariore remarkable men and families iii this coinnmnity, into whose hands wealth has concen- trated. We have endeavored to do equiil and exact justice to the parties, and have deemed that we have been rendering an especial service to those, more particularly, who by honest and la- borious industry have raised themselves from the iihscure and humble walks of life, to great wealth and consideration. If there be. by any possibility, any erroneous statements, we pledge ourselves to correct theui in our next edition. Our aim has been to wound the ft;elings of no one, but to do strict justice to all, and to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This edition has been carefully revised, and almost every biographical notice entirely rewritten so as to remove whatever errors and objectionable remarks had crept into the former editions. It has been found necessary to exclude several names, while new names lo the amount ol nearly one-third the whole number in Oie book Uave been added to this edition. There has bten added iiko a large quantity of interesting biographical and historical matter, as derived from the con- sultation of books and living authorities; so that the work may now be regarded as complete and accurate as its nature and scope admits. New York, January, 1845. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thon.sand eight hundred and forty -five. By MOSES Y. BEACH, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the U S. for the Sonihern Districtof New York. WEALTH WEALTHY CITIZENS OF NEW YORK. AbeelJohnH. . . - - SIOO.O'^O In partnership with Ganit A. Dun^comb, constitu- ting the linn of John H. Abeel & Co. iron merchants, one of the oldest houses in the city Adams John - - - - ■ - 300,000 Of Irish descent, wlio by industry and integrity as a merchant in the dry goods line, has acquired a re- spectable fortune, which he enjoys with the respect of all who know him. He is Pre^ident of the Fulton Bank. He married a daughter of John Glover, da cea^^ed, some twenty years since, by whom he has re- ceived some property. See Mrs. i'ishcr. Addison Thomas .... 150,000 A distinguished pencil-ca^e maker, a piorteer in this, and made his money by industry. The present ever-pointed pencil-case was first made by him, and owes its form to his ingenuity. Adee George 100.000 Son of William below, and a partner of the firm of Adee, Timpson Sc Co. Adee William ----- 200 OOO An auctioneer, and formerly senior partner in the firm of Adee, Timpson & Co. From Westchester Co. Began life as a dry goods merchant, and has now re- tired from business. A very worthy ,man wlio has made all his money by active indu-try, and the most honorable and uimght course in business. Aiaslie Robert 100,000 Formerly a merchant, and worth this sum by.his wife, a daughter of Robert Lennox, deceased. Alcerley S. Dr. - - - - . - 150 000 ' Formerly an eminent Physicim, who distinguish ed himseli when the yellow lever was raging. Now r« tired. Alien S-ephen 400,000 A man wfio without money, without family con- nexions, and without eaucation, hu3 made his way totndeveniience in lortune, and to high pubhc sta- nons. He began life as a poor sailor boy, afterwards vrxs a Sill maker, and tioally kept one of the largest S!.il-loft3 in the city. In h s business he was indus- trious, scrupulously exact, aud rigid injustice. By ^la reputatioa for integrity, he procured large ac- cessions to h is business. He was made Mayor of the city in 1821, snd re-elected for two successive years, and afterwards a Senator of the State, an I a Slate Commissioner of the Croton Water Works, in which capacity his powerful i.fluenco did much to- ward the success of t '. is great enterprise. Mr. Allc n 13 an ere^tetic ai d deciJed man, always adoptine a policy ofh s own, aad carryingit out with gieat scll- reliance. He is just, butnotgenerou" ; and in mind and maone'S rude .nd unpolished. At -he timed difficulty in the New Voik Life Insurance and Trust Co., he was made the President. AUeySaul 250,000 The intimate friend of S.Allei and the two consult each other on every matter of inteiest to either. He was born in Providence, R. I., wheie he learnt the trade ol Cabinet maker, andsubsequcntly cirre Ion the busini ss at Charleston, S. C, where he tailed through the sole fault of his pa itncr. Mr. Alley came to this city and undertook a commission business in cotton and doniest jc goods. His creditors at Charles- ton having confidence inlhim the e his fij st patron?, and sonohg them Moidecai/y'ohen, a rich Jew, enti- 100,000 few years he paid his creditors, and by business tact integrity, and industry, has anias-cd bis wealth. Hr retired from business several years since. Mr. Adey is an example of a man of strong iinnd pushing his way thiough the world without the bcneliLs ol educa- tion and under many dillitilltie.s. Al.tyneJ.hn =00,000 Of the firm of Alstyne ic Dykers, rich brokers »n WaU street. Ames Barret - - ■ ' - - 100,000 Formerly of the firm of Ames & Witherell, iron- dealers. A new England man-made all bi= money and retired from business. ,He was in bu-dnese at the South. Amos Estate of- - - - 200,000 Andariese Bamef •" - - - - 100,000 An excellent Tailor and a very amiable man. Anderson Abel T. . - - - 200,000 A respectable lawyer, who inherited most of his property from his father, who acquired his fortune lU the manufacture of boots and shoei. Anderson Henry J. - - - - 100,000 The respected Professor of Mathematics in Co- lumbia College. Andrew Henry - - 100,000 Native of Scotland, made his fortune in the Carpet trade, was prorain ni in the Whig ranks, and sent to tlie Assembly of this state some years since; a very good citizen. Anlhon Charles - - - A brother of John, and prof -ssor of Latin language andliteiature in Columbi.i CoIle;ge. Mr. Anlhon has published many works ; the one most widely known is Anthon's Classical Dictionary. Mi'. Anlhon has a popular reputation as a scholar, and h a most learned man. In his Classical Dictionary, and other works, he has bjcn charged with having made too free use of the labors of others. ArithonJohn 300,000 y His father was a very respectable andlearned phy^ sician of this city, and born of German parents. 1 he son, of Dr. Anthon have distinguished tliems. Ives; John as a lawyer, Henry as a divine, and Charles a, a scholar, and professor of the Latin language and h tcrature in Columbia Colle,'e. They all received something from their lather, but John by the adop- tion of a more lucrative prolission, and espocia ly by his marriage with the daughter of a rich auctioneer, John tjoue, possesses much the largest fortune. Appleton Daniel . - - - 100,000 Of the firm of D. Appleton Ic Co., bootelers ami publishers Appleby Leonard - - - : 100,000 Areularius George - - - - 300,000 Born of German parents, and, with hjs brother Phillip, obtained hii wealth as a baker, in which bu- siness he has been famous for many years, and in which he still continues. He is a man much respects ed for his numerous good qualities. Gen. Henry A. late Commissary General of the state, is one of his sjns. Arnold Aaron 250,000 An Enghshman who brought money with him from England, and has been irfthe retail dry gcods busi- ncis in Canal street, and now in partnership wtthhl* «on in-ldw nonstable, an Englishiaan aUo. Arthur Joho - = 100,000 tined to be the commercial emporium of the Northern AapfnwaU Wni. H 400 000 Nn^^v^T"^ '°, I'k '"P'^"'"' "'"» commodities fron, ^ "- ' e 'o»'er Pa't of Broadway, and lived in a ter s fatlier, (see Walter Bowne,) a good old nuaker, ^'^'^ °^ princely magniflcenfce, attenlted by servant* who prized Mr. Astor very much for his untirino- in- '™™ ^"^^ °^ '^e various nations with which he trad- ..ustry and fidelity. . Subsequently, by the aid of a few ^°' and among them some from the Empire of the housands from his brother Harry, a rich Bowery C'«"l««''a>s- His house was furnished with the lichcsl butcher, he engaged in business for himself, associa- 1''*'*^' ""f' ^li^ ajiartments adorned with works of art, ted with the late Cornelius Heyer. Afterwards he be- ainons which ^vas a Cupid by Mignard, which wa- caine associated with Mr. Smith, the father of Gerrit regarded as a work of rare merit, and for which Astor .Smith. At the close of the revolutionary war, Oswe- ""^''-■"--' - JO, Niagara, Detroit, and other posts being in pos- !^"?h".?Lf •'''*K°"P''"'7'v* *F'°"^ embarrassment wa.. thrown in the way of the fur trade. Soon after Mr. Astor entered the business, in 1794-5, by a treaty these posts were surrendered, when, contemplatin- the grand opportunity 'then offered to him, he said, '•Now I will make my fortune in the fur-trade.'- His prediction was verified. Astor, with an industrv and sagacity unparalelled, improved his 6pportunity, and after the lapse of six years, dm-ing the first ye*; nL ofiS'^n^r.'", ^f"'"'??, '"'. *>*'' amassed something- like %iM,,000,000 a year, or was now formed. It was his design to establish a se- »1G6,000 a month, which is about $41,600 a week : V^^w p° ""^ "*® Viicinc Ocean, and on the Co- ««.''6",a day, .1^40 an hour, and $4 a minute. Mr. lomoia Kiver, in connexion with our government, and ^stor has made a donation of S3fi0,000 for a librarv thus monopolize the fur trade west of the Rocky in this city, the'intcrest of which is to be expended ii'i « lom I!^* 1. ''f ' P""'' Astoria, was established employing agents to purchase books, and in the erec- t M 'w^D ^'■'^ °'Z'^y ™<'" "nder the command ""n of a building. Mr. CogsweU, late editor of the «t air. w. f . Hunt. Thii setUement, which was des- ^'- ^- Review, is the agent unU librarian. Mr. Aetor h«s two Ronn, Wm. B. sndonewho hasbern imbc- cile from his birth ; one of his daughters became tlie Countess of Rumpff, and lately deceased at Paris, an- other (deceased) was married to Mr. Bristcd, an Eng- lishman, author of a work on the Resources of Ame- rica, and now a clergyman at Bristol, R. I. A grand- son Charles Bristed is at Cambridge, England. AstorWm.B. 5,000 000 The son of John Jacob, and holdins a power of at- torney for the transaction of all his father's bu:^ine3s, and exercisii\g generally a superintendence over that immense property of which he undoubtedly expects to be the principal heir. Yet Wm. B. has received much of his property from his deceased uncle, Henry Astor, long celebrated as a butcher in the Bowery, in which business he accumulated his wealth. The amount received from his uncle did not exceed half * million, yet bv fortunate investments, chietiy in real ^tate, and by donations from his father, who has given him the Astor House, it has increased to this extraordinary amount. Auftcn David 400,000 A distinguished auctioneer, who made money at a time when auctioneers reajied their .$50,000 a year profit. By his marriage with a sister of John Ha i^ gerty, he received, no doubt, an accession to his for- tune. At the present time auctioneers, like all others, can reap but slow profits, and that by careful indus try, and close attention to business. Mr. Austen is an •acellent business man, and a most estimable citizen. iiymar Ber,j:iinin ... - 300000 This, and the next below, his brother, are English dscent, and self-made m«n, though of humble origin. They are very enterprizing merchants, and bear ex- cellent characters as gentlenSen and citizens. They have been principally engaged in West India com- merce. AymarJohnQ. .... 200,000 The brotlier mentioned abof e. B Bache Robert 200,000 A rich Distiller, residing in Brooklyn. Baldwin J. G. 200.000 Banks David 100,000 A Law Book seller, of the firm of Gould, Banks & Co., ex-alderman of the fifth ward, now President of the Harlem Rail Road Co., and an influential man in. the Democratic party. Married the daughter of Paul B. Lloyd, and acquired all his money by industry and integrity in his business. Banks David 300 OOO A retired West India merchant of an English family, and married a daughter of Robert Lennox, by whom he received a large property. BanyerMts 100,000 Sister of Peter A Jay, deceased. Bard William 100,000 Is a Son of Dr. Samuel Bard, and fully retains the reputation of an honorable sire. Barclay George - - . . 1.50,000 Estimable son of the venerable Colonel Barclay, British Consul, deceased. Bamum Phineas Taylor - - 150;000 The proprietor of the American Museum, and guar- dian of the celebratfd Torn Thumb, was born in Dan- bury, Ct., where he wa< tt one time eng»gf d as a lot- tery dealer, and merchant, and afierwards fdi'or and proprietor of an influentinl n°wspaper, enfitled the Herald of Freedom, which, being free with the fail- ings of orthodox jiietendprs, and making some rather severe strictures on Jurtge Daggett, then of the Su- preme Court, brought down the ire of that venerable sinner, and Barnura was imnrisoned for libel. The day of his liberation was celebrated by a grand gala scene ard oration, and the martyr to univefsplism_ wa« nominate! by his friends tVr Governor, ^oon af-' terwnrls ^ ecume to this city, and son* became known »s the exhibitor of Joice Heih. Subsoqu^ntly ob- taining possession of the Am-rican Musfum, he be- came the proprietor, and meeting with Tom Thumb, hehas made his fortune roiinty by niFsna of that ju- vnile wondT. Mr. Barnunj is row in Europe, ex- hibiting Tom Thumb, by whom he Is coining money. Barrow Dr. 100,000 Barealon Vicfor I'JO.OOO Barstow H. W. 100,000 BattelJe Joseph ... - 100,000 Of a Connecticut family, and of the fitm of Egglos- ton & Battelle, iron merchants. Mr. Battelle has made a profitable use of his capital. Beach M. Y. 250,000 Motes Yale Beach waobom inWallingf. rd. Conn., a conne tion on hismother'ssideof Elihu Yale. Esq., founder of > ale College, and for many years Governor of the East India Crmpany. / 1 an early age he was ppren iced ro the Cabinet miking business, in Hart- ford, Connecticut, where, by over work, ard "• rk- ing nights, managed to save, hy th-timeh" hud at- tained his eighteenth year, $'100,with which he pur- chased of his employer the rtmainderffhis lime, and commenced Lusiness on his own account iA Massa- chusetta Soon after he it arried. and has since then, pafsed thr'-ugh the rough and varied scenea cf a bu- siness life. Sr^on after the commencement of the Sun newspaper, he purchased Mr. Wisner's interest, being rne-h«lf, paving for Iheexperim'-nt $52C0 As foon as he found ihis to be a safe and permanent bu- f iness, he bought out his partner, for which he paid ,^19,000. From this poinr, his star, rr rather "in, ha» been steadily in the nscendant, and now we find him the publisher of tie most extensively cin ul»ted news- paper uponthe globe, and the prinr ipal stockholder in fcur Banks, a 1 in good standing, and prosperous, be- sides doing und't his own name a large amount of bankin?. For assistance in his unparalelled business, he has the services of five sons, brought up in active life under his own eye, and who may yet prove "chips of the old block." Beekman Henry - - - . 200,000 Descendant of Gov. W. Beekman, about 220 years since Dutch Governor of South Fort, on the t)ela ware. If any of the Dutch noblesse of the very earli- est colonizations at New Amsterdam (now New York) remain, here is one who, like all the intermediate liUKs from the Governor down, have nobly upheid the renown and rank of their ancestors. The Beek- mans, however, have never been numerous. Two others of the family follow. Governor Beekman was one of those stalwart men, who, as early as 1683, de- manded of the Holland government a liberal charter for this city, and it was given. Beekman James W. .... 100000 Of the same family, and married a daughter of Dr. Phillip MiUedoler, e.-c-Prctidtnt of Brunswick Col- lege. Beekman John .... 150,000 Beekman S. D. Dr. - - - - 150 000 Belts Goo. W. 100,000 A native of Norwalk. Ct., and one of the pioieefs of the Carpet business in this city, in which businros he still continties Mr. Beits is esteemed as one of cur most worthy < itizens. 100,000 100 000 A native of Germany, and agent of the Rothschilds, and a Banker. Bininger Abrm. (Estate of) - - 000,000 Binsae Lewis 150 OOO From France, came to this country with $50,000, and manied a lady who kept a Boarding School a Bloomingdale, and subsequently opened a school in Beach street. Belts Samuel R. (Judge) Beltnont Augustus - Bishop Japhfit 200,000 A hardware dealer, and married a d&ushler Of David N. Wolfe Blackbume Henry . - - ■ 200,000 Blackwell Drayton - - - . 200,000 Abrother of widow Howell, and son of Mr. Black- ■wdl, who eitablislied the first foundry in the city, which was at the comer of Canal street and Broadway, and astore at Coentics Shp.and was succeeded by one of his sons, who is now deceased. H e made a fortune, and bought Blackwell's islnad, and hence iU name. Drayton studied law under Mayor Hadclilfe, but has never practised. Blatcbford R M. - - - - 200.000 A lawyer and n?ent of the Bank of England. He has been distinguislicd as a politician of the Whig party. His father was a clergyman at Bridgeport, Ct. where a brother (now deceased) was also settled a few vears since. Mr. Blatchiord graduated at Union Col- lege. Bleecker J.W. • - - - - 200.000 Of an ancient New York family. Bloodgood Thomas - - - - 100,000 Of an ancient family of New Amiterdam, who then spelt their name.-! " Bloetgocd " Boardman David Estate of - - 200,000 Bog-ardus Robert, - . - . ■ l.mOOO The Rev. Everardos Bogardus was a great name in the time of our uutch ancestors. Whether a de- scendint from Gen. Robeit B , an eminent counsel- lor, ite know not— but his n.itive shrewdness and peraeverance necdel no ancestral dignities for his advancement. " Gis stock," 'tis said, consummated his fortune. Bogart Eugene . - - - ISO.'OOO Descended from a Hugenol. Anteriorlo the Ameri- can Revolution, Cornelius was alar^^elandownerand merchant, leaving his business to his two son-, Henry C and Nicholas C, who were among the largest mer- chants of their day ; their business with London being verv extensive. N. C. married a daughtej of Myndert Schuyler, an eminent merchant of this city, and duiinpr the Revolutionary war moved to Tappan, Rockland Co. Andre was confined in his house, and Washing- ton and other officers often visited him. He left two •one, Cornelius N. and David S. The, former died a tiachelor, and the latter was graduated at Columbia College in 1790, and settled as a Clercymaji at Southampton, L. I., from 1798 to 1813, and then at Hemnstead until 1S26, when he came to this citv, and died in 1839. One of his sons, Alwyn, is a physician in this city, and a daughter, Elizabeth, is di-lin^uished aa an authoress. The wife of David S. was a daugh- ter of Jonas Pratt. Her brother Ebenezer, was taken a prisoner during the Revolutionary war, and carried to London, where he married a sister of Sir Benjamin West's vrife, the daughter of Mrs. Wright, celebrated for her skill in wax modelling. Another brother, Col. Ridiard, was the officer who received the gaHant Montgomery in his arms whileexpiring, at the siege of Quebec, Dec. 31, 1775. Eugene isthe'son of David S., and early entered into mercantile pureuiLs, in which he has attaiijed nis wealth, by the most honorable course of dealing. He married a daughter of David Beck, Esq., of this city. He has retired from husines.s, leaving the brothers, Alex. A. and Orlando M., to suc- ceed him in the firm of Bogart & Brothers, Commis- sion Merchants. Bogert Henry H. - - - - 100,000 Of an ancient Dutch family, and one of the firm of Bogert i£ Kneeland, cotton .and liquor brokers, and commission merchants. Boaeit James, 300,000 Of the same family, and residing in Brooklyn. Bogert James Jr. .... 300,000 Bolton Curtis 250,000 From Georgia, where he has a plantation, and in ihis city a merchant. Bonnefoux Laurent . - . - 100,000 A lynx-eyed, clear-headed French gentleman— a second Cassimlr Peirier, in the abUity wiih which he conducts his private banking iMtitntloB, and to the good sense with which he discourses upon the currency of the country. BonnettPeUr 150.000 Boorman Jstnes . - . - 500000 Of the firm of Boorman, Johnston & Co., exten- sive iron merchants. He is president of the council of the University, and out of hisliberality ha? endow- ed a professorship. An adopted daughter married Jo- siah Wheeler, a lawyer Bouchand Joseph .... 200,000 A French resident, wlio has become rich as an im- porter of French goods. Bowne Walter 150.000 Of an ancient and very numerous Quaker family of L.I. John, who was bom at Matlock, in Derby- shire, England, in 1627, with his father, Thoma«, and a sister, came to Boston in 1649, and in 1651 they set- tled in Flushing. John married a daughter of Robert Field, of Flushing, a sister of the wife of Capt. John Undeihill, and in 1661 built the house there, which has been occupied by his descendants until recently, when it passed into the possesion of James Parsons, whose mother was the daughter John Bowne, the fourth, a lineal descendant of the first John, and is now occupied by Mr. Parsons. In this house, Geoijre Fox, in 1672, was entertained by Mr. Bowne, and his wife, who early became quakersr In leeQBownewa* imprisoned for three months, aiui then sent to Holland for trial, by the notorious Governor Stuyvesant, on the charge of •' procuring lodgings, for, and frequent- ing the Cortventicles of the obstinate sect of Quakers." He was acquitted in Holland, and a severe reprimand administered to the Governor. Walter is the son of James, whose father, Samuel, was the grandson o( John. Walter was elected Mayor of this city in 1828- which office he held for five successive years. Subse- quently he was a State Senator, and was one .if the U. S. commissioners for the erection of the Custom House. Mr. Bowne was, in early life, " an out-door under writer," and has been a merchant, in which line he h;}s amassed much wealth in addition to his inheritance. His investments in real estate in this citv have added much to his fortune. Mr. Bowne is universally respected for his integrity and virtues, and has ever been an intiuential man. Mary Frant- lin, the flrst wife of De Witt Clinton, was a descend- ant of the Bownes. Walter maiTied Elizabeth South- gate, by whom he has two children; Nathan, who married Eliza Repclve, and Mary, the wife of John W. Lawrence, of Flushing. We think we might with safety add §100.000 to the present estimate. Bowen James . . ^. . - 100,000 Boyd James 150,000 Of thefirrp of James Boyd & Co., ship brokers and Bradford William ... - 100,000 A descendant of the Puritan Bradford, who came over in the May-Flower. He was in the Dry Goods business in this city, and commenced poor. A fortu- nate investment in Delaware and Hudson Canal Stock, enabled him to retire from business. Bradhurst J. M. - - - - 300 000 Made his money at the drug business, and has been commissioner of the alms house. Bradhurst Samuel ... - 100,000 Has been Alderman of the Twelfth Ward. A son of J. M., and married a daughter of Thomas C. PearsaU, deceased, by whom he received the greater portion of his property. Brandegee Jacob .... 700.000 Native of Louisiana, and he has been largely enga- ged in tlie trade between New Orleans and New York. He has immense possessions in New Orleans, and owns n large property in Lafayette Place. He has resided in this city several years. Brandreth Benjamin ... 150000 The celebrated manufacturof and vender of .Bran- dreth's pills. He resides mostly at Sing-Sing, where he has a splendid seat. A capital good fellow. Brevoon Henry Jr. . - . • 1,000,000 ■ Of an wealthy capitalist. Bronson Silas 150.000 A raercliant retired from business, and owns the .l''ranklin House. He is from Ct., and distantly rela- ted to Arthur. Brooks S. R - - - - - 300,000 Went through bankruptcy three years since; mar- tied 'he widow Olney, of Portland, a daughter of Aia Clapi', went into stock principally Hsrlcmand has thus made a large fortune. Is a gentleman of fiiie taste. Brooks Sydnfiy - . - - 500.000 Son of the richest man in New England, Peter C. Brooks, of Boston, brother of the late Governor Brooks, of iVIass. Edward Everett married a daugh- ter of Peter C. Brooks and also Mr. Frothingham, Unitarian Clergyman, at Boston. Sydney Brooks is- one of the-firiri of Davis, Brooks & Co., doing a large Commission business. Brown Geo. W. ... - 200,000 Brown James - -■ - - - 500,000 Firm of Brown & Co , Biltiraote, and Brown Bro- thers & Co , of this city. Originally from the north of Ire and, (of great lepute,) highly respectable. Brown Silas- - . . ' 100,000 Brown Stewart . - - - 300,000 Bruce George 200 000, A worthy mechanic, who, in company with his brother, from a printer, some years ago, became a type founder. By great industry and care, the pos- s(v;.sion of much natural shrewdness, and judicious operations in real estate, he has rendered himself wealthy, and is now ma.ster of a handsome fortune. Bruce J. M. 150 OuO Brupn Matthias .... 700 000 When the great China merchant, Thos. H. Smith, of this city, failed, Bruen, throueh hi.s son, Geo. W. B., who had married to Smith'sdaughter, became pos- ryssed of all .Smith's shijis, teas, &c. as Smith's bonds- man. Government unwisely relinqui.shed the greater part of what was due to the revenues, say $600,000, and this has made Ih viugh riw of Smith's assets, Iwuses, Ice, a Tart property for the Bruens, a New Jersey family, and originally dry goods merchant!. George W. lived in Italy and was in the Leghorn Bryson David 400,000 An honest upright Irishman, one of the tanners and curriers of the "Swamp," with the Bloodgooda. Has been Alderman of the fourth ward. ' Buchanan Miss - • - - - 160,000 Daughter of Thomas, (deceased.) Bucklty Henry .... 100,000 F Son of Thomas and inherited a large estate by mar- riage with the daughter of Townsend Macoun, de- ceased, late Mayor of Troy. Buckley Thomas - . - - lOO.OOO En.'jlish Quaker, merchant, who made a very good adventure, the first impulse to his fortune, when he married a daughter of the rich John Lawrence, de- ceased- Buloid Robert ... - - 150000 A most worthy, upright merchant, and made his fortune by a retail Grocery in Broadway, celebrated for its rarest delicacies that cani>ampertlie appetite of ejilcures, in delicious wines, liqueurs.and coinfitiires. Bunker Wm, J. - - - - 200,000 Of a numerous Nantucket family, of whom Elisha S. is one of the first captains that ever directed a steamboat through Long Island Sound. Wm. J. has Ion" been celebrated as keeper of the Mansion House, one of the largest hotels in the city. In this busincs;- he has acquired a great portion of his wealth. Burke Mrs. -wi Jow of M. R., - 150,000 Burnbahi Michael Estate of - 200,000 Bu'ler Benjamin F.'- - - - 150,000 With native powers of mind, and most unpretend- ing deportment in the profession which he adorni^ and respected everywhere for his sincere piety and pure life. Mr. Van Buren saw in him one whosester- liii" name would bring much capital to the democratic ranks. An early alliance of friendship, and the yield- ing temper of Mr. Butler, met with their full rewards in the very lucrative post to which his friend, Mr. Van Buren, finally assigned him as U. S. District At- torney lor New York City. i Butler Francis 100,000 Of a New York family, and in the paint business of the firm of Butler i: Barker. A good fellow. c Cammann O. F. - - - * $100,000 Campbell George W. • - 100,000 CiropbellJno. - - 200,000 Mr. Campbell, likehis father, the late deceased and much respected proprietor of a large Paper establish- ment, madethe greater part of his fortunein thatline, and has besides acquired much by inheritance. Tliey are Scotch. He is now of the firm of John Campbell & Co. C.rmanRicha'rdR - - - - 250,000 Bc"an life asa poor boy, making packing boxes for merchants, and laboring until ten or eleven o'clock every night. Accumulated some money, and com- menced as a carpenter and builder, in which, by means of his untiring industry, integrity, and talent, he amassed means and reputation sufficient to enable him to make large contracts, in 183C, for rebuilding in the " burnt district." At the time of taking his con- tracts, wages and materials were high, but long before the completion of his-work, the price of labor and materials had depreciated to such an extent, that he rcalised'an immense profit. He has continued build- in", and has invented his proceeds in real estate, the value ot which has greatly risen since his purchase. He has a beautiful seat at Fort Washington, in the upper jiart of the island, where he resides in the sum n'er. He is now building a village two miles this side of Fort Washington, named Carroanville. In 184J Alderman Carman was elected by the whigs of the twelfth ward, and held his seat for one year. Mr. tar-| man is one of those strong-minded men for whom na- ture has done more than education, and is, moreover, a very liberal and eiceUent man. No man is more reifecled. CarDfE Francis (estate ofhU laughters) 200,COO A pentleman, every inch of hi m— and b'Jt few such specimens of a hi'.-hlveducat.-d merchant. Resided a long while in Paris, wlure he was lield in great con- wderation both aiiiorii.' his countrymen and the elite of trench society, fur iiis fine taste, classical acnuire- ments, polished manners, and ready wit. He is yankee born, of !;re,it respectahilitv, and after many ups and downs of life, and localin-f himself with his accomplished second wife at New York, his two beau- Vif a*"Shters,>just grown and %vife, have come into the above inheritance, through death of a maternal sreat uncle. Carow Isaac - - - . . 400,000 Made his money in the Hardware business. Carroll Isaafi - - - - . 150,000 Gary Henry - . - . . . 100.000 A merchant retired. V.aiy W. H. - - - - liOO.OOO An natiring shreivd yankee, commeuced business by selling combs ina Bmall way. Caswell N. 100.000 Present firm of W. H. Howhnd & Co. Came to this citv a poor boy, and his made his money bj his own industry. Catlin Georee -. - . . . 100,000 Tlie distinguished traveller and Indian Biorrapher. He received a lar^e inheritance from the estate of bvi father, Lynde Catlin. Cavanna ATffu-tus - •- - . IPO.OOO Formerly a distinguished hair dresser, and investing CebraJohnY. .... lOO 000 The cx-alderraan of the first ward, and an old and estimable citizen of New York, and tliough in years not advanced, may be deemed, from his useful public •ervices, apart from his standing as a merchant, one of the/o/A<;rs of the city. Center Robert .... 200,000 Long a distinguished Shipping Merchant, of a nu merous New York family of great respectability. Chii.-stelain J. .... 100,000 Chauncey Henry ' . - - . 200.000 From Maine, and in the Crockery business. Cheesman Dr. 100 000 .\ distinguished Phyfician, \7hnse practice is one of the most extensive of any in the U. S. He is descend- ed of a distinguished Quaker family of Long Island, and his uncle died nobly at Uiiebec, under Montgome- ry. He married a daughter of Willard Hicks, a Qua- ker. Chesebrorch ?'lHrsaret ... 500,000 Widow of Aiidronicus. Cheseboroueh Robert ... 250 000 A retired dry gocd merchant and once President of the Fulton Ba'nk. ('hesterman James .... 30O 000 Long a distinguished tailor at the corner of John and Nassau sts. but has lived for some time retired at Harlem. A very worthy and upright man. Childs Samuel, R. (Estate of his wife,) 100,000 ClappJohn 200,000 A retired Flour merchant, and made all his money. He is a very close but good man of a quaker family. U now President of the Mechanics and Traders Jiank. Clark Aaron 100 000 Formerly a distinguished lottery dealer, in which CJark Chester, 150,000 Betides in Brooklyn, and in bu»ine»» with Mr. Spaulding, constituting the firm of Chester, Clark & Co., Dry Good Jobbers. Clark Mrs. ..... 100,000 Widow of Benjamin, from New England, .-ind famed as the Quaker lawyer and friend of Daniel W ebster. Clark Ralph 150,000 Clsrk Rithard S. . - - 100,000 Clason Augustus W. - - - 100,000 Clayton Edwin B 100,000 Formerly a Printer, and now a Paper Merchant. He has been Alderman of the first ward, elected b> the Whigs. Clinton Mrs. H. (widow of Geo.) - 100,000 Mr'. Hannah Clinton, daughter of Walter Frank. lin, Esq., an eminent Quaker mcrchaht of this city, from L. Island. Her husband was nephew to Vice President Geo. Clinton, and brother of the great Gov- ernor, Dewitt Clinton—" Satis est" for Clinton a household name— but the rich Franklin brothers, merchants of New-York, deserve a memento for the many noble ways in which they through intercession with the Tory authority and Hessian troops, were en- abled generously to dispense their wealth to their poor miserable, suffering countrymen, the American pris- oners confined in theSugarHouse, Provost, &c. during the Americajj Jtevolution. Mrs. Hannah C. is a sister also ofrGQV. Dewitt Clinton's lirst wife, descend- ant of. file Bowiies, by whom alone Gov. D. C. hasion. He married a Miss Brooks, of Bridgeport , Connecticut. Crosby Wm.B. As thcgreat nephew of the rich Col. Henry Rutgers, of the ancient Rutgers family of this city, he inherited an immense estate. His wife, through her mother is srand dau-hter of Gen. Wm. Ford, one of the signers of the Dcdarat;:)n of Independence. Crowe Thomas - - - . - * 100^000 An Irish linen merchant, and married a wif6 worth 100,000 Dawson WiUinin .... 200,000 100,000 '' '" English gentleman in tlie Broker line, and if not worth this sum bini£elf, will inherit it through his wife, the daughte; of Peter A. Jay. DayMahlon ..... 125,000 Lonj a bookseller in Franklin Square. Dehon Theodore - ... . 150 000 A partner of the firm of D^vis, Brooks ic Co., and his sister is married to Sydney Brooks. Dehon i:> s bachelor. 1,000,000 Cruger Mrs. Douglas - - - 400,000 Her father was Geo. Douglass, a Scotch merchant, who hoarded closely. His wine cellar was more ex- tensive than his library. Whm George u^ed to see people speculating and idle, it dislrc"ed him. Ho would say " People get too mnny iilers in their heads. Why don't they work?" What a blessing he is rot alive in tins moonshine age of dreamy sdiem- ihe Cnigers were of Bristol, f,ng., of which the one th.it tirst came out here. " Old Harry," father-in-law of the prcicnt jufl','C Thos. Oakley, of the Superior Court, had been Mayor. Mrs. Crugcr is the sifter of Geo. and Wm. Douglass, which see. Her husband is a lawyer. .Crydef John - - - 100,000 Cashman Don AlonzQ - - - 200 000 Resides "in Chel-ea. Made his money in the dry good business. From Connecticut. CuWinsP.B. 150,000 . Tlie Rev. Mr. Cutting, his piandfaUier. was the principal of a famous Grammar School at Hcmp-^tead, before the American Revolution, and from him ibo Ulustrious Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell received hi- first l-ivsons, as did also many of the "oiis of thegcntlrmeu of Long Island of those times. His sun William married a Livingston, and by this and that hourly source of accumulating wealth, the Ftlton stenm ferry boats established by him — they have become cxtremcry rich. He is a lawyer in part- fcership witli F. R. Tillou. Catting Mrs (Widow of William) - 200,000 Ar.d the mother of F. B. Cultinjj. Dait Russell - - - $100,00u D«shJohnB. - - . - - - 200,000 A retired Hard Ware merchant. DaterPhilliD - .. - - - - 400 000 Dutch, of Abrah; rable forge on tlic Ramapo, in Rockland county. New York, of the celebrated tinn of Lee, Dater & Co., Wholesale Grocers. Davis Chaa. A. .... 200 000 Originally, on his father's side, it is said of aPortu- gue^ae family, through a Portuguese lady saved miracu- lously from'the earthquake of Lisbon, to become the betrothed wife of the grandfather gf Charles A., who . was then British Consul at that Capital. Mr. Davi< is the author of the N. Y . sei ie« of Jack Downing's letters, and of the lirm of Davis, Brooks k Co., Commis.'«w . Bedford some years since, and commenced as clerk ■with the above, where ho -is now a partner. Delaplaine Elijah - . - - 100,000 Brother of John T., below. The father was of French extraction, who married a Long Isl«nd qna- keress, and was a hardware merchant. Elij ; 1 made the bulk of his fortune in connexion with th e 'u/inest ^f hi 5 brother, who was at one tiipe a larg importer- /and wholesale dealer. Delaplaine John P. - - . • - ' 150,000 His father was a very rich old New Yorker, and John F. has made money as an Importer and Com- mission Merchant. He married a daughter of thp rich Isaac Clason, deceased. Delmonico (widow of John) - - 200,000 Her husband, with his brother Peter, established the celebrated French and Italian Restaurant. No paral- lel case of an Italian reaping such a fortune, has evr occurred in the lustory of this city. But if the best oi fare und' choice wines, and unceasing politeness t) their guests merits fortune, they eminently deserve what they have earned. The Delmonicos are natives of that part of Switzerland which borders on ItAlj- They may be said to have first introduced into oui city a taste for those fashionable comfort* which can no sthtxe elcebe found but in the enitint of » Frpnch Restaurateur. John bought a beaulitiilplaceonLong Island, where his widow and children resides. His pahttinpi, mostly scripture pieces, are very eitcrtfive and TaJuable. Dehnoni CO Peter ... - 100,000 Peter, witn a nephew, succeeds John in the business of the Re-^taurant. Dcluze Louis P. • 1 - . - 100 000 A Frenchm n n , and of the firm of Dcluze k Lois Volz, Importers ol French and German Goods. Demaray David ... - 100,000 Acquired his wealth tiy Industry and close appli- ntion t« the Grocery husiress on tlie west side of the city. Stock holder and director in the North Ejver Bank. Deming BBTfill* - . . . 300 000 Of the firm of Demin?, Bulkey & Co. Lon? distin- Riiished A> manufacturers of Cabinet Ware, and have made large sums by sales in the southern market. Demilt Samuel .... 200,000 Of an old family, very re.^pcctable and wealthy Deming Frf derick • • - - 300 000 President of the Union Bank, and has long been rich by virtue of the laws of inheritance. Denison Ashbel .... 100,000 A Grocer, of the firm of Denison & Belden, made his money Denison Charles - . - - 150,000 The brother of Lyman, and rp^idcs in East Chester. Came here as cabin boy f^om Connecticut. Denison Lvman .... 150000 Among the oldest grocers in the city, and with his brotlier tharles in the business, very worthy men, and made all their money. Depeyster J. W. (estate of John Watt?) 400,000 A soldier under Buonaparte, a well known Ger- man merchant of the highest standing and character. De Rham Henry C. - - - - 100 000 Of a Dutch or German family, and of the firm of De Rhara & Moore, Commission Merchants in the for eign bublncss. De Ruyter John D. - . . - 1.50,0C0 Of an old New York family. Has never been in business. Desbrosses James Estate of - - 600,000 De Witt Peter- .--,-- 100,000 A Lawyer, of an old Dutch family. He U very conversant with titles. Dickinsor. Charles (estate of) - 500,000 Donaldson James .... 300,000 With hii brother Robert, Scotchmen, and long Commission Merchants, in which business they ac quired nn>~t of their property. James received some- thing by his wife, a da\ighter ol Robert Lennox. Dfmaldson Robert .... 2r0 000 The brother of James. Both have now retired from business. Doi-tic S. C. 100,000 Douglaps G-orge - - . . 700,000 A -son of George, who came from SeotJand, and ac- quired a large property in the ConiiBis-ion busines.s, in which he has been succeeded by his sons. His property was divided among these two .sons and a daughter, now Mrs. Cruger, leaving each $400,600. Geor-^e continues in business, A (laughter of his mar- ried James Monroe, a nephew of the ex-Prcsident. Douglass George . . . , l.M(,00O Conliecticut origin, commisaion merchant. Douglass William .... 700,000 The brother of George, and retired (rem business. Downing George - - . - 100 000 Drake Jacob - - ' - - - 100,000 Drake James 100,000 A son of Jacob, deceased. Drake John 200,000 A brother of Jacob, deceased, and formerly an in- spector of the state Prison, and contracted for sup- plies. Dnke, Mrs. widow of James, - 100,000 James Drake made his money In selling tlothes to sailors, and in a general clothing bu.siness. He died ten years ago. One daughter married Richard M- Lawrence, aad another, John R. Towiisend, a law- yer. J here are sever»l sons. Drake Susanna, .... 100 OOfi • Widow of a Dry Good mer.hant. Dra4£e William ... - 100,000 Another ?on dl Jacob, deceased. Drake Wm. H. 100,000^ A merchant, and son of Sus>nna. Draper Simeon Jr. . - - • 100,000 He and some eight or nine -brothers, (distinguished for their line personal appearance, which they in- herited from th«r New England father. Simeon is an Auctioneer, of the firm of Haggerty, Draper & Jones. He married a daughter of John Haggerty, in whose store he was once clerk. It is a brother-in-law who is now his partner. Drew Dai iel 300,000 Has made all his money. Formerly kept Bull's Head, and isnowof the firm of Drew, Robinson & Co., large brokers, doing business in this city and Buffalo. Thev are the proprietors of the People's Line of Steamboat-, between this city and Albany. A shrewd keen money making man. DubeiceauL. 300,000 Dubois Cornelius - - - . 400,000 A very rich Grocei and highly respectable man, made his money in the tobacco business. DyoluBan James .... 100,000 Faimer, Fort Washington, a gentleman of wealth, and an old Dutch family. A i elation of the Striker family. Dyckman Malhew .... 100,000 Farmer, Fort Washington. Son of James. DykersJohnH. .... 200,000 Of the firm of Dykers 4; -Alstyne, Brokers- Durand Calvin ... - 100000 A partner ot the firm of Jonathan Goodhue k Co. DurandV. l'>0,000 E Eagle Henry $200,000 An Irishman, and formerly a Dry Good dealer in Chatham street, in which business he made his money. He is now retired. Edgar H.L. 150000 Son of an Irishman, who, by his prudence and in- dustry became the holder of a large estate. This feBuly is albed to the Le Roys by marriage. E^ear William 1.50,000 The brother of H. L. Edi;ar. Edgorten Ab'l T. ... - «100,000 From New Haven, Copnecticiit, and has had a Tai lArin" F-stablishment in KuMon street for the last twenty-five year-, where he began bo^i"^ \P"'>r boy. Hemanied a niece of John Hardenbrook, de ceased, by whom he received »bout J25,0fV) tome three or four years riiice. ao Esgleson Thomas - . - - 150,000 Of the firm of Eggleson at Batlelle, Iron Merchants. Elliott Dr. Samuel ... - 100,000 An Oculis>, (ox whom " Aconitine" and " Patent Sel^ AdjusUni; spectacles" have done a vast deal. Elliot Diniel 100,000 From Mass., and educated as a Pljysician ; but for years of the firm of Elliot, Burnap & Babcock, Paper Slerchants. Mr. Elliot has retired from business, and now resides in Westchester Co. Emanuel M. • ^100,000 Embu'y Peter - - - . - 150,000 A retired Grocer, and very worthy man. His son's wife is the distinguished Poetcis, Mrs. Embury. Eno Amos R, - - - - - 150,000 By industry and pewverance during the last 15 jears has amassed his fortune. • Evertsen Mis. .: ISO'OOOO Widow of Nicholas, who was a distinguished law- yer, and descendant of Com. Evertsen, in the time of the Dutch Governors. F»ile EJwa-d G. . - - . 8150,000 He and his brother are sons of an old Scotch mer chant, who began life as a pedlar, and setlltxl as a merchant in East Chester, where he still reside.'. Fd- mund G. and George, his only sons, came to this city and are now Wholesale Grocers, doing a good busi- ness. They are very much respected. ■' FaileHall ------. 100,000 Fanshaw Daniel 100,000 A Printer, Bookseller and Publisher; made his money. He is a man much respected, and has been candidate for Mayor. Favre Frederick W. - - - ■ - 150,600 A German, and married a daughter of P. Gebhard, deceased. Importer of Gin, and with John Jacob Schuckhardt, just deceased, who married a daughter of Gebhard also, sucxeeded his father-in-law, and is now engaged in importing German goods. He re- ceived a large sum by his wife. Fearing Henry - ' - - - ' 300,000 Fearing Wm. S. (estate of) - - 300,000 Fellows James ----- l.^jOOO Formerly a pedlar. Is frcm Dutchess County. Ferris Charles G - . . . 200,000 His father was long an Inspector of Flour, has made a large fortune, which he left to his cliildren. Charles G. has been a member of Congress, elected by the Democratic party. He is a large owner o( Real jEstate, and has increased his inheritance by good management. Ferris, Floyd T, . . . - ' 100,000 A brother of Charles G., and a physician. Fielder Ernest - . . . . 100,000 A Qprman merchant, and married an heiress, the dau^ihterotkli Hart, the c«lebrateii Hour merchant. Is a Din ctor ot the merch int Eachango Co. and a Ijrge Hpporter of Qermiu Goods. Fi' Id Benjamin H. - . - , 100,000 I Brother of Mick-ou W., formerly in the Drug line in Burling Slip, and invested in Real Estate, by which he made much. FitW David Dudley - - - 150,000 From Massachusetts; a Lawyer, married a rich widow, and hence a jortion of his wealth. Field Hickson W. .... 300,000 Formerly in {he 9onlmi=^^^n business. He is now in connexion with Mattnew Morgan, build- ing the large hotel In the upper part ot Broad way, and has been engaged in the ConSmission and Dm ' business. In Burllnj Slip, in copnexlon with M» brother Benjamin H. Field Moses (estaw of) . . - A retired lawyer and son of Leonard deceased. Fisher James - - - . . 100,000 A son of Leonard deceased, and retired from the business of a silve^^mith. Fisher Leonard, ..... 150,000 A retired Dentist. His father left an estate of $600 000, which is divided among five sons and one daugh- ter, who married John Heabberrt, now deceased. Leonard Sr having acquired his fortune mainly by pun bases of real e.-tate, which at his death was wprtli nearly 100 times what he gate for it. Leonard Hie son has been industrious and saving. Janeway and Fisher were the first settlers of Chatham and V( UVUa streets. Fisher Mrs. 200,000 A daughter of John Glover, deceased some twenty years since. He was an Irishman, and began life in this country, as a pedlar, and with $100 bought some- fifty years ago, a large lot in Lam-ens street, which, with the buildings now on it, is worth ne.irer a mil- lion, than a hundred dollars. Her sister maixied John Adams, President of the Fulton Bank. Her brother Edward married a poor milliner, and his mother bought for him a farm of six hundred acres, UsterCo.^ this State.. On the death o-f Edward, his mother con- firmed this farm to his widow, which Mr. Adams anij Withersjioon invoked the powers of Chancery, in vain, to turn it to their own account. Jotin J. Glover. one of whose daughters mamed the Hon. C. C. Cam- •breling, is of another family. Fisher Thomas -...-. 150,000 The brother of George above. Fitch A.saJr 300,000 Of a New England Family, and was for a long timi- merchant at ftfarseilles. Ho i» now doing a large Commission businejjs With hi« brother, in Exchanjje Phce. '-It is not every /amfduc'c," a favorite ex- pression of his, that could come out«o tali, and loom so large and lofty in haughte socicte. Fitch William 100,000 A brother of Asa. Foot S. A. 100,00ft Lawyer, married a daughter of John CampbeU. Foites Jehial 100,000 Resident of New Haven, but much of his business transacted here. Ferbes - - - .- • - 150,000 Married a daughter of Samuel Judd. Forbes Widow ... - 250,000 A sister of Mrs Howell and Drayton Blackweli. Her he band was a lawyer, who died some 12 year* since. Poster Andrew - . - - 150,000 Of a Scotch Fatnily, originally an Auctioneer, and . now with Ids ^ons in the Commiuion business. 11 FouIkeJosrph .... 350,000 An fcngli* gcnUeman, who has maintained the lilQhe^t rank amonj; our honorable merchants; He liai Ion? been onsa^ed in theWost-India ImpoHini; liuainess, and has his three sons in business with hini. Foulke Joseph Jr., - - - - ' 250,^00 A son of Joseph; married a daughter of John Beek man, worth a large sum by his wile. Foulke Louis P - . - - 150,000 Aimtliorson of Joseph, and married an )ieiress, tlic daughter of Charles Tuwn. Foulke William .... 100,000 A son of Joseph. Fowler Theodocius ... - 300,000 A large Grocer, and married one of the Depeau dau^'hters, and lives in Depeau Kow. Fox Geo. . ■ . • - - . 250,000 The brother of William W., and was formerly in the Auctioneer business with Thomas W. Peaisall. lie resides in Westchester Co. FoxGdO. T. 100,000 A son of George. A merchant. Fo.\ Samuel M. - - - . - 300,000 A Shi)iping merchant of the firm of Fox, Livingston &• Co., ownew of a Havre line of Packets. He, with Livingston, his partner, was a clerk with Mr. Depcaj, dpceased, and each maiTicd one of his daughters. ^. Fox William W. .... 300,000 Two Quaker brothers, in the Dry Goods, Jobbing anil Auctioneer business. They are from Westch^ter. Tliey married daughters of the deceased. Forrest Edwin - - - - - 150,000 The distinguished American tragedian.^ ■ Waa a poor boy, and has made hi* fortune. He married a daughter of .Mr. Sinclair, tlie English vocalist. Mr. Forrest has ivi-cly investeJ a portion of his funds in up town lots, and in the erection of dwellings, Francis J. W, - - - ,- - 100,000 Furman Gabriel .... 200,000 A very re>i)ectable and ancient English family, one of the earlie.-t among tlio^e who colonized^Long I^- lund. Formerly Superintendent of the Alms Hou-e. Judge Jno. T. Irving, deceased, (brother to Washing- Inn Irving.) became enriched by maiTiage with a ilaughtcr ot Gabriel Furman. Fomiss William P. .... 1,000,000 Made all his money at the South, and is now a Bro" kir in W:'ll street. He built the Globe Hotel, and is u large owiht of Real Estate, which has risen much in value since his investment. Galalian WiUiam W. - - - $100,000 An Upholstferer, of French descent. Close and tight-fisted. Gardiner John Gardiner David - Garner James G. - . The brother of Thomas. Garner Tiiomas Gallatin Albert 150,000 Of a very respectable Swiss family. He came to this country when a very young man, and has highly distinguished himself. He formerly re«idx;d in Phila- ilelphia, and has been Secretary of the Treasury. He was with Clay Ic Adams, one of the negotiators of the treaty of Ghent. He w^as for a long time Presi- Gallaiin James Jr. Gallatin ^Ubert R. - A son of Albert Gallatin. CT«.rd;ner Thomaa 100,000 the Na- 100,000 '600,000 - J0O,00O 150,000 150,000 150 000 With his brother James G., failed in 1932, and in IS.!.^, liaving again entered business, paid off all their old obligations with interest. Few men have passM tlir(iugli adversity wiiuiinp such golden opinions for honorable intentions and upright purposes. Gebhard F. Estate of - - - 500,000 Gelston David Estate^ol - - - 200,000 Late President of the Manhattan Bank. Gelston George - ^- - - - 100,000 Retired Jeweller, married the daughter of Mei- nell, the Leather Dealer of the Swamp. Gelston John M. . ■ . . - 100,000 A son of Maltby Gelston, and in the Commission business. ' ' Gelston MaliSy ... - 300,000 Late President of Manhattan Bank. Gerard James W. - - - - 100,000 A lawyer of great eminence in this city, and son of an auctioneer. He married an heiress of Philadelphia. Gerard William - - - - 150,000 A brother of the lawyer, and has been doing a suc- cessful business, as auctioneer. GeraudWm. .--.-- J50,00O GibbB Thomas 100,000 A highly polished gentleman, married some twenty year* since a rich heiress, daughter of J. W.Vanden- hewel. t;.l)son Mrs. - - - - - 150,000 Married first Miles M. Burke, a sea o»pt|in, de-- ceasetl, and is now the wife of Mr. Gibson. Gifford Arthur N. - - - - -150,000 Mr. Gilford was educated and graUuated as a Phy- sician, but not choosing as a gentleman to wade tliiough the tortuous and muddy paths by which some of the membesr of aij overpopulated and starved profession are compelled to get their bread, and being too high-minded to resort to low arts and ciuining to obtain distinction, made his debut in the Broker line in Wall street, and has there operated to an extent to justify hisj moat aanguine expecta- tions. GihonJohn - - - - - 300,000 A Frenchman, in the Commission and Importing business. Gilbert 300,000 A retired French merchant Gilbert Clinton .... 150,000 A lialf-brother of Garritt, and son of the widow of W.W.Gilbert. Gilbert Joshua, - - -. - 100,000 A Commission Merchant, of the thin of Joshua Gil- bert and son, but no relation of the family of Gairit Gilbert. Gilbert Mrs. 150,000 . Widow of W. W. Gilbert, who was the Stewart of his day among the Dry Good merchants. In business with his son Garrit, who is now one of our Police Magistrates. W. W. Gilbert was a Police Magistrate, afterwards a member of the Assembly, then Senator, and member of the Council of Appointment. GUleyMrs. 150,000 Her husband, deceased, by birth Scotch, acquired his fortune in the book line, as the prlncipaj partn< r in one of the most celebrated stores in that business of wiu. hour city could then boast. 1% Oilman Nathaniel . ~ ~ - 300,000 Griffin George - - . - 200,000 From Ba^h, Me., formerly in business in Portland, The fatherer of FrancU, and the distinguished and subsequently in Boston. He i» now one of the -L-awyer. Leather dealers in the Swamp, and largely in impor- Grinnell Moses H. - - - - 250.000 tations from South America and Africa. A man of „j,j j.,, . great energy and business capacity. ' ""om New Bedford, and with his brother Henry, Giraud Jacob P. partners of the lirm of Grinnell, Minturn & Co., Ship- 200,000 pinji Menhants, and owners of a line of Liverpool — !._._ rr., . ,_■ andhave . „ , , ..,,..., T ^ , packets. They are entarprisin" young men, a A Frenchman, who, wjth his brother Joseph, made acquired all tlieir propaty. Moses H. has „. their fortunes as Coopers. They have long since re- member of Congress, and is a prominent politician tired from business. Jacob P. is a bachelor. » of the Whig party. Giraud Joseph - . - - 300,000 Grinnell Henry - . - . 250,000 The brother of Jacob P., and has two sons who ^he brother of Moses H., and was formerly a part -succeed him in the Cooper's trade, and another a' ner with Preserved Fish. - - - 500,000 merchant. GioverEstateofJohii J. - - 400,000 Gpel^tAlmieCwidotvofPeterP.) .250,000 Goelet George - - - ■ - 100,000 Goelet Margaret (widow of Robert R.) 100,000 Her husband, with his brother Peter P., was of En- !?lish birth, and a Hardware Merchant, and accumu- lated a large property in his business. Both these ,;,fp „,n„,.K,.t brothers raarrial daughters of Thomas Buchanan, """^ "' pacnn Griswold George - " " Of an ancient Connecticut family. One of the an- cestors was Governor of that State. He is in partner- ship with his brother, Nathaniel L., and engaged in the China and India Shipping business, and one of the largest houses in the city. Griswold George C. - - - - 100,000 Son of George, and in business with his father. Griswold John 200 000 A merchant, and has long been agent of a London Kipp. Her only son is deceased. Goelet Peter 400,000 The son of Peter P., and resides with his mpther in Gomez A. L 200,000 The father of Mr. Gomez was M. M. Gomez, an aged and respectable descendant of the Gomezes, who were among the first Hebrew Emigrants to 3England and the Colonies from persecutions in Por- tugal, were they could not exercise'their Griswold John L. " ■■■ - 100,000 The orother of Nathaniel L., Jr., and his partner. Griswold Nathaniel L. - - - 500,000 The older brother, and partner of George. Griswold Nathaniel L.Jr ' - - 100,000 A son of Nathaniel L., and with his brother John L., constituting the firm of John L. & N. L. Griswold, Merchants, in South street. They have a house in Louisiana, and deal largely in Domestic Goods. Grosvenor Jasper merchant, and 300,000 connected with Ketchum, tai"th"underthe"penVli"roTdeli'thr'TheVe'iative'3 of Rogers & Beinent, Brokers, in Wall street, in the his father, who Ifrought considerable wealth with manufacture ot bteam Engines and Locomotives, at him, were distinguished Nobles of that Kingdom, Patterson, New Jersey, and held lucrative appointments,at the Court of the p. ,.„,,„_.,- Oath Monarch prior t9.their dep.irture. Mr. Gomez =- ••-- l^^OSVenor bettl true representative of a modern English Gentleman in his amiable deportment and reftned breeJing. Giodhue Jonathan - - . - 500,000 • From Salem, Mass., and has for many years been a Shipping Merchant, and owner of the line of Liver- pool packets, as the senior partner of Goodhue & Co., the succcessor of Isaac Wright & Son, the owners fif the fii'st line of foreign, packets, which was a line 500,000 Dry Goods Merchant of an old New Ensrland fami- ly, and brother of the once distinguished orator and Congiersman, deceased, (Thomas P. G.) Seth -i» uncle (if tlie widow of that late brilliant meteor in ju- dicial acumen, S. A. Talcott, that set so prematurely in clouds and darkness. Gimther Christian G. ... 1-50,000 A German by birth, came to this country when to Liverpool. The first packet was sailed by Isaac quite a youth, has made his fortune in the Fur busi- Wright, in 1818, who commenced with a line of four ness, and -by his untiring_ effjrts_ has become tbe most extensive dealer in Fuis in this country. Hadden David S200,000 A Scotchman, of the firm of David Hadden & Son, Importers of Irish Linen. Thomas Crowe is a silent 250,000 partner of this firm. Haggerty JoSin 1,000,( ships. This was the first line of packets ever in our port. Mr. Goodhue is universally respected for his integrity and honorable conduct Goodwin Eli 100,000 Of the firm of Goodwin, Fisher i Co., in the do mestic Commission business. Graham Bernard ... An Irishman ; formerly Porter to Peter Harmony, end now a partner. See Peter Harmony. Gray WiiUhrop G, - . . - lOOOOO Of Ihsl, descent ; began business in this city as . ' ^ luuvwu Jobber— afterwards became the richest Auctioneer ID Green John C. 400 000 the city, with David Austen, under the firm of Hag Greenwood John 'Estate of - - 1.50,000 when Mr. Haggerty, at an advanced age, retired, and the firm was dissolved ; two sons, John A. and Wm., Greenwood Isaac .1. . . - 250,000 retiring also, and the younger, Oijilen, entering ^ , . , . into the new firm of Haggerty, Draper & Jone,;, Greele Augustus (estateof) - - 520,000 auctioneers, at the corner of Pine and WiUiam streets. Griffin Francis^ .... 150,000 Haggeriy John A. ... - 200,000 AbrotherofGeorge, the distinguished Lawyer, and HaggeitvOgden .... 150,000 i n business with him, constituting the flna of Griffin °° ' ° Haggerty William 200;000 13 Haight D. L. 200,000 \ brother of Richard K. helaw. Formerly in the Dry Good buaiuess, but now retired. HafghtD. R 200,t)00 Brother of B. K. Hsight below Haight Rirhard K, 300,000 Son of D. L. above Hi3 wife is the author of an nntertainins book of Travels in B^ypt. Haines R. T. 200,000 Of the Hrm of Halsted, Haines & Co., large Dry Good dealers ; ail old house. Hale David - - - ' ' - 100.000 Came from Boston, and was Originally an Auc- tioneer. When ArtlmrTappan sold the Joiimal of Com- merce he and Girard Hallock bought it. Though Tap- pan sunk 320,000 by the concern, the present proprie- tors have found it to be a source of profit. Mr. Hale, with others bought the Tabernacle very cheap, and he has now become nearly, or quite the sole proprietor. Hall A. 200,000 Hatter, formerly of New Jersey, and one of the most successful in the trade. A Directer in the Notlh Hivor flank. Hall Francis . - - - ■ 150,000 Senior iiartner of the firm of Francis, Hall is Co., proprietors of the Commercial Advertiser and New York Spectator. Mr. Hall is an Englishman, coming to this country when a young man, and wasfmployert in the office of the Com. Ad., and afterwards became with Mr. Lewis a partner; the latttT of whom six years afterwards was succeeded by the late Col. Stone. The success and reputation of this paper is greatly owing to Mr. Hall, who, from his connexion with the paper to the present lime, has constantly exercised over it an editorial supci-vision. Mr. Hall is a most excellent man. Hall J. Prescott .... 200,000 - An eminent lawyer, whose wife brought Mm a fr«aier fortune than Uie law. ' Originally a writing master. Hall Valentine G. . - - - 250,000 Was a clerk of John Tonncle, Sr., and married his daughter, and is now of the linn of Tonnele and Hall jirobably the most extensive Wool dealers in the coun- try. HaUock Girard 1-50,000 The editor, and with David Hale, the proprietor rf the Journal of ■ ommerce. In addition to the jirofits of this paper, the estate of his wife in this ciiy has been turned to good account. Hallock has a heautiifui seat in New liaven, where his wife belongs and his family resides. HalBted Caleb O. .... 250,000 Halsted William M. - - - 250,000 Of the firm of Halsted, Haines & Co., Dry Good dealers. liamersley A. Gordon, - - • 300,000 Uaraersley Andrew S. - - - 100,000 Of an old and highly respecl.ible family, who have Inherited a fortune. A sister married Antoine Ver- ren. a French clergyman. Hamilton J. C. ... - 200,000 A son of the reno%vned statesman, and also his bio- frapher. He married a daughter of the rich Dutch merchint Vanderheucl, deceased, and owns thereby the American Hotel. Uis time is chiefly devoted to literary pursuits. Hammcrsley Lewis C. - - - 200,000 Of an old and wealthy New York family. Hla fa- ther Thomas acquired a Urge fortune In the Dry Good line. Hardenbrook William Olil Kii)cketl)ocker. 150,000 Harmon Phillip . . . • 100,000 A Commission Merchant. Harmony Peter - . - . 1,, 500,000 Born in the West Indiec, whiihcr he has lately re- tired from business with a princely fortune. C-imeto this city a poor cabin hoy, anti eveniually be ame largely engngeil in thcshipping business with tcveraj partners. The ship Warsaw, sold op the Mlh of Oc- tober, 1844, made him $90,OnO in oi e voyage round Cape Horn. He has been largely inieretted io the Ir8d« between Cuba and Spain, and -some of his ships to Africa, it is said, have brought out cargoe-, that hive paid a profit equal lo luc difference in price be- tween negroes in Africa and in Cuba. Harper & Brotliers - - - 500,000 This firm consists of four brothers, James, (the present ai'ayor, John, Joseph W. and Fletcher They are of a respectable family on Long Island, and coming to this city, le«rned the Printer's trade. Ja... anu J (ihn, under the firm of J. & J. lUrj er, after- their time was out, commenced doing job woik, and printing for Publishers. The distinguiished house of Collins, Keese it Co., (now Collins, Brothers,) lares publishers of school books, gave them cmiiloyment. Getting out of work, they appli.d to the Collins for advice as to what book they should print. Th e fol- linsgave them advice, ami litey printed a work which w«s successful, followed up by another loriuiiate book, until at length they became publi>hers, and fi- ntlly their two other brothcr.s being added, they en. largfcd their business under the tiim of Harper & Brothers. They are now the mu^t extensive publish- ers in this c untry, and their names, in the history of literature, will be associated with tho.=c of Gslliane, C. nsttblc, Murray, and Longman; They have in different parts of America, from twelve to fifteen hundred booksellers acfing as their agents, besides a large nnmber of travelling clergymen, and other itinerants. So extensive is their business connexion that should they dispose of but one or iwo copies to each agency, they would be sure to pay the expenses of publication, and no matter what work tbey may publi-h, (and they have published several of the worst and most stupid books ever issued,) thev are sure to di-pose of, on an average more than two co- pies to each house withwhich they deal. They have a crrespondencc established not only with every considerable place in this' country, but with cities abroad, where books arc pubbshed, infoiming them of every work worthy of publicati-m. The? have besides in this city, and other jparts of the Dnited States, many literary men in the r employment, to pronounce' their opinion of manuscripts >ubmltied for publication, to revi.se tho^e that are imperfect, and to write notices and puffs for the more importart news- papers and magazines which they have either directly or indirecUy subsidized to their interest. Hirt David 250,000 A worthy Jew, who went from this city to New Or- leans, where he so gained the confidence of his employ- ers, that they entrusted him with the charge of their business, which soon enabled him to engage in busi- ness on his own account. He has now retired, and resides in this city. He is a very benevolent and uii- right man. He has five brothers worth from 60 to §100,000; two of whom are in New Orleans. Hart Eli 200,000 A disiinguished flour merchant, whbse store was 3a-,ked by rioters some eight or ten years lince. He is an indueniial member of the Democratic party, and a very wonhy ciiizeii. Hart widow of Peter G. - - . 150,000 Her husband made his money in the "rocery busi- ne.^, by the assistance of his wife's brother, Thomas H. bmith, deceased. A daughter of widow Hart mar nee Leufenant Gov. Bradish, and another, Peter Bar- ker, son of James Barker, deceased, once a very wealthy Dry Goods merchant of tliis city. Hatch Geo. W. 100,000 Rawdon, Wright & Hatch are the celebrated bank engravers, and anothpr sample of inteUigent, spirited jnedianlcs, nuking for themselves a name and a tor- 14 tunc inconipsrtWy more to be prized th»n the wealth Hewlett Joseph - - • 100,000 which ha> been acquired too often by mere mercantile ^^ bachelor-brother, and i>arlnei ol Oliver T. pambling. There 1? aubMance, and truth, and reality W«omelhing tangible, and definite, and fujceplible of Hewlett Oliver T. - - - - ]0U,OW ocular demonstration and utility in thefruiU of me- c^j^c from Rockaway, L.^il., poor, and in the Dry chamcs labors, but what visible means ol livelihooa, q^^^^ business, with his brother, made his money ind what direct and practical utility do ye see m Remarried a daughter of Stephen Van Wyck. Js a many other professions, to wit : swindling stodi ope- ^ „ijluerriial Whig. rations, but which are vet deemed more repuUble than " ° the walks of mechanic life. The time is gone by, Holbrook Ephraim - - . -. 200,000 however, when dreaming speculators and fa"<:y oj^- Connecticut, and rich by Dry Goods, &c. Be baa rators can any longer sneer superciliously at the . , •'brawny arms" and " russet palms" of the honest reiueu. laborer. Thus much has been done by breaking up Hicks Henry y. •- - - - 2.00,000 , iaUe system of credit, and by <^°^»f,^"^"?^' ''fi^'^if -Robert Hicks, Plymoulh, 1631, became a rich mer les of ra^.-paper and spurious capital. Way Raw- ^''"^^'^A^: and Hatch never lend their bunn and mezzotinto 5fy.'i*^**> land. Long Island and New York. Thev ays "cottoned" to merchandise, and been tinguisted in the commeicial annals of this coun try as shipping merchants at Plymouth, Newport and 150,000 don and Hatch never 1 , ,, ■ , to anv paper that does not command yellow mint drops msto„ier at the counter on the very face of it. ^'~^-;-^' f^" o"oo fears past. Mr. Hatch is half brother of Ex-GovemorThroop, and ^ew i urn, lor -uu years paau to judg., of his early prosperous career, cannot be said jjigj^g ]virs. John G. to have counted his chickens before ^they were h„ husband was a merchant, 200,00& Son of the widow aboTe, and lately deceased. 600,000 A merchant. Hicks Samuel hatched. Mr. Rawdon is a branch of the Irish family of Rawdon, Earl of Moira, who was so distinguished jj^^.^^ j^j^, q (estate) as a British partizan or cavalry officer during the revolutionary war. Havermever Frederick C. - - - 100,000 Hicks John H. Of a German Famly, ani with his brother Wll liam F., a mer. hant in' Front street. 100,000 1.10,000 250000 i k Hawley, large - 150,000 - 300.000 The above are of the firm of Hicke & Co., one of the oldest and wealthiest South street houses in the city ; formerly Samuel Hicks & Son. Estate of Samuel Hicks is represented at §1,000,000. Left two sons and one daughter. Retired from business All the Hicks are ielated;iand are -Quakers from Loiig Island. ,., : Hicks Silas ' . . . Z - - 300,000 Rose to fortune with the late Mayor C. W. Law- rence, in the aurtion business, and retire4 early to the precincts of Flushing, to enjoy bis '-odium cum dignitate." Of the family of Bicks, Plymouth, Miaa. Hoffman L. Mx (A German famJy) - 150,000 His brother is Asft. V. Chancellor. The first Hoff- man here was Anthony, a venerable and highly es- teeme"h merchant, grandfather of L. M. H. Few families, for so few a number of persons as compose Of an ancient New Jersey family, long an Auc- jt, have cut a "larger swath" or bigger figure" in the tioneer, and afterward an importer and Jobber in this way of posts of preferment. Talent and also public rity. Retired from business, and much respected. ' • ■ ' "- '- '— '-^ -'-• Heard Nicholas T. - - - - 100 000 A brother of James. Heam George A. - - - - 150,000 Of the firm of Hearn & Brothers, fashionable Dry Good dealers in Broadway. Heckscher Edward - - - - 200,000 A German, and a large Coal dealer. He married into the Coster famdy. Hi Havemeyer Wm. F. A brother of Frederick C, above. Hawley I rail . . . - Hawley Judson . - . A bachelor, of the firm of Hopkini Grocers. Haxtum A. B. - Occupies the splendid mansion comer of Grove and Bleeiker street, formerly of the Whittemore estate. His fortune has been made in stocks, and by his own energy and perseverance. Is from Catskill, N.Y. Heabben (widow of Jolm) - - 100,000 A young widow and daughter of Leonard Fisher, deceased. Vide, Fisher Leonard. Heard James 250,000 i son is Consul to one of the German States. 'Ed'»^rd is now in the mercan- tile business with his brother-in-law, Gjrard H. Cos- Hedges Catharine One of the Rutgers famUy. Hendricks ■ Hendricks - Hendricks - Hendricks Uriah Hendricks Widow Rich Jews seriices'rendered, martial gallantry, poetry, judicial acumen, oratory, all have had their lustre mingled with this name. Beekman Verplank Hoffman, a post captain ; Judge JosJah O. Hoffman, and his sons, Og- den and Charles, &c., all foremost men in our com- munity. L. M. Hoffman is an Auctioneer. Hoople Win. IL ... - 200,000 One of the most wealthy and enterprising citizens in the leather trade, who but a few years came into this State from Canada, a poor young man, with eearcely a shilling in his pocket, and succeeded in obtaining work as a journeyman currier, at very low wajes. Alter continuing therefor sometime, went to Philadelphia, where, after pursuing his trade for some time w^ith industry, was enabled to accumulate what he considered a small fortune, $ilb, with which he came to this city, in 18a2, and commenced busi- ness on his own account, the success of which i« above attested. 200,000 Herring Wm. C. Of a highly respectable family from Massachusetts. Has tt fine country seat near Jamacia, L. I. Heyer Cornelius (estate of) 150,000 Deceased nearly two years ago 200,000 200,000 200,000 Holbrook Ephraim 300,000 H^,,^j^E,j3d 150,000 An old New Yorker, and a very respectable man. and made all his money as a Grocer. He is no rela- tion of Silas Holmes below. Holmes Silas 150,000 A large Shipping merchant, and President of thi- Screw Dock Co. 300.000 100,000 President of the Hone Phillip New York Bank, and in early life was a partner of John Jacob Astor. He was a man of very high stand ith his brother John, 1.50,000 deceased, were fa- John Jacob Astor. He was a man oi v-ry uigii Biaiiu- nc vnu .>.= ,/.«... .--.-•-, :-'_,_ iBg, and left aU bis j.foi^rty in trust for the benefit of mous Auctioneers in their day. John died i^ lus chUOieii. ' 1 -» ly rich, aud PhiUip has met wi h los.-es. They 15 tons of a respectable biker; of Dutch rte?rent, and re- Hudson Joseph ccived from him a large inheritance. Phillip has bien Mayor of the cliy, and distirjuishcd as n voMician of the whi;: party. He is now President c f the American Mutual lusurancb Co. Hopper John (estate of) 300^00 This gentleman, also an old Kniclccibocker, was a &rmer of wealth and re3pcc;abiliiy. The es'ate lies at Bloomir gdale, in the yiciuity of 50th street, it is a 'arge landed property and much improved. His onlv child, a daughter, married James Stiiker, of Strikei 's Bay, by whpm she had thre<> children, viz : Gen. Garrit H. Sriker, Ann Stiikor (single) and Mrs. J. Mott, i'l. whose possession the properly now is- it i-) one of the ol Jest landed estates in the city, of great extent, and the nomcstend in which Uen. Striker now resides is one of great beauty, aud i' well planted with ornamental and fiuic trets of the rarest kinds. Hopkins Gilbert . - - - 400.000 Of the firm of Hopkins & Hawley, large Groccra He has been Major General of the Artillery, and was for seven or ci^'ht years Alderman of the Tenth Ward. Now President of the Seventh Ward Bank. Hasack (estate of David) - - - 100,000 But (ow names will sliino longer in the annals of medical history brighter than this. His superior practical talent, sagacity, boldness and decision as a bedside practitioner, and the iuvaluible lessons in medicine he has left while common sense prevail. Howard William - - - . 600,000 Treasurer of the New York and Albany Rail Co. Howard Jno. P. ... - 150,000 Well known with his brother, D. D. Howard, as the proprietor of Howard's ^ousa in this city. His lather, John Howard, of Burlington, Vt., was one of the first hotel keepers in the United States. ■ ' ■- 150,000 Respectable English Importer fc nun" veara here, and h»s diubled his firtune by marrying • diughter of the rich Henry Lavertv. He hsB no rea- son- to retiri t having adoptpd for his home the capi- tal which graces the noble river ,that beats his name in honor of its disi overer, and peradventure his ui« ceitor, 'Hcndrick Hudson." Hunter Wm. 200,000 Made his money in Canton, where he haa resided for the h't twenty years, but has returned, and ainco retired frombusiness. HuntJoiiallian 1,000,000 Ha? been ensoged in mercantile business at the south, at Mobile. Bachelor. Hum Thomas 200,000 Hunt Samuel J. ^ - - - - 150,000 Merchant. Rotired. Became rich by the deceaie of his father-in law. .IluiUington Francis J. • - - 100,000 Of the fiVm of Huntington 5c Savjge, book p blish- ers and sellers. Mr. Huntington is onf of the oldest publishers of Hur f >rd, Cf., where he ha- always re- sided X^hcn he. took Mr. Savage for a partner, the firm oprncd in this city a store, which is < ne of our largest houses. Their line is chiefly in tchool books, Hnrd James 200,000 An Englishman, formerly an extensive dry goods house ; has done no business since his failure. - - 100,000 Hyslop Robert • An old New York family. Howard D. D. - Howell Mrs. Wm. Was a daughter of the rich old Blackwell, an old New Yo'k family, and owners of Blark well's Island, at Hell Gate. Her husband, a Howell or Hoel, old X.ong Island Sufl'olk nime, and hu niece and heir Is Julia Dekay, of a very ancient New York family and wife of Major Jack Downing, No. 2, i. e. C. A.. Davis, vide. Her husband was a sea captain, and afterwards a merchant. Been deceasad some 15 years. 150 000 I"g''sJoIm $150,000 ' Resides in Jersey City. Made his money in the ■ 250,000 dry goods trade at the south, together with iortunato investments in real estate. la the father of Judgo Inglis. Ireland Andrew L. - - - Much improved by foreign travel. Ireland George . . . - Ireland Wm. H. Howland Gardiner G. 500,000 taiped some celebrity by building vessels for the Greeks ii their siruggle for indepeii'ence. Large Jhipping merchants. Howland Wm. Howard ... 300,000 A relative of John H. Howland, and in business with him. Howland Samuel S. - - - 250,000 A brother of Gardiner G., and in business with him. Now retired. Howland Wm. Edgar - - - 100,000 One of the firm of Howland & Aspinwall. Howland Jolm H. - - - - 500,000 Resides in Bloomingdale, and with Wm. H. He is doing a larite mercantile and shipping busine-s. Hoyt Edward 100,000 Hoyt, (widow of Gould) - - - 500,000 Made his money as a Grocer in this city, of the firm of Hoyt Si Son, and died last summer. One of his sons married a daughter of ex-President Duer, of Co- lumbia College. Hubbard N. T. - - . - 100,000 Ancient and honored n»me of NewEnglmd. Is ia the pork buliiMSg laigely. 100,000 100,000 100,000 Irving: Mis Jno. T. (husband's estate) 300,000 Judge John T., deceased, and Washington Irvinj so renowned, and William, Ebcnezer, Peter,- ice , ar> the sons of a respectable shoemaker (dnceased) i» William street, in Ihit blessed ciiy of ^ew York. Jackson Hamiltoii . . - . «200,000 Inherits the large estate of Jno. Jackson, one of two brothers (John and SkiducI) who early located at Brooklyn, and became >ich by the rise of real prop- erty. These two bro'heis Jackson were 1 neal de- scendants of Col. Jno. Jackson, High .Sheriff of Queen's Coun'v, Judi^e, A:c., eldest son aud heir of Robert and Agnes lackson, among the fiist English settlers of Hempstead, L. I., about 1654. Jaffrcy Robert 150,000 From Scotland and an impoitei of Dry Goods. James Daniel 400,000 Formerly a clerk with Phslps & Peck, and marry- ing a daughter of Mr. Phelps, became a partner in the firm, which ia now Phcl_ s, Dodge & . o. ; hence his wealtli. James Henry 100,000 Son of the rich William James, of Albshy, (rtrceis- ed) and a gentleman celebr«ted. ite believe, for his extensive scholarship and literary attainmenta. Jancway Estate 400,000 16 Jay Peter A. (estate oO - - The first Jay on the recordi appears to hsve be"n JohnJiy, (pribsbly a Husenot,) a qusknr in the suite of G»o. Fox, in h= journey throu»h America in 1671-2 artd who, me tin< with a dislocation of his necV, was marvellously cured by theaforesaid Georei; •omewhere in New Jersey, and thus, by this miracle lived with his head on to become the head of aa il- lustrious house, 150,000 JayWm. Son of Gov. John Jay. See Jay. JanewayGeo. -500,000 Son of William, (deceased,) and grandson of Georg*'. Janeway Rev. Jacob I. - - - 500,000 Resides at Brunswick, N. J . where he if a profe-sor In the college. His father, Geo. Janeway, who died some fifteen years ago, left an estate of a million lying about Centre, Prari, Chatham streets. He was quar- termaster in the American navy in the revolutionary war, atd afterward- became a brewer, by which busi- ness h« made investments in real estate, and by a rise in value, made the bulk of his fortune. George had three children, Jacob I. William, (deceased in 18U,) and the wife of Gen. Van Zandt, aho deceased. 150,000 700,000 Mason, who left an estate worth nearty * mil- lion. A son of John Mason married a charming? yo'inff actress, Miss Whsai ley, the dau^hter'bf Mrs. Wheatley, of the Park Iheaire, and was cut otf with $1,500 a year. He was lately Presidcntof theChemi- cal Bank. Jpncs Robert 2.50,000 Formerly in the Clothing bnsiness, and wentsouth. He has been Alderman of tlve fifth ward, elected by the Whigs. Jones Walter R. 250,000 Judd Samnel 500,000 From New Ensland, and commenced without capi- tul a dealer in oil, in the upper part bf tbe c ty, and made his way up to be a large Od merchant. Be ^ides now at J Jiidah Amelia 'Judah Rebecca Judab Bell 100,000 100,000 100,000 Janeway Wilham A son of William, (deceased,) and grand-son of George. Jennings Chester Came a poor boy, a stage driver, from New Eng entering the door of the City Hotel with whip in hind, asked for we:k,wai hir-d as a waiter. And by good conduct rose successively to the rank of head waiter, and afierwirds, with hi"? equally enterprising and famous fellow -waiter, WiUird. to copartner in that ancient estaMishment, where his fortune was thus honestly and honorably made. Jewitl Johii Johnson Rev. Evan M. Kane Oliver - - - - - 5200,000 For many years a d'stinguJshed family in New York that has seen botb much prosperity as well as the dark side of life's picture. Cut few retain the wealth they once had ; most, however, are well intermarried wi'h respectable families, beinp themselves a race decidedly of strong prominent trait- of intellect. 150^000 Kearney J. D. Jr. (estate of J. Watts,) 300,000 ~ Toing grandson of Jno. Watts, dffcafed. ami which 15 the source "f his wealth. The Watts family are cotemporary with the most distinguislic-d names of our English gentry, John Watts nein.; grandson of Robert and Mary Watts_and tliis Mary the daughter of the Provincial Assembly, Wm. Nicoll, the paten- tee of the Islip Manor, L, I. John Watt's sister wa.i mother of t'le present Mri Kennedy, Earl of Cas 250,000 KeeseJohnD. 200,000 150,000 Of the old estabKshed firm of Lawrence" & Keese, ihnson nev. iivan M. - - ' idu,t;tju .55,110 have during the last 50 years sold drugs enough Rgside? in Brooklyn, and is owner and Rector of to supply halt the human race. Mr. K. is a son of St John's Church; he his P>r fifteen yeirs preached Major Keese, deceased, of the continental line of and discharged various dutie^ of the parish, without the 1 evolution, afterwards a distinguished lawyer in any emoluments— has joined more persons 1 lock than any other clergyman in the vicinity. The Hector and St. John's Church will w<^ll repay a •tranger unacquiinte J with strict ceremonial forms of the EpiscopU Church by a visit upoa e»ery Sua- iay morning comer of Washington and Johnson sts. Johnston John 500,000 One of the lat' Arm of Boorraan, Johnston & Co., an English firm in the iron business, Jolinson William Samuel - - • 200,000 A highly respectable lawypr, prominent whiit poli tlcian. and late AldertHAn, an'J grandson of the for. mer President Johnson, of Columbia College, a Con- necticut family, and Wm. S. gets the mass of his fortuno by m%rr'a»e with the daush'er of <• Cardinal Woolsey," as thiseminent mc-chan' u?ed faceliou-ly to be called " on change." The " Cardinal was an eatensive operator, in Cormecticut banki, and be- came very rich. Jones Edward R. .... 300,000 Formerly a Cooper, and later In life a merchant, and son of Joshua, a Cooper, who was in businefis with James Lennox, brother of Robert, immediately afler the revolution. Jones James J. .... 300,000 Jones James L. 300,000 this city. Kellogg Edward - . - - $100,000 Bom in Litchfield Co., Ct, and began life a foot- pedlar, carrying trunks filled with tin-pepper boxes and other Yankee notions. Being man a of eenius, it was not long' before he became a riry-good jobber in Pearl street, making $20,000 per annum nett profit- In 1837, at a.time when by a legitimate business be had become worth half a million or more, he failed in consequence of heavy losses ($-200,000 almost in a lump) by his southern customers, and by an unfortu- nate speculation in Elizabethport lots. He has, however, pai4 all his creditors, leaving a snug for- tune for himself. He is the projector and mover »f the Elizabethport speculation, owning a large part •f the village. Thee wete first laid out and bought by a company of stockholders who intended to build up a manufacturing village to rival Newark- Most of the stockholders failing to pay their instalments, Kellogg to.ik their shares and became the chief share- holder. These lots cost him from S30d to $400 ar. acre. In addition to his estate in Elizabethport, Mr. Kellogg is an owner in the two steamboats plyinc wns'liThu-sYn^ betweefi that place and this city, and has real estate here and in Brooklyn >.here he resides. He is now again engaged in ihe dry good jobbing bu>ine~s in Pearl st Mr. KeHos? is no ordinary man, having in addition to his attention to a large bu-iness, acquired an education superior t'l many, who in early life have received what istaliely styled "a liberal education." Jones John Q. 250,000 Kelly Eli - ' - - ■ 100,000 Has succeeded his father as President of the Chemi- Kelly William - - - - 1-50,000 c^^*'^- Kelly Robert 1-50,000 Jones Issac 250,000 Kennedy David S: - - - - 200,000 President of the Chemical Man. Co. His father j^ highly respectable Scotch merchant, who ob- knd unrle, Edward R. (above.) were Coopers, and (^jned some addition to his fortune through his wife, fionsof Joshua, a Copper. The father of Naac was thedauihter of Robirt Lenox. later in life in the Dry Good busine-« with John Mason, (now deceased,) who was early in life a tailor. iohn Q., ^nd brother,' married daughters of John thedau KentJaines - - - - ' - 100,0u0 One of the moat marked men of the times, the pro- 17 found 'Urisf, and long the celebrated Chancellor of ihls Stiite, and. whose opinions and commiiitario^, nay, meH' word^, are like pure gold, and law for all those who wish to know what Uw is. What a grati- fying picture of a well spent life is (hat of this uni- versally beloved man in a green old age, enj-'yinj the respect of friends, the delights of domestic socie- ty, and all the glorious vigor and sparkling bright- ness of that manuood which once adorned and could still adorn If not purify that bench, which would more deplore hi< loss but for the e evation to a most important judicial sta'ion of that a leson fotwiiose shoulders it would seejn the f itDer desiijnea his Bitot 1ps3 mande. KermitKobert 200,000 Of a ■very old and most respectable New York famUy. Kernoclian Joseph . - - - 430,000 Of a poir Irish family, who were employed as Col- liers teamsters &r., at some of 'he lari;e iron works in the Highland Mountains, on the west side of the Hudson. Wade his money in the southein trade as partner in the house of Parish & Co. Kerrigan James - - - ] 50,000 Ketchum Morris .... 300,000 A brother of Hiram, the lawyer, and now resides in Westport, Ct., cultivating one of the best farms in that State. He has been, and was an owner of the Iron Works, at Elizabethport, N. Y. Keltlelas Eugene .... 300,000 A descendant of the Rev. Abraham Keltlelas, whose father came from Holland in 1723, and was a mer- chant in this city. Rev. Mr. Kettletas, was distin- fcnished as a clergyman, on Lang Island, during the revolutionary war, and was a member of iheConven- tion which formed the state constitution in 1777. Eugene was edueated a Lawyer, and married the sis- ter of Mrs. Thos. McCarty, daugliter of John Gardi- ner, deceased, whence he receives a good portion 9f his etate. Hackelt, the comedian, is a son of Ann, daughter of the Rev. Abraham Kettletas. King James Gore . . . . 200,000 James G. of the Prm of Prime, Ward & King, and Charles editor of the N, Y. Ameiican are sons of tke distinguished Rufus King who was born in Maine in 1776 graduated in Havard coUeg?, served in theRcv- olutionary army, was a delegate to the old congress from Massachusetts and a senator from N, Y. the first session under the Constitution of the U. S. and afterwards for a long time minister to Great Britain, and again a senator in Congress. James for a long time exercised great influence in the money mar- ket. He resided many years in Liverpool, England, under the firm of King & Grain. Now resides at a beautiful country seat at Weehawken, overlooking the Hudson. KmgslandD. 100,060 Attorney at law — inherited his fortune fronj hl4 father, D. ICingslaud, deceased, a well known ship carpenter. Kingsland Daniel C. - - - - 200,000 KingslandR- ... - - 200,000 One of the oldest and richest firms in the hardware line, and a man of great re*pectal)ility and high standing in this community, a modest genUeman that has calmly pursued "the even tenor of his way" without show or parade, and thus PilenUy pas ed down the stream of time, every where beloved and honored. Such families how unlike are they to the fluttering, buzzing things of fashion, whose gdded winjs collapse with the first shower that dims their Bunshine, and " then are heard no more." Kissiim Richard (Estate of) - - -200,000 An estate honestly, nobly acquired in the wufgical profession of which he stood undoubtedly at the head in his day, But few keener men in wit or ■with the knife could he found any where. His forte was Utbo- tomy, in which his cures were truly wonderful. In after life he married and soon after died, leaving' • large family of small children, to whom we believe his ptbfettj was by wiH bequeathed. Kiiapp Shepard 300,000 From New Enijland and felf maiie. He was for nieily in ti.e le.ither business with Jocob Lorrillard Kneeland Charles Fiom down East and self made Knox A. - - - - LafTiin E. - 100,000 51200,000 LafarKeJohn 500,000 Said to lie the monoy agent in this crmntry of Loui> Philippe. A Frenchman, and formerly agent lor Josepli Buoneparte during his rcsidenceinthiscountry. Bud neparte had lands in Pennsylvania which he offered at $1 an acre. Laforgc told him if he would survey and divide it, he could get for some lots $-20 an sere and for the others prices rangin:; from thissumto $1. Buoncpaite said, "You may buy i\ nt $1 an acre and dispose of it as yuu pleabc." "I have no money,' replied Laforge. " 1 will lend it to you," said Buo- naparte. Laforge bought the land and laid the foun dation of his fortune. , He afterwards invested iir 'real estate in this city and by the rise in value ha> greatly increased his wealth. He is now eretling tlic large building at the corner of Reade and Broadway, and is elsewhere-building to a great extent. LaingHugh 100,000 Has been a Coal dealer. Is now retired, giving his business to hj^s son, of the firm of Laing & Randolph. llie largest importers, and the largest dealers in the city ; Mr. Randolph, senior, having retired likewise in favor of his son. ^* Langtion Hor.ry .... 300,000 A son-in-law of John Jacob Astor. Originally a poor boy from Massachusetts. Is now aristocratic ; resides in Europe. Lasala Jolin B. .... 100,000 Loubat Alphonse .... 200,00(f A French importer. Operated in matiimony very advantageously. 2>(ow retired. Laurie George . - . •- 100,000 Gporge and John L. for 30 years merchants, and ^8chelo^s, (originally fron" ^'coIUnd) and of the very first cbarjc-ter and prime brand as to ie*pect»bility. The universal consideration they enjoy in this com- munity must be a c 'mfort to them when tbey look back upon the bright and nonorable career thry have passed through, though neither, we hope, is yet too advanced into the je/toio (en/ to forswear and become a Benedict, which they both know they could easily do, andbaveonly tofaytheword in these 'aid tiines, and Hjmen i-t«iids ready to light bis altar t^rch, and cupId to let fly from nis quiver one of his most barbed arrows, that not even the tough textuic of a bachelor's heart eould resist. Laverty Henry - - - 1.50,000 A very polished man. Has been a Dry Good jobber in Pearl .-.tree , in wnich husinetshe has made his lor- tune, and from which he has now retiretl. His parlor is hung with very excellent paintings, the produ<.ti»n of his accompli-hed daughter's pencil. Lawrence Alexander M. - - - 100,00fi Of the old New York family of Lawrence, Made his money in the shipping ana importing business — now retired. Lawrence Abraham - - - 300 00(i Inherited his fortune, and with Cornelius W. and most of the others of tlie name of Lawrence in thi.- city, from three brothers from England, John, Wll- liaia and Thomas. Ltwrence Coraelius W. - - 250,000 Of a highly respectable Quaker family in Long In- land. He, with his brothers, Joseph and Richard M .. made their fortunes in the old distinguisbed Auc tioi)eer firm of Hicks, Liwrence ft Co. Thi» firm 18 ^^^^Sr^rr^L'^^^T'^Z:^ LeggeUThoma, .... 800,009 wife, daughter of Jacob Drake, has a snug fortune of Leggett Thomas Jr. - - 150,000 «60,000. C, W. first married a rich sister of David Son of Thomas, above, and a Dry Good Jobber in M. Prall, second, a daughter of his partner, Mr. Pearl street, and married a Miss Burns, of New Ko- Hick-, who is now poor, living with h.s son-.n-law, clieUe. Her father was of tlie firm of Burns Trimble Dr. Cjeesman C W. has been Mayor of the h lamily. . ■ . LeaviitRufus 200 000 Little Jacob ----- 5OOOOO „7i''y°rfi''''r .'■'"■«" °*"*''^ ^^°'"'' *"'' °'" '^"^ ^™ With his brother,, constituting the firm of Jacob of J. W. k R. Leavitt. . j^-^i^ & eo., and one of the riclfest Brokers in Wall Leupp Charles M. . . . . 100,000 *''''^'^'' Great dealers in fancy stocks also. A Leather dealer in the swamp. Little Edward B. - - - - 500,000 Lee Benjamin F. . - - - 100 000 ■ The brother of Jacob. A widower. Of the firm of Lee & Brewster, in the domestic Livingston Maturine ' ' - - . 100,000 Commission business. Though of the family of Livingston, which for a Lee David - - - - • .. 500 000 family so prolific and numerous a» theirs is ha^ been Lately retired from the Wholesale Grocery busi- °'\f."X'^« ™°^' wenlthy in the State, but little in he nes=, of the firm of Lee, Dater & Miller, one of the ^H^'*'";'^ of multiplying generations (ell to the largest firms in the city. A very close, but upright J''""; "^ Maturine, wno marrying his cr us.n, daugh- mjpn ■' J V. , uui iiioJii ter ot General Morgan Lewis, ab-^ve, has however , ' ^ _ „„ • acquired large opulence in perspective. The Living- Leflerts Leflert - , -. - • • 300,000 stons began in thi< State ab jut ISO years since in President of the Long Island Bank, and formerly *-^^ person of a Scotch clergyman, who on a famous County Judge. Resides at Bedfoid in a splendid old white horse marie his itinerations through the mansion, is connected by mariiage to the Benson '^alley ot the Mohawk tell with effect. From him family, and has an only daughter just looking into sprang an intelligent, enterprising race, who in (he wominhood; the judge is a prominent supporter of next generation secured larne lan-'ed estates, since the Dutch Church, and devotes much of liis time to mano"'! by their extent on both sides the Hudson its interests. River. Martin Van Buren commenced his career as a village lawyer at Kinderhook by undertaking Leggett Samuel .... 500000 to invalidate the Livinaston titles, but their numbers With his brother Thomas, made a great part of f'"^ wealih were too much for him. Their name, their money as Jobbers and large ASctioneers in 'r"^. 3 ThrnThT'f i- »".'' ""^F; '^e Rens- Pearl street. They have retired from business, and ''i*!" '"l^^L^"!''? h r„^"^i^ "°''.'«^'. "?«? are of an old Quaker family. Their father, Thomas, ""'', """""S *'^<= ™"^' disUnguished famihes in the at his death, si.x months since, at his residence in East '^'ate. Chester, left half a million. Loder Benjamin .... 150000 Leggett Thomas .... 100,000 Loopais Luther .... 200,000 Thehrothermentioneu «boV(, Of « Cunnecticut family and partner of Gen. 19 ir^iTli^?"* "/.I" «^^ raanufaclure Of Screws, Nails, tance from his father, Thomas, he retired. The wand- «c.,,n N J., of the film of Loomis & Lyman. father was a bdker, and father was a mai^hsl under Lord Danie! - . • I'innnn 'he^Bf^i* fu'e, and a tory. ^1 lar-ie present of wine '" ^ 150,000 was sent to Gen. Wa>hin;;tor, which was c-nflscated, The Erst mercantile lawyer in the city. His busl- and came into the hard< of Thomas W. The firft of ness is very lucrative. His father is a physician this wine was sold in 1838, and is now very valuable, LordRufusL. r^m '^rLTntrt^^w: '^''' '''^'^"''' ^ ^ '''''''''''''''''' Jrom Boston, and owns property in the burnt dis- Lv,„an Gen. Samuel P. - -■- 200 000 1 „ ■„ J , , ^„„ „ A poor boy from Vermont, .studied law at Utica, IjOriUard Jacob .... ,500,000 and has been a distinguished practitioner in Uiat city. A son of Jac«l', decea=edi He has been a principal moverin the enterprise ol the , .,, , Erie Railroad. He has invested a poition of his funds Lonllard, (widow of Jacob,) - - 1,500;000 '» the land of theSouthern Counlies of thi» Sute. Thre-i brothers. Jacob, Peler and Ge^ree, w^re of "« ''"^ soi^f feputalion as a writer, and knows an ancient Hugenot family, and all fmu, notMng lUri^tlt^H" ^^^^T ""y^'^' ■•>"»"•., "7'-;'"^^ at became rich-th.".tw,.latit.r in ,he tobacco bi.sire.% t ' .7, ; '??."°'^' *'!'^ '1 '" '^o^iany "''h "'f Mf^f*. They are now all desd, Jicob and Hetcr leaving J^"0""». «/ Conncc icul, and i- exl.nsivplyen; ai.pd in widows andchiMren; PM.r «a- a h«c elor; Ja.ob- ""-/"amifacturo ol Screws and Nails, at Somen i!Ie. wa« at one time in partnership w th Gidfon Ue and jv:' , „ '^"".'^ '^ d.iuphter of Anson Thom.is of Shepherd Knapp. He le-t all hi. mrn^v (o his U'"-»' ^^y "l^oni he received a portion of liw wealth, widow. One daushter of Prier roairied T. K»-y- i.<,l-lK,bnrk-rllfr dereasfd; another. JcbD.W be, M of the arm of Wolfe &Bi-boii; and another. Lieul. ,,„•■, S-pcncer. of the Navy, aU ihrre ricli. Widow of MclJrair James 100,000 reTdeIl1u!h«.^'°°'^'"^'^*'^''"\''"'°''-''''°'' M<^Bride James .~. - - 700,000 T •„ , T, . T . ''" '^'^^ Gentleman, who, by a steady, ui)ri^ht, LoriUard Peter Jun. .... 1,000,000 straight -forwari c ursfe of trade in the ' r> Go ds »on of Peter, and now in the Tobacco business, ''"^' consclidiiin;; by his unblemished and pure life He received some 8200,000 from his uncle George. '■^ "i^ °^ ''*'■' friends around him. Loubat Alphonse .... 200,000 McCall James 200,000 I^ovett James ----- 200000 Made his money in the Dry Good business, in which A retired sea captain, and afterwards a shipping t'U.m^'jss he has acquired his fortune. An Irish gen- merchant, originally from Rhode Island, and of tlie ,- „ -- , ., ,_, „, „„„„„„ real grit that comes of late as of yore, from that little McCarty, Mrs. (widow of Thomas S ) 300,000 chivalrous spot that gave birth to a Perry and a A daughter of John Gardiner, deceased, and -istcr t^i^ene. of the wife of Eugene Kettletas. She received this Lovett George - - - - 5OO 000 ^"^ /"°> l^^' "^'her-s esUte. Made his fortune in the Lumber business. BeU- McCruskry Robert .... 200.000 red-Some twelve years since. ■*. bachelor. Low Nicholas ....... 150,000- ^^'''^fea Robert - .' . . 100,000 His father was proprietor of the Sans Souci, at Bal- Fortune froni his father, (decetsed,) who in his etoa. Spa., and was esteemed. He was worth a mil- ^^y ^^^ largely engaged in the Dry Gond business, Hon in his day. One ot his daughters married Charles and disilrgmshed for lUSt principles in his dealings King, editor of the American, for a second wife, but — *" ^°"°'' '° ^* native land, Scotia. -she received litUe. The estate was much embar- McElratli Tlwmas .... 100,000 rassed, and is now in possesion of Nicholas, the son, one of the proprietors of the Tribune. He was who won the wager tor travelling 1,000 mUes m 1,000 educated a Lawye-, and was at one time engaged in •successive hours. the book busines--. He h-s been a member of (he Low Cornelius. 150,000 '*j^';"t'^- The father of Mr. McEliatl\ is a man of Low Albert 200,000 McFarland (Estate of) Henry '- - 150,000 Low Uauiet - • - - - , 300,000 A poor boy, whey rose lirtt to a clerk, then to be Another enterprising, driving smooth-faced, pleas- Pariner in theold houseof blackwell.iron m.nhanU ant son ofNew England, who re..ided a long time, as McKie Thomas 100.000 .1 merchant, in Pans, ana surmounting eveiy blasting sirocco in trade, came out rich, and spi'ead largely McLean Hugli M. D. - - - 150,000 into real estate. , ^ ^^^j^^ PbvMciin, who inherited a gerd , ..r'ion L >wth°r William - - - - 100,000 "f his money from some le.ative. Scotch birth or An Englishman, commenced poor, and acquired his ' ^''^®" property at a time when coal was at a high price, and M'Coun Wn^ T .... 100,000 o monopoly of the business existed. Is noW in bu:>i- vice Chancellor and from the rank nf « vr,i,n. ne^swi-hnis son, and is a large importer ofCoal. attlrrev^ro'came tvl'r!ountrJT„'^P?^^^ Ludlow Estate ... .... 300,000 «!>' fy his fortune hrre. has ris n. step t.y m. p, by ' his own men s, in the iood opinion of the ] rofes- Lufl John Estate of .... 200,000 s'on »nd community till honored with ont of the A most capital man w.is this respectable German, ^'"^^'^' *"""'« °'' "^^ ^""^• .ind in the excellent qualitv of his breid and mufflo. MacyJosiah - - ... . 150000 Jonas Humbert himself, aided by his electrical ma- p' ,,,„ n.„^ n-j .«„■„- ' chine, WBS no cUcumstance to him. Old Mr Luff "°'^ "'^ '^'P* ^'^'^ r-gion. liad a pleasant word for every one as he rattled Ma^oe James - ,- - - - '>fW1 nrwi around from door to door in Uia long ligbt baker's l'^ . , ... ,., --^,uw cut, whi'ch it seems to us is now become of the Besides m Ireland, his native ( ountry. things that once were, and are found no more among Maitland R, L. 1.50,000 our modern landaus and Berlins. With a becoming e„ , k „„a „„=„* ki. ...ut, .. „• iv 1 v pride his dhUdren revert back with pleasure to thf ^f'^?^' ?,'' 'T» /. ^' "*'**' '^ t ^^">''-' *"= Lnest means bv which their revereVpa"nt ^ '"'"'• ''»"Shter of Kobt Lennox. >ee Lennor alKiye. by bis own hands, so large an-«atate. Manice D. F. 200,000 T.iidlow Thofi. W . -jnAnnn Former'y a merc'iant, who fail ;d dur.'n.' ' thi h >rd L,udlow Ihos. W. . . . - ,300,000 limes," bm now retired to Loi,; Wa. d immniely By professioa a lawyer, but receivijig* luge inherit rich. 20 March Charles . • ■ . - 150,000 Miller Mrs Geo. B. - - - - 300 000 n,r„.„u r-i-o.loo . . - - IM-OOO Her hushand was a celfbratcb Tobacconist, and Marsh Charles wu,uuu ^.^ .^ ^^^^ This celebrated establishment >v8s Marsh Stewart C .... 100,000 founded by Mrs. Russel, in Water Street, the siieol , v,.V^ -inn 000 the present establishment. Her son-in-law, Mr Ma- Marshall Bcnjainin ... - aou,UUU jgr succeeded, and at hts death wts succeeded by his Oneof the earliest who boWly enterprised Ameri- widow, who took into partnership her son-in-law, .an manulac'urin" establishments, and by them has some ten years since, and they now constitute the managed, strange to say, to obtain large profits and tirm of Mrs. G. B. Miller A: to. They have,aPo a ■aealth. lai'se establishment in Uroadway. Marshall Charles H. 120,000 jjii|«r Horatio lOO.COO ARent o) the 1' ck Ball Line of Packets, ind for- .pi,e brother of Wm. S., merchant, in Broadway. rte""^'^- ''""''''"' "*' '""''"'"'' Miller Joha A. 200,000 Marshall Joseph . - - - TiOOjOOO Mnd-e hi3 money dealing in mahogany, and im Martin '200,000 porting curled hair for Cabinet makers. Mason John (Estate of) - - - 1,000,000 Miller J. G. 200,000 Mason Sydney .... 200,000 Miller James 100,000 Of the firm '■f ivfa'in 4: Thompsoo, extensively with his brother, a Wool dealer in Jacob street. .nsaged in the South America trade. ■ „^^ ^,^.,^^, .... ioO,nOO Mai.ran O.-oon.latcs - - - - oOO^OOO ^^^^^ ^^.^ ^^ _^ ^^ ^ ^.^^.^^^^ .^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ .^ Formerly engaged in the Souih»rn trade, and made .,„cceeded in the business by his nephew George, money also by the steam-ferry at Havanna. .Maxwell Hugh 100,000 Miller William P. - - - - 300 000 One of the ablest laxvyer^ and first of orators at the From Connecticut, and formerly in the Leather bar ; his father wa* a res].ebire, Eneland, than as an individual, that the sub- ,,. , „, , . onn Ofirt ject of this notice may be set down, as a man of Mmturn Charles ... - -i""'""" wealth. Mr. Mayer is a hish-minded, honorable With his brother Edward, of the firm of vVondhuU man, and blessed with no ordinary share of prudence. & Min'urns, merchants, shippers, and owners of a As a man of business, he is prompt, and systematic, l,ne of Livipool jackfts. See WoodhuU. They are confining himself exclusively to his own affairs, sons of Na'haniel Minturn, of the old tirm of Cham- Mi'. M. inherited a good fortune from his father, who, pla'n, Mintuin & Co., large T^-a iperchanls. Mr. trom being a journeyman Tanner and Currier, at Minturn, when in business, anl betore his failure, Newcastle, nnfler Lyne, Eng., by years of prudence, was reputed worth several millions- economy and industry, rose to great wealth, and was ^-.a f,„f, respectfully chosen to'fiU the highest civic offices in Minturn t.d\vard .... ..uu,uuu hia native town. Few men more richly merited sue- The bnther of Charles, above, cess, and none were more happy in all the relations _ onn ruin ofsocial life, than Mr M., senior. Minturn Robeil B. . . - • .iUU,U«U Meeks Joseph Sr. ... - 300,000 of the firm of Grinneli', Minturn & Co., alargeand eld shipping and commi-. ion huuae. Joseph Weeks Sr., a wealthy and respeeUble in- o«;n nnn habitant oftbefifch ward, a large land holder »»=;„,. i> A <5,. . 100 noo Of Irish descent, and made his money as a mer- Mesier P. A. br. - - 1U0,U(W ^^^^^ .^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ,i„g_ ^j j^e south, and in this Mesicr P. A. Jr. - - - - 300,000 ^ity. He is still purchasing goods for bis diflerent .Meyer George 200,000 stores at the south. Mildebergcr Chrisloplier - - - 300,000 Monroe Mrs. James (Douglass Estate) 300,000 Madehismoney years ago in the Leather buaineas Wife of Capt or CoL James Monroe, formerly of in the .Swamp. the army, and nephew of the late James Monroe, Mildebcrffer John . - . . 150,000 Presid. nt of the United States, whose ancestor, he Miller Charles C. - - - - 100.000 boasted in telling, was a tanner. ThebrotherofJame., in the Wool business. Moore CIeme;it C. . - - - ..50,000 Miller Daniel S. .... 200,000 of the highly respectable family of the late Bishop 21 c»Med of the Epi'coral Church, »nd nephew of (he Kj'jch beloved and diatinguisbed phrncutn. Dr. Wm. Moore, deceased. Moore Baltus 350,000 Moorawood Edmund ... - 100,000 Morgan Mathew (late N. Orleans - 400,000 Part Proprietor of the new hotel up Broadway. Rich and of no callinr, m we know, but has bern a political rann, and In hi^'h trusts and In the midst iif party strife— "Iways courteous and amiable. A worthy man. Welsh descent. Murrcll Thomas 100,000 Married a sister • ew Toi k Observer, by which paper he has made his fortune He has lately published a (ieographv, which will havea large, sale for years, »ni on which he will doubtless realize t tar^erum. Mott Samuel F. - - - - ,40(JO0O 0f a WcstchesteJ- Quaker family, and In the Motion and domestic Commission business, together wHh hi* brother, Willia/n F., made his money. Samuel is now President of the Manhattan Fire Insurance Co. He married one of the daughters of Thomas Leggett, deceased. His two daughters are married ician. ard m»iried thed«ughter of San uel Way, at North H jirac'icc. In 1818 he perioimed the operstion of lying the arteiior in- ni niinati '"ithin two inches of the heart 1 his was an original operation — an exploit sufficient to make his name immortal, .'ir A-tley Cooper has seid of him, tliat he has lerfomed more great 0| erations tiian any other man tha» f vtr lived. He was inttate. His lovely daughter was deemed, beyond all question, the reigning belle at Sarttoga. by a French wife. Mademoiselle Metz-now MJd. Moulton - was m early life doffned almost a musical prrdigy by her voice and iwrformaiites on the i)iiino, 400,000 and br uubt money to her parents by sineing st pub- !i.; concerts. Moulton Is of a high New I'njland family, and has residtd some yc ars since in Pans. Munn Stephen B. - 800 000 Mortimer John Jr. A cloth importer, from Yorkshire. Married a daughter o the late T. C. Morton, a wealthy mer- chant; for many years the " Stewart" among tne ladies. MossJolin" 200,000 100,000 Said to havj begun life as a Shoemaker, in Gran- ville, Mass. Made liis money in the first place by sell- in" buttons, buying soldiers certifirates of the poor soldiers. Afterwards a Pearl street Jobber In the Dry Goods line. A close, but upright man. JIottMisBeB 150 000 Two ladies, lifters of the distinguiseed Surgeon, and daughters of Dr. H. Mott, who left all Us money to the e two daughters. Muneon M. 100,000 Mtnray John B. (estate of) - 2.50,000 An En<^li5h pent'eman of wealth, who came to ihi« country during the f< evolutionary war, and was lor many years a conBpicuoBi merchant, ar.-t in Al^xan- dna, D. C, and af terwatds in this city, Ue residcii 22 •t hM country teit sfGcestiralc, now ne»r asth street, on 8fb Avpnue. D^frl in 1S28 hiehlvr es'eempd as a correct and intelligent merchint, snd honest man. Murray .lames B. .... 100,000 Son of John ri. M Colonel Murray command- ed m the late war, havinfr charge of sevevil imports nt ■poata, and was aid da camp to Gov. Clinton. This Fafoily are in no wise related to the Quakers of the same name, ind.«re directly descended from the House of Athol, one of the most ancient peeraijes in '>cotlind. .las. B. M. was a distinijuished merchant (.lohn B. Miirrity & Son ) In this eity until 1826, when ^■i retired, and^his since invented hr^ely in real •state. His hou.se is now conducted bv his son, 'ohn B. Minray, Col. ivi married a dauj^hter of the Bte Isaac Bronson, by whom he received a large property. (Vide Bronson.) Murray John K - - - - 1.50,000 The Murrays weje about half a century since »mong the moH wealthy anl influential, and hail from noble Scotch exlrictiinrtbiugh the most emi- nent here have been of the Society of Friends. One of these la'ter on the hijh, neat, set up his carri< and Peck, whose store fell in 1632, bf which eight persons were killfd. Mr. Ph'lp» iss taken into the fiim, Messrs. James, Dcdge and stokes, sons in-law, and the two former once hi? deiks; Mr. Pfck having now reliied, these thte*. together wi'h his own M)n, is now a Jociatcd with him under the firm of Phelps, Dodge i Co. In 184J, Fitch Smith commenced layini; put a vdlage forlacio- rie--. inhis native town, Dei by, tt. 1 be village ba< (rrown to a liiile city, and i=. called Birninigtiani. Phelps, Dodge & Co., hete erected the most exienMve copper works in the U.S.. and they conuact with tbe government to 6up])Iy jt with ne>rly or quite all the copper used tor the national vcfsels 1b addition lo this, Mr, Phdps has individually bough' of Mr. Smi'h a large s.'are of the water privileges of this place, wmch are very valuable. Mr. Phelps ir a large owner of tue iron mines of Pennsylvania, atd owns also a part of tho Missouri mountain, a valoa ble mountain of Iron • re. tte owns altoj^ether, perliap- half a million of acres ■Jheflrmot which he is a piitnc, is doing the most extensive busiTiesi- lo th«t line of any h >u.«e m Ameiica. In J8J7 tl,i< house suspended jiayment tor a thort period, it a time when they were worth a million and a half. Mr. Phelps is now President of tlie Colonization Society, and rince his providential escape when his store fell, has been distinguished lor his deeds of chaiity. Phelps Anson G. Jun. 400,00tJ A son of Anson G. PhelpF, Senior, and a partner ii 100,000 the firm of Phelps, Dodge it Co. 24 PhelprjohnJ. - - - - 200,000 Phelps^haddeus - - - - 100,000 The Phdpses come from Connecticut, »nd are highly respectable. Philipon Francis (Estate, of) - ' - 200,000 Phoenix John i^O'OOO PhcnixJ.P. 150^0'^ PnrmerlT a grocer, the 'tandin- whi? candidate for Mryor ; he i. a .ou.u-la* of Stephen Whitney. Pi,yfcDaacan 3^0,000 Commenced in Fulton street, wh^rc he noic i-, a ,,,or cabmctmaker. and h=.s now ihe lar,e.t a>,d mo°t fashionable estibhihoicat in the count. y. P.erson Henry L. - - - - 100.000 Iron merchant, and son of Jcrsmiah, who wifi I^aac P., e..labli*hed in the very infancy of our man- ufacluri, a nail, and afterwarus in add.t.on a cotton lactorv, on the Ramapo livcr, and there acquired irfat wealth. Isaac, until of la.e years, resided m ttic city, and held plape^ of public trust, which he riiipH with Treat credit as a prominent leader in the . "m ^u-ird- of he democracy of the Jcrferson rt-Hool° Thcpro-enitorot the Picrsons wa* a der- .^^inamlV-torol ,ne Kn.Iish Colony that found- ^ Southampton, -ulT.Ik County, two centuries ago. fiaiof.v.P. - • - - - i^O'Ooo P.rnieJoha ^50,000 PonvcrtElias 20">""0 PoirierP. ^O^'OO" Porter Charles ----- 100,000 Porter D.C. - - " " lOO'^O^ Post Allison 500,000 chanK.amono^^ineca^^y ^^.^^ ^^^^ Mier located it ■ Hempstead Queens co J.'el and J .tham Post ,*^MhTecasPd). brothers of AllHon, were, to-e-her ^withtMe \ tc distinguish -1 Dr. WiiKht Post, (another r ihlM -on- of a highly ic.-|.cctsblp butcher, w • V; ' - early lesson- in the slian.bles cave him, iro- hablv his strong ta-te for and afterwards, eminence fn anatomy. Jo' 1 and Jotham, about 30 years Mnce, canied on a great stmke .n the drug line ; then ^m"ihed?buta few years attrr built am,?n,flcent tmasDcu, u launched larqei- thin ever rr th"e' ve'nd'n"^ of a po.J.ecary Ray Robert - - - - • - . 200,000 Son of Cornelius R., an ancient merchant and old Dutch New York family. Robert added some to his wealth by marrjing a daughter of N. Prime, the broker. Jno. A. King, per contra, got a very large slice of the Ray projietty by mairying a dau-hter of Cors. Ray. Reade Robert L. - - - 100,000 Read Co Una - - - - - 350,C00 An Irishman, who came to this country a poor boy. He became engag'd in the retail mercantile busine^* in Georgia, and made great profits in selling liquor and tiinkeu to the Indians. After having accumu- lated a considerable property he retired years ago and invested his funds in real estate in this city, the rise ii the value of wliich has greatly augmented his wealth. Reed Luman (Estatc'of) - - - 500,000 He bc-'an life as a Gi ocer, in which business he ac- cumulated a large lortuiie. He was a lover of the fine arts, and gave great encouragement to Mountand other American artists. He coUeeted a large picture gallery, mostly works of American artists, wliich has lately been purchased as the foundation of the Na- tional Gallery lately established in this city. Rcmscn Henry- . - - - 500,000 The Remsens are one of our Tery oldest Dutch Knickerbocker familiis. Remsen ) Three children - - - 300,000 Remseni of - - - 300,000 Remsen) H. Remsen - - - 300,000 150,000 100,000 100,000 400,000 A dau'zhter of Peter Lorillard, (deceased.) Het husband, who died svme three or lour years since, was a merchant. Rhinclandcr Bernard (Estate of) 200,000 The Rhinclanders, for fifty years p»?t, among the i of ) H. Remsen Remsen Henry - Remsen Henry B. Remsen William Rejiiolds Mrs. T. 25 richest of the rich in tbi« city, were but humljjc Romaine Samuel B. - - - - - 100,000 Uilors and shoemakcrsintherevolution. The tones ^-^ j.^j^ Benjamin, acquired his fortune by who f aid in the cily feathered their neits undfr the speculating iA water lot*, then the old " Collect," in protection ol the BritiA fla-. Many of them eijgagcd ^fpntrc and Canjl strcrts. He was true blueTamma- in taking .-shares in privateering on the rebel mer- bucktail, and the man who got up Ibe ch..rne- Chant ?hip.^and thus were huge fortunes made by house at the v> allabout, of the 11,500 dead of the the native born encmiM of our indrpendence out ol j„^ prison-ship, the hard eaniinss of suflcring families ol patriotic ■' ' ^ Whigs thus reduced to ruin. Roosevelt C. V. S. - - - - 500,000 Ridgway John ... 150,000 Roosevelt Jas. I. .... ;JOO,000 A ■ HU father was a physician who acquired a fortune ^on^/^nd with his brother, are sons of a re- in, the West Indies. Daniel is a lawyer. ifcctable sea-captain, dec'd, of old Dutch Knicker- Rnhln^i Tohn f!00 000 bocker extraction. Nicholas and Francis are iron Kobinsjohn - ^ - dUU,UUU ^^^^^^^^^^^ Nicholas has survived several pencra- R^K;ns:r,n n-,i-i',l P .... 1 ''if) 000 tions of the old boys of the oMeu timc, and IS Still a? Robinson DavuIF. .... l.jO,OUO bright as a mommg lark. Who has not heard l.im Of the firm orBobinson,Prattte Dr. John R. Rodgers. Isoneof ''■ ,„ j j i u j. !,:.„„„ „„„.„ v„ii. mir most eminent physicians and surgeons, and as , ^^%^^'"'^^^''}"-„}^t^tJ''' ,Z«n?,^r.7in r^»^ am., univerjilly respected and esteemed. His from Connecticut. Has been an adventurer in mat- family on both sides are among the oldest in the runony. country «"d are among the flist in point of rcspec- Sands Joseph 100,000 tabiJUy and wealth. Highly respectable proprietor, who early seltlr d on Roirers Gcor-'e - - - "- - 250,000 Long Island, and hence bands' Point on the entrance o ■ = of the Sound ^ "*'='"''"■• Samls Thomas 150,000 Rogers J. Smylh, - - - - 100,000 g^nd^rd Edward .... 100.000 President of the N. Y. Contrtbutionship In. Co. Lawyer of brilliant tilent?, and one of tlir mot Descended of a family who became wealthy during logical rea oners el th^ New 'V^oik Bar— came Ui thi« the revolutionary war. Two of the grand daughters ^^^y ^g^f. ^ine or t<'n years since from thr' w'vtem of Mo -e, one of hi < ance.-,tors, successively man ied part of the State. He mtrried a lady of ?reat islent* William, the second son of Stephen Van Rensselaer, j,,j^ be uty, daughter of Thomas Sargeanl, Ktq., a (deceased ) of Albany. Wall street financier. Rogers John 150,000 Schiefleltn Eningliani - - - 300,0(Hi ,,".,,, ■ • r,,,n nnn Lat? President of the .Seventh Ward Bank. Thr Rogers Mrs. John .... 200,000 schietfelins are an old family of German decent. A Was a SmUh, widow cf a rich merchant-she is German officer in the British army, became enamored now the widow of Dr. Rodgers, dec'd. of an American heiress whom he married. Th.y have been distinguished as merchants, and most ot them a" Romaine Benj'n .... 100,000 heavy wholesale drug^-ist.-, in which business a lar.^-.- 26 r thl? family are engaged. Jacob, tie father was a druggist, leaving a large estate to a larje num- ber of sons, who, with the exception of EfBniham, and Richard L., are with their children in the Drug busi- ness. Etfinihann has been a lawyer, and was a Judge in the Marine Court. Schieflblin Henry C. - - - 200,000 A brother of the alderman, Richard L., who has followed the business of his father, that of a druggist. He married one of the Fields, by whom ho received some property. Schieflelin Henry H. 200,000 Schiffelin Richard L. 350,000 A Lawyer, and alderman of the fifteenth ward, elec ted by the American Republicans. He (parried a step daugtiter of George McKay, by whom he received S2&0,000, the re-Dainder coming from his father Ja- cob, who was a large druggist, and made all his money > Schermerhom Abraham ... 600,000 Schermerhorn John .... 500,000 Schennerhorn Peter - . - . 400,000 The Scierjierhorns are Dutch or G'JUvrn. and bare rUtii ti nati withii abi^ut a cen'.ury pa»t, as mecha-ics, small tra lesmeir, m-rchin «, itc., k^-ep- inealo f fron all entan-le uents of party sirlie or olherwi-e, and cl 'Sely husband ng ihe abuadtnt fruits of tii'-ir laooriou- toil, which tney have doubled by freqaPM am«T,^. with oth-r opulea; famUies, tho Jouej,.i;c. of their own grade. Scofie(dJ-s«ie 150,000 A very industrious and worthy tailor, who, from a poor boy became a rich man, and the head of the cele- brated ten of Scofleid, Phelps Sc Co., which house has been, for the last thirty-flTe years, >the largest and most fashionable tailorli^ establishment in 2ie city. He has now retired into the country. Scofidid William - - - . Z500OO Son of JeSse, and succeeding him in the business. He was brou-ht up tcr the trade, and is now acUvdy engaged in the establishment as a cutter. The firm M n->w Howard k Scofield. William married a d^ughtfr of thf. rich Gen. Peter Van Zandt, by whom he receiyed something like 100,000 on the death of net moth^, the daughter of the deceased^ lighter of the rich Geo. J^neway, Schuchaj-Bd encoura{.ement to "Hcuifc industry and perseverance. Skidmore William B. - - - 100,000 From Connecticut, and is a Dry Good Jobber, Smith Edmund (deceased) - - - 250,000 An ancient merihrnt of the ■' f uU Smith" branch of t>ie legions of Smith. Ef'mui d's incest.. r was Patentee of Stoithtown, Suffolk caun'y, and an lln;. trlous nsme in our early annals. Smith Jolm T. (estate of) . . 100,000 Smith Peter . - - - . 200,000 Came to this country from Ireland. He was a pa- ver, and came to be a contractor, and thus made his money. Said to have made large sums on the elec» tion ofU44. Smith Renel 100,000 Smith Robert L. - - . - 100,000 Smith William ..... 100,000 Smith Cornelius ... - - 100,000 Smith Micha J, 100,000 Snowden Thomas .... 100,000 Of Iriih descent, and a Dry Good merchant. Solomon Hyman ... 1 KOOOO If this man had received his just daes from the na- tional Government, he would now be worth mofe than a million of dollars. There is now in the archives of the government, documentary evidence, that his fa- ther, a wealthy Jew of Philadelphia, loaned without security to the United States, a sum not less than 5355,000. Mr. Madison, in his posthamous papery, says, that during our Revolutionary war, at a time when the government could not borrow on'its own credit, and could not raise a dollar on the be~t Vir- ginia drafts, Mr. Solomon came forward, and freely lent his aid in support of the government. The family of Mr. Solomon is highly distinguished. His mother was Rachael Frank, daughter of Moses B. Frank, of London, who, with his Ijrother, the distin- s;uished Jacob Frank, of the Revolotionarv war, died in New York while it was a colony. They are the sons of Aaron Frank, of Germany, who was the companion and friend of King George of Hanover, and who loaned him the most valuable jewels in his crown at the coronation. Jacob was the British king's sole agent for the Northern colonies, and his sort David was the ting's agent for Pennsylvania. A daughter of David was married to Geo. Hamilton, of Pennsylvania- the proprietor of the great Hamilton woodLnnd estate on the river Schuylkill. The present Mr. Solomon's uncle. Mayor Isaac Frank, has 'leea prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Philadelphia, and a $on of Mayor Isaac was aftemards appointed 27 tuffde Of the Supreme Co\irt of Pennsylvania. Mr. Solojnon's brother died In 18-25, in New Orleans. He was the cashier of the United Stales Branch Bank in that city, and was distinguished for his talents and fidelity. Col. David Frank is often mentioned hon- orably in the Washington papers. The other son of David returned to England, and died » member of V»rliament. A son-in-law of Jacob was the distin- guished British officer Gen. Dc Lancy, who, at the hrealiing out of the Revolutionary war owned an im- mense estate in the upper part of this city, which, in consequence of his devotion to his ling, was confis- cated to the Government. He was awarded with the appointment of master of ordnance, and aid-de-camp to George the Third, with a salary of 30,000 pounds starling. His daughter was married to a knight of Bath, and Governor of one of the East India provin- ces, and admiral in the Navy. Mr. Solomon has been inactive and distinfjuished politician ; hewasa mem- berjuf the celebrated Republican coinmittee with Ste- phen Allen, Abram Laurens, John Campbell and Henry Meigs. He vras a member of the convention that procured the nomrnation of the late Judgw Thompson, of the U. S. Supreme Court, as Governor of the State. Mr. Solomon has often appealed to Con- gress in vain for an adjustment of his equitable claim. He has, too, been very unjustly refused ofEce by the present admin istratioD, Spencer Lieut. - - - 100,000 ISairied a dacjhter of P. Loril'aid. Spicer George .... $100,r00 Formerly a wholesale erocer in Front street, in which business he accumulated his property. He is now well known as a f portsman. la a partner with Austena in the auction business. Spofford Paul 500,000 Of the firm of Spofford, Tiles on !t Co., one of the largest shipping houses in thecity. Springler'8 Estate Mr. - - - 200,000 Stacey James G. - - - - 100,000 Stagg Jolm'P. 100/)00 Of n old Knickerbocker race. StaggBenj. 100,000 Stephens Benjamin - - - '- 500 000 . 1 g< money by hard toil and shrewd mana^ment. He buiK the old state prison in this city, and was a large contractor for building. One of hi* sone is the dis- tinguished traveller Stephens, Stephens John L. - . - . 100,000 The distingviUhed Traveller, and the son of Ben- jamin, above. He has made nearly or quite this sum by his books, in addition to what he may have re- ceived, and expects from his father. Stevens Alex. H. - - - - 150,000 A »urgeon of iome repute, and son of General Eb- enezer S. The Doctor's three successive marriages to rich heiresses has, we imagine, put more money in his purse than amputating tumors or tying up arteries. Stevens Horatio G. - - . . 150,000 Brother of " Alderman Sam," William, John, ic- Their father, Maj. G-n. Ebentzer Se en-t. was a meritorious and gallant offic' r of the old continental line of the army of the revolut on, and as Maj.ir com- manded the artilleiv with deadiy eflect in several Woody encounters. How honoraBle to Major Ste- vens to rise to that point from out of the lanks whf re it is said he enlisted as a private soldif r, leaving his tools as a journeyman cjrpen'er to take up the s-word and baitic axe lor liberiy. His fons hsve many of ihi-m inherited much . f his inborn energy and power of mind. The S evenses so lelebrattd in engmee-- ing, and sons of Col. Stevens, of Hoboktn, are a totally dilferent family. Stevens John H. ... - 100,000 Steven* Robt. L. .... 350,000 Stevens John C. .... 300,000 Bobert L. and John C. are sone of Col. Stevens. deceased, of Hohoken. The eminent ability 'of Robert, as one who alone has inherited the miBtl»; of his friend Fulton, is two well known to need re- mark. Stevenson John B. - - - - 100,000 >n old Phyician. Stewart Alexander T. - - - 800,000 The celebrated Dry Good Merchant of Broadway whose shop is the grand resort of the fashionables He has lately bought Washington Hall, which he in- tends to fit up for stores. He married a Miss Mitchell a lady of some property. Stewart Robert 200,000 t>ne of two Sco'ch bnthers, who. by marriage in- herits the great old Dutch estate of the Lispenards, near Car »1 street. Steward Joha . - - - - 300,000 But 30 years a resident here, and by the force,of his own straight forward, clear-headed fsgacity in the dry goods line, &c., has acquired near half a million. Steward John Jr. 100,000 Stewart Lispenard ... - 500,000 He is now po3se«ed of the remains of the LispenaVd estate, in addition to a large amount received by his wife, a daughter of L. Salles, deceased, a native of France, who araassfd a large fortune in this city, by cautious loans during great pressures, and by rigid economy. Alexander Stewart, the father of Lispenard, came to this country with his elder brother, Robert, from Scotland. They commenced as brokers, and acquired some property, when Robert failed, paying a pista- reen on a pound— that is one seventh, and put his iprojjerty into possession of his brother, with the agree ment that the survivor should receive the estate be longing to biith. Previous to this, Alexander having married a daughter of Lispenard, of an old Dutch family, and owning a large tract of meadows ard marshes in the vicinity of where Canal street now is. On the death of Lispenard, Alexander Stewart came into possession of a portion of this estate, by his wife, and also a good portion of that of her two brothers, Leonard and Anthony, who died, after having parted with the best part of their fortune; each leaving hdrs. Mr. Stewart had also the erjtire posse-'sion of the estate of bis imbecile sister-in-law, who lelt hit* her fortune, by will. Alexander dying, this estate came into the possession of his brother Robert, who, on his decease, a short time since, bequeathed it to hi» ■ • • "•• -■ - • — ae« and M. Stewart, a chaplain In the navy, manied daughters of Alexander Stewart. Since thq death of Alexander S., there has been much legal controvei»y in regard to this estate, particularly between several of the heirs of old M. Lispenard, and those of Alexan, der Stevtarton the one hand, and Robert and Lispeni ard Stewart on the other. Lispenard professes to hold the estate which, though immense, is incumbered, solely for the benefit of those having legal or equita • ble claims on it. Among kls heirs is included "St.John the book and magizine pealdr," an industrious, hon- est, aid wonhy maii. who has for some years pur- sued this calling, and is generally known. Has but one 6) e, having byiecident been deprived of io« other. St. John Samuel (estate of) - - 300,000 Lately deceased in New Haven, Ct. He was early in life a Tailor, and made the bulk of his fortune by fortunate investments in real estate, and by loaning during pressures. He was once Alderman of the second ward. Storm Isaac T. - - - 200,000 Early in life he left the place of his nativity, somt - where in Dutchess Co, and c»me to this city. It is said of him th.t abcut the first enterpiise into which he embarked, was the purrhjsiag ot a keg of beeswax, the rrofits on which gave him i stait, whilear business in the city. kn'own as "Striker's Bay," now leased by his wid- SuvJam Ferdinand Tr - . . IGO 000 ow. in whose po3s?s3iou the estate now 1", as a auyJam i>erdinana Jr. - . - iuu.uuu public house. Mr. James Striker was the father of Of the firm of Suydam, Sage & Co. Married a General SUiUer, a gentleman well known in this daughter of Stephen Whitaey. city, as one of we^dth and standing, and also has „ , , ,^\^^^ onn rvw held many exalted stations incur city and state. Su> dam Lambert, .... 200,000 Strong. Geo. W. - - - - 200,000 Suydam Henry ) 100,000 Cf a Lon'' Inland family, and an eanln*"' lawyer, Suydam James A. T Brothexs oi David 150 OOO now in partnership with'Marshall M. BidweU, a seU- Suydam John R. ? L., above. 150,000 exded Lanaaian patriot. SHydanr Peter M. ) 150,000 Strong Mrs. James . - - - 250,000 Suydam Richard .... lOO.COO Herhusband was a merchant, and brother of Geo. A brother of Ferdinand, and lately retired from the W. Strong. She was a Uemsea, and hence a grejt firm of Suydam & Kevan, dry good jobbers. pirt of her riches. Swan Benj'n L. ... - 500,000 Smart Robert L. - - - - 200,000 The firm of Otis & Swan were peculiarly lucky in The celelM-ated candy manufacturer, and sugar re- their commercial arrangements during the last war. finer, t is father, faUing in Glasgow, Scotland, came Swords James 100X00 to Ous country, where he soon amassed .property, i^woras James JiTV^Z -wttfawhldi he returned and paid up his old debts. His Eminent bookseller many years past. The best SOB may be proud of sueh a nobility. Kobert Is an literary speculation one of them made was his Intw- enterprising and liberal business man, married the jnairiage with a Lorillard. tlanghter of Robert McCrea, (deceased,) by whom lie received considerable property. Stuart Alexander ... - 150,000 _ „ _ . . ^ .„.. ^, Brotherandptftnerinbusinesswith the above, Talbot C. N. 5200,000 strictly a business man, ini has considerable The most distinguished Talbots were of the sam* knowledge in mechmicg. Is a worthy young Bene- family as Com. Talbot; an honored naval hero of our diet, andao better subject fcr " Cupid's Dart" can country. J'«f°'i°''- Talbot William R. ... - 100,000 Stnrges Jonathan - - - - 200,000 Talbot Charles R. - - - - 100.000 StuyvesatA Peter G. - - - - 4,000,000 Brothers of C. N. above. - His ancestor, GoTemor-General and Admiral Von Tallroadge James .... 200,000 bTJKedrith Kni^ckerbocker, and whS, as the last of "ent as a jurist, senator, patron ot Am^ican indus- the lSu!h dyna^y. went out uproiiously, a true ^7- ^<^- ^<^- " Good wme needs no bush." J'J^^i?5^f.^\'i\V.^^'h\°'S'^.^^'V^S^l TahnanJohna - - - - mm military floggimr, kc., if they but dared to look at liis "• 8urUn»s, is so familiailv known in the history of A Cotton Broker. New York-that this line sulBcfS. Gov. Mcoll, Irom Tar/rpp Tohn ISO.OOO England, who brought the Ultle gentleman to his -largeejohn J " " . ,. ,. ViT^ bearings, omitted one thing, viz: to make him dis- A young French adventurer, silversmith by trade, "orge some of his cruel exactions, but Ptter took the emigrated, some fifty years ago, to this country, and oath to the Gorgon banner of St. George, and dofled by good conduct and industry, and great shrewdness the beaver-tail and windmUl escutcheon of Dutch as a politician in the democratic ranks, to which he, authority, and thus retaining his rich cabbage gar- as it turned out, wisely attached himself, rendered dens at Corlaer s Hook and Bowery, hid himself himself eminenUy conspicuous in that party, and ft« away as snug as a mouse in a cheese. The genera- his untiring devotion to their interests, w«s richly re- tions from him are all baptized in the lace =hirt in warded with sundry profiuble ix)sts of honor. So which he was christened. They inherit and keep di tinguished had he become from the Jeffersonian too the SILVER spoon. triumpti of 1800 upward, that Vice President Tomp. ' kina made him his confidential friend, and he was Suckley George - . - • 300,000 everywhere looked upon for a time as the most in- ^, o>^ nnn fluential leader, if not chief of the party in this quar- Suffem Thos. ... - - .iOO,OU« i^^ ^f the state. Hence during the struggles to sup- A respectable Irish gent— nepliew of the vener»t.l5 plant CUnton, the poet Croaker wrote thus :— Judge a., of hockland Co., >. T., deceased. The •' I'm sick of GeneralJackson's toast, present Jud^eidward Sufl'em, 1st Judge of Kock- Canals are nought to me; land Co., is son of tlie deceased Judge. Thomas Nor do I care who rule? the roast, owe* Jiis gold to lineng. Now resides in Europe. Clinton or John Targee." SaydamComeliuaR. - - - lOO.OCO Taylor Edward N. - - - - 100,000 A branch of the same family with David L. (see rp„ .„ t„_,,i, r . . . . mn fim Suydam David L.) and of the firm of Doremus, Suy- laylor Jacob C. 1UU,U0U dam & Nixon, dry good jobbers doing large business. Taylor Moses 300,000 Suydam David L. - - - - 150 000 ^ yery worthy man and grocer. His connection San of John Suydam, deceased, of an old New in business with the A-tors has brought gold to hit Tork family, and of Dutch extract. John was a auc- coQ'ers. Brought up witli HowUnd and AapinwalL 29 Thsriat Augustus R, ... 100,00» Tillou F. R. - - - jgo 000 A nativeofPoland, of Jewish connexion, of high a aplf m.rfo ,..o« •„ .k« . t. . ' slandiDg-m.de his fortune bymanufacturiAg Paper innT HmP^n .L A^^m "*" ''T* ^'^ *^""'«'' l^^'"? • Haneinga, and shrewd management of othe* kiSda or'fpin« marshal Twl'l';;''' °' ""^"^ "'^^''y■ of business. tw?™ ,. ?i ■ ^ •"', \"n married a MUer of that .emarkable geniui. ard fi.sl of American pcets. Thompson Ab'm G. .... 500,000 p- Jo'cph Rodman Drake— " roaker senior." Has ^.v r^v. 1 r.^ beaii Alderman of the Fifth Ward, and is of the lirm Thompson Charles Chauncey . . 150,000 of TiUou & Cutting. Son of an eminent Uwyer, and one of our enter. Tisdale Samuel T. - - . . inn non prismg and formost merchanlg. fiJU,UOO, Thompson David - . . 150,000 Ti'us William M 200.000 mi. .. TT ^ „-*d''y good merchant who married the dau<'hter oi Thom()80n Henry G. - . . lOO 000 Thomas Gardiner, nfw of New Jei^ey, a brother ot A son of Orriu Thompson, and in business with his Ind o',mt°Ji",n^mv "Z:i ■^^''- J,i'l'u> °^ * L°''S ^"^ father. *"d Quaker lamily, and is worth thu sum mainiv bv c.^liectationsjromluswiie. ^ ' Tliompson James .... 150,000 t Id W W Son of James Thompsoh (deceased,) who was a of , »„,'„ v ," ,"•,'.* * 100,000 merchant and ship owner, and came from Scotland. „„r.v,„^ j „ " ''''.. '*" ''/' ^« believe; long distin- The son has not been in business, and has spent much Sashed democratic mer hanU. " ' «"dwor^k^'ot-Irt.""''''""""*'^"''"°'P''''^""S^ Tonn.IeeJohn 500,000 r„, » , „ Came from France, and kept a large Glove Store in Thompson Jonathan .... 250,000 Pe»rl ^-treet, and afterwards was in the Wool buai An apostle of the <« old guard" of democracy, and So\"T\>nnelef™}''* "'" '"''^^^ ^"^ ^ '^^ comes from that vigorous nursery of such material, ^ °' lonnelee 4: Hall. C?liectof°"'"" ^^ ''*'* '°°S t«ae our respected TonneleeJohn - - - . . 600000 „, „ , Freich; of thefirmof Tonnelee&Hall. fthelatfw Thompson Onin - - - . $300,000 ^"^^o":i"-lo^^.) P^babiy the most ertemiivewo^i Of an ancient respectable Connecticut family, and ^""^''^^ '" ^^ co^nMij. tlie architect of his own fortune. He commenced bu- Townsend Dr - ^ . mnnn,. siness in this city some thirty years ago as a carpet rr , v , - lUO 000 dealer, and in 1S27 established the first carpet manu- /a^en when young by a rich uncle, Charles WriMht factory in the country, and in the foUowing year built °^,„^i"'''H„^' J""5h?".'.''/'''I,°u*^'^' *"'! inherited hi* a second factory a few miles distant from the first— *°'^'f- "e ""* educated a Physician, but does not and the result has been two larije vilfaijes, onenamed fi^'i'"^'^ „ ""^ marned a daughter (now deceased,) of , Thompsonville in Ct., and the largest carpet manufac- ^lUiam Prince, the celebrated Horticulturist, tory in the whole world. The first carpet made in this Townin°- Richard rn«tnf« .^f\ factory was sold in this city by Geo. W. Betts, in ■'"^'"o «-i<^nara (astate ol ) . . 100,000 Pearl street. There are now several other factories Townsend Elihu . . . inn nnn in operation, and nine-tenths of the ingrain carpets n,„i,„,. „f . x, „■□ '^ . * 'WjOOO sold here, are made in this country, and are e^ual and th?/?n uW N^v^n k '''^" ^"°"5- ^^ «"d Wa bro- even superior to the English. The ThompsonviUe "'^"'"-l*'^' ^^^"^'' l>»^e amassed 6 large property, lactory turns out a large amount of Brussels carpet of Townsend I«nai» the best kind in the market,' much of old BrLsels tT!lt v. T , " 100,000 is made in this country. Mr. Thompson, with his f,^!'? '?f *'f°"!f'^'WniamH. and Robert C, a Div his son Henry G. and J. Elnathan Smith, con.titu- f;"".^^,'''"^^'' '"Nassau street, and of a differentfami: ting the firm of Orrin Thompson & Co,, have in "J "o™ ^n/ of the above. He and his brother Wm the city the largest sales room in the United States, "• carried daughters of the rich David AusUn, ^LTS^^iy'^lnl^^Zr^^^^l^tl'^tZ^r' '^T'"''^'''''''^'- ■ - -■ 150 000 Thompson Samuel . . . -. 1.50,000 b if tSMV^^^^^^^^ Thomson Samuel .... 250,000 ^""^ '° ^•'°"*' "'• • •'"'^y.Butnotre- Jjade his fortune as a builder, and now resides at Townsend J. and W. - - . loO 000 Fort Washington. ^ »'"o*l'TV^'"^ '°e^*'*=' '^orthlhLssum, which thcv Thorn Herman .... 500,000 ^^'^^^''r^l^Zt^^t^X^': ^-'^^^^ ThorneJbnathan ^ .... 350,000 Townsend Robert C. . . ,.„„„,, A Leather dealer in the Swamp; married the ^ '^'>«, o'^er brother, who married a'dauehte'r wica, Mass. present President ofthe Jefferson Insurance Co. Trimble Daniel .... ThwingJ. C. 150,000 Trimble George T. . - . ,m'nn T,Jeston Thomas ... 500,000 Truslow James . . " X, Firm of Spoffofd, Tileston k Co. a Isrse Coal deU« m k . ' " *^"-^ A large Loai dealer, m business with his son. 30 Tucker Gideon - - • 500,000 Van Schaick M. - - - . 200.000 Formerly a mason, builder and architect. He mar ■ Of a rraprctahle Butch family of Albiny, and mar- ricxl a daughter of Henry Brevoort, decessed, who ried th- dau-hterpf ttierica Jao. Hone, aid moved was the fatier also of the great miHiomrc, HeniyBre- here. Ha3 beea a Senator. voort. Tucker Fanning C. Thi« is truly a "tall" bein? near seven I's views, sings an admirable song and patronizes 150,000 ?:ood fellow in every sensp, seven feet in his shoe?, as ii plain to all ndj .....sic and tlieop'eia, dii-esattnc teara,and in is a first rate gentleman, living as agentleman should; and showin'j that one can be such witliout neglecting Van Zandl Gen. Peter - - - 350,000 This comes by his wife, a daughter of old George Janeway, deceased. He has served in the revolu- tionary war. Varian Isaac L. 200,000 Of the vory olde-t'of the Dutch " Mynhee's" who. even the severer engagements of besiness and the some two ceituries since, underpr bably, Gov. Peter counting room. For, where is the better and richer merchant than he among the whole catalogue of shippers.' Prof. John B. Beck married a daughter of IMr. Tucker. Is President of the Leather Manu- facturers Bank. ivlir.uit or Gov. Wm. Kieft, 1 catel w th the Dyck- mans, » c, as honest mechanics at Harlem. Isaac L. has been Senator and Mayor. 150,000 Varnmn Joseph B. - - ■ 100,000 Of a highly-respectable family in Vermont, He is the ."enior partner in the firm of Varum, Graham & Turner'Mr. - Tucker^Moser"^' - - - - 100,000 Webb, a lirge Dry Good house in Pearl street. U Verphnck Gulian C. - - - - 200,000 ,T ■, viifm. o innnnn Bon of the rich Judge VT, of FishldU, deceased UnderhJl Thomas b. - - - - iw,vw .igulian Verplank," the ancestor, is one of the -. names found on the earliest Du'ch records of New - » c.^nnnnf> Amsterdam, and thougu himself of plain origin, rose Van Allen James I. - - - - SpwOjUUU • to con-ideraiioa in municipal trusty aftertJieEnglish A shrewd old Knickerbocker, formerlyfrom Kin- Conquest, 1C45. Gulian C V., late senator, holds the derhook; made his large proi.e.ty i« the dry goo^s roost poished and classical pen in American UtCTft- trad^ in times when gleat profits and small ri k» tuie, but want, the pathos and feeling of Irv/ng, ind were the o der of the day. tue strength and energy of many other of our nat.ve were tne o aer oi u«y writers. He has been a eenalor of this State, and VanZandt, ihomas - - - 1-jU,uuu i,as been distinguished an a whi? politician. He is Of an old Dutch family, always lived upon his now editing one ot the best editions of 6hak*peare property, and has for many years resided in Europe ever iSuoUshed. Van Antwerp James . - - - 200,000 Van Arsdale Peter, Dr. - - - 100,000 "W A highly re'pected physician, who ha« by dint of severe and continued ha d labor in his profession, WagstalT, (estate of David) - - 200,000 acquired, in the upper part of our city, 'herejhe pay jj^j ^ fortunate father in the Dry Goods line. iss'mau, but sure, a comfortable fortune. He is of the old Dutch families. , Wainwright, tult „ T> r x. innnno ;>n Engl. sh gentleman long resident of this city, Van Buren John - - - - 100,000 „„'^°formerly head of the HousS of VVaiuWtight, Vanderbilt Cornelius - - - 1.200,000 Shiels & Co.— not no^»>iu business. Uf aa ol 1 Du ch root. Cornelius,has evinced more ,Tr„,K.„. T,,«.pnl, enertjv .nd '^o ah-a'lat^veness" in bui ding and ^Valicer Josepi dnving steatiboat', and other prnjpct-, than ever slngle'duchman pj^sses^ed It takes eur 100,000 200,000 English meichant. Quaker. Walker K. G. - - - jclearolf the vapors and f.igs of the"Zuy der Z-e."-.ndwak:uvihei)We3ni of a descendant of Wallace Mrs. William A d slant relat'on o. Hon. Henry f lay, t- e widow of a Scottisn gentleman, who old iloUand. Vandervoorl Peter - - - - 150,000 Van Nest Abraham . - - - 300,000 An old Dutchman, and self-made man ; formerly a ,years s nee, Saddl'-r, then engaged in ihe -,8ddlery hardware husi 100,000 300,000 Mrs. W. is to this country before the Hevoiution, made a larse fortune In .-avannah, Ga., and settl.-d n tu s city about forty made is moiey. Van Rcnsollaer (Estate of) Stephen 10,000,000 250,000 „ . , able Scotch gentleman, a " p liar of the church," and noted f.r punctual ty mi uprightress in his dealings. The late Patioon Van Rensellaer, of Albany, the ,y. ^^ i tt 250,000 •ord of themanorRennsUaerwyrk, the most ancient Ward A. n. ; and disiinsu.sicil name of the old Dutch gentry who Ward James 100,000 river. It and a^ove, and below Alb.ny; the estate had Washington Hall. then c-mi.rehfn.iingthM city, then a fortress, now a Wardjohn 300,000 ^"^^^i^^St^^^^'^^"^^^ ^BrotherofSamueLdeceasedandofKichaid OC m",unt" n' and i-s t^,"dy tenants ^t.ll do homage tS an ancient and honored name in the annals ot Rhode the"''.ob"e house of Van Ranselher" No family in Island. Is a Broker. Americ* ha- so long kept together an estate to be ^ . Samuel Jr. - - - - 150,000 ?Snfn.^"Viit\rjrhrjSX'^:s'^tif ?h^e "^Son of Samuel, deceased, Marrie. a daughter of »fal Wp-t in the country. Besides the •' lordship" the rich Wm B. Astor, and is of the banking house tte late Pa-roon owned hundreds of lots in New. York fcis fatherSamucl belonged to. His second wile was city, am in.' othersthe block where Niblohashissar- a Miss Grime*. den Th s c-tate is now divided between two sons, . tt^„^„ one of whom ownsiklbany county and the other Van Waring Henry - Ren=allaer county. Watts James N. - - - Van Noslrand John . - - - 150,000 Weed Nathaniel - - - Ke-pectableWd Dutch ffunny, from Jamaica, Lon^ Weed Harvey 400,000 100,000 200,000 -.ijOjOOO 31 Weed Harvey, - - . 200,000 Wells James N. 100,000 James N. VVelU rrse from the humble vocation ot" a Carjenler to be a rich man and Alderman. Wetmore Wm. S. - 000,000 Extensive Iron iWerchant. Made Lis money in the China trade. Married some ten yeira since Miss Eodger=, of Porismouih, N. y., who it is said f irly took him by storm. Is connected with the wejihy London ho ■; e of Morrison i Cryder, by ii.arriage of Mr. C. to Misa W. WendeHJohnD. 500,000 A native of Rh' de Island, and has acquired a vrood Weyman Abner 200,000 One of the richest "tailois" of our city. A worthy family. Wliiteman Wm. S. - - - - 500,000 Canton merchant, and architect of his own fortune. White Miss Amelia - - - 300,000 She, with her sister Charlotte, now deceased, were some fifty years ago the reisnin:; belles of the city. Their father was a meachant of high tone and fashion. White Ell 500,000 While Robert- - - - - - lOOjOOO White Wm. A. - - - . 150,000 Whitehead Wm. .... 150,000 Whiting- James R. ... - 200,000 The late District Attorney for this county, and dis- tinguished as a lawyer. He has been an alderman, and an intluential man in the democratic ranks. He has made a fortune in investments in real estate, and his profession has been lucrative. Whitehouse .... 100,000 Whillock William Jr. . - . 100,000 A shipping and commission merchant. Whitney Stephen .... 10,000,000 Next in wealth to .lohn Jacob Astor. He was bom in Ct., and bega;i life as a poor boy in this city, by retailing liquors, and finally dealt in the article by wholesale. The great impetus to his fortune, how- ever, was given several heavy but fortunate specula tions in cotton. His investments in real estate many years a^o, have doubled his fortune bv a rise in value. Mr. Whitney is a very shrewd mariager, and close In his dealings. Whittemore Timothy ... 100,000 Another self-made man was hi^ father, Samuel, by that most curious and most ingenious of altin- eenious Yankeb inventions, the Wool card maker, which hyics complicated movements almostimitJtes the human hand, and human intelligence, self-pro- pelling by ateam. It is a rare instance of the inven. tion of genius giving return profits. Whittemore Mrs. Samuel ... 100,000 Whittemore Thomas ... 200,000 A son of Timothy, whose father was the inventor Of the wool cording machine, one of the most re- markable inventions on record, and displays n its complicated and marvellous movements. This in. vention is the source of Thomas' wealth. Whittemore John .... 100,000 Celebrated Card manu''actnrer. son of the late Thomas Whittemore, who has acquired a handaome fortune, and has one of the most extensive and com. plete CardManufictoties in the Uiiiled States, at Patterson, New Jersey. Withers, Renben 100,000 C shier of the Bank of the Sute of New York. Came here a poor boy from, Virginia, and earned his .noney in the China trade when of the house of >^ icners ima Heard, Vide Jamea Heatd. Wiloy John 100,000 < f the tirm of Wiley it Putnam, the largest impor ters of books m the ciiy Mr. Wiley has been a 'ong time in the b"nk business in this city, commencing as agent for Thomas Aat.lle, of Philadelphia. Willink I. A. - - - 100,000 Williams Richard S. - - - 150,000 By faitliful and close application to the Grocery business, in which he bears a most respectable name, has acquired a large property. He is of the family of one of the greatest landholders amonp the early purchasers and settlers who colonized the English vil- lages on Long Island, viz. : Robert Williams, nephew it IS believed, of Roger, the founder of Providence. WUIiams R. S. - - - - 150,000 WUlis John R. (estate of) - - 150,000 Hardware merchant, and of an ancient quaker family of Long Island. Willis Wm. H. i Willis Alfred C each - - - 100,000 Willis Edward > Wilmerding- Wm, E. - - - 300,000 Of the auction house of the late firm of Austin ic Wilmerding, and formerly of Haggeriy. He is, we believe, Gcriran in extraction, and^now of the firm of Wilmerding, Frieit i; Mount. Wiu^hrop Henry R. - - . . lOO.OOO In expectancy this descendant of the first Governor of Massachusetts, may count on inheritinc; this amount by his marriage with Miss Hick.', a erand-daughter ot the late Thomas Uuchanan. TheWinthrops have their family portraits for eight generations, as far back as the fifteenth century, when they left their rich possessions in England to found the city of Bos- ton. Winans Anthony V, .... 150,000 Wisner Gabriel . 100,000 Grocer, and a wealthy batchelor. His grandfather was a member nf the Continental Congress from this State, and his father was killed at tlie "Indian massa. creatMinisink.- Winslow R. H. .... 100,000 Broker and Banking house in Wall street, ot I-il. grim descent ; with Perkins, his partner, does most of the Ohio business. Brought up her State stocks by his jndicious management. A sound, clear- headed man. Wiley LeroyM. .... 100,000 Wiley Leroy S. .... 100,000 Dry Goods Merchant, a Georgian. Withers Reuben .... 150,C0O Ca hier of the Bank of New York. Witherspoon George . - - 100 000 An Englishman, who married the daughter of Mrs. Fisher, is a cotton broker in business with his bro- ther. WiiehtWil.iatn .... $100,000 Son of Isaac Wright, the projector of IheLiverpoo! line of packets, formerly in business witli his father, and now retired to New Jersey. His father was of a Long Island Quaker family. Wood John ..... 250,000 Flour merchant. Wolf N. a . . - . - 100,000 Flour dealer. Formerly from Norfolk, Va. His father resided in Baltimore, was one of its first citi- zens. Wood Silas - - - . ... 150,000 Demi. Quaker. Wood John 8250,000 £oin a poe{ boy in this city, and latey deceased at 32 New Rochelle. Made money as a baker, and subse- iir,;_i,» t.i,„ r% ■— ocn rnVi quently shipped ice. Of thi^ he was the first shipper. Wright John D. ^ , . - 250 UW He has invested his properly mostly in mortgages and Son of Jordan Wright, a Quaker, deceased, of real estate in this city. Flushing. He married the only child of James Bird, Quaker, of the same place, by whom he received up- WoodhuU Albert « s a ^ 150,000 wards of $100,000, and in addition, a large amount & brother of Calebs., above, ami of the firm of t>oni his fathers estate. His property is about equally Woodhull & Minturn, large Commission and Shipping ^'"'^^^ ■"'" real estatebetween this c.ty and Flushing, merchants, and owners o^f a line of l iverpool p.ck • "^ ^^ \<'.''" »" ^porter in the city, but has now re- ets, in which line the Liverpool and th-; Qitenof the '"^«='i '» *»'« "="'^<= P''^'^'=- West are the largest American vesels. Wright Grove (estate oO - * - 150,000 Woodhull Caleb S . ^ . . 100,000 Thisrespected merchant, deceased, was -robably Th.™- . /-.v ^ •. • ..,■ ^ ■ T>- I A a branch of the numerous family of Wrights of this W^Sh.n^^, ''^""^'^'^^"".'y.K"/*"'"'""^'""' ^ city, who are of New England o.igin, hiving, it is !T°l^„"A'i .(ll»J^. "*?>.« i'. "**'_ f ""^^"^ "^.^JlJJJ^l' believed, grst settled after the Puritan forefat&ers at 150,000 afterwards was spMt,) who came from Northamp- pi,._,.,,,\,^ shir», Eng., and settled at Broukliaven, L. I., where , ,7 , „ the fannly has been distin^ished ov important ivil Wright Henry A. and military trusts. An ancestor Nathaniel, served under Abercrombie, and was afterwards President of the Provincial Congress, at the adoption of that body of the Declaration of Indeitendence, and at the same time General, commanding the brigadeofSutfolk and Queens County, L. I., in which capacity be rendered important service, and died from the effects of a wound in Sept., nv6. Caleb S., born at Brookhaven, is a Lawyer in this city, and has been Pnaident of the Common Council. He U a prominent member ,, ^ , ^ on^ ^n member of the whig party, and highly esteemed as Yates Mrs. Joseph C. - - - 200,000 one of our most worthy citizens. Her husband, of the Schenectady Yates family ,,,,„„ „ „,„ „ made his wealth as a Lottery dealer. Woodruft Thos. T. - - - 250,000 AnArchitect.andwhiloan Alderman, had several Young Henry - - ' ' ^\ ^^'^'^^ fat contracts of the corporation. Of Long Island. A Hardware Merchant. Wolle Christopher .... 300,000 Youngs Henry - - - 150,000 Of an old German family, and a handsome merchant in Pearl street, of the firm of Gilbert & Gdlespie. Wolfe John D. 400,000 Of the firm of Wolfe & Bishop, hardware mer- chants. He married a daughter of Petef Lorillard, (deceased,) by whom he received some §200,000. The rest he made in business, Wright, (widow of Isaac) " • - 200,000 Her husband was the projector of the first line of Zimmerman J, C Sr, Liverpool packets. See Jonathan Goodhue. Yates Henry . . - . . 300,000 A lottery dealer tc. His brother was Gov. J&seph C. Yates, one of the most ancient and respectable Dutch families. A high i-hnrchman, and a pillar of St. John's. One oftho few who has made money in the retail Dry Good business in Broadway, and kept it. Is a laige holder of real estate in this city. He is a brother-ia- law of Charles G. Ferris E^q , formerly member of Congress from this city. 200,000 ^J^- Chapter VI EXP.:lNSION AND PANIC The Oti^iii of Banks— The First of the Trust Companies — The Significance of the Trust Company Idea — The Opening of the Erie Canal — How the Canal Affectci) Commerce — A Flood of Paper AToney — The Era of Spec a la lion — The Status of the 182^ Bankrupt — Abuses of the Banking System — The Great Fire of iSjj — The Panic of iSj6 — The Bank Failures of 18^0-2 A CENTURY ago, then, the United States was in the first Z^ flush of its exuberant young strength. It had fought *^ -^ and won its last defensive war, demonstrating with finahty its right to national existence, its determination to protect the rights of its citizens. Its rapidly increasing people, enterprising, vigorous and suc- cessful, were congregating into new communities all over the eastern portion of its domain, like swarms of eager bees sucking the honey of its illimitable national resources, supplying the expanding needs of towns that sprang up over night, of cities that doubled in a few years. The restless activities of these farmers, merchants, miners, lumbermen, arid manufacturers were forming a commercial network that spread from one centre to another in radiating lines of communication, each affecting every other, all so surcharged with vital energy that the fresh growth and interrelations altered the aspect of business and finance year by year. The banks of any given time and place are, of course, an accurate expression of the state of business and social evolution of that community. Take the mediaeval goldsmith who loaned money to spendthrift princes on the security of crown jewels, or the seventeenth century ones in London who kept "running cashes," or the campsores (money lenders) who flourished in Venice two centuries before the Senate established the Banco di Rial to (Shy lock was such an one) — from these a real historian could build the social organism in which they plied their trade, 185 186 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK as a palaeontologist reconstructs the megatherium from a thigh- bone and off hind claw. First comes the primitive personal loan from individual to individual, with valuables as a pledge — pawnbroking, in a word. With foreign commerce arrives the necessity for an agency to exchange bullion or money of other countries into home money ., — and we get, for instance, the great exchange banks of Am- sterdam and Hamburg, which had no capital and received no deposits, but were merely institutions for transferring, for a small fee, any kind of coin into money that was current in Holland and Germany: the former, after two centuries of essential service to European commerce, closed its doors in 1820; the strictly regulated Bank of Hamburg lasted until 1873, when Germany adopted the gold standard, thus destroying its reason for exis- tence. As commercial enterprises develop, there arise demands for capital beyond the merchants' immediate resources, as well as for the safe keeping and employment of monies not immediately needed: with this stage begins banking as we know it, the bank- ing of deposit and discount— retaining its e:!s;change functions, adding perhaps the issue of notes as a substitute currency, ramifying and changing with the growing complexity of the business structure. A division of functions may come, as with the banks proper which do not lend on character for developing a new business, but confine their loans to buying commercial paper. From the very nature of the relation, it is an essentially modern institution, necessarily developing with the business life out of which it springs and from which it draws sustenance. The head of the great and powerful Bank of Amsterdam, if he could come back, would be as bewildered as any novice by the day's work of the least of our twentieth century banks. The modern bank is a financial reservoir,* collecting small or large amounts of temporarily idle money and then lending, on collateral or character, this concentrated capital to those who can put it immediately to work; it creates no new wealth, but it makes available the motive power of capital that might be lying idle in hoards; also, it increases the supply by using credit, through note issues or discounting of bills, thus doubling * The very name seems to have arisen from some association with a bank of earth — a pile heaped up for some common purpose. Similarly, the pawn- shop is, in Italian, still the monle da pieta. W. G. Sumner points out that "bank" before the Revolution meant merely "a batch of paper money, issued either by the government or a corporation." Much of the early opposition to banks came from this conception that their main function was to Issue notes — the value of which was highly speculative. FIRST OF THE TRUST COxHPANIES 187 or trebling the working power of the real rnoney on which the oper- ation is based. With the growth of the banks into huge concentrations of capital and credit, they came to play a larger and larger part in industry, swaging the destinies of businesses, owning them, running them. It is this which we have witnessed in the latter quarter of the last significant century. In all this enlargement and com- plexity there is no new principle involved: the simple operation of lending money on some sort of security is still the basis of active operation. This growing complexity was well begun by the '20's. Old-fashioned as the methods seem to us, reckless as were some of the experiments, they were shaping themselves to the growth of the country; and they were on the very verge of the new era brought in by rail- roads and power manufacturing. Meanwhile the very year of l^2Z saw the introduction of a really new application of an old principle, which was ultimately to have the most profound influence upon the banking development. The outward manifestation of this was the almost unnoticed ad- vertisement of a new coiopany, the Farmers' Fire Insurance.^ and Loaxu-Cp., which appeared in a New York newspaper of August 6. By its charter, granted in February and amended in April, it had power to receive property in trust and to exiecute" trusts in its corporate capacity as any individual trustee TSoIbc« at No. 34 WaU-etreW, .nJjc,u.rtg * tenTof New-1fork-«i>culroin 9 o'clock, A. ''■'ThrO^'paDy w now rwJy to reclve propo- , t^ injuring property of ev.?ry description t^Cor uLV by lire. TI.e tera^s ,,,11 JfTfavorable m Ihrte of -..iiy other compaoy lo ^ rily, aliowio; l.ber;illy (o, cir.umaanoes "S Company aUo have power g.antea to ji .1 to i-ecc;ve, Like, poisew, and btauJ scizeU •J^Und ^l property thai may beconveyeJ to i^ io TRUST, a..J to eMralc a..y aoJ all such ^OSTorTRUSTSI 1 llieircorixji-ale ca[;aci( ill llie fame manner, anJ to th« eanie ex- ^\ auT other tritstee or rauaxEEB might "^Id lawfully Jo." Ihe tucst property "lib* kept, a« their charter prescr.bcs, wholly L^\t from the other couceins of the company, *^nnot, iu anv evpnt, be maeiisei^ such proceeding* often swallow up a -eat part of the Trust Eetata. By pipdnseuch mpertvinlhechar^of (his company, icho hace ^inurd lucecssi'n, there can be no da-.j^er fhaleverof any such cas^jalties, ai aTI such |.ro- B(rtfwiil be invested either at discretion lu the ^L beneficial manner, for the sole advantaj;e of the party «>nveying the same, or inveited as the pjrty may direct, writhin the strict prontionl of luch trust. Company refer, for further information mn this subject to their cbarter, a copy of ^dnnay !>« bad by appHcation at the office, flhtre il30 the terms for any trust estae may be tasvrn. RESIDENT DlftECTORS. James M'Bnde A. H. Lawrence Benjamilk Bailey Thoma* Franklin John Johnston Thomas S. Townscnd Francis 3altTJf Wilham VV. Rosaell Fr-denck A. Tracey isON-RESIDENT DIRECTORS. Southern District— James Tallmadje, Poagh- keep«ic; Christian Schell, Rhioebeck. Midlle District— William James, Albany. E;«lero District— John L. Viele, Waterford. Western District— George Andrus, Adam?, Jefferson rouaty ; David White, Palmyra, OnU- riocountv. ■ JOHN T.CHAMPLIX, PresideDt. Anhibald Mclntyre, Secretary. aug6 The first published advertise- ment of the Farmers Fire In- surance and Loan Co. IicharJ HariMU Junes Mugee George Oris wold Beiijamia Nlarihall C. C. Canibreleng James D'Wolf, Jun. He.iry Wheatoii Cahriel L. Lewis ilenry Maclier z 188 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK tould lawfully do — which seems to be the first instance in history ol a corporation formed for such a purpose. "The public will readily perceive," continued the announce- ment, "that the advantages of this Company to protect property for the benefit of injants or others, or to answer any speclat purposes, either of a public or private nature, are far greater than those of individual executors or other trustees, w'ho are always liable to casualties, which no foresight can guard against or prevent; as the numerous and frequent applications to the court of chancery for filling up of vacancies occasioned by death, insolvencies or other causes, most incontestibly show: and the expenses of such proceedings often swallow up a great part of the Trust Estate." (One thinks of "Jarndyce & Jarndyce" as immortalized by Dickens a little later.) The legal conception of holdings property in trust was o ld enough. ""Based on a combination of the Roman principles of asus and fidelcommissum the "use," or trust, had been seized upon by ingenious monkish lawyers as a device by which to evade the provisions of the mortmain laws. Forbidden as a corporation to receive bequests of land (since the great lords found their seignoral rights thereby impaired) they arranged to have estates conveyed to some friendly "dummy" on the understanding that their religious order should have the use and income. These "uses" were free from the obligations of feudal tenure, and could be bought, sold or devised by will; the nominal owner was often a nobleman of such rank* that he could defy both the law and the hungry lawless aggressors and preserve the property for his cestui que use, whose interests he guarded. A great body of legal and ecclesiastical enactments grew up, recognizing in law what had been only a matter of personal good faith; the artifice was so effective, in such a chaotic period of murder and violence as that which saw the Wars of the Roses, that by the reign of Henry VII most of the land in Eng- land was held in use. The Statute of Uses, enacted in 1535, is still the basis of conveyancing in England; and the elaborate law of trusts, one of the most highly developed branches of equity, has grown out of these ancient roots. The idea was thus an entirely familiar one to English speak- ing men of affairs a hundred years ago; but the notion of a company's undertaking such trusts was completely nqygl. *When Richard III came to the throne, he held so many fiefs as guardian that It was necessary to pass a special act transferring the lands to his co-f coffers or to those for whom thev were held in trust. SIGNIFICANCE OF TRUST COMPANY 189 There is some indication that the germ of the plan came from India — a striking enough fact when one contemplates the dis- turbed state of that country then (torn by the bloody wars of the English conquerors with Gurkhas, Mahrattas and Pin- daris) the separation due to the months'-long voyage, and the utter variance of business conditions in this oriental land from our own. It is recorded that a group of financiers who used to gather at the Merchants' Coffee House in Philadelphia and who formed in 1809 a company for handling life insurance and annuities decided in 1829 to add the execution of trusts to their activities,* their attention being "irresistably" drawn to this field by the remarkable success of what were called in India agency houses — "concerns organized to transact busi- ness for trustees or individuals, to receive monies on deposit and to administer estates." Now John T. Champlin (to whose efforts this new venture was mainly due, and who was the concern's first President) had been for years a member of the great shipping firm of Min- turn & Champlin: it seems likely enough, judging by the Phila- delphia tradition, that the same reports of the prospering agency houses in far-away India may have come to him by personal narrative through his mercantile and shipping connections. This seed from a far-off land was destined to find such favor- ite soil that it grew to a mighty tree indeed — so umbrageous that in another half century or so it was seriously incommoding the original denizens of the business forest, and the banks were seeking legislative and other means of meeting the competition of the great overshadowing trust companies. For the history of finance in America during the last generation has demon- strated strikingly the influence upon the whole industry neces- sarily manifested by any very large accumulation of capital — whether in trust companies, insurance companies, title guarantee and mortgage, companies or individuals. The concentrated power of large sums of money demands use just as surely as the fire of genius demands expression: whether it be used for the public good depends also upon the character of those who wield the power. Naturally enough, no one foresaw the significance of this departure, not even the founders of the Farmers', who were concerned with establishing various lines of profitable business, and devoted most of their energies at the start to the established *The project did not actually take effect until 1836, six years after the second New York trust company, the New York Life Insurance &. Trust Co., had been chartered. 190 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK field of fire insurance, in competition with a dozen other con- cerns already engaged in this work. Anyhow, even when the cold weather checked the yellow fever and permitted New York's population to return and resume business, there were plenty of current matters demand- ing attention: such as the protective tariff for manufacturers urged by the Middle States to balance the duties on cotton and sugar, and the fisheries "allowances;" the nests of counter- feiters, both of bank notes and coins, discovered every now and then; the subscription for the new Exchange; the statistics showing that during the year there had come into the port of New York (a natural meeting ground of commerce since Indian days) twenty-five hundred vessels* carrying thirty-three milUon dollars' worth of goods and paying nearly ten millions of duties; the burning of $109,000 of the Kentucky Commonwealth's depreciated paper — much the most fitting treatment for it; the taking up of the last canal loan at 5 percent.; and the city's annual budget, showing receipts of $749,825.19, with a surplus of over $50,000 for the redemption of municipal stock. On October 8, 1823, occurred the preliminary celebration at Albany of the Erie Canal, f the final opening of which was com- memorated so lavishly in New York two years later. The large delegation from New York included William Bayard, Cadwallader Colden, P. C. Van Wyck, Philip Hone, Dr. Hosack and many other notables. The editor of the Commercial Advertiser was there, too: "We attended the celebration, and have never, on any former occasion, experienced feelings of such proud satisfaction." There were officials and societies and speeches and processions; the prodigious Dr. Mitchell poured libations from two bottles of water — one taken "from the depths of the Indian Ocean," the other from the Atlantic; and, after a "sumptuous" dinner at five o'clock, one hundred and fifty of the celebrants poured libations of champagne to toasts innumerable, "interspersed by music from the band from West Point, under the direction of that accomplished musician, Captain WilHs." If you would see the financial figures of this time in living reality, do but contemplate these formal expressions to each of which the assemblage drank: 1. The transit of the. first boat Jrom the waters oj the Grand Canal into the Hudson. The interesting event we this day * Captain's Merry's register showed on November 1, 1825, in the harbor: 75 ships, 65 brigs, 109 schooners, 291 sloops. t The first boat came through the Champlain section into the Hudson. OPENING OF THE ERIE CANAL 191 celebrate — it has been effected by the intelKgence of a free people. Tune — Clinton and the Grand Canal. 2. The Canal Commissioners. Not only the citizens of this state and the United States, but other nations and future ages, will freely award to them honors due to their talents and fidelity. Hail Columbia. 3. The Canal engineers. All native born citizens, their talents and genius have supplied the defects of practical experience. William Tell. 4. The President and Vice President of the United States. Alonroe's JIarch. 5. The Goi'ernor and Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York. Governor s March. 6. The Jlemory of Gen. Philip Schuyler. As years pass away, his fame increases in freshness and vigor, in the place of his birth we are celebrating the day which his intuitive mind had long predicted. Sweet as the Shepherd's Tuneful Reed. 7. The Jlemori/ of Gouverneur Jlorris. One of the earliest and most eloquent advocates of internal improvement. Oh, Breathe Not His Name. 8. The Albany basin. May it realize our hopes, and prove fruitful in wealth and prosperity to the city. Yankee Doodle. 9. Our sister States beyond the mountains. Though distant, the canal will make us one family. Yankee Doodle. 10. The cause of free governments throughout the world. It will finally prevail. Let fame sound the trumpet. 11. The contemplated canals in various parts of the United States. Their completion will open new sources of wealth to our highly favored country. Waltz. 12. Our neighboring cities and villages. Let us sacrifice local jealousies and honorably compete for the benefit of the canal. Jleeting of the Waters. 13. Our fair country women. Knight Errant. Volunteers By the President — The Canal Commissioners. By Gov. Clinton, President of the Canal Commissioners — our patriotic fellow citizens, who have united in this celebration, may they enjoy all the blessings anticipated, and experience none of the evils apprehended from our artificial navigation. By Lieut. Governor Root — A rigorous accountability and an economical expenditure of the appropriations to the Grand Canal. 192 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK By General Stephen Van Rensselaer, a Commissioner — Thomas Eddy and Jonas Piatt; two of the earliest advocates of the canal system. By Col. Samuel Young, a Commissioner — The waters of Lake Erie and the Hudson River. If any man has aught to say why these two should not be joined together, let him speak now or forever after hold his peace. By the Hon. Henry Seymour, a Commissioner — The legisla- tors who have patronized the canals. By Cadwallader D. Colden, Esq., of the New York Committee — The canals of the United States, links in the great chain; they will be the bond of our union. By Col. Post, of New York — The people. {Three cheers)\ By P. C. Van Wyck, Esq. of N. Y. — Columbus, the immortal navigator, whose life exhibited the triumph of science and courage over prejudice and incredulity. By Dr. Hosack, of New York — The memorial which induced the legislature to pass the memorable act of April 15th, 1817. May the spirit which dictated it have its due influence upon the destinies of the union. {Three cheers). By Gen. Solomon Van Renssellaer, Marshall of the day. The State of New York — In war or in peace, always upon duty. By Mr. P. Hone, of New York — Public spirit. May the bene- factors of the people receive their best reward — the people's gratitude. By Col. Elisha Jenkins, of Albany — Honor to the statesman whose public conduct may be safely referred to the judgment of posterity. By Mr. Bronson, of the Senate — Canals and steamboats of New York — two ligaments formed to bind an empire together. By Dr. Hosack — May the waters of the Canal cool the jever which has lately disturbed the tranquility of the State. {Three cheers). By Major Worth, of the West Point academy. The President of the Canal Commissioners — Citizen, Governor, or Commis- sioner, everything for his country. By T. Van Vechten, Esq. of Albany. The Marshall and Assistant Marshalls of the day. By S. C. Reid, Esq. The Grand Canal — May it never want water, while Madeira and Teneriffe can furnish us with wine. By Col. S. T. Jones of New York. The Navy of the United States — may it Increase with our commerce. OPENING OF THE ERIE CANAL 19,^ Bv E. Baldwin, Esq. of Albany. The Constitution of the United States — It has been so construed as to give New York the undivided honor of completing the greatest work of the age. By S. A. Foote, Esq. of Albany. The State of Ohio— She is truly our sister; her heart has been with us in our great under- taking. By Wm. L. Stone, of New York. Our antipodes, whom the improvements of the age have made our neighbors. By Major Smith, of Albany. The city of Albany — Yankee enterprise coupled with Dutch prudence — may the union be perpetual. By a guest. The West Point band — the only gentlemen of science and skill, who, without offence, trumpet their ownjame. By a guest. The man on whom atone would have fastened all the obloquy of the jaiture of that stupendous undertaking, the success of which we this day celebrate. Palrnam Jerat, qui meruit By Joseph Alexander, Esq. of Albany. The heads that planned and the hands that achieved the stupendous work that we this day celebrate. By a guest. Commodore Rogers — ^who has this day sent a libation from the ocean to the Canals. By a guest. The union we this day celebrate between the lake and the river: that which is so happily "joined together," let no man put asunder. Air — "Oh haste to the wedding." After which, our editor observes, the company separated at an early hour in order to witness, with a vast concourse of people on the capitol hill, the fireworks, "which, though they cost enough were but poorly got up." And he concludes his panegyric: "Europe begins already to admire — America can never forget that they have built the LONGEST CANAL IN THE WORLD IN THE LEAST TIME, WITH THE LEAST EXPERIENCE, FOR THE LEAST MONEY, AND TO THE GREAT- EST PUBLIC BENEFIT." Of course, too, it was all to do over again, on a greatly enlarged scale, when New York had its prodigious celebration in 1825, La Fayette, John Adams, Jefferson, Monroe, John Ouincy Adams and Madison being among the invited guests. This festival even eclipsed the outburst of welcome to La Fayette the year before. Col. Stone, of the Commercial Advertiser was the official chron- icler, and though he declared all efforts at description to be 194 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK utterly in vain, he did his grandiloquent best in the volume which commemorates the event, almost rivalling the "13 com- pounded gerbes each containing 58 pounds of brilliant Chinese and diamond fires which changed alternately/' and the twenty- pound rockets with a background of spur fire and the like. It must be added that Dr. Mitchell was again in evidence, pouring symbolical waters from bottles which he had gathered "from every zone — from the Ganges and the Indies, the Nile and the Gambia, the Thames, the Seine, the Rhine and the Danube, the Mississippi and Columbia, the Orinoco, the Platte and the Amazon" — all in token of the world commerce which was to concentrate upon Manhattan as the future commercial centre of the world. In sober fact, despite Dr. Mitchell and all the verbal fireworks, the Canal had great significance for New York. It made the city the outlet for the commerce of the northern Mississippi country, the whole Great Lakes region and the north, over a chain of waterways sixteen hundred miles long; it was a tre- mendous stimulus to trade, offering freight transportation at a rate only a fraction of what it had formerly cost; and its value, was soon beyond question when the tolls were seen by 1828 to amount to nearly a million dollars a year. Its success prepared men's minds for the radical transportation change that was shortly to come with the railroad: and as early as 1815, the enterprising John Stevens, a well-known figure in the banking world, received the first charter granted in the United States for a railroad, building a line, in 1853, from Phila- delphia to Lancaster, which was later a link in the Pennsylvania System. Business of every kind was greatly stimulated; a flood of goods and travellers poured in and out, the value of merchandise laden and unladen rising to nearly a hundred million dollars; Isaac Wright, president of the City Bank, had, in 1822, doubled the trans-Atlantic service of his line, vessels leaving New York and Liverpool simultaneously twice a month, and it was figured that 300,000 passengers arrived by steamboat in 1828, besides 22,000 from foreign ports; 38 vessels, including 12 steamboats, aggre- gating nearly 30,000 tons were built at New York in 1827; it was the outlet for the Southern cotton trade, receiving over 200,000 bales, of which 90 percent, was exported; the New York Gas Light Company began in May, 1825, its laying of pipes from Canal Street to the Battery; 1,600 houses were built in a single year; and the first marble- fronted structure since the City Hall, the American Museum, was finally completed in 1824 — HOW CANAL AFFECTED C O iM M E R C E 195 the prejudice against this material being so strong that no work- man could be found to handle it, so a convict in Sing Sing was pardoned on condition that he would do the work. More important still was the erection of the new home of the Merchants' Exchange in Wall Street, long the centre of the city's commercial life. The Chamber of Commerce, formerly meeting in the Royal Exchange, had used the long room of the Merchants' Coffee House from 1779 on, and here it was reorganized in 1784; the city's first bank had been organized the same year at a meeting in the old building, where merchants, shipmasters and captains congregated; in 1792 they built the Tontine Coffee House at Wall and Water Streets, which with its piazza stretching over a six- foot strip of the sidewalk, was valued at $7,000 in 1799— the highest figure on the hst of Manhattan houses, and exceeded only by Peter Stuyvesant's "suburban residence" w^hich was estimated as w^orth $13,000. But, having outgrown, even these quarters, the associated business men built by subscription a new marble edifice, costing $230,000, on the site bounded by Wall, William, Hanover and Exchange Place — the present site of the National City Bank. When opened for business in May 1827, it was considered the finest business structure in town, with its columned entrance, a great oval exchange room in the centre where were bulletined the arrivals and departures of vessels and other matters of mercantile interest, offices for brokers in the basement, and for merchants in the galleries. The Chamber of Commerce had rooms here, the Post Office was in the building and a semaphore signal telegraph on the roof sent and brought instantaneous shipping news' from a station on Staten Island. Here was the home of the young Farmers' Fire Insurance and Loan Company and many another commercial institution. Another financial milestone at the time was the placing of a loan of £200,000 with the Barings in London, this being the first international transaction of any magnitude in which an American bank had figured. We had, too, a sharp reminder presently that we had achieved through commercial growth an international dependence, fol- lowing our national independence. Also, that even the land of the free was subject to the laws of reason and mathematics. Business in the more stable Eastern States had just gotten well over the results of the bank fever which had for a second time raged among us from 1815 to 1818. Hundreds of mush- room institutions had been started all over the country; as soon as the stockholders' first instalment was paid in, they would 196 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK begin to issue paper money in a perfect flood, making reckless loans, violating every principle of sane banking. Naturally such conditions offered ideal opportunities to the deliberately dishonest promoters to be found in every community. In one striking case of a Rhode Island bank, a Boston operator named Dexter got control of the institution practically by paying the stockholders out of the bank funds; he borrowed what he chose w^ithout security on any basis he prescribed, naively fund- ing some of these amounts by a note due in two years with interest at two percent. — "it being, however, understood that said Dexter shall not be called upon to make payment until he thinks proper, he being the principal stockholder, and best knowing when it will be proper to pay the same." The president and cashier had almost no occupation except signing notes, and much of this was done secretly and at night under the constant urging of the "principle stockholder" that everything depended upon his having these speedily or he could not dispose of them: in some instances these notes were rushed to Boston without waiting for dates and numbers. The result was that when the explosion came the bank had $86.45 in specie and some worthless notes, against over half a million bills in circulation. Another institution did not have a dollar of real money. The bursting of this bubble had wrecked banks and businesses right and left; for ten years Vermont had no banks at all; yet so great was the popular ignorance of finance, that in the absence of any effective legal restrictions, there was another mad scramble to start new banks from 1815 to 1818 — forty-three projected in Kentucky alone, and some hundreds altogether. The sight of corporations (whose stockholders rarely paid in anything above the first instalment of their nominal capital) busily manufacturing "money," was too much for the public mind to resist, and the wild speculation which ensued was skill- fully fomented by tricksters. A Massachusetts bank started on $50,000 of specie borrowed for a single day; a Pennsylvania one had for active capital $35,000 said to be deposited in New York. When the Broome County Bank was launched with a capital of $100,000, the subscriptions amounted to $8,000,000; in some cases draymen and strong- armed rowdies were hired by speculators to fight their way through the crowds struggling to get new scrip at the windows, and it was stated that the most disgraceful riots in Philadelphia at this period were those caused by the opening of the subscrip- tion books of a new bank. THE 1825 ERA OF SPECULATION 197 In January, 1825, there were applications to the New York Legislature for charters for banks, insurance companies and other enterprises aggregating $52,000,000. All that was necessary to get rich quickly seemed to be to start something — anything, so long as it had shares. AH the time there were exposures of recklessness and dishonesty: banks were buying up insiders' shares at high prices and presently failing, dividends were paid out of capital, defalcations were hushed up, agents were peddling bills of a concern about to go under at a third discount while they were nominally at a Ij^ percent, discount. The rising prices of everything, due to this expansion of paper issues and the general speculative excitement, coincided with an outbreak of speculation in England. Reduction of the interest rate on government securities and large loans to the newly recog- nized South American Republics directed the minds of investors there towards all sorts of new enterprises. Shares in South American mines leaped to fabulous prices; companies were started overnight, and a few lucky venturers, paying down five percent., made fortunes; one prospectus proposed to drain the Red Sea to recover the gold of the Egyptians overwhelmed while pursuing the Israelites; in a short time the nominal capital of these new companies equalled a third of the total wealth of the country. This diversion of capital from commerce at first raised prices. In April, seven expresses arrived at New York from Philadelphia in a single day telling of a sensational rise in commodities in the English markets; cotton leaped from 20 cents to 27; sugars, coffee, tobacco, drugs and spices were suddenly worth from a tenth to a quarter more than they were the day before. The news that so-and-so had ;ust made fifty thousand in a day on cotton, and that dozens of other dealers had been almost as fortunate, whipped the excitement to a frenzy. Cotton was "king," indeed, both in New York and in the South: a lot would change owners half a dozen times in a week without leaving the factor's hands, and in some sections the farmers began to root up the growing corn to get ready to plant more cotton. Naturally enough, this "easy money" produced marked extravagances in living and business expenses. In the summer, London prices dropped as suddenly as they had risen; very large shipments of gold and silver were drawn from the United States; and as conditions there took shape for the panic of December (one of the most disastrous in English history) our banks, and especially the New^ York ones, began to feel the strain. Their reserves were low, and every intelligent 198 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK financier saw that in the state of the pubhc mind, if one of them stopped payment, it would probably cause a run on every bank in the country. In the next five months, there were fifty failures in New York of over-extended dealers, and many in the South; several banks went under, and one of the Directors of the United States Bank (which had just had to pay off a seven-million-dollar loan for the Government) openly advocated suspending specie payments. Nicholas Biddle, then president of that institution, afterward declared that a terrific disaster had only been averted by his going to New York and persuading a gentleman who was pre- paring to draw a heavy amount of specie for shipment to New Orleans (for starting a bank there) to send drafts instead. This, and an increase of loans by the New York Branch Bank, saved the situation for a time; and when the inevitable reaction came next year its effects could be localized. The Marble Manufacturing Co., a new bond-issuing concern, went under in April; two New Jersey and two Pennsylvania banks followed; when a couple of New York banks and half a dozen loan offices and insurance companies closed their doors, there was a general run on all the financial institutions in the city; but they were now in such condition that all demands could be met. It was figured at the time that the American holders of cotton, who had had a paper profit of seventeen millions above the nor- mal, finally got out with a loss of ten millions, half of this falling upon New York. Indeed, the "cotton panic," as it was called, strengthened the hands of the intelligent financiers who had pointed out the absurdities that had been practiced — for all through this period there was a group of men in New York who really understood and practiced sound banking. In the very middle of the trouble there were applications for sixty-four new banks, nearly half of them in New York City, besides as many other stock companies, capitalized in the aggregate at $55,000,000. The men who knew what was happening, and what was bound to come shortly, had little difficulty in convincing legislators that this was hardly the time for such wild expansion, and the new crop of financial fungi never saw the light of day. When an investigation revealed some of the methods of the swindlers who had taken advantage of public credulity, and four of these gentlemen went to jail, the exposure helped to restore sanity. While it was to be many years before our highly defective system of inadequately secured issues was reformed, each disaster Ihe painting by N. Cat, THE "great fire" OF 1835 Which destroved $18,000,000 worth of property In the Wall Street district, and covered an area of thirteen acres. The view above shows the burning ol the first Merchants' Exchange building on Wall Street; below Is a view of the ruins, lookinu north on William Street from Exchange Place Reproduced by courtesy of Kennedy &° Co., N. 1 STATUS OF THE 1825 BANKRUPT 199 of this sort became an object lesson by which informed leaders could illustrate their statements of sound principles. On the other hand, the loose financial methods and the suc- cessive consequent reactions of these decades introduced one highly unfortunate element. Before 1800, and especially up to the end of the Revolution, bankruptcies were rare catastrophes.* When one did occur to a reputalale business man, he not only felt his honor deeply involved, but it was a matter of deep con- cern in his community. An old bank cashier of Philadelphia related how when a prominent business man on Chestnut Street suddenly failed, "the whole house was closely shut up for one week, as an emblem of the deepest family mourning, and all who passed the house instinctively stopped, and mingled the expressions of their liveliest regret." This fine old-fashioned sense of personal honor and responsi- bility was inevitably much relaxed when we alternated between periods of feverish excitement, when one could get rich suddenly by starting almost any sort of corporation, preferably one to turn out money, and times when the inescapable results of this brought business after business crashing to the ground. There were said to be more insolvencies in the United States m a year than Holland had in a century. Naturally enough, there was a tendency to feel that failure was no disgrace: "everybody had done it." It was seriously argued that there was nothing to worry about in the banks' suspending specie payments: the nation had gotten along all right before under those conditions. It is a tribute to the character of the sohd backbone of the com- mercial community that there were always enough men and institutions of character, who passed through these trying times of learning by experience, to uphold a higher standard. During all the frenzies of speculation there were plenty of bankers and merchants whose common-sense and integrity alike held them to conservative methods; and, as is always the case, the less stable elements of society came to their point of view because it proved successful, even if the moral aspect failed to appeal strongly enough. Mr. Biddle, when the United States Bank was appealed to during the money scarcity which followed the "cotton panic" and the banks' strengthening of their position, made a reply which if not comforting to the sufferers, certainly contained needed truths: "It is the order of nature," said he, "that if men or nations live extravagantly, they must suffer till they repair their losses * There were but three well-known houses recorded in Philadelphia be- fore 1776. 200 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK by prudence, and that neither men nor banks should impose on the community by promises to pay what they cannot pay. The laws of trade have their own remedy for such disorders, as in- falhble as the laws of animal life, which enables the human system to relieve itself from its own excesses. Both must have their course. But the Bank of the United States is invoked to assume that which, whoever attempts, invokes the ruin he will suffer. It is requested to erect itself into a special providence to modify the laws of nature, and to declare that the ordinary fate of the heedless and improvident shall not be applied to the United States. Our countrymen are to be indulged without restraint in the utmost extravagance of the luxuries of Europe, on credit from the banks; and when the day of payment arrives, the debtor shall not be called on for payment — the banks shall not be incommoded to pay their own notes, for the moment any inconvenience is felt, the Bank of the United States will certainly interpose and pay the debt. But if the Bank of the United States blends any sense with its tenderness, it will do nothing of all this." That the public was awaking to the necessity of curbing some of the abuses of the banking system became evident shortly after this. Over-issue of notes, and evasion of redemption had long been common among the country banks and those in the less settled communities; and the deliberate misuse of the privilege by dishonest promoters during the speculative period referred to made the defects of the system only too apparent. Besides a host of ingenious frauds, there were many ways by which the necessity of paying out real money was avoided : notes would be made payable at some other place than the home office; large borrowers had to consent to keep a certain amount in circula- tion; it would be agreed that notes should not be presented for a certain time; post notes, payable at some future date, answered the same purpose; notes circulated at a distance would at least give more time for payment; there were "saddle-bag" banks, whose notes were carried about the country on horseback and peddled or exchanged for something more standard: one broker of Rhode Island worked off $200,000 of a speculative bank, mostly in one dollar bills, in a single year; and once in a while, when cornered, they would adopt the expedient of a Georgia cashier who met a demand for some thousc\.nds of dollars by pay- ing it in cents, counted out at the rate of sixty dollars a day.* In New England, the situation had been distinctly improved by a plan developed by the Suffolk Bank, in extension of Avhat * Exactly the same plan was adopted by a Maine concern in its fight with the Suffolk Bank over note redemption. ABUSES OF BANKING SYSTEM 201 had been undertaken by the New England Bank — by which the country banks each kept a deposit with it for redemption. In 1824, the chief Boston institutions raised a joint fund, with the Suffolk as agent, to pay any notes presented and return these to the home bank. In spite of much opposition, this standardized the issues of that region. When the New York Legislature met in 1829, there were before it twenty-nine petitions for renewals of old bank charters about to expire, and thirty-seven for new ones; while all the reputable concerns were re-chartered, the opportunity was taken to pass what was known as the Safety Fund law. Each bank was required to contribute a percentage of its capital towards a fund for meeting the debts above assets of any concern that failed, exclusive of its capital stock; note issues were restricted to twice the paid-up capital; and three commissioners were provided to whom the banks must report and who were empowered to inves- tigate the affairs of any state institution. This was really discriminating against the city banks. They kept in circulation less than a third of their capital in notes, the safety of which was the prime intent of the law; yet they were forced to contribute on their large capitals, whereas the country banks paid on capitals less than their issues. Still it was an effort in the right direction and seemed to work well until the bank fail- ures of 1840-42 disclosed the fatal weakness of providing against all the debts of an insolvent bank instead of merely guaranteeing the notes (as the Canadian system still does). When eleven banks went down In rapid succession, everybody realized for the first time how large a factor these other liabilities might be; and from that time the safety fund was no longer an active security but a mere matter of bookkeeping In straightening out the tangle of past transactions. In 1866, it was finally wound up by apply- ing the surplus of $88,048 to the payment of a dividend on notes of four banks which had failed since 1842. The prodigious development of resources, which went on at an accelerating rate, enabled the country as a whole to progress In spite of all mistakes; and while we apparently had to learn the dangers as Mark Twain learned the Mississippi snags, by running on them, it was impossible to wreck a nation so dowered with natural wealth and human energy. New York took another severe lesson In sanitation. In 1832. Asiatic cholera, for centuries a local disease In the East, had recently become epidemic, and had blazed a ghastly track across Asia and Europe. It reached New York that summer, via Quebec, just as everybody was discussing the threatening rumbles 202 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK of "nullification" from South Carolina in protest against the tariff. Within ten days of the discovery of the first case in Cherry Street, the public took alarm. A special medical council was appointed, and five large hospitals were organized. As the scourge spread, there was a general exodus from the city; but Greenwich Village and the other resorts proved to be not im- mune from the plague, and the marked fatality in districts considered specially healthy caused a real panic. Business was almost suspended. During the three months that the epidemic raged, there were about three thousand deaths, out of twice as many cases, in a population under a quarter of a million. The disease returned again to claim another thousand victims two years later — that year of disorder which saw the election riots of April, the street barricades and fighting with militia of the mobs inflamed against abolitionists in July, and the "stone cutters' riot" of August. A still more severe lesson, this time in fire protection, was m store for the city's financial region. On the night of December 16, 1835, a fire broke out near the foot of Maiden Lane. The intense cold, and the inadequate supply of water soon put it beyond the control of the primitive fire-fighting apparatus. For two nights and days it swept over the heart of the business dis- trict; when it was finally arrested, by the expedient of blowing up a group of houses before it with gunpowder, it had laid waste a great triangle of thirteen acres, between Wall and William Streets and the East River, on which had stood 693 offices, stores and houses, including the marble building of the Merchants' Exchange, the Customs House, the Dutch Church in Garden Street and many others of the finest structures. The $18,000,000 of losses (out of a total real estate valuation of only $140,000,000) broke nearly every insurance company in the city. Nevertheless, business in general continued as if nothing had happened. Two years later there were twenty-one active fire insurance companies listed, besides receivers' offices for half a dozen relics of the catastrophe; the disaster merely afforded an irresistible argument for hastening the construction of the Croton Reservoir and the great aqueduct, with its 45 miles of masonry conduit crossing the Harlem River on High Bridge to the receiv- ing reservoir in Central Park, and the distributing one where the Public Library now stands on Fifth Avenue.* * Water was admitted to the city through this system in 1842 — an event celebrated by a procession "seven miles in length," eclipsing even the Erie Canal festivities. T H E P A N I C O F 1 8 3 6 203 Indeed, it is striking enough to see how much more rapidly the financial organism recovered from this external assault of chance, annihilating probably a quarter of the city's whole build- ing value, than it did from the panic which followed in 1837; the difference shows clearly that the latter, like the crises pre- ceding and following, was merely a warning symptom of un- healthy over-expansion and discounting of the future. It seems impossible, during periods of rapid growth, for the mass of people to realize that the laws of arithmetic and finance still operate; this has always been peculiarly true in America, where an ardent belief in the country's future was the cause of its existence and has constantly worked miracles of development in the face of physical obstacles; when logical effects are delayed by a sudden influx of new wealth, practically the whole community pushes forward under the delusion that the old order has been revolu- tionized, and that what is obviously true when dealing in thou- sands has no application to a nation that measures by tens of millions. Then comes a crisis. Common sense re-asserts itself. The intelligent men face the truth. But the process of readjustment and repair is slow — ^^ust as is that of the bodily organism in recovering from a fever which indicates some unsoundness of bodily health. While many specific causes contributed to the financial con- vulsion, they were practically all expressions of this tendency to "speed up" beyond the limits of safety. Everything contrib- uted to confirm the idea that the unexampled growth of the United States rendered us a "peculiar people," creating new commercial laws instead of being governed by old, immutable ones. To begin with, Jefferson's prophecy thirty years before had become a reality: the United States had in half a century financed two great wars, assumed the State debts, bought Louisiana, and completely paid off a national debt which amounted to $86,000,- 000 when the population was only 6,000,000. In addition, it had in January, 1835, actually arranged to distribute among the States a surplus of $37,000,000.* We did not need the assurance of Europe to convince us that the world had never seen such a record. Foreign financiers backed their admiration with their money: we were importing millions of specie in 1836 while bringing over from Europe thirty millions of merchandise above what we sent. Canals were being built and projected everywhere, inspired by the success of New York's waterway, through which over 400,000 tons of mer- * Owing to the financial situation in 1837, only $28,000,000 was actually turned over. 204 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK chandise went to tidewater in 1836. Land values were going up bv leaps everywhere: lots in frontier cities cost as much as New York lots a few years back; Mobile's valuation in six years in- creased to twenty- two times its former sum; a wild speculation began in the public lands, which were sold at a fixed price of a dollar and a quarter an acre, so that the first purchaser reaped all the profits of the excited advance: sales jumped from about four and a half million acres in 1834 to over twenty million in 1836. Besides the influx of foreign capital, there had sprung up three hundred new banks in seven years, and much of this doubled banking capital was in the hands of men swept off their feet by the fever of universal speculation. Even the United States Bank was sending an agent to New Orleans to buy up the cotton crop of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in order to control the foreign exchange situation. A day of reckoning was inevitable. President Jackson's undying hostility to the Bank of the United States had made him first withhold further deposits of public monies (producing a temporary panic in 1833) and then force through Congress a resolution that the bank should not be re-chartered and that the State banks instead should be con- tinued as depositaries of government funds. Some of these latter were only too ready to expand their business by loans for speculative ventures; the paper issues increased by a half in eighteen months; and bank capital also w^ent up a hundred mil- lions. The general expansion was accelerated. Then in July, 1836, the President issued his "specie circular" requiring that payment for public lands should be in coin or land scrip; and shortly after there set in a demand from abroad for gold and silver to balance our huge excess of imports. At that time the United States produced no gold or silver worth men- tioning; whatever was shipped to pay debts must come out of the floating supply; and this amounted to less than half our bill for the trade balance against us in 1836. As the exports in- creased, a stringency in money began to paralyze trade and con- fidence. England was having her own troubles and could not have checked the demand for bullion even had she wished to, so the Bank of England refused any extension of credit. To add to the difficulties, the last wheat crop had been so short that a million and a half bushels had to be imported; flour went to $15.00 a barrel, and there were fierce bread riots in New York. Early in April the strain proved too great, and for a time it seemed as if the whole commercial structure were going down like a house of cards. THE BANK FAILURE OF 1840-42 205 In the first three weeks of that month, two hundred and fifty firms went down, with losses of over a hundred milUons; cotton fell fifty percent., and New Orleans contributed failures of $27,000l!000 in two days; the State advertised a loan of half a million at six percent, without receiving a single bid; a general run started; after consultation among themselves, the New York banks suspended specie payments on May 10, and those throughout the country which had not gone under followed their example. The United States Treasury ceased its deposits of public funds. Depression everywhere was as extravagant as had been the over-optimism of the preceding years. The men who had kept their heads before, kept them now, however. The very day of the suspension, at a meeting of bankers and merchants in the Exchange, James E. King (of Prime, Ward & King) proposed an agreement that bank notes should pass current until resumption was practicable; and the unanimous assent to this did much to restore confidence. Albert Gallatin, then president of the National Bank, had always preached the "paramount and most sacred duty" of every bank's performing its obligation to redeem its issues "at all times and under any circumstances whatever;" he now headed a committee which issued a call in August to the principal banks of the nation for a convention to settle upon a date for resump- tion; in spite of the embarrassing failures of three of the chief English houses engaged in American trade, and in face of pro- tests by delegations from other States, it was decided to resume payments in coin on May 12, 1838. The cooperation of local business men was secured. Mr. King, too, succeeded in convincing the English bankers that their interest lay in holding up the hands of those who were striving to restore soundness here; and he returned triumphantly from London in March with a million pounds in gold which he had secured from the Bank of England. These effective measures were successful, and the banks of New York resumed normal conditions as planned, setting an example which the rest of the country followed. It was loudly asserted (most loudly by the most irresponsible) that there had never been any real need for the suspension; and the discussion aided the efforts of the "locofoco" Democrats who had for some time been pressing for a change in the require- ments for bank charters. There had been plenty of political scandals in connection with the granting of some of these charters; the system had always aroused the wrath of the element who saw a menace to the country in any concentration of power or 206 ACENTURYOFBANKINGINNEWYORK money. The banks were termed monopolies, their managers accused of being arrogant, and of all sorts of manipulations — these loud and ignorant outbursts being constantly capitalized for political purposes. Not only was it an advance to do any- thing which removed the formation of new banks from politics, but the country was necessarily gaining some knowledge of finance through its series of hard experiences; so the "free bank- ing" law of 1838 was in many respects a step forward. Any group of men could start a bank by this act, and issue notes against a deposit of public stocks with the Comptroller. (A somewhat dangerous provision for issues against real estate was repealed in 1863.) There was something of a rush to take advantage of these new conditions, and by the end of 1839 seventy-six issuers of notes under the new law showed $6,000,000 outstanding. A third of these went out of business during the troubles of 1841-42; but the system showed up well, so far as protection went, the losses for the first twelve years averaging under half of one percent, a year, and dropping to a twentieth of this during the next fifteen years — -at the end of which period the law was remodelled into the National Banking Act, which is the foundation of our modern system. The bank failures of 1840-42 referred to were really a legacy of the speculative orgy which led to the panic of '37. Of the eleven New York banks which became insolvent (only two were in New York City, — and one of those paid its obligations in full without recourse to the safety fund) eight had secured charters at the very height of the craze; and their operations had been in defiance of all established financial principles. Chapter VII THE COMING OF THE CLEARING HOUSE The Banks am) the Find Railroads— Neii,' York's Part in Financinij [he RaiLroa^s— The Rise of Banks in iHji— How the Clearing House Idea Originated — The Financial Crisis of 18 jj TB^ yOBODY realized what it meant to America, and the banking / *7 interests in particular, when Charles Carroll of Carrollton •^ ' laid the cornerstone of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad on July 4, 1828. It was the beginning of the railroad epoch, which was to revolutionize trade, finance and social life in the coming greater United States. The account which Mr. John Crosby Brown gives of this initial venture in railroading illustrates both the lighthearted manner in which the adventurous business pioneers of that day launched great undertakings, and the intimate connection which the banks had with every sort of commercial development. The Erie Canal had made New York the centre of the export and import trade for the whole country to such an extent that the Brown banking firm in Baltimore had been compelled to estab- lish a New York branch. "At that time Baltimore was a city of about 70,000 inhabitants, and the loss of its western trade was a source of great anxiety to its merchants. Alexander Brown and his son George had the sagacity to perceive that some action was necessary if Baltimore was to retain its hold on western trade. After a careful study of the whole situation a meeting of twenty-five leading citizens was called at the residence of Mr. George Brown on February 12, 1827, 'to take into consideration the best means of restoring to the city of Baltimore that portion of the western trade that has been lately diverted from it by the introduction of steam naviga- tion and by other causes.' At this meeting one of the boldest enterprises was inaugurated. There was then, with the excep- tion of the Stockton & Darhngton Railroad in England, which was built mainly for the transportation of minerals and was 207 208 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK originally propelled by horse power, but one railroad of any importance in the whole world, the Manchester and Liverpool Railroad. The steam locomotive was still untested, and yet the business men of Baltimore, in order to retain their trade, incor- porated the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, with a capital stock of $5,000,000, to build a 'double railroad' to the Ohio River over the Allegheny Mountains. Not only was the method of propulsion all unsettled, but the various processes of railroad construction and the necessary appliances had to be invented and were invented during the progress of the work. "George Brown, Alexander Brown's son, became the first Treasurer and afterward the Treasurer for the State, and it was said by his associates that, but for his active exertions in its behalf, the friends of the road would on several occasions have despaired of its success. "My father used often to tell an amusing story in connection with the opening of the railroad. A gentleman in Baltimore who had a famous white trotting horse made a wager that his horse could beat 'that old black machine.' The line of the road ran for about ten or twelve miles parallel with the turnpike. The wager was accepted and a day was set for the trial. There was a large concourse of people present to witness the result, and the horse won." The reckless speeding-up which culminated m the 1837 crisis had been based mainly on land speculation and the correlated extension of the canal systems. The various States had under- taken canal and road building between 1820 and 1838 to the tune of nearly $100,000,000; some of these schemes were the product of visionary enthusiasm — like the project for a canal from Albany to Boston. When the crash came, some of the debts were repudiated, many such enterprises were turned over to private parties or abandoned, and there was a sudden cessa- tion of the feverish activity in developing means of transporta- tion. As the railroads demonstrated their far wider range of useful- ness, and many superiorities, all the former enthusiasm for canals became transferred to them; and in the generation from this time to the Civil War they became more and more the dominant factor in the country's development, consequently absorbing an increasing amount of attention from banking capital. In fact, it is not too much to say that the financing of these essential transportation enterprises carried over the banking interest in general from its overemphasizing of note-issues to the financing of basic industries — a path along which New York (where there NEW YORK RAILROAD FINANCING 209 had alwa.vs been concentrated the ablest financiers of the nation) had journeyed far in advance of the rest of the country. At the same time the early '40s saw a healthy reduction of the over-expansion which had accompanied the general excite- ment. Between 1829 and 1840 the nation's banks had grown from 329 to 901, their capital from $110,000,000 to $358,000,000, their circulation from $48,000,000 to $135,000,000, their loans from $137,000,000 to $492,000,000. By 1845 the number was down to 707, the capital was $206,000,000, the circulation only $89,000,000, and the loans $288,000,000. That is to say, we had gotten back to realities and were prepared for the wonderful decade that lay ahead — which was to see three million immi- grants, the discovery of gold in California, and the building of some ten thousand miles of railroads. Already by 1845 there were nearly four thousand miles in operation — more than all the Continental countries combined; the Mohawk and Hudson, begun In 1830, and a number of short Hnes had reached Buffalo; Albany was joined both to New York and Boston; plans that seemed gigantic, even to their originators, threw out lines to the Mississippi and the Great Lakes, to the Gulf, westward into Texas — ^just wrested from Mexico. And each time one of these grandiose visions became a reality, it was discovered that the commercial results had been under instead of over estimated. When the Erie opened the first trunk-hne railroad to the Lakes, commerce and men's imaginations broad- ened as they had done with the coming of the Canal. The financing of these roads was a gigantic task. Especially in the early years conservative men considered them highly speculative ventures; and of course they had to compete for capital with the very industries they created and stimulated. From the first the New York banks took a leading part in such financing, as was inevitable from the growing concentration of capital in that city; and while states, counties, and mass-meetings and farmers along the proposed route were called upon for aid in building, railroad investments tended constantly to centre in the financial capital. This of course became increasingly true as the new development proved its earning powers, and the smaller roads began to be consolidated into trunk lines and sys- tems. The banks too were the principal agents through whom came the vast flood of foreign money that poured into the United States for railway construction — estimated at $400,000,000 during the first fifty years. An interesting glimpse of some of this financing (the success of which established one private banking firm) is given in the remi- 210 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK niscences of J. F. D. Lanier, of Winslovv, Lanier & Co. After some years of managing a bank in Madison, Indiana, he came to New York in 1849, and formed a partnership with Richard H. Winslow, mainly for the negotiation of railway securities. "At that time there were in operation in the West" (Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Illinois) "only about six hundred miles of line. These roads were chiefly the remains of the old State systems which had been sold out to private companies, and were almost w'ithout exception badly located and imperfectly built. They were in all cases laid with the light, flat bar, upon longi- tudinal sills, and were utterly incapable of sustaining heavy trains, high speed or a large traffic. They had, consequently, involved in heavy loss all who had been engaged in their con- struction. I felt, however, their want of success to be no argu- ment against lines properly constructed upon good routes. I undertook to demonstrate this in every way in my power, par- ticularly in newspaper articles and pamphlets, of which I pub- lished great numbers in connection with the negotiation of the securities of various companies which we undertook. The results of our efforts soon far exceeded our expectations. Although we began in a very small way, every step we took gave us increased business and strength, and we soon had all the business we could attend to. Commencing with the bonds of the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad, which were the first securities of the kind ever brought out in the New York market, w-e followed them with the bonds of the little Miami; Columbus and Xenia; Cleve- land, Columbus and Cincinnati; Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula; Ohio and Pennsylvania (now a part of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago); Michigan Southern and other important lines. We not infrequently negotiated a million of bonds daily. The aggregate for the year was enormous. We were without competitors for a business we had created, and conse- quently made money very rapidly. The commissions for the negotiations of bonds averaged at first five percent. With their negotiation we often coupled contracts for the purchase, at a large commission, of rails. Our business soon became so great that it was a question with us, not so much what we would under- take, as what we would reject. We not infrequently took, on our own account, an entire issue of bonds of important lines. "The negotiation of the securities of companies was followed by arrangements that made our house the agent for the payment of interest accruing on them, as well as transfer agents. Such arrangements naturally led the way to the banking business to which we afterward chiefly confined ourselves." NEW YORK RAILROAD FINANCING 211 The change of tendency in a quarter of a century, towards building up deposits and neglecting the note issue privilege, is strikingly shown by a joint statement of the New York City banks in 1847, which displayed nearly $28,000,000 of deposits, and $11,000,000 of specie, with less than $7,000,000 of circulation. And the prosperity of the country at large is indicated by the response to the loans for the Mexican War: on one for $18,000,000 subscriptions of over $57,000,000 were received, payable in specie — a change indeed from the days of depreciated paper. In 1844 the first telegraph line was built from Washington to Baltimore by Congressional appropriation; the next year New York and Philadelphia were connected; and in 1848 Ezra Cornell linked up New York, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit and Chicago. The personal express service started by William F, Harnden in 1839 had developed into a great business, and Wells & Fargo were building up the same kind of delivery between Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis. Mails, too, had been greatly improved and extended, and the first postage stamps, of 5 and 10 cents, were authorized m 1847. These new facilities of communicating intelligence reinforced the effects of the transportation facilities in tying together the country, spreading information, and mak- ing possible a new kind of financial service to the wealth that was rolling up. The whole basis of dealing in stocks, bonds and exchange, and most banking operations were radically altered and stimulated. To crown all, came the discovery of gold in California; even the memorable Astor Place Riot of 1849 (when thirty-four of the mob were killed and hundreds of soldiers and rioters wounded) paled at that news; and there poured into the high tide of pros- perity some $50,000,000 a year of the precious metal added to the country's resources — somewhat more than the total amount oi specie held by all the banks. There was also added a new State, of boundless energy an" ^ -fr.^. W 1^ X > H (u ORIGIN OF THE CLEARING HOUSE 215 Conseciuenlly, the Friday settlements proved to be no settle- ments at all, but a prodigious annoyance. As soon as the Pay- ing Teller or his Assistant completed the Exchange Balance List, the Cashier of each bank would draw checks lor every debt due to him by other banks, and send out the Porters to collect them. A draft on one in favor of another might settle two accounts at once, but there was no understanding that made it possible to secure that small economy; or if there was, it was disregarded. The sixty Porters were out all at once, with an aggregate of two or three hundred bank-drafts in their pockets, balking each other, drawing specie at some places and depositing it in others; and the whole process was one of confusion, disputes, and unavoidable blunders, of which no description could give an exact impression. "After all the draft-drawing was over, came the settlement of the Wall Street Porters among themselves. A Porter s Exchange was held on the steps of one of the Wall street banks, at which they accounted to each other for what had been done during the day. Thomas had left a bag of specie at John's bank to settle a balance, which was due from William's Bank to Robert's; but Robert's bank owed twice as much to John's. What had become of thai? Then Alexander owed Robert also, and William was indebted to Alexander. Peter then said, that he had paid Robert by a draft from James, which he, James, had received from Alfred on Alexander's account. That, however, had settled only half the debt. A quarter of the remainder was cancelled by a bag of coin, which Samuel had handed over to Joseph, and he had transferred to David. It is entirely safe to say, that the Presidents and Cashiers of the banks themselves could not have untangled this medley. Each Porter had his tally, and by checking off and liberating, first one whose account was least complicated, and then another, they finally achieved a settlement. "This scene was re-enacted on every Friday. In consequence of the Porters being withdrawn from their regular service in the bank, extra labor was imposed on others, responsibilities became mingled together, and the officers were kept for the whole day in a state of distraction and anxiety. The Paying Tellers were subject to frequent interruption, as they were obliged to receive and deliver all specie. "Not the least irritating feature of the case was, that a single small draft by any one bank on any other induced a general drawing, and all became involved in commotion, and 'war' upon each other. If time were allowed, the debtor banks would 216 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK finally be obliged to pay the liquidating balance; but three o'clock arrested the process, and the banks where the demand was then in force were obliged to disburse the coin. It was not unusual for a debtor bank to add fifty thousand dollars to its specie at the close of the day, with its debt doubled, while a creditor bank to half a million in the general account, would find itself, at three o'clock, depleted of one or two hundred thousand dollars in coin." Even after the subject had been discussed exhaustively at informal conferences, it was a year before a meeting was called to take up the project definitely. Some of the banks which had found the laxness and uncertainty of distinct advantage were violently opposed to the plan; and the old bogy of cen- tralized power, which never yet failed to win response from some apprehensive members of our democracy, was brought out with considerable effect. The logic of the facts, however, was too strong. The New York Clearing House was formed, and began operations on October 1, 1853. The next year, a formal constitution, prepared by George Curtis, was adopted — again in face of protests against "dangerous concentration of power." From the day it first went into operation there has never been any question as to its indispensable functions. Boston followed suit in 1856, Philadelphia in 1858, and Chicago in 1865; today there are a hundred and eighty-two regularly organized clearing-houses, with special arrangements in scores of other places. By the modern method all checks are sorted into numbered bundles belonging to each member bank and those for whom it clears. On a settKng-sheet the credit and debit accounts are entered and balanced, giving each bank a final balance to pay to, or receive from, the Clearing House, which in turn settles with each. In one case a bank which had debit charges foot- ing up $6,180,000 had to pay merely $167.31. Obviously there is a saving of thousands upon thousands of individual trans- actions. The New York Clearing House now averages some- thing like a billion dollars a day, makes three daily clearings, sometimes adjusting three hundred millions in six minutes, and handles items running into the tens of millions, a single check drawn by J. P. Morgan & Co. in 1917 to the credit of the Can- adian Minister of Finance being for $96,111,111.11.* * This is believed to be the largest check ever drawn in the United States; but in 1915 there was one of $49,000,000 for Pennsylvania Railroad bonds, and the next year one for $43,538,151.11 for an issue of Midvale Steel bonds. ORIGIN OF THE CLEARING HOUSE 217 Each bank pays its balance due the Clearing House by one o'clock, settlements being made simply by entries against the balances in the Federal Reserve Bank, thus doing away with the necessity of money, drafts, or even Clearing House certi- ficates. The basic principle is still the same as that the test of which nearly seventy years ago produced such "gratification and common interest" among New York financiers. They had need shortly to draw upon all their reserves of gratification and optimism. In the summer of 1857 a storm burst — out of a clear sky, though more experience would have enabled the leaders to foresee what was coming from a study of the Clearing House reports. For two years a great expansion of loans had accompanied a declining ratio of specie to deposits, which went from the 25 percent, considered conservative down to less than 18. In spite of receding deposits, loans were still further extended until they stood at $122,000,000, the highest figure ever known to that time, and probably a third above the proper scale. It seems to be true that the dangerous part of this extension came from the newer banks. On August 8th the banks began to contract. Securities immediately went down, and one large produce house failed. There began to be rumors of defalcations and misuse of rail- way funds. On the 24th the Ohio Life Insurance & Trust Co. suspended, and several banks went under. Disclosure of a $70,000 fraud by the teller of one of the associated banks did not help matters. Some of the managers of the more recent banks, who were of course in the least favorable position, clearly grew alarmed: during the succeeding two weeks the loans were ruthlessly cut down by $8,000,000. Commercial paper could not be discounted and on the street money commanded as much as five percent, a month. Checks had to be certified. Though the older banks almost without exception maintained their lines of discounts, it became only too clear that the other inexperienced financiers were in a state of "blue funk," and were trying to save themselves from the results of their own rashness at any cost. What they actually did was to start a general confla- gration. Deposits had actually increased $500,000 between September 5th and 19th, though further loan reductions of $3,500,000 had been forced. But now the depositors took fright, and in three weeks some $14,000,000 were withdrawn; the country banks kept the new telegraph wires hot with imperative de- mands for the return of their balances in specie; it was an- 218 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK nounced that the Bank of Pennsylvania had failed, and that most of the others there, those in Baltimore, and the majority all through the South had gone under. Business everywhere went down like corn before a hurricane — bankers, merchants, manufacturers, railroads, everybody. Old firms which had weathered many a storm were suddenly bankrupted, and the publication of these lists in the Independent, from which they were copied from Boston to New Orleans, spread excitement and consternation. When by mid-October the failures totalled twelve hundred, the New York banks had to suspend, and those of New England followed immediately. To add to the depression, Europe was undergoing the same sort of crisis; bear speculators in London fanned the fear for the hundreds of millions invested in American securities; the Bank of France lost 25,000,000 francs in a week; the Bank of England reserve which had gone below £9,000,000 by October 19, was so depleted that by the night of November 11 it had less than three-quarters of a million in notes and coin between it and bankruptcy: only a suspension of the bank act, and authorization to issue notes beyond the legal limit, saved it. That was a doleful winter in New York. To the police riots of the spring and summer succeeded riots of the hungry and starving. Ten thousand persons were fed by charity in a single district one day in December, and though the banks led the country in resumption on December 14, the shock to confidence had been so great that business was prostrated for some time. One more cessation of specie payments was to come in the cataclysm of the Civil War before our financial experience and methods rendered such periodic repudiation unnecessary. ^s^^ Chapter VIII THE CIFIL WAR AND THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEAI Business Prosperity in i6'6o — //<;ni' the Banks Finance? the W^ar—An Orgy of High Prices— The "Coun- terfeit Detector" —Inflation After the JF^ar-The GroKi'th of the Stock Exchange — Changes in iX^u' York in the 60' s— The Financial Situation in the jo's — The Panic of i8jj — The Price of Gold in i8jS rHE years following would have been anxious ones in any event owing to the increasing bitterness between North and South. It did not help business men to take a more cheerful view when figures showed that the customs payments had dropped a third in 1858, that there was a huge govern- ment deficit in consequence, reaching $50,000,000 in three vears, that the bank circulation had suddenly fallen nearly $60,000,000, and that the exchanges at the Clearing House were but little more than half what they had been the preceding twelve months. Still, to the average man the savageries of the western border ruffians were most remote — mere incidents of a frontier com- munity which had taken sides on an issue. It was the custom to discount the utterances of fire-eating Southern politicians, so few comprehended the reality of danger. And the severity of the late crash had been so largely due to blind fear, that when a normal view returned, the revival of trade and enter- prise was immediate. By 1860 everything was again in full blast: the cotton crop was a record-breaker by a million bales; there were bumper crops of wheat and corn; the output of anthracite coal and pig iron was far ahead of anything known hitherto; exports reached the $400,000,000 mark, two-thirds of them carried in American ships; 179,000 immigrants arrived to swell the 31,- 219 220 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK 000,000 of population, who had added nearly $4,000,000,000 of value to the nation's store the past year, two- thirds of it in the North; there were still a thousand million acres of un- occupied land in the west and northwest which were a potential gold mine; wealth flowed in upon the land, and such former luxuries as sugar and tea became everyday matters In the humblest homes. The leisurely, tree-shaded stretches of lower Broadway, and the handsome, dignified residences had turned into busy blocks of shops, offices, theatres and hotels — the Astor House, St. Nicholas, Metropolitan and so on. The fashionable dwellings were above Fourteenth Street, many around Union and Madison Squares. The city outdid itself in August of 1858 over the linking of the Old and the New Worlds by Field's Atlantic cable; bell- ringings, firing of cannon, crowds at the Crystal Palace, fireworks and Illuminations, speeches, parades, processions, before a hundred thousand wondering visitors — only to discover a month later, when the expected message from the Queen failed to come, that the rejoicing was premature. The cable had parted, and it was another eight years before cabhng abroad became a reality. People talked of the mob which had set fire to the quarantine Station on Staten Island, of the burning of the Crystal Palace with its $2,000,000 worth of exhibits, of the crew of slaves, flush with Spanish doubloons, who came ashore at Montauk from the scuttled Haidee, of the building of the Great Eastern, of the bloody battles of Magenta and Solferino, of the prices of real estate, when 102 Fifth Avenue, 36 feet wide, sold for $31,200. Even John Brown's insurrection was forgotten in the arrival of the Great Eastern leviathan, and, still more, In the outburst of welcome to the Prince of Wales as he passed up Broadway from Castle Garden In 1860. There are men and women still living who remember the frantic efforts of our social leaders to secure costumes of the latest fashion, and the blaze of diamonds at the famous ball — the last great happy social festival for years. Lincoln was elected, and most business men rejoiced as at the passing of a danger. They saw prosperity ahead, factories full, trade active, growth unchecked. Presently came news that could not be Ignored — South Carolina was arming, was calling a convention to secede. Busi- ness became demoralized and gold was hoarded; everybody prepared for the storm. The banks In particular took a far- BUSINESS PROSPERITY IN 1860 221 sighted stand in November: they "deemed it wise to band themselves together, putting their coin into a common fund, and otherwise aiding each other, so as to enable them best to sustain their dealers, and by joint action to relieve the wants of the Government, if it became necessary, to the largest pos- sible extent." Just before Christmas South Carolina declared herself no longer a member of the Union. Many Southern cities expressed their approval. Then Fort Moultrie was evacuated. Sumter was fired on. The war was on. Though there were reputable citizens who considered that one outcome of the struggle might be to make New York a free city, completely independent, and Mayor Wood actually re- commended this in his annual message of January, the great mass of men of affairs knew that the privileges of being financial leaders of the nation had now become responsibilities. Upon them must devolve the chief burden of providing ways and means: "Our financial community accept the duty and will perform it," said one newspaper. "This view we find to be universal among moneyed men, including many whose sym- pathies have heretofore been with the South. If the Govern- ment prove true to the country, it need not feel any uneasiness about money." How accurate this was appeared from the flood of voluntarv contributions offered the Government in the first two weeks: private individuals in New York poured out over $2,000,000 in amounts of $1,000 and up, and fourteen banks added $715,000. At the outset, the Government almost ignored the banks. Loans were placed, and funds were supposed to be handled and interest paid by the Treasury direct — though in point of fact many public officers necessarily deposited their funds temporarily in banks. It soon became clear that the huge sums needed could be obtained only through banking cooperation; the Government credit was so impaired that a large loan was out of the question, and even a small one must be for a short time at high interest; so Secretary Chase conferred with a group of bankers of New York, Boston and Philadelphia,* at New York in August, and the syndicate (among which thirty-nine New York institutions were represented) agreed to advance $150,000,000 in gold against three-year Treasury notes, issuing Clearing House certificates and pooling their resources as agreed the fall before. * The cooperation of the Western banks was sought but could not be secu red. 222 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK This sum may not seem vast to those whom the Great War accustomed to think in bilhons: in point of fact the combined capitals of the banks in these three cities was only $120,000,000 — with a little more than that amount of deposits, and coin re- serves of $63,000,000. It was much the largest financial under- taking ever attempted here, made possible only by the prompt combination of forces. Moreover, the struggle had assumed such a scale as to terrify those who attempted to figure out the cost: the associated banks had no hope of making a profit, but begged the Government to protect them if things went wrong. Three generations of hard-won experience had convinced the bankers that their first consideration must be to preserve the specie standard. There would be hundreds of millions to be paid in for securities and paid out for clothing, munitions and subsistence; hoarding was already going on, and the coin re- serves might speedily be endangered: they suggested that Secretary Chase should exempt these transactions from the act requiring specie payments for all Government obligations, and that he should draw checks for disbursements upon one selected bank in each city. Though the men who prepared the re- vision of the sub-Treasury law declared later that this was primarily intended to accomplish these very purposes, the Secretary refused, insisting that the act had no such meaning or intent. His familiarity with the depreciated bank notes of his own Western section made him apparently fear an^^ relaxa- tion of the "hard money" requirements; and he did not appre- ciate the new elements introduced by these huge transfers. He had little prejudice against paper issues to meet Govern- ment needs, however. Contrary to his assurances, he began to put out United States notes, payable on demand; these the banks could hardly refuse to receive on deposit, yet they could not circulate them without impairing their specie position. They attempted to establish them on a special deposit basis, but this caused their rapid exchange for specie. During the last three weeks of the year (1861) the New York banks lost $13,000,000 of their specie, a third of the total. They laid their predicament before Secretary Chase. When he insisted upon his embarrassing course, there was but one alternative. They had seen too often the truth of what Peel wrote in 1826, that "gold though in itself massy, often disappears in conse- quence of war, or speculation, nay, the breath of rumor itself is sufficient to disperse it." At a conference on December 28, James Gallatin voiced the sense of the meeting: \ ANORGYOFHIGHPRICES 223 "The Government must suspend specie payments, or we must; and it is only a question of a few more days' time as to who suspends first, and who shall hold the specie in our vaults. If the Government takes it, the whole will be expended and hoarded by a few people. Indeed, the question for us to con- sider, as trustees of the people, now is: How much, if any- thing, can we help to preserve of the values which the approach- ing tornado of paper money threatens to sweep away? . . . In order to preserve a basis for future values, we should en- deavor to get and keep as much coin as possible, upon which to resume specie payments, whenever that can be done with safety. Contraction for that purpose must eventually be re- sorted to, and the more coin we have on hand the less severe will be the contraction." So the new year opened with the country once more upon a paper basis, for the other banks and the Government had to follow the action of New York. It was to be sixteen long years before "money" was again really sound money. In spite of this step, engagements with the Government were more than fulfilled: the syndicate of banks made the final pay- ment on the November loan in February, though only a fifth of the securities had then been received — and made it in coin and Government notes, gold being already quoted at 102 on January 1 and travelling upward. While it fluctuated wildly from speculation, it kept on appreciating until it reached 285 in the summer of 1864. Able as Mr. Chase was, he had not sufficient familiarity with the elaborate machinery of exchange which our banking system had alread3^ developed, through bills, certificates, drafts and checks, to appreciate its value in meeting his pressing problems. He rejected the proposal of the banks for an issue of $200,000,000 of notes secured by the Government bonds they held, along with all the other suggestions for raising money presented by a delegation of the associated banks — except one for sj^ecial taxes; and pressed through the issue of $150,000,000 legal tender notes receivable for all claims against the United States except interest on bonds and notes. As had always proved true, this easy method of paying debts required repetition: it was only a few months before the Treas- ury asked for another $150,000,000 of legal tender notes. Gold, which had changed from a circulating medium to mer- chandise, constantly advanced in price; so did every commodity, still further stimulated by the enormous buying of the Govern- ment; and the orgy of high prices and speculation was fairly on. 224 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Out of the continued necessities of the Government came one great advance. Largely with the idea of securing a market for Federal securities at lower interest rates, Mr. Chase recom- mended the issue of a national circulation, under the control of a national officer, secured by United States bonds; and before long a bill embodying the National Banking System was pro- posed. There was need enough for some unification. The fourteen hundred banks, under thirty different State and Territorial governments, presented a chaotic variety of notes, regulations, degrees of security. There were some seven thousand different kinds of notes in circulation. "Bank note reporters" and "autograph detectors" were pubhshed to enable even experts to tell what a given note was worth and to spot counterfeits, the annual loss from bad notes and counterfeiting being esti- mated at almost as much as the interest on the whole circula- tion. "Every year," said John Sherman, "more or less of these banks break. There is no stability about them. They have no common bond of organization; any important event that disturbs the money market of the world makes a greater flurry among them than a shot among a bevy of partridges. The uncertain ratio of exchange between the different States grows out of the multitude and diversity of the banks. The bank paper of States adjoining each other has varied in value as much as one year's interest of money." It was time in the growth of the country for the same sort of standardization, and responsibihty to a central authority, which has perpetually proved its necessity, in one matter after another, throughout the history of the United States, in the face of the States' rights tradition and sentiment. As developed, after minute study of all the State laws and experience, the system was largely based on the New York plan, with some improvements from Massachusetts; certain sections came from Ohio and Ilhnois, and the reserve principle was taken from the Louisiana acts. The system was not compulsory, but estabhshed a new class of "national" banks; issuing notes only upon their deposits of Federal bonds. They were secured in a monopoly of this privilege by the imposition of a 10 percent, tax on the face value of notes of state banks in circulation after July 1, 1866. There was much apprehension as to the effects of the measure in the profession; many conservative New York bankers opposed it, fearing a multiplication of small new banks in every locality, mere "conduits" through which an irredeemable circulation THE "COUNTERFEIT DETECTOR' 225 THE "AUTOGRAPHICAL COUNTERFEIT DETECTOR' Under Uiis title an 8()-page liook containing fac-simile signatures (il (lie President and Cashier of nearly every bank in the United States was compiled in 1853 by J. Thompson, a Stock Exchange broker, and issued free of charge as a companion to The Bank Note and Commercial Reporter. "As a test of signatures" the foreword states, "the book is equivalent to One Bill on each bank therein represented," as i' enabled one to verify the signatures on the notes issued by the banks at that period. This and the following three pages show reproductions of that section which includes the New York Citv banks of that date. Jbo. a. Sterena, Pnsulent. @fl^^^(/^ J. Oothoat, ProaldaQt. Bank of North Anwrlea. of the Bepnbllo Bank of the Stat* E Withera, Cwluer. Lawrence. President. 226 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK 3^) arsw TORS ozw. Bowery Baak. ^ /^ EdocIi Dean, Preaident. J. L. Ereritt, Cashier. S. A. Palmer, President. Batcher*' ft Drorerg' Bank. c^y^fT^ B. Lewii, Jr., Caaluer. - _ Oh«th«< W.' L. Kirby. Cashier. / Chemici Jtcob Aimi, Preaiilaat. E. O. Drake, President. J. B.'Desdoity, Caaliier. J. Q. Jones, President. 01tlz«at' Bank. Jolm Adasu, Preodest. B. F. Wheelwright,^ President. Hanover Bank. C. H. LiTingstoo, Cashier. Isaac Otis, President. THE "COUNTERFEIT DETECTOR" 227 xrxiw TORS csTir. si 'TK^m.T'rv^rTi/ ^^^ J- M. Morrison, Csiliier. C. O. Haljted, Preiident. Mschanloi' Banking Aisociatlon. m^^ C^<^^ J. H. Cornell, Cashier. lier. ' Mecbanlot' Bank. F W. Edmonds, Cashier. Mechanics' k Trader*' Bank ». Penti, President. 8. Knapp, President. K. D. Brown, Cashier. John Clapp, President. B. 8. Oaklay, Cashier Mercantile Bank. W. B Don«Ias, President. ^^ Merchant*' Bank. O. i. Cammann, Cashier. Jbkm J. Palmer, President. 228 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK 32 ZTBW -s-oas ciTsr. Merchanta' Exchange Bank. an Nostrand, Piesidenf . J»». OttUatin, Preaideot. Jtto W. Lawnsee, President. A. S. Frwer. CMhi«r. n^.h.r^ n«rr, riuihl.r. // ' W H r«Jl», President. Tradeimen's Bank. Richard Berry, Cashier. INFLATION AFTER THE WAR 229 would flow out from Washington all over the land, constantly raising the price of gold and lowering its own value. As it turned out, the obvious handicap upon banks which did '^ not come into the new system caused practically all the impor- tant state banks to accept the Government's offer. By the close of the war, the 483 national banks of 1864 had grown to 1600, of which 922 were converted state institutions. They had out- standing about $170,000,000 of notes, and another $20,000,000 not issued. There were still $79,000,000 of state bank notes in circulation; but these steadily dwindled till their fmal appearance in Treasury reports listed them at slightly more than $1,000,000. There was, almost from the outset, a constant cry against the banks. In Congress, in the press, in pamphlets and books, because they paid nothing for this circulation privilege. As a financial historian remarks: "One of the first things discovered by the people after the creation of national banks, was that they gained three profits; one profit on their bonds deposited as the basis for their circula- tion; another on their circulation, and a third on their deposits. Although this had always been the case, the people had not learned the fact." This profit proved in practise to be fluctuating and not nearly ^ so great as was popularly supposed; the amount in circulation came to be largely determined by the price of bonds; in 1883 it reached $362,000,000, but then declined steadily; and after the price of Government 4's rose above 129 in 1889, It dropped to less than had been out in 1865. Some of the net results of over-reliance upon loans In war financing, and of the depreciation from the legal tender Issues are apparent enough today. During the war period, the Govern- ment sold over $2,500,000,000 of securities at a loss in gold value , of $860,000,000. Many authorities believe that if the Secretary of the Treasury had been willing to use the banking knowledge put at his disposal, we might have saved this — besides the Incal- culable costs from retail prices mounting a hundred to two hundred percent., and the attendant evils of speculation and credit disturbance through the years that elapsed before specie payments were resumed. New York could well gaze back upon its war record with satis- faction — except, perhaps, on the bloody draft riots of July, 1863, \ when a thousand people were killed, the city was in the hands of the militia three days, home regiments were sent for from Pennsylvania, and United States gunboats lay In the river await- ing events; and, perhaps also, the faked Presidential proclama- 230 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK tion in the midst of the Wilderness campaign, calling for 400,000 more troops, presently confessed to be a stock-jobbing forgery by Joe Howard, its perpetrator. Still, 110,000 men had been actually enlisted there during the four and a half years, and its financial contributions had demonstrated conclusively its com- manding position as the money centre of the nation. But looking backward has never been a habit of the metropolis; and, particularly in these times of inflation, the coming of peace was a signal for the resumption of improvements held in abey- PRICE Op STOCKS. Wew-York BiinH :•:::.::: I2> ManhHttinBank:.::; IIG 1-2 Mer»:haul5 Baidt :;:: 1 17 l-'Z Mechaiiics Boak :::: H6 1-2 Union Dank :::::•.:;:::::•.::: |03 Baqk of America :::::::::: Wi City Bank ::::.:::::::::. 1101-2 New-York Manuf. Com'jr tOO Six pn- cenb. div. off ::::: 99 Louudana :::::::::•.::;;::::;:::: 91 Three per CtBlj. ;:u::;.t;;:; 55 OW and Deferred, ::;:::.::: 95 N. York IiKunuiec ::.-: 00 100 Treasury Jfotel ::.u::.': i 1-4 IJnitfd ::::::::::.:::::::: 90100 Eagle, ibr. off :;::;::::::: 115 Mutual ;:::;:•.::::•.::•::: •••::•. J|0 UWie ::;;:::::::::::::.: I« 1-2 WasJlingtoO ::::::;:•.;::;:■: n« City Loofl ::.::::::;:u 100 1-2 Ditto Seveo per ct. 104 |0» Phonix New-York Eii«neo ^s;;;;;;:;;|| EXCHANGE. Saturday, HvA 4, 1815. BHKoQ Loodoo, eOdi. 95 96 :::: Affljterdajn Fruiee The first price-list of stocks to be published in a New York dailv, — ^the Commercial Advertiser of March 10, 1815. ance and for a forward movement of business that became some- what hectic — until, as usual, there was an explosion which reduced the steam pressure. Looking back a half century, it is quite clear that the cost of the Civil War is inadequately stated even by the long schedules such as the one in the Senate Document of 1879, which listed a hundred appropriations for expenses caused by the war, from a billion for pay of volunteers, to $500 for the purchase of a ceme- tery at Columbus, Ohio. It totals nearly $7,000,000,000— and there were still some billions to come from the ever-rising pen- sion disbursements; nor does even this include the cost to the South, the injury to trade and private property, or the loss of the productive power of perhaps 700,000 citizens. Yet there was one intangible, unseen item of cost, accumulating through more than a decade after 1865, which was almost more serious than all this, or the $2,400,000,000 of national debt left for the future to take care of. This was the effect on men's minds of abrogating accepted social laws, of lavish expenditures and "easy money," of the THE GROWTH OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE 231 basic unsoundness in legal tender currency. There were exag- geration and inflation everywhere: prices and rents in 1866 were nearly double the pre-war scale, and labor was sixty percent, higher. There was a distinct relaxation of moral fibre during this decade, such as inevitably comes when a nation puts the stamp of official approval upon an everyday necessity not based on strict honesty. That force of public opinion, upon which individual human beings are so dependent, is subtly affected by a compromise in ideals of integrity: what is accepted in currency tends to be accepted in character. There was a crop of new war milhonaires then as in 1917, and while sober reputable folk condemned their methods and smiled at their ostentation, their success caused imitation, contributing largely to the unhealthy tone of business, real estate, railway, stock and gold speculation, and commercial and social life in general. The Tweed Ring, the gold speculation, Fisk and the Erie scandal, and the Credit Mobilier are the outstanding indications of this unsettlement of mind and abandonment of old standards. In short, we took things as they came, until conditions reached a point that de- manded the drastic house-cleaning of the Seventies. Of course. New York made real progress in many directions. In 1866, the Great Eastern succeeded in splicing the first Atlantic cable, which had failed so disappointingly eight years before, and laid a new one, establishing a communication never since interrupted: almost immediately, London prices began to be received by wire, and arbitrage dealings commenced to influence exchange operations; the old volunteer fire-fighting system, always inadequate and now much corrupted, was completely abolished, and an efficient paid fbrce, equipped with modern steam engines, set a new standard in fire protection; the arrival of a ship with cholera brought about in February, 1866, the formation of a Board of Health which started a vigorous cleaning- up and sanitary control and probably saved the town from an- other cholera scourge that year; the intensely cold winter of 1866-67, and the stoppage of ferry traffic across the East River, brought to a head the agitation for a bridge there, and the first stone of the great suspension structure was laid in 1870, from plans by John A. Roebling, who had outlined just such a project as early as 1857; and in 1867 came the experimental Greenwich Street elevated road, destined to last only a year but having a profound influence later as a crude demonstration of the rapid transit upon which the future greater city depended. The Stock Exchange had grown from the informal association of brokers, meeting casually under the famous Wall Street button- 232 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK wood tree or at the Tontine Coffee House, to a close corporation whose daily activities were a mystery ardently spied upon by outsiders. During the war, it had prohibited its members from selling Government bonds "short," or from dealings in gold, the Gold Exchange being in consequence formed by those who held that patriotism should not interfere with such a promising field of business and speculation. The Exchange's conservatism resulted, just about the time it found a new and permanent Wall Street site for its home in 1865, in the rapid growth ot rival organizations; these began to make such inroads upon the Board's leadership in stock dealings that a consolidation was effected in May, 1869: the Open Board and United States Government Board were taken in; from that time on, the unchartered organ- ization dominated the field unchallenged, and its swiftly expand- ing dealings made it a factor of increasing importance in the banking situation. The first dealings had been practically confined to a couple of classes of Government bonds, English consols, foreign exchange, and shares in the few banks and insurance companies; even in 1817, when the New York Stock and Exchange Board was organized because of the extensive operations in the securities of the new banks, the leading journals of trade and finance quoted only U. S. 6 and 3 percents., and exchange on London in their "Prices of Stocks." Here is a sample quotation list of May 6, 1792: percents 22s Od 3 percents 12s 8d Deferred 13s 2d Indents 12s 3d Final settlements .18s 6d Half shares. Bank of the U. S. 50 percent, premium. Shares Bank of North America (Phlla.), 13 percent, premium. On November 25, 1818, the Exchange activities had expanded somewhat : United States Bank 113^ Bank of New York 27 Manhattan 120^ Union "4 Merchants None Bank of America 95 City Bank 96 Phenix 100 New York Insurance 94 Mutual Insurance American 34 National 90>^ Globe Ill Doubloons $15.88 CHANGESINTHE60'S 233 And in 1827 "industrials" had begun to appear: United States Bank 124 New York Bank 124^' Manhattan 118X Merchants 108 Mechanics 112 City 101 Phenix 125 America 97 J^ Union 1021^ Etna Insurance 95 Equitable Ins 108^ Delaware & Hudson Co 88 N. Y. Gas Light Co 140 Merchants Exchange 110 Doubloons $15.87 In 1837, "New York As It Is," a very complete guide, has thirty pages of banks, insurance companies and trust companies; but, outside of sixteen railroads, canal and ferry concerns, lists merely two gas-light companies, one land and building venture, one lumber, one fur and one iron corporation — and does not so much as mention the Stock Exchange. But the influx of canal securi- ties in the '20s, the land companies, the railroads, the copper mines, the manufacturing companies, the new corporations of every sort as the country developed, and the vast outpouring of Government .bonds during the Civil War, had produced a list of securities approximating $3,000,000,000 in 1868 which were being dealt in on the Exchange. The estabhshment of stock tickers in 1867 Avas an external indication of the importance stock trading was assuming. The Produce Exchange, too, had come into existence in 1860, and was housed in its own building the next year. One of the first evidences of the public state of mind was the real estate "boom" which started in New York. Building had practically stopped during the war, rents were enormous, vacant lots worth almost nothing; there were still over 25,000 vacant lots below 86th Street. Owing to the lack of street railways, the scarcity of houses and the high prices, there had been a great development of the suburbs across the river and bay, these being easier to reach than uptown houses at a time when the opening of Madison Avenue was hopefully expected to "prepare the way for an extension of the Fourth Avenue railroad" and give reasonable communication with the Central Park region. The brazenly corrupt Tweed Ring held the municipality in its grip, and any sort of public work offered chances for plunder; so the opening of new streets and the frantic rush of building opera- 234 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK tions and real estate sales reinforced each other. The condition not only bred dishonesty, but there sprang up a total disregard of the city's past. St. John s Park, whose superb trees had recently shaded the fashionable residence section, was sold to a railroad for a freight station; the dignified grounds of the old New York Hospital, at Broadway and Pearl Street, suffered a similar fate; and the lower corner was sliced off City Hall Park for an unsightly Federal Post Office. The pressure, and lack of transportation, caused the three and four story structures which were the rule to shoot upward : the first apartment houses, known as French flats, date from this time. In the next few years hundreds of tall flat buildings were erected or remodelled from old houses. The clumsy elevator that was one of the wonders of the "towering" Fifth Avenue Hotel, was soon improved and made still more lofty buildings practicable. Railroad building was speeded up everywhere, the joining of the two halves of the Union Pacific in 1869 giving a new spur to the public imagination along that line; the huge land grants made to western roads, and the profits in construction companies like the unsavory Credit Mobilier, fed the flames of speculation. We escaped the remarkable English "Black Friday" of 1866, when the panic that broke with the failure of the great house of Overend, Gurney & Co. caused a suspension of the Bank Act — largely because we had gone through the enforced liquidation of 1860 and 1861; but three years later, amid increasingly active stock speculation, which was ever absorbing a larger share of the available capital, we had a Black Friday of our own, as a slight foretaste and illustration of what the country was heading toward. - This was the bursting of the gold speculation, in which Gould, Fisk and some associates had been the chief figures. Some months before, the Treasury had ceased its steadying sales of gold, under the belief that this would stimulate crop exports in place of specie ones, and the syndicate had bought vast amounts, till the price had risen to 160. The operators held contracts for over $100,000,000 of gold; there was barely $25,000,000 in the city and the Government held less than $100,000,000. With a "short" interest which Gould himself estimated at twice the syndicate's contracts, and believing apparently that they had the Government "fixed" so that no relief would come from Washington, the managers of the operations openly announced on September 24 that they would put gold to 200 and smash the Gold Room. Under this threat, those on the opposite side were rushing to cover at any price, when an order arrived to sell FINANCIAL SITUATION IN THE 70'S 235 $5,000,000 of gold on the Treasury account. The price broke so fast that Fisk's broker was wildly bidding 160 for mil- lion lots on one side of the frantic crowd, while sales were being made on the other at descending figures from 150 to 132. The Gold Room suspended business for a week; half the mem- bers were in trouble, and the chief operators lost paper millions. Terrific as was the excitement, and many as were the failures, the whole thing was so localized that it had no lasting significance for the banks — except as an indication of the pace at which the country was going. Still, the next report on January 1 showed a drop of $28,000,000 in the deposits held by national banks. These years saw further destruction of national resources and feverish expenditure on new enterprises all over the world. The war between Italy and Austria was followed closely by the Franco-Prussian War, where another $2,700,000,000 was poured out. The Suez Canal was finished in 1869, unsettling invest- ments in shipping. The whole globe seemed railway-mad: Austria trebled her mileage in eight years; Russia built up a 12,000-mile system in half that time; nearly 200 millions of English capital had gone into South American construction; the United States, which had added 10,000 miles in eight years from the outbreak of the Civil War, suddenly quadrupled the rate as the Union Pacific completed the first transcontinental line; from 1869 to 1872 there were 25,000 miles of new roads built. Small wonder that the banking reports from New York in 1871 noted a "very marked demand" for railroad funds, and a stringency of money. At the same time, the growing feeling against the railroads on the part of the Western farmers tended to lessen confidence in these securities — a tendency not helped by the notorious per- formance of Fisk in Erie stocks, and the frequent "corners" on the Exchange. The pooling agreements, which had recently begun, largely eliminated competition; and the suspicious resent- ment of shippers was shown in the appointment of State railroad commissions and laws fixing maximum rates and fares. The whole world, and the United States in particular, was over-extended; and the situation only awaited the chance event to become acute. The summary of financial happenings during these years, which Henry Clews gives in his "Sixty Years of Wall Street," gives intimate flashes of a general attitude which ex- pressed itself in numberless ways and was bound to bring dis- aster: "June, 1871. — Rock Island was cornered. The pool began buying at \\A}4 and advanced it to 130 J g. On liquidation the 236 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK stock declined to 110. Many failures occurred and bad faith was charged. "October, 1871. — The week beginning October 9, 1871, was one of the most eventful in the history of the Stock Exchange. The banks had expanded beyond precedent and were compelled to contract loans to raise money for crop purposes. The pay- ment by France to Germany in settlement of war claims caused the Bank of England rate to advance from 3 to 5 percent., and produced a feeling bordering on panic in London. The New York market was very sensitive when news of the Chicago fire came. Prices broke at 4 — 10 points. On Tuesday there was great excitement; sales were enormous and fluctuations wide. On Wednesday there was a rally on the belief that the Govern- ment would purchase 5 — 20's. The lowest prices, however, were made on Thursday. On Friday there was more steadiness and prices were higher. The bank statement was favorable and matters quieted down. "December, 1871. — The Ocean National Bank, the Union Square and the Eighth National Bank failed. Money was scarce, but stocks were firmly held. Operators and brokers were loaded up with stocks and sustained prices, awaiting an opportunity to get out. "March, 1872. — The Erie revolution occurred. The Board of Directors was overthrown, and Jay Gould resigned the presi- dency. Gen. Dix became his successor. The operation caused great activity in the stock market, and money became tight. "June, 1872. — Stock dividends on Lake Shore and Michigan Central were declared. "August, 1872. — Gold was cliqued. "September, 1872. — Erie was cornered. The Gould-Smith clique was short of it. The stock first became scarce on pur- chases by German brokers for foreign account. Then Drew became a heavy purchaser. At the same time the German bro- kers were long of gold, and with the double idea of punishing them and compelling those carrying Erie to sell out, the Gould-Smith clique endeavored to lock up money. This plan was defeated by the refusal of two banks to pay out legal tenders on certified checks. Just then, too, the Government bought $5,000,000 bonds and sold the same amount of gold. This completely broke the speculative manipulation of money, and a panic was averted. During the height of the panic there were no quota- tions on money. Among the failures of the week were Northrup, Chick & Co., bankers, the Glenham Woolen Manufacturing Co., Paton & Co., dry goods, George Bird, Grinnell & Co., stock THEPANICOF1873 237 brokers, Hoyt, Sprague & Co., and A. & W. Sprague. The banks suspended their weekly statements and they were not resumed until late in November. "November, 1872. — Jay Gould was arrested on criminal charges based on his management of the Erie Railroad. He surrendered securities the face value of which was more than $9,000,000, in December. — Northwestern was cornered. It opened November 20 at 83^ and closed at 95. On Thursday it sold at 100, and at the close on Friday 200 was bid. On Saturday buying in under the rule ran the price up to 230. The settlement was made on the following Tuesday, when the price declined to par, the highest bid made being 85. Jay Gould, Horace F. Clark and Augustus Schell conducted the corner, while the cornered were Drew and Henry N. Smith. It was one of the most profitable corners ever made in Wall Street. "February, 1873. — -There was a noted corner in Northwestern. "April, 1873. — -The preliminary panic of the year occurred in this month. The stock market was uneasy. The failure of a firm of silk importers was followed by that of Barker & Allen, the members of which were related to Vanderbilt. Three other firms also failed. Confidence returned and quiet prevailed until the 26th, when the Atlantic Bank failed. This brought about another depression, which was followed by a quick rally. " Jlay, 1873. — Heavy break in Pacific Mail. The further retirement of greenbacks was prohibited by Congress. "August, 1873. — Fraud was discovered in the issue of certain bonds of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad. "September, 7^7J.— The New York Warehouse & Security Company failed on the 8th; Kenyon, Cox & Co., in which Daniel Drew was a special partner, on the 13th; Jay Cooke & Co. on the 18th, and Fisk & Hatch on the 19th. Innumerable brokers failed. There were runs on the Fourth National Bank and the Trust Company. The secretary of the company was a defaulter to the extent of $500,000, and its doors were closed. The Bank of the Commonwealth failed. There was a panic in the stock market, and the excitement ran so high that the Gov- erning Committee closed the Exchange at 11 o'clock on Saturday the 20th. The Gold Exchange Bank was unable to effect all the clearances, and the dealers were unable to get their balances. The result was the temporary suspension of some dozen firms. The Gold Exchange Bank having been enjoined by the courts from making the clearances, the Bank of New York undertook the job and failed in it. Next a committee of twenty was ap- pointed to do the work, but it failed also, because Smith, Gould 238 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK & Martin refused to render a statement to it. The final settle- ments were made between members themselves. Smith, Gould & Martin, with contracts amounting to $9,000,000, settled on a basis of 135. Business was resumed on September 30." The immediate cause of the money drain which started the panic was, as before, the sudden demand by out-of-town banks for their cash reserves on deposit. It was found that the $60,- 000,000 of call loans on which the New York banks had relied was "entirely unavailable." The collateral was unexception- able in normal times, yet values tumbled so rapidly that it could not be reahzed on except at great sacrifice. In the emergency, the issue of Clearing House certificates again- proved a most effectual aid, and more than $26,000,000 of these were paid out, all being cancelled by the following January. The same pooling of reserves was resorted to which had proved so helpful in 1860, but there was by no means unanimity in this matter. Most of the conservative institutions were strongly opposed to the practise of paying interest on bank deposits; the twelve members of the Clearing House which allowed such interest had naturally secured the bulk of balances from the out-of-town banks, and when these were called in, this group was the one first endangered. The others naturally found it pecu- liarly trying to have to risk their own scanty reserves by coming to the rescue of those who were suffering from a practise they themselves had fought against; and it was stated that they consented to equalization of reserves only in the belief that the Clearing House would put a stop to the paying of interest on deposits. This was not accomplished. Moreover, there was a widespread belief that some of the banks had not played fair, but had encouraged special currency deposits and exchanged greenbacks for notes so as to get around the pooling agreement. The result was that this admirable plan of standing shoulder to shoulder in a crisis fell into abeyance. Its lack helped to bring on the common disaster in later years. Deposits in the national banks fell off a hundred millions in the last half of that disastrous year, and from the very nature of the case, business adjustment was a matter of years instead ot months; there were thousands of failures all over the country, and the railway bonds in default at the beginning of 1876 reached a total of $789,000,000. "Boss" Tweed and his ring had been overthrown, the hundredth anniversary of independence com- memorated by the Philadelphia Exposition, and, after intermin- able discussion, specie payments had been resumed, before the full recovery had been accomplished. THE PRICE OF GOLD IN 187 239 This welcome return to national integrity had been skillfully prepared for. Secretary Sherman, as the New York financiers had counselled, had built up an ample gold supply, assisted by the enormous surplus production of crops. As the day appointed approached, it became more and more evident that upon the New York banks depended the success of the much debated step. They held over $40,000,000 of the legal tender notes; and $85,000,000 more was in the hands of the rest of the banks, who would doubtless follow their example. The Assistant Treasurer of the United States was made a member of the New York Clearing House, which then contained forty-nine national and thirteen State institutions. It was arranged between them and this representative of the Govern- ment that the Treasurer should present drafts on any bank to the Clearing House, and that he could conversely adjust drafts on him by United States notes or Clearing House certificates. The banks agreed to stop receiving gold as special deposits, to abolish special exchanges of gold checks, and to settle Clearing House balances in gold or legal tender. The following record of the significant event appeared in a newspaper of December 18th, 1878: "At 12:29 yesterday, according to the official record, $10,000 of gold was sold in the gold department of the stock exchange (the old gold exchange) at par. This is the first sale of gold at par that has taken place in this country for sixteen years. The room was almost empty at the time the transaction was made, and so quietly was it accomplished that only three or four persons who stood near the register's desk knew anything about it. It was a coincidence that the record-book in which accounts of sales are kept, had so nearly run out that all these trans- actions were recorded by the clerk on the last page of the last leaf. Word was sent immediately to the Stock Ex- change, and the announcement of each sale was received with vigorous cheers. Following are the highest prices reached by gold in each year, beginning with 1862, when it was quoted at 102 on Jan. 1 : 1862 . . 154 1868 . . 150 1874 . . 1143/8- 1863 . . 1521^ 1869 . . 162K 1875 . . 117 s^i 1864 . . 285 1870 . . 123>^ 1876 . . 115 1865 . . 233 3^ 1871 . . 1153/^ 1877 . . 107^ 1866 . . 167f< 1872 . . 1155^ 1878 . . 107" 1867 . . 145^ 1873 . . 119M ^^a^.: Chapter IX J MARVELLOUS QUARTER-CENTURY Reasons for the Prosperity/ of iSjo-igoo — SpeclallzaUon of Banking Activities— Abuses of the Check System — Banks anJ the Gotd Resen^e of i8(j2 — The Panic of iSgy-Rlse of the Great Trust Companies rHE long-awaited return to realities and one hundred percent, financial honor was undoubtedly a large factor in the gen- eral business quickening that ensued. "Many industries which had been depressed since the panic of 1873 revived, while increased activity appeared in all branches of production, trade and commerce. Every preparation for resumption was accom- panied with increased business and confidence, and its consumma- tion was followed by a revival of productive industry unexampled in our previous history. The country had entered in fact upon a period of amazing de- velopment. It has been pointed out by a historian of the great inventions that each important mastery of one of Nature's forces has raised mankind to a higher level of knowledge and capabilities, where his progress was not merely added to but multiplied. Sim- ilarly, the United States was about to multiply its powers indefi- nitely through new inventions, discoveries of unsuspected mineral resources, revolutionary advances in manufacturing processes, evolution of the vast potencies in combination and systematizing of business methods. The purchase of Alaska in 1867 had added half a million square miles and a sixth of the total area; most people thought it dear enough at the price of $7,200,000, little dreaming of the golden flood which it was to pour into the country, amounting in the years since the Klondike discoveries to over $300,000,000. But the growth of this miraculous era was chiefly from development of what we had long possessed — the petroleum of Pennsylvania and of subsequent fields, the iron of the Lake Superior and Alabama regions, the copper, silver, zinc and lead; the vast lumber re- sources of Maine, the Lakes country and CaHfornia; the turning of 240 SPECIALIZATION OF BANKING 241 the trans-Mississippi area into a colossal granary for us and for the world; agriculture, mining, manufacturing — every form of in- dustry—waxed like the Eastern conjuror's tree that grows to maturity before one's eyes. From^ 1869 to 1900 we doubled our population, trebled our wealth, and cut the national debt to less than half. Between 1876 and the end of the century the New York annual bank clearings rose from less than $22,000,000 to more than $77,000,000, the total bank and trust company deposits throughout the country grew from two billions to seven; our Imports and exports went up 250 percent. ; the value of our farm products approached five bil- lions a year, our manufactures exceeded eleven billions — great new Industries, like steel, tinplate and beet sugar, and the gigantic series of electrical productions, having been added in their en- tirety; our 76,000 miles of railways had become 199,000. The electrical age, which was to more than repeat the transfor- mations of steam, had begun: Bell's first telephone had been pat- ented in 1876; within thirty years five percent, of all the people in the United States were bound together by this new means of com- munication; Edison had 711 patents to his credit, Ellhu Thomson 394; the total inventions in the field of telegraphs and telephones, electric railways, motors, signalling and generation exceeded 17,000. As a consequence, an industry which barely existed in 1870, had to be measured by hundreds of millions by 1900. Elec- tric lighting became common in the '80s, the trolley car in the '90s; the automobile arrived, and presently In place of the 600 produced here In 1899, we were turning them out by the hundred thousand and had added one more billion-dollar industry, as well as a new factor in passenger and freight transportation. The New South, freed from the economic shackles of slavery, had developed a tremendous industrial and mining balance to its agricultural production. Men had discovered the undreamed-of force that lay in organi- zation and combination; and the tendency towards consolida- tions, which had proved so essential in railroads almost from the beginning. Increased steadily after the Civil War, till it reached Its apogee In the colossal trust formations of 1890 to 1900. Radical advances in management and distribution constantly stimulated Industry; the department store, the mail-order business, the chain stores altered the entire nature of retailing. Inevitably the banking development followed the same course as the trade from which It sprang, growing ever larger, so complex that It had to be spht up into specialities, and forming vaster and vaster aggregations of capital that could meet the needs for mil- 242 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK lions where thousands had once been sufficient. As a larger and larger proportion of the country's industry was handled by cor- porations whose securities were dealt in on the stock exchange, "Wall Street" became the barometer of trade conditions on which all eyes were focussed; and there was a constant complaint that too large a proportion of the available banking capital in New York was engaged in the profitable financing of speculation. This criticism reached a high pitch in the Seventies, and testi- mony in a congressional investigation of a "lock-up," or artificial currency contraction, excited the public mind against the banks. "A Director of the Tenth National Bank of New York was a special partner in three firms with whom he left his money to be loaned. On a day specified, he directed them to call in his money, which they did. In the afternoon he went to his bank with the checks received from the three firms, amounting to $4,100,000. He requested the President to put them through the Clearing House the next morning. This was done, the money was paid; but instead of putting it into the bank on deposit, he carried it away. The whole transaction was outside the regular and usual business of the bank, and was simply an arrangement by which it withdrew over $4,000,000 of legal tender notes from circulation for a Director of the concern, whose avowed object in having it done, as he himself testified before the investigating committee, 'was to cause a stringency in the money market for the purpose of bring- ing about a decline in the price of stocks', of which he was short. Tt affected not only the banks and the business community of the city of New York, but that city being the principal centre of the monetary operations of the whole country, the stringency pro- duced there in the money market extended to other cities, and affected more or less injuriously every branch of business requiring the use of money throughout the country.'" Such things as this, and evidence that a firm of brokers with very little capital had just before the panic had $14,000,000 from banks when a reputable old commercial firm could not get $24,000 on good thirty-day business paper, helped the movement for re- strictive legislation and close supervision. Publicity had for half a century been a distinguishing feature of the American system, and Gallatin pointed out how reports and examinations strength- ened the banks in public confidence. The national banks were divided into twenty-five regional groups, with an examiner for each district, charged not only with the inspection of the cash, bills and books, but the character of loans and the whole conduct of the business. The well run banks, of course, welcomed such publicity and the additional check thus given by a government ABUSESOFTHECHECKSYSTEM 243 official. From 1870 on, five reports a year were demanded by the Comptroller, at any dates fixed by him; after 1893 there were two examinations each year; and the severity of these was increased as any point of probable weakness was disclosed. While there is a plausible tale of at least one examiner who knew so little that he had to get assistance from the cashiers of the examined bank to make out his report, the average standard has certainly been high, and the American public rests heavily upon this government supervision for its confidence in bank soundness. A point which attracted much attention at this time was the alleged abuses of certification. This custom had come into use mainly through an effort to stop certain sharp practices. "The system of certifying checks," says a journal of 1883, "may be said to have originated in New York. Only a little over thirty years ago the banks of this city made their exchanges but once a week, and this was on Monday morning before banking hours. Many shrewd dealers with more wit than capital availed themselves of this fact to secure funds not otherwise within their grasp. At the beginning of the week. A, B and C had accounts in three different banks; A would obtain B's check, B would secure a like amount of C, and C, in turn, of A, and each would deposit the order in his own bank and of course draw against it. Thus, without any money, they could draw three thousand dollars and use it up to Saturday. On this day the money must be deposited, as the checks would go in for settlement on Monday morning. It was not difficult for each of them, just before the bank closed on Saturday, on their checks dated Monday, to borrow of some friend a thousand dollars, and this would keep them going indefinitely. "This was called 'flying paper', and, by an easy transition, 'Kiting', as it was raising money by the use of paper that had no solid support. Of course, it was adroitly disguised, the checks being for odd amounts, and the various transactions as much mixed as possible. To prevent such a misuse of credit, the banks began to send out runners, either to present the checks for collec- tion on the day they were deposited or to ask for a certification. If the check was certified it was charged at once to the drawer, and unless he had the money in bank at the close of business his account would stand overdrawn. It was done to prevent kiting and not to facilitate it. It is true that from the hour of certifica- tion to the close of business the drawer of the check had a credit, but the paper was not a kite, as it had the stamp of the bank, which represented real capital. "After the practice of making daily exchanges came into vogue, the system of certifying checks was extended to avoid the carrying 244 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK of money through the streets, and to bring all the settlements to- gether into the morning hour. When the clearing house was established it became still more convenient, and no one thought of presenting a check for payment." At first there was no conception of the bank's assuming a legal obligation for the amount certified. The cheque was not charged to the drawer's account until presented, and the stamp was con- sidered little more than information. But the obvious chance here for creating a credit from nothing could not fail to be seized upon during the frenzy of speculation; some banks certified to an enormous extent, practically guaranteeing the brokers' contracts with their customers, — and in the pressure over-certifying became so common that a State law in 1869 penalized it by forfeiture of charter. The New York Clearing House declared vigorously against any certification unless the amount were found regularly entered to the dealer's credit; and when the abuse continued another law was passed providing heavy fines and imprisonment. In spite of everything, the fatal ease of the transaction, and the possibility that it might never come to light, made cases crop out again and again: when a New York bank lost a large sum by over- certifying, the indicted teller pleaded orders from his superior; and the certifying banks generally assumed that accepting checks was not a violation of the statute. In 1822 a Federal Act prescribed severe penalties for any violation or any evasion by receiving ficti- tious obligations, and the Comptroller's strictness in following up the matter caused some of the conspicuous offenders to abandon their national charters and reorganize under the more liberal state law. It was at just this time that the charters of nearly four hundred national banks were about to expire, and there was much discus- sion over renewal. The conservative banks were most anxious not to reorganize, but to continue maintaining the undivided sur- plus built up to 20 percent, of the capital under the national law- — amounting all told to $181,000,000; and the bill for the twenty- year extension finally passed. There were then over 2,000 national banks and the yearly loans and deposit items had each ;ust passed the billion mark; the savings banks held nearly $900,- 000,000, the state and private banks another half a billion, and the trust companies, just on the verge of their swift expansion, showed $111,000,000. The constantly increasing emphasis on the deposit funds was strikingly shown in the report for 1900. This gave aggregate individual deposits as follows: In National Banks . $2,458,092,758 In Loan and Trust In Savings " . 2,589,719,954 Companies . . $1,028,232,407 Instate^ " . 1,266,755,282 In Private Banks . 96,206,049 GOLD RESERVE OF 1892 245 By 1900 the trust company deposits had reached the billion mark; in 1910 they were over three billions, had passed the State banks, and were a fifth of the total for all classes. The '80s saw a continuation of the consolidations of all sorts; the Gould system of railways was built up. Western Union ab- sorbed its telegraph rivals, and these groupings into systems alter- nated with heavy stock dividends and with frequent stock market "corners" and outbursts of speculation. There was an excess of Significant features of this graph of commodity prices from 1810 to 1920 are the fluctuations following the war periods. exports over imports amounting to nearly $700,000,000 in the first years of the decade, and the tide of gold set heavily back towards the United States. The French crash of 1882 had almost no effect here, but 1884 was made memorable by the failure of Grant & Ward, and the wrecking of the Marine Bank, followed by the Metropolitan, where the management had been of the unsoundest, and the Atlantic. Again In 1890 the failure of the Baring firm in London, with liabilities of £21,000,000, owing to their heavy backing of the Argentine railroad boom, had only a temporary effect in America. The New York banks stood the strain with the help of Clearing House certificates. Nevertheless, this rude shock to English optimism had an after- effect In that it presently caused a check in the flood of foreign capital which had been poured into our railroad and other enter- prises. The magnitude and persistence of this investment and reinvestment had obscured the true state of affairs. Probably a 246 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK hundred millions a year were annually payable to Europe on in- vestment accounts alone; and when our silver legislation in 1890 increased the aroused apprehensions of foreign capitalists, a steady calling-in of these great sums began. Heavy gold exports commenced the very month the Sherman Law was passed. In five years the gold reserve in the Treasury was reduced by a half. "The theory of Gresham's law, that the departure of gold denotes the presence of a poorer currency behind the gold, expelling it from the country, was verified by the manner in which the gold went out as the new Treasury notes were pumped into the circula- tion at the rate of $4,500,000 a month." It seemed to justify the caustic statement of experts that the United States was in banking "at about the same point that had been reached by Europe at the time of the Medicis, and by Asia, in all likelihood, at the time of Hammurabi" — when in 1892 we beheld the government appealing to the generosity and patriotism of the banks to help build up its diminishing gold reserve. The inelasticity of our currency, and the absence of any central bank, ready at all times to rediscount the paper held by the banks and thus prevent the violent contractions and general convulsions — these features of the European system were conspicuously lacking each time we had to meet a crisis. As we have seen, even the pooling arrangement of 1873 had fallen into disuse, so there was a minimum of chance for concerted action. A group of New York bankers did make a real joint contribu- tion of effort between June and July, 1893, assisted by those of other cities; and the gold reserve was thus raised from $90,000,000 to $97,000,000. But the effects of the silver-based Treasury notes were reinforced by a renewed outburst of the speculative extravagances. "Funds were raised for working alleged tin mines in South Dakota; vast tracts of land were purchased in Florida to be unloaded as sugar lands upon foreign investors under the guaran- tee of the government bounty upon sugar; and new towns sprang up all over the South, dowered in the imagination of their projec- tors with infinite possibilities of mineral wealth and manufactur- ing development, but which proved in fact little more than bottomless pits for the millions of northern capital spent in laying them out. It was the same with suburban improvements in the neighborhood of the great cities as with the 'boom' towns of the South. Millions were sunk i^ improvements, in advance of actual demand, upon property for which no purchasers could be found when people began to ask themselves what was the basis of realitv beneath inflated and fictitious values." T H E P A N I C O F 1 8 9 3 247 The place of railroads in this over-extension was taken by the street railways which were being transformed on all sides to cable and trolley hnes. Government, States, cities, corporations, indi- viduals — all were contracting to spend money for ventures of every sort, ventures which caused a financial writer to estimate shortly afterwards that "the bad investments of the public, within three years, came fully up to, $1,500,000,000 and are likely to exceed it." Upon this situation the news that the British Government in India had decided to suspend the free coinage of silver came like a thunderclap. The whole financial structure w^as feeling the strain of fighting against inexorable laws in the attempt to bolster up the gold reserve; here was the market for a third of the world's silver suddenly closed, and the price of the metal, which the United States was attempting to force upon trade, tumbling in a few days from 78 cents an ounce to 65. This meant a shrinkage of some $37,000,000 in the value of the government's bullion, and with the gold reserve already below $100,000,000, it spelled disaster to every informed financier. New York had stopped telling stories of the terrific blizzard of 1888, the most complete paralysis of the city's activities in its history; the echoes of the sensational bomb- throwing by the luna- tic, Norcross, in Russell Sage's office; Dr. Parkhurst's first crusade against the "pack of administering bloodhounds" in control of the municipality; and the Columbian anniversary, with the unveiling of the column and statue at Columbus Circle had also died away in the interest aroused by the great naval review of the spring of 1893 and the reception to the Spanish Princess Eulalia. But by June everybody was thinking mainly of the business paralysis which had gripped everything as the disaster became certain. There were huge interest payments to be made on July 1, and money was not to be had. The Clearing House, which offered the only instrument for common action, held a meeting, and the various bank presidents represented looked the situation squarely in the face. They saw clearly that the immediate necessity, in spite of the runs which were rapidly reducing deposits, was a general extension of credits. A Loan Committee of five was authorized to issue Clearing House certificates so that the banks could settle their daily balances without calling in loans; and on June 30, by throwing $8,000,000 on the market they broke the interest rate from 80 percent, to 10. During the whole four months' period over $41,000,000 of Clear- ing House certificates were issued, "without the loss of a single dollar to the Association," and by liberal advances to exchange 248 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK dealers some $30,000,000 of gold were brought into the coun- try. But not even the powerful influence of this central organization could alter the general course of events. Twenty-five national banks suspended in June and 116 in the next two months. State and private banks collapsed with liabilities of $97,000,000. A preliminary crash in industrial stocks was followed on July 26 by a real panic on the Stock Exchange: with money rates of 75 percent, there was a rush to sell at any price and even standard bonds melted away in value. The closing of the Exchange was pro- posed, but the Governors decided against it. A great wave swept the country, undermining the foundations of all but the most solid commercial structures. Railway construction almost ceased; the production of pig-iron dropped a third; by the next vear there were in the hands of receivers 156 railroads operating 39,000 miles and representing a capitahzation of $2,500,000,000; by 1895 the annual railroad dividends were sLxty-odd millions less than they had been before the crash; securities were suddenly worth half or quarter of their accepted values; the number of failures increased 50 percent., their liabiUties 300 percent. Everywhere banks were paying only in certifications on Clear- ing House checks, currency was at a premium, and factories had to shut down because money could not be obtained for the payroll. Deposits were checked sharply, but many private hoards came on the market, and something like $15,000,000 in currency was sold at varying premiums in New York. The business public accepted this anomalous state of affairs as a necessary outcome of the shock; they went much further and m many places evolved an emergency currency to meet the most pressing needs. Clearing House certificates were for use only between banks, and the 10 percent, tax barred the issue of notes by state and private banks; but in dozens of places certificates and certified checks, sometimes guaranteed by the associated banks, passed current. In some cases a single bank put them out. Railways and manufacturers met their own problems similarly where banking aid was not available. In more than one locahty the authorities took action, basing this informal makeshift upon some pubUc fund. Everywhere these obligations were treated as cash, and were promptly redeemed when the pressure relaxed; and the Federal government discreetly winked at the whole proceed- ing. The experience was not forgotten, however, and was a constant influence in succeeding years towards a radical change of the system which made such things possible. The Sherman law was RISE OF GREAT TRUST COMPANIES 249 repealed on November 1, but it was several years before condi- tions approached normality again. The loss of confidence which caused continued withdrawal of foreign capital was shared by Americans themselves, and the amounts of paper money pre- sented to the Treasury for redemption in gold jumped from $9,000,000 in 1892 to $117,000,000 in 1895. On the one day of January 25 in that year the aggregate was $7,156,046; and when the evening of February 2 arrived, with only $9,700,000 in New York Sub-Treasury, and a single bank there reporting a hundred and fifty requests for gold coin, there was general alarm. This state of affairs brought about another anomalous effort to correct through private operations a basic national error. Presi- dent Cleveland announced in his congressional message that a syndicate of New York and London bankers (the Belmonts, Morgans and Rothschilds) had agreed to furnish the government with 3,500,000 ounces of gold — then over a third of the world's annual production — in exchange for $62,400,000 of thirty -year, 4 percent, bonds, and that the syndicate "as far as lies in their power, will exert all financial influence and will make all legiti- mate efforts to protect the Treasury of the United States against the withdrawal of the gold pending the complete performance of this contract." There was an immense amount of criticism of this deal, mainly in the sections which hailed W. J. Bryan's "cross of gold" speech as the inspired utterance of a great leader; but the obvious reflec- tion in the minds of experts was a confirmation of the necessity for changing a system which required such external bolstering. In point of fact, the bankers created a partial corner in foreign ex- change, and for a time turned back the flow of gold to America and stopped the treasury drain; but this exchange control broke down, and the resumed depletion was only temporarily checked by the government's sale of a great issue of coin bonds. Once more we went through a decade of recovery, expansion, destruction of property by the Spanish War and a speeding up of industrial enterprises which absorbed all available resources. Nearly $20,000,000,000 of new securities were rushed out in the United States between 1902 and 1906. This coincided with a huge rise in gold production which added a billion and a half to the store in the same period, stimulating prices and speculative activities. "In spite of the outpour of gold from the mines at a rate never equalled or approached in the history of the race, demand outran supply, the new gold did not offset the maladjustments of capital, and the money market found gold an unsatisfying element when 250 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK what was required was more saved capital in forms adapted to the continuance of production." New York did some physical as well as financial expanding. In 1895 the northern limits were pushed up to the edge of Yonkers and Mount Vernon. On January 1, 1898, the city formally ab- sorbed the adjoining communities on Staten Island and Long Island as far east as Rockaway. Greater New York came into being, with an area of 327 square miles (eight times as much as in 1890) and a population of 3,100,000. This thirty-two miles of length intensified the transit problems, and the first tunnel con- tract was given out in 1900, the road being completed from City Hall to 147th Street in the fall of 1904. The Second, Third and Sixth Avenue elevated roads had reached Harlem in the early Eighties; and they grew much faster after the change to electricity in 1902 and 1903. From these beginnings the transportation needs have caused a prodigious growth to the present 600 miles of subways and L roads, representing over $500,000,000 for subways alone— with just as much pressure for new extensions as there was in the beginning. Long distance telephony had come — to Boston in 1887, to Chicago in 1892, to Omaha in 1896; by 1907 there were more tele- phones within thirty miles of the City Hall than the whole United States had had in 1885. In 1904 the total bank deposits of the country for the first time passed the ten-bilhon mark. There were five thousand national banks announcing earnings of $60,000,000 on $750,000,000 of capital. ■ And an entirely new element had appeared in the bank- ing situation through the unprecedented rise in importance of the great trust companies. tors Chapter X THE ERA OF THE TRUST COMPANIES The Small Number of Alodeni Companies JV^hlch Dale Before i86jf — Their Growth Largely Due to New Business Methods — The Period of Great Con- solidations — Nation-W ide Speculation and The Panic of igoj A S we have seen, the first trust company, the Farmers' Loan Ajt & Trust of to-day, was started as early as 1822. Eight ^ -^ years later the New York Life Insurance and Trust Co. entered the field, the Ohio Life Insurance & Trust was chartered in 1834, the Pennsylvania Company for Insurances on Lives and Granting Annuities was authorized to undertake such business in 1836, and another Philadelphia concern, the Girard Life Insurance Annuity and Trust Co., came into existence the same year. By 1853 the United States Trust Co. had also come into existence (no other of the modern companies dating from the seventeen years between these dates); the only other surviving trust company established before 1864 was the Merchants Loan and Trust of Chicago, started in the panic year of 1857. All this time the developing trust business was steadily building the well-managed companies into financial factors of importance; yet singularly little attention was paid to them by financial writers, and the general public seems to have had not the slightest comprehension of what a trust company was. Their early asso- ciation with insurance helped to confuse people's minds; even pawnbrokers and loan concerns had called themselves trust com- panies; and the usual conception of a bank's chief function as the issuing of notes undoubtedly helped to obscure the facts. The general re-alignment after the National Banking Act, and the increasing emphasis on deposits as compared with circulation, drew attention to the advantages of the trust company form of organization: between 1864 and 1875 forty of the existing com- panies were added to the list. By 1890 there were at least sixty- three active concerns in the United States — ^yet there was almost nothing in print then to tell what a trust company's functions 251 252 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK were. The "Trusts "were looming large in men's minds at that time, and the incident has been often related of how an officer of a Michigan concern, trying to gather data for an address to a bankers' meeting, had his questionnaire returned by an attorney general with the information that there were no trust companies doing business in that state except the Standard Oil. Incredible as it seems, as late as 1907 one of the chief speakers at the Conven- tion addressed the American Bankers Association on "The Distinction Between Trusts and Trust Companies." While the Chancellor of New York State required a statement of affairs as early as 1831, there was almost no supervision of the trust companies before Connecticut in 1872, and New York in 1874 placed them under the supervision of the Superintendent of Banks, to whom the banks had reported since 1851. This official reported at the end of that year that the twelve concerns in that city were apparently in sound condition and had an aggregate capital of $11,752,040 with deposits of $38,479,764. This was about half the total for the whole country, as statistics issued by the Comptroller of the Currency showed next year. The idea and privileges had been abused in some notorious in- stances, owing to the complete lack of publicity, and the financial magazines of this time scored the actions of some of the companies in the matter of call loans, and in "stock-jobbing" transactions. The earlier companies, however, were conservatively and skilfully handled from the start; their history for the first half century showed a steady advance; they were accepted as being safe be- yond the possibility of any mishap; and the first three, with the Farmers' Loan & Trust in the lead, had rolled up a sum of de- posits, not so subject to sudden withdrawal as the banks, that rendered them a formidable factor in the money market. It is notable enough, too, in view of the absence of supervision for so long that the New York Superintendent of Banking de- clared in 1908, "So far as the records of this department are concerned, we know of no case of a failure of a trust company resulting in loss to the depositors;" and no one has questioned the claim that not a dollar of trust funds has ever been lost through a trust company. For several years up to 1880 there were no more additions to the list, but the vast forward strides of the country during the next twenty years, the building up of huge holdings by the insurance companies, the consolidations — all gave a phenomenal impetus to the trust concerns, which had some obvious advantages in com- petition with the banks. By 1895 there were 569 with resources of $962,000,000; in the next ten tears these resources quadrupled. GROWTHDUETONEW METHODS 253 To-day the thirty companies of New York have deposits alone of about two bilKons, and six of them run from $125,000,000 to $450,000,000 apiece, standing almost shoulder to shoulder with the six largest banks. The charts seem to show that there is httle justification in the view that much of this growth was at the expense of the banks. The trust institutions kept pace with the huge advances In wealth of the country; their share of growth was larger than that of the banks because of advantages which attracted certain kinds of business and deposits. Another striking fact that appears is that the absence of reports and supervision resulted not in any noticeably large percentage of failures, though it did make some bad ones where the concerns were in the hands of men carried away by the idea of "high finance" — confirming the usual experience that the chief service of such state or government regulation is to protect the public from occasional recklessness, dishonesty or lack of capacity. The precautions which the mass of conservative bank and trust com- pany managers throw around their own business are far more stringent and intimately effective than any external control. A question which became acute twenty years ago was the matter of reserves. The New York Clearing House announced in 1902 that the trust company members would be called upon to maintain such cash reserves on deposits as the committee might determine. There was much discussion of the question, but even the conservative companies, whose voluntary reserves were al- ways adequate for any emergency, pointed out that there should be a distinction between their time deposits and those subject to check at any time. Some companies withdrew at once when the graduated scale adopted went into effect in 1903; others followed next year when the percentage rose; and by June there were only two of the original twenty-seven left. In 1906 a state law was passed, requiring 5 percent, in cash, 5 percent, in bank, and 5 percent, in bonds, and after the crisis of 1907 this was raised to 15 percent, of all demand deposits. Finally, on May 11, eighteen of the twenty-nine trust companies capitalized at $1,000,0001 or more resumed their affiliation with the Clearing House. Undoubtedly, a major cause of the surprising growth of the trust companies was the very flexibility resulting from their unhampered development. They "grew up with the country," and automatically adjusted themselves to meet the complex demands of business as it increased and ramified. With the single exception of issuing currency, the trust companies came to per- form every financial service that an estate, an individual, or a 254 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK monster corporation needed — from acting as guardian, or caring for securities and valuables, or preparing a will, to the detailed processes of reorganizing a railroad or putting through a great industrial consolidation. While there were inherent advantages of smaller taxes, and the ability to pay interest on tremendous amounts of time deposits, it has been mainly this completeness of function, and the constant adaptation to every new require- ment, which have made the trust company indispensable. The aggregate resources of the American companies doubled between 1914 and 1921, reaching a total of over twelve billions. In addi- tion the logical argument of "complete equipment" has affected the national banks themselves; under the privileges given by the Phelan Act they have been vigorously establishing trust depart- ments since 1918, and 1256 permits for this had been granted by the Federal Reserve Board up to the end of 1920. The history of the first decades of the Twentieth Century proved once more that the New York banking institutions, "Wall Street" of loose speaking, reflect with extreme accuracy the whole of the country at any given time. The ideals and methods of the period, as well as the commercial condition, are thrown into sharp relief and emphasized from the concentration at the centre. Mounting cash assets of the great life insurance companies had found a profitable outlet in the formation of new trust companies and the swift expansion and combination of old ones, till a few such concerns were handling an investment business of enormous magnitude. The great railway systems had been welded into groups whose policy and resources were largely controlled by a small number of financiers. Synchronous with that had been a grouping of extensive banking interests; and all these concen- trations made possible flotations and underwritings on a scale never before attempted. The "bilHon dollar" U. S. Steel Corpor- ation, involving scores of banks, railroads and manufacturing plants, had in 1901 marked the apex of the rage for consolidation; but up to 1906 it seemed to be accepted by a large section of the community that fortune awaited anyone who would combme a considerable number of units in any industry. As always, high prices and successful speculations hypnotized most people into a belief that we had grown so strong as to be immune from reaction or crisis. In 1905 sensational exposure of extravagance in insurance meth- ods at once gave a profound shock to public optimism, and lopped off a large portion of the flow of insurance ^unds into schemes of promotion. The failure of the United States Ship- buildine underwriting was an indication that men had begun to PERIOD OF GREAT CONSOLIDATIONS 255 ^ to t^ >.ooo >o V ^ CO to • ■H ^ ^-; — ( 00 to I.S in t^>x> to 00 o CVIOO to a^ n? 1921 Com eport CN C^tC tCto o" Tj. ^ CO to to ■—1 tOON_ Tt^iO ■* c\ oo-tC to" g« to C^l ^ CI ^ 10.0 lO to CN cC^- cf <«^ 5> a^ t^ ^ o^ a\ 00 « l^_ t^ lO ^a. lO "S ^" g \i)^ N.' 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"^CN ^ LO to to C) o-crioi-H o" topi lo to t^ a\ LO ^H cc ^ C) <«■ (^ to CTn On to rr s ^-H^ t^ t^ 's >=" LO 1,0 LO -St ^ t^o^o 'O 1918 Comp; .eportir o LO iC to o \o 00 -r ^ c^ LO lO C\ t^ 00 to'^'cf ON o" ^W ■^•^"^^D ^ c5 ^ ^' ^ roc^'OO 00 s 00 C4 to rt LO 1^ t-.' o6 c i c^ Tf OOOOn to K. &• = LO^_^ON^_ 00 ^ 61^ Lo'cCo-^- ^ s^a 00-H tOb~ COLO 00 c) LO iCcfcfio* CO- cm:^ •^00\D-* LO LO ^T) to to a\ ° ^ '-^ oo- ^ cS u Cin Td :h > ■^ „ c u ^ :^ '^ ^ s.:^ 'rt •m S--^^ ~0 iS ^ '" L- H dc^QO 256 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK take a saner view of consolidations; but from 1904 to 1906 there was a frantic rise of stock prices, stimulated by the increase of the Union Pacific dividend from 6 to 10 percent. Several of the fore- most figures in the speculative fervor had succeeded in getting control of banks and trust companies which they used to promote their grandiose schemes. Even some of the greatest figures in finance seem to have been carried away by the same faith in America's boundless possibilities on which their career had been based. The effect of all this on legitimate industry was plain to all informed men when H. H. Rogers, in order to obtain $20,000,000 for his Virginian railway in the spring of 1907, had to pay over 8 percent., secure the bonds with $30,000,000 of gilt-edged collat- eral, and personally endorse the notes. A "silent panic" ensued, carrying stock prices down to the wiping out of thousands of speculative accounts, raising money rates, and shutting off loans. The demoralization in securities was worse even than in the "Black Friday" or 1873 disaster. Through the summer, signs of more trouble multiplied. Orders and railway earnings fell off. money tightened, the municipal bond issue was not taken up. The Morse shipping combine went to pieces, and a little later the Heintze failure involved the whole chain of banks which Morse and he dominated. On top of all came the revelations of reckless- ness in the management of the Knickerbocker Trust, when its doors closed and its president committed suicide. Runs began on one bank after another, and utter panic swept over the stock market. John Moody gives a picture of how again the situation had to be met by a few private individuals, the men who had become the greatest powers in the huge consolidation: "The morning after the Knickerbocker smash, while the run on the Trust Company of America was filling all Wall Street with crowds of excited depositors, a man walked into the office of J. P. Morgan & Company, pushed past the guard, and entered Morgan's private room. Morgan nodded and said, 'Good morn- ing, Mr. Frick'. The two men talked quietly for perhaps ten minutes. Frick went away; then Edward H. Harriman came in. Following him came other 'masters' one by one, or in pairs. Finally came James Stillman, president of the National City Bank, and spokesman for the great Standard Oil interests. "That day many millions of dollars were doled out to the banks by the Secretary of the Treasury ; Government bonds were sup- plied by institutions and private investors for temporary use, John D. Rockefeller alone lending ten million dollars' worth. SPECULATION AND THE PANIC OF 1907 257 Then both Morgan and Stillman made arrangements to buy bills of exchange in enormous quantities, and force gold shipments from Europe/' The final stroke was, after securing the Government's consent, to purchase for $30,000,000 the Tennessee Coal & Iron stock which had been pledged for loans of millions with New York banks; the banks which had called the loans on the stock collat- eral accepted bonds of the Steel Corporation; a failure which might have brought down the avalanche was averted. "From that hour matters began to mend." On October 28 the use of Clearing House certificates began and payments in currency were generally suspended — causing the usual premium. There was much hoarding and probably $25,000,000 was sold in the financial district at premiums which got up to 4^/2 percent. It was small comfort to the country to be told the unpalatable truth that it had ignored the plain warning of New York banks and the securities market — the entire loans and discounts having tremendously expanded in the preceding ten years, despite a contraction in New York amounting to $134,000,000; and that as Horace White stated it, "speculation on the Stock Exchange was not the chief contribution to the collapse of 1907, but speculation on a much wider scale, through the length and breadth of the land, was the exciting cause." The focussing of attention on the whole subject, however, helped to get an audience for those who had long been pointing out the inherent defects of our banking system. ^^J^- Chapter XI THE FEDERAL RESERVE AND THE NEW ERA Backbone of Federal Resen^e — A System Able to J fee I Any Pressure — Bankers' Banks — Sixty Resen'e Cities — Scope of The Resen'e Banks — - Banking Problems of The JP^orlJ JF^ar and Afterguards MOST of the efforts to improve the American banking sys- tem had concentrated on the single point of securing a more elastic currency by abolishing the provision for Government bonds as the sole basis of circulation. But students of international finance now began to point out that an equal essential was some sort of reservoir for emergencies, which our extreme decentralization did not afford; and that much of the extreme variations in the money rate, and the periodical stringen- cies, could be avoided by a proper use of rediscounting through some central organization. The "real backbone" of the Federal Reserve came from the recognition of these two principles. When President Wilson signed the Act on December 23, 1913, we got a central bank in everything but name; and the provisions for rediscounting trans- ferred the main factor in the money market to the rate for com- mercial paper. The system marked as definite a step in banking development as did the formation of the national banks; through the Federal Reserve Board it was enabled to bind together the whole banking power of the nation; and of course its effect and very existence were based upon the membership of an adequate proportion of existing institutions. The national banks were required to come in within a definite time or forfeit their charters, and only eighteen out of 7493 failed to do so. During the first three years there were only a few accessions from the State banks and trust companies, but an active campaign during the war increased the membership of these State institutions to the extent of seven billions of resources. The vast majority of smaller concerns are still not enrolled, the 258 SYSTEM ABLE TO MEET ANY PRESSURE 259 membership campaign committee of the American Bankers Association reporting in 1920 that further work along this hne was useless, largely owing to dissatisfaction over the par collec- tion plan of the Reserve Board. Some provisions of the Federal Reserve Act aroused objections both from bankers and financial experts, and this was not les- sened by announcements in Congress and elsewhere that one of the important ends to be accomplished was the lessening of the financial dominance of New York. As developed under the various regulations and amendments, however, the idea has amply proved itself, the Bankers' Association declaring formally in 1920 their approval of its operation through the periods of inflation and ensuing credit strain. "We are confident/' this expression continued, "that the Federal Reserve system has demonstrated its ability to meet any possible financial pressure." There were, of course, many conditions to be met for which no precedent could be found in European experience, where the central banks have developed almost from the beginning along with the other financial institutions. In this case, it was neces- sary to tie together, so that unified action might come under stress, some 30,000 independent units, with resources varying from a few thousand dollars up to a billion, and operating under most diverse conditions and fifty different sets of laws. It would have been completely impossible except for the existing basis of the national banking system and the affiliation which had come between this and the great trust companies. The Reserve institutions are essentially bankers' banks, not receiving any private deposits. So far as the stock is concerned, they are private corporations, owned by the bank and trust com- pany members who have formed them by subscribing 6 percent, of their paid-up capital and surplus; these shareholders are entitled to cumulative dividends of 6 percent, a year, any balance going to the Government, but half of it being held as surplus until this reaches 100 percent, of the capital. Each bank is governed by a board of nine Directors, six of whom are elected by the member banks. Class A of these directly represent the banks; the three class B Directors stand for business interests, and must be actually engaged in commerce, agriculture or some other industrial pursuit. In an effort to secure representation to the smaller banks, it was arranged that the voting should be by graduated groups — the largest banks in one, the medium sized in another, the smallest in a third — and no bank can vote out of its group when the election for two new Directors is held each November. The remaining three (class C) Directors are appoint- ed by the Federal Reserve Board at Washington; they must be 260 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK residents of the district and cannot be Directors or officers of any bank; one of these becomes chairman of the Directors' Board, Federal Reserve Agent, and the representative of the Reserve Board. This central Board of seven members (five appointed by the President, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Comptroller of the Currency) was given very wide powers of supervision, though it has no operating functions and cannot direct a Reserve bank in making loans, for instance. It can examine the affairs of all Reserve and member banks, and require reports at its discretion; require rediscounting at rates it fixes; suspend tem- porarily reserve requirements; supervise and regulate the issue and retirement of notes; add to or classify the cities specified as reserve and central reserve cities; suspend or remove any officer, or require the writing off of doubtful assets, or suspend the bank's operations; grant trust powers to national banks; and so on. There was created also an Advisory Council, with a member from each district, to meet at least four times a year at Washing- ton, its functions being limited to conference and recommendation. The reserve provisions distinguished between demand deposits and time deposits, payable after thirty days, and savings ac- counts. Every member bank not in a reserve or central reserve city was required to keep a net balance of 7 percent, of its demand and 3 percent, of its time deposits; for reserve cities these per- centages were raised to 10 and 3 percent.; the members in a central reserve city were called on for reserves of 13 and 3 percent. The reserve banks themselves were called on for 35 percent, in gold or money reserves against their deposits, and 40 percent, against notes in circulation. This involved a definite shifting of the main reserve burden from the individual banks to the central system, in line with the European methods of central banking; it afforded a chance for the correlation of note issues, gold reserves and discount rate by which the supply of capital and credit could be influenced. The theoretical arguments in favor of a smaller number of central districts proved powerless against the demand for ready accessibility and the prejudice in favor of local recognition which has always operated strongly in the United States. The country was divided into twelve districts, each with its bank; and the subsequent pressure for branches has resulted in a list of over sixty reserve cities. In 1921 this stood as follows: Central Reserve Cities: New York, Chicago, St. Louis Other Resen^e Cities with Main Banks: Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Kansas City (Mo.), Dallas, San Francisco. SIXTYRESERVECITIES 261 Resen>e Cilies, with Branch Banks: Albany, Brooklyn and Bronx, Buffalo, Pittsburg, Baltimore, Washington, Charles- ton, Savannah (a reserve city, but had no national banks in 1921), Jacksonville, Birmingham, New Orleans, El Paso, Fort Worth, Galveston, Houston, San Antonio, Waco, Little Rock, Louisville, Chattanooga, Memphis, Nashville, Cin- cinnati, Columbus, Toledo, Indianapolis, Peoria, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Dubuque, Sioux City, St. Joseph, Lincoln, Omaha, Kansas City (Kan.), Topeka, Wichita, Denver, Pueblo, Muskogee, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Seattle, Spokane, Taco- ma, Portland, Los Angeles, Oakland, Ogden, Salt Lake City. The Reserve banks are empowered, at the discretion of the Board, to issue notes redeemable in gold, which are obligations of the United States, against collateral security of notes, drafts, bills of exchange and acceptances; and at the end of the first five years there were $2,752,000,000 of such notes in circulation. Though it was apparently designed that all rights of currency issue should eventually be restricted to the Government and these banks, there was nothing in the law as it stood at the end of 1921 to prevent the issuance by national banks of currency secured by Government bonds. About $56,000,000 of the 2 percent, bonds eligible for this purpose had been acquired by Reserve banks, however, and converted into 3 percent, bonds and 3 per- cent, one-year notes, without circulation privilege; and this had an obvious effect upon the profit of note circulation. With 4 percent, bonds selling at 106>^, and money at 6 percent., the profit on $100,000 of circulation figured only 1.19 percent, above the 6 percent, on bond investment. Much the most important feature of the new plan was the basic matter of rediscounting commercial paper, thus permitting extensions of credit which were formerly impossible, even on the soundest business assets, at the very times when they were most needed. The whole emphasis is thrown on "notes, drafts and bills of exchange arising out of actual commercial transactions," and mere investments or obligations drawn for the purpose of trading in stocks and bonds were specifically excluded. Not only can acceptances be discounted for members, but cable transfers, bankers' acceptances, bills of exchange and gold may be purchased in the open market. This soon became an important factor in the operations, as did the clearing system between members, established in 1915 through a gold clearance fund (by which in three years 63 billions of clearings were effected with net changes of gold ownership under one percent.), the method of par collection of checks, soon in use to the extent ot 262 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK 95 percent, of the checks in circulation, and the free telegraphic transfer of funds at par. As might have been expected, the system has been held respon- sible by the uninformed for all sorts of local price collapses; and there have not been wanting charges, impossible to prove, that certain sections have been discriminated against in favor of others. Most bankers have had similar experiences with in- dividuals; and the contention of the managers that "prices regulate themselves," and that the task of the Reserve banks is the regulation of credits is unanswerable. At the end of 1920, Mr. Pierce Jay, Chairman of the New York Reserve Bank, in an address before the Bankers' Association, summarized the net accomplishments of the system in its first six years: "1. We have found ourselves with a recognized banking leadership. "2. We have found ourselves able to expand our credits, in the form of both notes and deposits, far beyond anything we had dreamed of. "3. Bank reserves have been materially lowered, such action being justified by our more scientific and economical adminis- tration of reserves. Looked at from another angle, the reserves formerly kept by banks were found under the new organization to be sufficient to sustain many hundred million dollars of addi- tional deposits. From this increased banking power alone, profits have accrued far offsetting the loss of interest formerly received on reserve deposits. "4. Member banks no longer have to carry a required vault reserve. This enables most banks to economize in the use of till money. Many banks in farming towns now get along comfort- ably with vault cash of from 1 percent, to 2 percent, of their deposits. In 1913 country national banks kept 7.3 percent, ot their deposits in cash in vault whereas in 1919 they kept only 4.4 percent., a 40 percent, reduction. "5. The Federal reserve banks, to provide and encourage a maximum of note elasticity, and to place all banks, whether country or city, on an equal basis as far as cost is concerned, in availing of the currency facihties of the system, pay the cost ot shipping coin and currency to and from member banks. This encourages a more prompt redemption of currency than we have ever before known. "6. Machinery has been developed which accompKshes the telegraphic transfer of funds from one section of the country to another in volume far exceeding anything heretofore known, immediately, without expense, without shipment of currency, and at par. This is done almost entirely by book entry in the SCOPEOFTHERESERVEBANKS 263 gold settlement fund which the reserve banks maintain with the treasurer of the United States. For the movement of actually available funds, therefore, the entire country is at par. "As an example of the effectiveness and stabilizing influence of this machinery in combination with the use of the credit facilities of the system I should like to give you some transactions in the New York Federal Reserve District for the months of July, August and September. In these months the movement of funds was unusually active, yet credit equilibrium was main- tained and borrowers enjoyed steady credit facilities and rates. (a) Deposits of the principal banks in New York City decreased $320,000,000 from July 2 to September 7, on account of Government and commercial withdrawals. (b) These withdrawals caused a steady drain of gold from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to other Federal reserve banks, accelerating toward the end of the period, and in the three weeks ending September 17, aggregating $198,- 000,000. (c) This adverse flow of funds was substantially offset by Government transfers to New York, by the sale of certificates of indebtedness by New York banks to other Federal reserve banks, and by rediscount operations between Federal reserve banks. (d) These rediscount operations comprise the following: On July 20, other Federal reserve banks owed the Federal Reserve Bank of New York $45,000,000. By August 27 re- payment of these loans was completed. On September 3, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York owed other Federal reserve banks $47,500,000. By Septem- ber 21, repayment of these loans was completed. Between September 8 and 15, the deposits of principal New York banks rose $453,000,000, in connection with the following transactions: (a) Certificates of indebtedness were redeemed and paid in this district in the amount of $425,000,000, which was $195,- 000,000 more than the taxes payable. (b) This excess of redemption over taxes on September 15 necessitated as usual a loan by the Federal reserve bank to the Government. The amount, $146,000,000, was repaid gradually and was extinguished on September 23. (c) The banks of the district on September 15, increased their deposits $200,000,000, when they paid for their sub- scriptions to the new issues of certificates by crediting that amount on their books to the account of the government. 264 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK "Following this large increase in deposits: (a) The principal banks of New York City reduced their borrowings at the Federal reserve bank between September 8 and 16 by $257,000,000. (b) Their deposits then began to decline again as their customers' tax checks were collected, and as they sold certi- ficates of indebtedness to their customers. (c) Consequently they were obliged again to increase their borrowings at the Federal reserve bank, a course which experi- ence shows is likely to be followed increasingly when the government begins to withdraw from them the deposits resulting from the latest sale of certificates. "These heavy movements of funds changed the position of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York rapidly from week to week and sometimes from day to day. Disregarding discounts and sales of acceptances between Federal reserve banks, the lowest combined reserve percentage of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was 31.6, its highest was 43. But despite these fluctuations, the reserve position of the Federal Reserve System did not change substantially. These operations were essentially those of a clear- ing house on a national scale, and were effected with as little credit disturbance as the settling of balances at a local clearing house. "Such movements as these are not visible to the naked eye. They are not recorded in the banking statistics of the country. It is only by such a special study that one gets an understanding of what is going on under the surface in the movement of funds and how well-nigh impossible it would have been six years ago for such movements to occur without serious credit disturbance, that we realize what the elasticity of the Federal Reserve System and its clearing operations are doing, day in and day out, for stability. "7. So much for the movements of available funds. Now as to unavailable funds, that is, uncollected checks. We had always collected checks in a most wasteful and uneconomical manner. Through the desire of some of the banks, mostly in the smaller places, to deduct an exchange charge, and through the lack of any system covering the entire country, checks were indirectly routed to their destination and tardily remitted for. This meant loss of time, extending additional credit, carrying additional reserves, and many additional handlings of checks. It resulted in main- taining reciprocal accounts, and collection accounts, and clerks or officers who were specialists in routing collections. And finally, when we came to a crisis it meant a general breakdown of our domestic exchange machinery. This has now been changed. The Federal reserve banks, a system covering the entire country, have brought about quicker, cheaper and absolutely direct SCOPEOFTHERESERVEBANKS 265 collections of checks, as well as notes, drafts, and coupons. Their collection system, and their mechanical facilities for transferring funds, taken in conjunction with their credit facilities, have abso- lutely eliminated the danger of another domestic exchange break- down. In 1863 the National Bank Act eliminated the deduction of exchange on bank notes, which were then our principal settling medium. So the Federal Reserve Act has nearly succeeded in eliminating the deduction of exchange on checks, which are now our principal settling medium. "How all this is viewed by students may be gathered from the address of E. W. Kemmerer, professor of Economics and Finance at Princeton, at the June conference of the Academy of Political Science on the subject of inflation and high prices. He said : 'The development of the clearing and collection system of the Federal reserve banks and the establishment of the gold settlement fund represent some of the most creditable features of our American banking history and the Federal reserve au- thorities deserve high praise for what they have accomplished in this connection. They have increased the efficiency of our currency and circulating credit and enabled the average dollar to do more money work than before. They have reduced the wasteful habit of routing checks, cheapened domestic exchange operations, made possible the transfer from one part of the country to another of many millions of dollars by means of book credits that would otherwise have required the shipment of currency, and they have, therefore, reduced the average amount of money continually tied up in transit. To increase the effi- ciency of the dollar in these ways is to increase the effective currency supply as truly as to increase the number of dollars.' "8. The national banks now have the specific right to accept savings deposits and invest part of them in mortgages. "9. The national banks may now exercise trust powers. "10. Member banks may accept drafts drawn upon them. There are about $1,000,000,000 of such bills in existence, com- pared with none in 1914. I shall have more to say of them later. "11. National banks may invest in the shares of foreign trade banks. "12. And if they are large enough, national banks may estab- lish branches m foreign countries. "13. And finally the Federal reserve banks, in addition to assuming their responsibility as administrators of the banking re- serve of the country, are developing into great service organiza- tions for the member banks, doing most of the things which their city correspondents used to do and doing many things by reason 266 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK ^ z < pq W > oi w c/n ^ H-3 < z oi rn w n Q « e O ^ w n Q H J Q u ^ W o X CJ H fo H O < H 1 1 H ^ <: w 2 > fa o H < P^ < Oh ^ O u 888 O K3 t^ On 00- Tf ^ I -^ 5 C K rtOO o o oo 88 to o to LO 8 I 8 8 OO 88 88 toc^ CNO" t^ LO OnO o t^ fe o 5 Cu 'o'c oo f^ o 2 :z; £ O *J Pi o PS 3 §1 PQO SCOPE OF THE RESERVE BANKS 267 II III! 1 So II 1 § nil i ^1 10 ^'i o lOfCoTo a^ 'sDod ^-'t^" ^ o't-^-tCo' a^■ g^ t--a> CN Tf (M CM r> t^ ^!M lO c< 00 00CT\ to 5^ O) "-q o CN to CN tot^__^__>.o On C^^C^l to o^_ O^' to "sD 52 s S !?S VOC^f § §5§S ^D to -^ r^ o o 00 ««• "sD 00 ^ 00 vo' ^ ie ^ 11 . §§ii o iSi §11 g iiii g tN o^^ to 11 ^ o" o o' ^. Cf lO x" x" 'OOO-uf o" o-f c— " ?AC\C^^ ^'T to CO O CO 'O 00 -^ V ^o ■o"^" ,r ^ 'O 'O ^ X tCc^'d" ON-cfiO 00 'O t^ o c_ ^■ocofio oo" ^ ^ S to^ 'O to t^ Cl lOCN iri -j^ ^ -J-^^ t-: r-1 '^ n "O «^ >.o 'O o ^ '0_ c~r II q ^8S:S g S^2 §^S?J5 ?5 882f: s ^ ■^ ui t-i O ^ K ri O 00 o 00 t^i— 1 nI >^ d t^' oi Cr\0 ^ On C) t^ §1 t^ C^ LO^^ -*^ to o o^ o^ 3^__^^K t^_ 00 too cs ,-H oo_ ^l C) C) 00 O^, t^ &5 £§ q LO t^ -^ 8S" to cc to °o o^ ■^" to- 00- 00 i—T o- •— <- to- ^-o-'ocf CI 'O ^" O to '^ ,-^ ^ o o^ ^ Tf t-- t^ ^ ^ in '-o ^ ^i q >-Dod Tt< CN rt to ^ tCON-o" ctT o" to' LO00^a^ ■.do-OTt CN tOK5 " c\ D ICCN c> 'sCOl c^ 3 09- ^fir t^ " ^ ^ S 6 c« •42 c u < 1 o < -S > 1 1 .2.= pi a. c ;| 'I c 1 268 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK of their country-wide organization, which their city correspond- ents could never do. The Federal reserve banks are proving to be a day to day working system for the member banks, helping them to conduct their affairs with a maximum of promptness and economy." The Reserve banks were opened for business November 16, 1914. Eleven months later, they showed resources of $427,000,- 000 and loans and discounts of $43,000,000. In another four years the resources had swelled to more than six billions, a third of which was represented by bills discounted for members, and the bills bought in the open market aggregated $343,000,000; the earnings for the six months' period, mostly from bills, were at the rate of 92 percent, on the average paid-in capital. A statement of the New York bank, toward the end of 1921, indicates the growth of the system. At the outbreak of the World War the brunt of the pressure fell as usual upon the New York banks. Before the Federal Reserve Board was appointed, exports of $46,000,000 of gold in three weeks, and sales on the Exchange showing that Europe was trying to change swiftly colossal blocks of American investments into war specie, had brought joint action between the banks, the Treasury and the Stock Exchange; and a little later an acute situation arose over the maturing of a foreign municipal loan of $83,000,000. To avoid the impairment of credit, especially at such a time, the city banks formed a pool to take up new notes and to provide gold or exchange to meet the obligation abroad; on this operation and those to meet the enormous drain of gold and the demoralization of foreign exchange, some $73,000,000 of gold was shipped to Canada by November, 1914. When the Reserve Board began to function, the banks of the fifty-two reserve cities were brought into a general effort to create a common reservoir of gold or exchange. By December, the emergency bank issues, arranged for in August, had been reduced a third, and the Clearing House certificates put at the same time had all been retired. The Stock Exchange, which for the second time in Its history had closed on July 30, reopened fully on December 14. The banking world was forced continually to readjust itself to the swiftly changing conditions, the basic influence in which became the vast purchases of foodstuffs and munitions by foreign governments, creating a trade balance in our favor of over a billion dollars at the end of the first year. As a prominent banker put it, toward the end of 1915: "Several of our strongest assumptions have proven erroneous. Our stock of gold was not exhausted by foreign shipments; in W O R L D W A R B A N K I N G P R O B L E M S 269 fact international exchanges gradually turned in our favor. Our cotton exports were not cut in five as predicted, but exceeded 92 percent, of the previous year's volume. Our copper industry was not ruined, but has been stimulated. Our stock exchanges have not been overwhelmed by a flood of distressed American securities sold at sacrifice prices by European holders, but we have readily absorbed all offerings. Our issue of emergency currency amount- ing to $384,000,000, and of Clearing House loan certificates amounting to $212,000,000, nearly $600,000,000 in all, did not remain long outstanding, but reduction and redemption took place promptly, and they were practically all retired by the middle of January, 1915." Violent Exchange fluctuations ceased the second year, largely because of the great foreign loans placed here — 500 millions of the Anglo-French issue, 250 millions of United Kingdom, and others, to both belligerents and neutrals, making an aggregate of more than a billion and a half. Still, if any prophet had told an American banker, even at this stage of the war, that our banks, with total resources of about $25,000,000,000, would have to take the chief part in supplying the Government with some $37,000,000,000 in a couple of years as one element of our participation — it would surely have been pronounced beyond the limits of possibility^ Yet, while many experts estimated that the first Liberty Loan could not be more than a billion and a half, — when two billions were asked for, the whole banking power led the movement which resulted in a subscription of three billions. When the first loan seemed to be going slowly, and people were whispering alarmist reports and predictions, it was the great financial institutions, the "Wall Street" of the outsiders, which almost abandoned their own affairs and used their machinery In a new kind of intensive effort that resulted in the tremendous over-subscription of the last few days. Trust companies of New York City alone presented subscriptions of $300,000,000, and $1,700,000,000 came by or through the national banks of the nation — all, of course, without any commission and with heavy expenses. Of the temporary certificates anticipating loans, too, the banks took nearly three-fourths for their own account, up to April, 1918, about sixty-five percent, of the first four issues going to the New York district, where "the essential role was, of course, played by the New York City" banks and trust companies. Some 14,000 financial institutions ultimately participated in the flotation of these temporary certificates. Moreover, an im- portant banker of St. Louis testified afterward that many of his Western colleagues had felt that the war financing was a thing 270 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK which could be handled by the big Eastern banks — until they came to a bankers' conference at Briarcliff in May, 1917, and had their enthusiastic determination aroused by the presenta- tion of the true situation and the opportunity. Probably a couple of million of voluntary workers aided in the "drives" which made the five Victory Loans successful, increas- ing the investing public of the United States from four hundred thousand individuals to some twenty millions. From the very nature of the case, however, the lion's share of the responsibility fell upon the banks and trust companies, and their facilities were taxed to the utmost simply by the mechanical requirements. The very fact that, of the twenty-one billions raised by these loans, over five and a half billions were finally allotted to New York tells something of the part the financial concerns there played. The war left us the creditor nation of the world. It definitely shifted the international money centre from London to New York. As a sort of symbol of this transition, we found ourselves with almost half of the world's entire stock of gold coin. American bankers have been confronted with plenty of inevit- able problems of readjustment at home — getting back to a less inflated basis than was necessary during the war, working to best advantage with the Federal Reserve system, meeting the terrific shrinkage of commodity values when these slumped from the high levels, in general financing hugely increased industries under suddenly altered conditions. They have had to adopt new ideas that stand for progress, like the buying of bankers' acceptances. In addition they have been forced, by the con- sciousness of the country's altered status, to take intimate cogniz- ance of international affairs, and to help arouse the whole nation to a sense of our vital concern with Europe, of the dependence of our prosperity upon restored foreign markets. It is probable that no problem so difficult has ever confronted the thoughtful financier as now demands solution — our precise relation to the old world which owes us billions, on which we must rely for much of our continued commercial progress, yet much of which is now in economic chaos. It is no longer a theoretical matter: while each nation must naturally work out its own future, on the soundness of our policies will largely depend the speediness and permanence of the restoration. How seriously the more far-seeing men in the profession are laboring at the problem is evident on every side. It requires no prophetic powers to predict that the next decade will be one of the most significant and instructive periods in the whole historv of American finance. Chapter XII THEN AND NOW Bc^inldcnng Changes Since 1822 — How a Banker 0/ Lbat Time Might View The Va.st Growth of The Century ■T is too bad that we cannot transport our banker of 1822, top hat, tall coat, gold headed cane and all, into the centre of to- day's activities, and hear his comments on the edifice which has been constructed since his time. I am inclined to think there would be places where his shrewd "horse-sense" and sturdy grasp of elementary business principles would be extremely clarifying. For there comes a point where mere numbers seem to so stimulate fancy as to occasionally obscure common arithmetic, and benumb foundation knowledge. Surely, though, his Rip Van Winkle progress would lead him into infinite bewilderments. At hardly any point could he recog- nize the New York, or the United States, or the banking structure of which he helped to lay the Erst courses. In place of the eleven banks he knew all about, he would pass continually one or another of some hundreds of national banks, trust companies, state banks and branches, savings banks, private banks, investment bankers, acceptance dealers, foreign banks and agencies, surety companies, mortgage companies, building and loan companies. He would hear of Federal Reserve banks. Edge Law banks. Farm Loan and Postal Savings banks, inter- national banks, and plans for World banks — till he would doubt his having been a member of the same profession. He would find the new insurance and loan company, to whose announcements he paid so little attention during that year of fright, having weathered all the storm of a century, grown to a mighty institution whose deposits alone are four times the bank- ing resources of the city as then set forth; and those which have come through of the banks of his day with aggregate deposits about equal to the total wealth of the United States in 1820. Nor would conversation with his successors decrease the con- fusion of his mind. He would hear of banks spending hundreds of thousands annuallv in publicitv: advertising, billboards, elec- 27i 272 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK trie signs, window-displays, motion pictures, souvenirs; issuing weekly and monthly magazines, conducting publishing houses; of co-operative advertising campaigns by the trust companies of a city or a section costing tens of thousands; of a single bank, with many times the number of men and women employees the whole group had in his day, conducting a store in its basement to sell groceries, articles of clothing, watches, phonographs to these at reduced prices; of schools and institutes teaching the theory and practice of banking. He would not even understand what his colleagues were talking about when they referred to the subjects which had engrossed their attention at the last great national convention: Economic Surveys, Labor Efficiency, Blue Sky Laws, Credit Interchange Bureaus, Public Relations Committees, Protective & Insurance Committees, Commissions on Economic Policy, the Chinese Con- sortium, Community Trusts, Co-operation with the Bar, Accep- tance Councils, and the like. And he would doubtless consider it a wild nightmare when he was assured that the fmancial concerns of his country had come to loan piece credit in the form of acceptances to the extent of $800,000,000 outstanding at one time; or that the leading finan- cial minds were constantly studying, as a matter of direct personal responsibility, the restoration of ruined trade and debased cur- rencies in European countries he never heard of. Nor would it be much less extraordinary to him to be informed, on the one hand, of a nation-wide central system oifering the most extensive facilities for check, note and coupon collections already handling a million or two checks a year, and transferring funds by telegraph without cost; on the other, of banking sections instructing school children in the principles of thrift, and housekeepers in the handling of their budget for home expenses. And finally when he read the statement of a university presi- dent that the most wonderful pohtical schooling the American people had ever had was the education upon the silver question in 1896, for which the bankers were responsible, and that a heavy burden of economic leadership now rested upon them in the altered position of America — he would realize that a new world indeed had developed out of a century's growth. To him, whose work lay amid the beginnings of trade and indus- try, it would surely be clear enough that the men who labor amid such swift and mighty currents of progress are always pioneering. New lands, new conditions, new issues lie ever just ahead. And the ability to meet, and use, and play a vital part in developing the opening possibilities, is the quality which has always made life most interesting to the American. PART II ^a'^ Chapter XIII AN INTIMATE RECORD Obtainhu] A Charter— A Start Under Difficidtie.^—Succes/we Honied — Coiisen^atUin hi Alaiiagement — A Unique War Record — Insara -ice Actu'ltles — De^'elofvnent of Trusts — Some Personal Records I THE BEGINNINGS T has already been narrated how a new and most important development of financial activities came into existence with the chartering of the first company authorized to execute trusts. This charter was not obtained without difficulty. There was no popular understanding of what a bank's functions were at that time, but there was a Hvely apprehension at the concentra- tion of any power, especially financial power; the prevalent notion was that a bank existed for the purpose of "making money;" and there had been many complaints of arbitrary management, as well as of the misuse of privileges by the less conservative and scrupulous. The prodigious outburst of new banks and the reckless handling of many of them, had in fact led many people to look upon them as a plague, like yellow fever or cholera. In addition to all this, there was the hveliest professional jealousy on the part of some of the established concerns which thought there was not room in the business field for any more newcomers; and then, as afterwards, the popular misapprehen- sions were inflamed and used by politicians for their own ends. Some charters were obtained by subterfuge; some banks operated for years without any charter; plenty of institutions actually carried on the banking operations necessarily involved in the business they were authorized to transact, for long periods before any such formal right was granted to them. Nevertheless, on February 28, 1822, the New York Legislature acted favorably on the petition of John T. Champlin, Francis Depau, John Bolton, Richard Harrison, Benjamin Bailey, Theodosius Fowler and others, and granted a charter to The Farmers' Fire Insurance and Loan Company. 275 276 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK In accordance with the terms of this charter: "Those associated as a Company under this title for the purpose of accommodating the citizens of the State, residing in the country, with loans on the security of their property, for insuring their buildings and effects from loss or damage by fire, for insuring any life or lives, and for granting annuities on any life or lives, were created a body corporate and politic — together with all such other persons as shall hereafter become stockholders in said Company; and were ordained and declared, in fact and in law, in continual succession, capable of suing and being sued, defending and being defended, in all Courts whatsoever; — that it shall be in law capable of purchasing, holding and conveying any estates or effects, real and personal, which may be mortgaged to it for any loans it may make: — but that division of its moneys or effects among its stockholders may be made only if all its engagernents, con- tracts and obligations shalf first have been fully paid and discharged." It was further provided: "That the Corporation shall have authority to make loans on security of bonds and mortgages or conversance of improved farms, houses or manufactories, or any other real estate, and to call in the said loans and to reloan the same on like securities, as occasion may require; and to hold these until such estates can be sold, to the full discharge and pay- ment of such loans." "The loans shall not be made payable in a shorter time than one year, with interest payable annually, and the corporation shall not foreclose any such mortgage until after the expiration of five years from date of mortgage; — provided that the interest be punctually paid." The Corporation was bound to sell and dispose of, within five years, any real estate secured by foreclosure or purchase: — otherwise the title to such property should revert to the State. This provision should not affect sucli property as might be necessary to the Company in the trans- action of its business: e. c). the site for its offices. Stocks might be purchased and held for the purpose of investing therein funds not otherwise loaned, and might also be trans- ferred in payment of losses sustained or in payment of dividends, and might be re- invested whenever and as often as the exigencies of the Corporation, or a due respect for the interest and safety of the funds, required. But it was not lawful to use or employ any part of its stock, or money in buying or selling goods, wares, or merchandise, or investing in any stock or fund created under any Act of the United States or of any State, except as authorized under the terms of this Act. Furthermore, the company might not receive any deposits, nor discount any note, bond, draft, or bill of exchange, nor was it allowed any banking privileges whatever. The capital stock was declared to be $500,000 and when $350,000 had been paid in, the company might begin business. When expedient, the capital might be increased to $1,000,000. Loans upon real estate should be made within the State, and a definite portion thereof within the Southern District of the State. Directors must be stockholders of the company and also citizens of the United States. Six of the twenty-seven were to be from out of town and to represent, one each, "the great districts of this State." A START UNDER DIFFICULTIES 277 The earliest subscribers were 105 of their subscriptions had been paid The hst ran as follows: in number, and $431,000 in by June of that year. ORIGINAL STOCKHOLDERS George Andrus Solomon Allen 1 Moses Allen / John Baker John Blakely Cornelius A. Blauvelt Claudius V. Boughton Jacob Brandingham John Benson William G. Buckner Sarah Benson Thomas B. Campbell Percy G. Childs AsaHel Clark William Coleman Duncan P. Campbell Palmer Canfield Richard Durvee Wm. A. Tweed Dale Elizabeth C. Dyckman John T. Champlin Benjamin Bailey Thomas Franklin George Griswold Richard Harison Gabriel L. Lewis A. H. Lawrence Henry Mactier Benjamin Marshall Archibald Mclntyre Francis Saltus John G. Leake Leffert Lefferts A. N. Lawrence James McKown Thomas Machin Justis McKinstry Niobe Minturn John M. Mulligan Thomas Newsam Seixas Nathan George Newbold Nevins & Townsend Rufus L. Nevins Thomas Oakley David B. Ogden Daniel Penfield Philo Ruggles Herman Ruggles Samuel B. Romaine William H. Robinson William I. Robinson Artemus Sheldon SHARES 50 Edward Smith on John Suydam Joseph Shaw 200 Henry Seymour 100 Henry Wheaton 20 James McBride 50 Churchill C. Cambreling 30 John Johnston 30 James Magee 80 Thomas S. Townsend 20 James D. Wolf, Jr. 20 David E. Evans 75 Jonathan Eldridge 75 Isaac Finch 120 Samuel Flewelling 120 Abram Gurnee 70 John Herkimer 50 Jabez D. Hammond 10 Hull & Bowne 50 Richard N. Harison 750 William H. Harison 200 Goold Hoyt 50 William James 200 Elbert H. Jones 400 William Jones 50 Samuel Jones 400 S. D. Kellogg 100 G. S. Knickerbocker, Jr. 125 William Keith 100 Benjamin Knower 150 Henry Livingston 100 Thomas Tredwell 50 Gen. James Tallmadge 40 Isaiah and John Townsend 20 Tredwell & Thorne 100 James Taylor 100 Thomas S. Townsend 45 Tucker & Lauries 50 Frederick A. Tracy 13 John Taylor 40 James Van Schoonhoven 150 William W. Van Ness 40 David White 20 David Woods 200 Elisha Williams 100 John A. Willlnk 400 David Whiting 50 R. N. Wenman 50 Charles Wilkes 20 John B. Yates 125 Joseph C. Yates 40 - 6 $490,400= shares SHARES 20 100 20 150 100 100 50 50 50 100 25 50 44 40 80 20 75 75 40 30 100 80 400 100 100 200 50 70 5 100 100 60 200 100 100 20 40 100 80 60 50 75 20 50 200 100 40 20 150 75 100 9808 278 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK At the first meeting of the directors, on March 9, 1822, John T. ChampHn was chosen President, he being at Albany at the time. He held the office until 1830 — the date of his death. Archibald iMcIntyre was the first Secretary (though Thomas Franklin served temporarily in this capacity). Originally the stockholders chose twenty-one directors who were residents of the city, and these chose six others from dif- ferent sections of the State. Eleven of the twenty-one above mentioned constituted a quorum for the transaction of business. On April 17, 1822, the same legislature — being still in session — ■ which had granted the February charter, amended and broad- ened it in regard to property conveyed by deed or devise, enabling the Company to assume and execute any trust, "which has been, or may be, created by any deed as aforesaid." This is the earliest bestowal in the United States of such powers upon any corporation. It is believed to be the first in the world. Other changes came later: by an amendment in 1836 two changes were made in the charter. The title now became The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, which has remained to the present time; and the directors were classified into three groups, so that nine must be elected each succeeding year — the official period being three years. It was provided that "the twenty-seven directors shall be chosen from stockholders residing in any part of the State. Each Senate District, however, shall be represented." The number of directors has been, in recent times, eighteen instead of twenty-seven. In 1875 the Legislature passed an act under which the Com- pany might execute any trust committed to it, or vested in it, either by an order of the Supreme Court, or by a Surrogate, or any of the Courts of record; and might take any real estate which might be the subject of such trust. A START UNDER DIFFICULTIES 279 By an additional act of May 13, 1880, "No bond or other security shall be required, for, or in respect to, any trust executed by this Company; — whether as guardian, depositary, executors or administrator; but all investments of moneys, received by the said Company, in either of such characters, shall be at the sole risk of the said corporation; and for all losses of such money, the capital stock, property and effects of the said corporation shall be absolutely liable." The company had an office first in a private dwelling at 34 Wall Street (on the north side), and it was from this address that President Champlin notified subscribers in July that the apportionment of stock had been completed. In August the general hegira on account of the yellow fever caused a removal to 618 Broadway, "two doors above the Branch Bank;" like all the rest of New York's business concerns it was forced to stay here until the cold weather of November checked the disease. While a newspaper announcement of the move stated that "Applications through the medium of the post office, or other- wise for Insurance, or for Trusts" would receive prompt atten- tion, the general alarm and upset state of affairs prevented any real commencement of operations — though the first fire insurance policy had been written on July 6. In fact, this would have been an uphill matter even without the fever panic. Money became scarce during that spring, and interest rates jumped from 5 percent, to 12 percent., the highest known for thirty years. This added greatly to the usual dif- ficulties of placing the stock; and when it was taken a new enterprise had little chance with such tightness in the money- market. The basic ideas of the enterprise had been first put before the public only three weeks before this move. The advertisement in the New York E\'ening Post of August 6, 1822, ran as follows: "The Farmers' Fire Insurance and Loan Company, Incorporated with a capital of $500,000. "Office at 34 Wall Street, adjoining the Bank oj New York. "Open Jrom 9 o'clock A. M. to sunset. "This Company is now ready to receive proposals for insuring property of every description against loss or damage by fire. The terms will be as favorable as those of any other company in this city, allowing liber- ally for circumstances tending to diminish the risk. "The Company also has power to receive, take, possess, and stand seized of any and all property that may be conveyed to them in TRUST, and to execute any and all such trust or trusts in their corporate capacity and name, in the same manner and to the same extent as any other trustee or trustees might or could lawfuU^^ do. The TRUST property 280 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK will be kept, as the Charter prescribes, wholly separate from all other concerns of the Company, and cannot, in any event, be made liable for its losses or engagements. Any property so committed to them In TRUST will be invested in such manner as the party may chuse (sic) to direct. "The public will readily perceive that the advantages of this Com- pany to protect property for the benefit of orphans or others, or to answer any special purposes, either of public or private nature, are far greater than those of any individual executors or other trustees, who are always liable to casualties which no foresight can guard against: — as the numerous and frequent applications to the Court of Chancery for filling up of vacancies occasioned by death, insolvencies, and other causes, most incontestably show; — and the expense of such proceedings often swallows up a great part of the TRUST estate. By placing such property in the charge of this Company which have continued succes- sion, there can be no danger whatever of any such casualties; as all such property will be invested either at discretion, in the most beneficial manner, for the sole advantage of the party conveying the same, or invested as the party may direct, within the strict provisions of any such trust. "This Company refer for further information upon this subject, to their Charter, a copy of which may be had by application at the office, where also the terms for any trust estate may be known." [Signed by the President, the Secretary, and the entire Board of Directors.] President Champlin was not inactive during this time of enforced waiting. The records of his correspondence show that he, while waiting for better times, was adding to the number of his friends, was dispelhng doubts in the minds of inquirers and encouraging the hearts of those who were disposed to sub- scribe. Those letters undoubtedly bore fruit almost immediately. He employed some of his leisure in developing schemes of importation of fruits and fruit products from the West Indies, Sicily, Spain and other countries. One of these products, lime juice or syrup, attracted him because it could be readily trans- ported here into districts where fresh fruits were unattainable, and he saw a great future for the trade. He believed that the market could not be overstocked, and he even was willing to be the consignee and to divide profits with the foreign shippers. He Avrote out and forwarded to them most explicit directions concerning the production of this syrup and its safe shipment. He also interested himself in attempting to secure Swedish workmen to come to the United States to operate forges and he aided his friends in the development of the iron business. He declared that great difficulty was experienced in procur- ing steady and faithful workmen, since they were all proverbially intemperate in their habits, although they could earn, if faithful, more wages than at any other mechanical pursuit. He there- fore urged the shipping firm of Seth Russell & Sons to use their best endeavors through the captain of their vessel for Gotten- SUCCESSIVE HOMES 281 burgh to induce some forge workmen from Sweden to emigrate with their families to this country — promising them imme- diate employment on arrival and the payment of their passage money if necessary. He assured them houses to live in, and explained in detail the terms under which they would be rewarded. He agreed to guarantee to good workmen employ- ment for a term of years at $20 to $25 a month, with house rent free, together with a certain bonus per ton for all the iron produced. At this period such efforts counted in stimulating both commerce and local manufactures. In 1823 the first Merchants Exchange building was begun, on Wall Street east of William. The new company subscribed $8,000 towards its construction and agreed to occupy a room there at $800 rent a year. When the building was completed in 1827 the "Farmers'" moved there and made this its home until the great fire of 1835 destroyed it. The Exchange had a white marble front which stretched along Wall Street 114 feet, and it ran through, 150 feet, to Garden Street (Exchange Place); the merchants' hours there were from 1 to 3, and each firm or individual paid dues of $10 a year; and the structure was considered very grand at a period when three-fourths of the houses being built were only two stories high, and nearly a third of them were of wood. In 1829 there appeared in the Tailsman a description of the gloom caused by the new buildings on Pine Street. "The street is now full of tall, massive buildings which overshadow the narrow passage between, and make it one of the gloomiest streets in the city. The very bricks look of a darker hue than elsewhere. The sun's rays seem to come through a yellower and thicker atmosphere, and the shadows thrown there by moonlight seem of a darker and more solid darkness than else- where. Formerly the shops were low, cheerful, two-story buildings, of light-colored brick or wood painted white or yellow, and which scarcely seemed a hindrance to the air and the sun- shine." These "tall massive buildings" were four or five stories high. Land in the financial district had not yet been found to be more valuable than a gold mine. In 1825 William Jauncey, at 25 Wall Street, boasted that his house was worth at least $8,000. William Seaman at 54 Wall, aiid John Outhout at 13 Wall, valued their homes at the same figure. Edward Livingston at 45 Wall, and William Bayard next door, rated their properties at $9,000, and the Constantine familv's home at 6 Wall Street was valued at $15,000. 282 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK In that year the Astor Place neighborhood made a great stride forward. Farms and orchards were cut up into streets and fine houses were built. Peter Cooper's grocery stood at the intersection of 3rd and 4th Avenues. Greenwich Village and Chelsea Village were still quite dis- tinct communities. St. John's Park, which, twenty years before, was considered too far uptown for a Trinity Chapel, became the fashionable quarter. The Pauldings, the Griswolds, the Lydigs and others dwelt there. Land from two to six miles north of City Hall could be bought for from $60 to $80 a lot. Two marble- fronted houses were built at 663-5 Broadway opposite Bond Street. Excursions were made from the city to this distant point to view them. The Post Office had been for two years in a low building on Garden Street; the clerical force had grown to eight, and Post- master Bailey had a shed erected over the sidew^alk to protect the people from the sun and rain. It was moved into the basement of the Exchange as soon as that edifice w^as completed. When it emigrated to City Hall Park, a vigorous protest was uttered from Wall Street, on the ground that the site was too remote. As another evidence that this was regarded as a dis- tant outpost, it may be noted that while the rest of the City Hall is of white marble, the northern or rear wall was built of stone. The builders apparently never surmised that any- one would get so far north as to see the rear of the building. The later successive locations of the Company's offices have been : From 1839 to 1848 at 16 Wall Street From 1848 to 1852 at 50 Wall Street From 1852 to 1859 at 28 Exchange Place From 1859 to 1866 at 56 Wall Street From 1866 to 1882 at 26 Exchange Place From 1882 to 1889 at 20-22 William Street From 1889 to at 16-22 William Street In 1882 the company purchased on William Street a plot of land for $120,000, and upon that plot a 2>^ story building was erected and occupied until 1889-90. Before 1882 the offices were always rented. On February 15, 1889, the directors ratified the purchase of the Litchfield property, adjacent to its office on William Street, for $250,000. On April 1st of that year plans for a new build- CONSERVATISM IN MANAGEMENT 285 ing were approved, estimated to cost about $450,000. On May 16, 1890, the building committee reported that the total cost of the property, including the old building, amounted to $1,064,159.19. Again in 1908 the business had increased to such an extent that the offices were declared inadequate; and a month later it was voted to purchase the property of the D. L. & W. Rail- road Company at the corner of William Street and Exchange Place, north and west of that already owned by the company, for $625,000. In 1909 the building as it now stands was completed and occupied at a cost of $1,476,037.94. This was, of course, in addition to the 1889-1890 construction. From that date to the present the company has made its home in this building, II TRIUMPHANT CONSERVATISM The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company was from the first a conservative institution. Its President received $2,000 a year in 1825, which in 1850 was reduced to $1,500. Its office rent was $800 a year at first, and only $1,500 in 1856. Its first clerk received $500 a year and it was stipulated that, when convenient for him to leave the office, he should aid the company as surveyor. At least some of the officers served at times without compensation. When it was deemed necessary, the expense account was lessened by reducing the office force; and for quite a long period the office of Vice-Presi- dent was vacant. In January, 1840, the members of the finance committee subjected themselves to a system of fines for absence and tardi- ness, as follows: Absence from regular meeting, 50 cents. Absence from two regular meetings, 75 cents each. Tardy members, 12>2 cents for each 10 minutes, not ex- ceeding 573^ cents in all. The book of fines was kept by the Secretary, and the ac- cumulated fund was spent as might be decreed. On December 7, 1842, the following resolution was adopted by the Directors; "Resolved, — that the office hours of the Company for business shall commence at 9 o'clock and con- tinue until 5 o'clock, and, when the business of the company, in the judgment of the president, requires it, be resumed at 5 o'clock and continue during the afternoon. 284 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK The company was conservative also in the placing of its loans. One of its main ideas from the start had been to make agricultural loans, not possible for the state banks; and the aid thus furnished to the development of natural resources, es- pecially from 1830 to 1845, was exceedingly valuable. The finance committee exercised great care in its recommenda- tions to the board of directors. Very many applications were referred to individuals to examine and report on; of the first 800 applications for loans, presented to the company, 252 were dechned or deferred. In 1835 the investment committee re- solved that as a general rule it was inexpedient to lend over $10,000 to one person on country security, and that the basis should be one-half the appraised value exclusive of buildings. This has been continued down to today, even on city property where the buildings were valued at millions. These early loans were for modest sums; some of them as small as $400. Of the number mentioned above, 117 did not exceed $1,000 each, and down to the year 1835 the largest single loan was for about $30,000; but the careful common- sense practiced in the smallest details became a tradition which served the concern well when its transactions grew to millions in place of hundreds. In the case of one loan of $37,000 made in 1837, the security offered consisted of sole leather, which the committee regarded as good and accepted. Heavy side, 15 cents a pound Middling side, 16 cents a pound Light side, 17 cents a pound Some local valuations of those days give an idea of the changes the years have wrought. In October, 1836, a loan of $23,000 was granted upon four lots at corner of Fifth Avenue and 14th Street, upon condition that the applicant pay up $4,000 on a previous loan. In that year an application was made for a loan of $2,500 upon a piece of land containing thirteen acres in the village of Syracuse. After serious consideration the loan was granted. In 1840 a loan of $9,000 upon a house in Pearl Street was declined, although, as collateral, 2560 acres of land in Indiana were offered. In 1849 lots owned on Broadway, at 24th, 25th and 26th Streets, were sold at prices from $2,000 to $5,000 each; and the same year six lots on 33rd Street brought $800 apiece, one-third cash. CONSERVATISM IN MANAGEMENT 285 About this time the committee recommended to the board to subscribe $10 towards a citizens' fund for a pubHc sheep pasture. All the while, the good management of the concern was giving the company' a stability that was universally recognized and that carried it triumphantly through the frequent periods of stress. Nearly every financial institution in New York suffered heavily in the years following the great fire of 1835; yet in 1837, amid panic and unprecedented depression every- where, the December statement was the strongest yet made by the company, showing resources of $4,363,710.17, and a surplus of $96,366.88. The fire insurance business was discontinued in 1835, and about the same time the life insurance branch began to be developed, the activities in this field lasting for some seven years. In the forties the company's energies were almost monopolized by the land trusts it had undertaken; and the difficulties of the Holland Company's tract in particular, where many mortgages were not even recorded, demanded all the expert business capacities of the managers. The situation was still further complicated by the agitation resulting in the Anti- Rent riots of 1845. But by 1852 these complex problems had been satisfactorily worked out. On May 12, President Williamson could report: "A lapse of eleven years and three months has occurred since a dividend was paid our stockholders. The losses and diffi- culties which grew out of the transactions of 1835-6-7 and ! have been the cause of this. The losses on the various trans- actions which have been settled and closed since January, 1841, amount to the sum of $2,074,132. We have paid during the same period for interest on our debt — expenses, costs and taxes— the sum of $2,117,766. "Having overcome all these difficulties, our law suits and controversies all ended, I have the satisfaction of stating that our stock is now worth par, and a surplus of $72,352.18 is shown at this date. This is a matter of congratulation to us all, and shows what patience, perseverance and integrity of purpose can do, to overcome difficulties the most appalling, which on various occasions seemed to threaten the very existence of the Company. There were, of course, plenty of other anxious periods, for no company however sound could fail to be affected by the various cataclysms through which the United States passed in the follow- ing half century. But after the Civil War the advance was prodigious and uninterrupted. Especially between 1870 and 286 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK 1880 there was a development of railroad trust mortgages which was a tremendous factor in the doubling of assets during the last half of that decade. In more than one crisis thereafter the Trust Company's position of strength enabled it to be a potent factor in easing a situation endangered by weaker members. In March, 1918, it joined the Federal Reserve System, taking 3,600 shares at par of stock in the New York Reserve Bank. At the same time it became a member of the New York Clear- ing House Association. What conservatism and hard work may accomplish through such an eventful hundred years as has been elsewhere chronicled is displayed at a glance in this table: Jlndivided Assets Profits and Surplus 1825 35,490.53 1840 6,565,788.88 130,687.74 1845 5.814,256.24 377,028.68 1850 6.159,800.46 828,122.78 1860 2,008,818.51 589,089.84 1865 2,119,560.62 75,726.18 1870 4.574,214.80 477,248.59 1875 6,159,108.19 574,135.92 . 1880 12,593,673.14 1.066,427.30 1885 23,599,164.19 1.537,817.69 1890 28,126,893.17 3,656,293.12 1895 36,269,649.12 4,187,199.23 1900 53,277,567.96 6,185,149.64 1905 91,686,879.31 7,336,456.48 1910 122.646,003.76 6,031,163.08 1915 169,748,667.69 7,382,949.71 1920 171,965,894.22 11.056,927.01 1922 155,582,278.14 14,257,448.49 The original capital was $500,000. In 1833 this was in- creased to $1,000,000. In 1836 it became $2,000,000. In 1860 the Legislature granted permission to reduce the capital to $1,000,000 and the shares from $50 to $25. In 1916, permission having been granted by the Superintendent of Banking, the stockholders resolved to reduce the number of shares of stock from 40,000 at $25 each to 10,000 at $100 each — the old certificates being canceled and new ones issued. On January 10, 1917, stockholders, representing more than 92 percent, of the stock, voted to increase the capital stock from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 by issue of the 40,000 additional shares of $100 each, making 50,000 shares in all. The Company's surplus was then about $8,000,000. ' AUNIQUEWARRECORD 287 The first dividend of 3>^ percent, was declared July 5, 1823. Thereafter they were paid semi-annually at varying rates, p/z..- 3, 3>2, 4 and 4>^, averaging 3^/2 percent, for fifty years, except for the years 1841 to 1852 inclusive. During those years no dividends were paid but in 1853 two were declared of 4 percent, and 5 percent, respectively. Later the dividends were paid quarterly, and for several years before 1917 they reached 12>^ percent, on one million dollars. In the year last mentioned \y2 percent, was paid quarterly or 18 percent, yearly on $5,000,000 instead of 50 percent, on $i, 000,000. In recent years, the quarterly dividend has reached 5 percent., which means that during each year, one million dollars is paid in dividends upon the five millions of stock. Ill THE WAR RECORD AND FOREIGN BRANCHES Not only did The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company do its full share in the matter of contributing time, machinery and enthusiasm to the raising of funds for the Great War, but its accepted subscriptions to the several Liberty Loans amounted to over a hundred million dollars. It made loans to its employees to enable them to subscribe. And on June 21, 1917, it had pledged to the Government, as a depositary of loan funds, $25,000,000 in United States securities — an amount subsequently doubled. Again on August 15, 1918, the Company accepted the posi- tion of depositary for funds in the hands of A. Mitchell Palmer, Alien Property Custodian, and executed a bond in his favor according to law. Under this responsibility it had charge in 1921 of the funds of more than five hundred "enemy aliens." A service which did not always bulk so large in financial statements and was less known in the United States, but which was of incalculable value to our citizens abroad and to our soldiers, was that rendered by the London and Paris branches. At the outbreak of the War in 1914, the American tourist season in Europe was at its height. Americans naturally wished to get back to the United States at the earliest possible moment, and they flocked to London, not only from the British Isles but from all parts of the Continent, in order to sail from British ports when passages became available. For a few days after Great Britain entered the War, there was a financial moratorium in London, during which time the banks were closed. The London offices of The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company remained open during this period, and were 288 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW VORK able to supply cash to all comers in substantial amounts, taking care not only of their own customers, but looking out for all Americans who applied with proper credentials. The rush of American tourists awaiting passage to the United States lasted for about six weeks. During most of this period two of the Directors, Mr. John J. Riker and Mr. Archibald D. Russell, who happened to be in London, attended almost daily at the offices and were of the greatest assistance, and a great source of re-assurance to customers. In conjunction with other New York bankers, the Company participated in the shipment to England of the $3,000,000 gold fund by the U. S. Cruiser Tennessee. A personal representative of the company crossed on board the Tennessee by courtesy of the Navy Department to witness the actual delivery of the gold in London. This gold was sent because of the fact that many of the Conti- nental bankers were refusing to make payments under letters of credit and travellers' checks in the hands of American travellers. A number of conferences were held in London between rep- resentatives of the American bankers who sent the gold, and a part of this fund was made use of to take up American tour- ists' drafts and travellers' checks which had accumulated at Berlin and a few other points, but the bulk of the gold shipped was eventually sold to the Bank of England. The Farmers' Loan was appointed by the British Govern- ment as Trustee in connection with their first secured loan of $250,000,000 in the United States; $100,000,000 of the collateral securing this loan consisted of bonds of neutral countries. These bonds were shipped to New York and deposited with the Company as trustee, but coupons from such bonds maturing during the life of the British Government obligation were de- posited in the London office of the Trust Company where the Company was required to detach and deliver to the Bank of England the various coupons as they matured. There was considerable detail work involved in carrying out this plan, as the coupons had to be kept in separate lots, corre- sponding with the holdings of the various individuals from whom the securities had been requisitioned by the British Govern- ment. The work was carried through without any hitch and to the entire satisfaction of the Government authorities. At certain times there was considerable pressure; during one bank holiday prior to the 1st of January the entire staffs of the West End and City offices gave their combined attention to this work. The most important war work at the London Offices arose through their appointment as bankers in London of the United A U N I O U E W A R R E C O R D 289 Stales Navy. In this connection many different accounts of disbursing officers were opened and the amounts involved ran into large figures, since the principal disbursements of the United States Navy in Europe during the war went through these accounts. This work involved the payment of checks in amounts as large as £1,000,000 at a time and the supplying of a great amount of cash to U. S. Navy paymasters who called in London for funds. This work also involved opening credits at various points on the Continent on behalf of U. S. Navy officials and the payment of drafts drawn on the London office by U. S. Naval officials all over the world. It also involved a plan which was made wide use of, whereby U. S. Navy officers and enlisted men could remit funds to their homes in the United States out of their pay and savings. The relations between the London Office and the U. S. Naval Headquarters in London were always most cordial. Admiral Sims wrote to Mr. Henry King Smith, the vice president in charge of the London office of the Company, on March 11 th, 1919, as follows: "Before relinquishing my present command, I would like to express to you my personal appreciation of the courteous treatment and efficient assistance which The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company has rendered in connection with the financial operations of our forces in these waters. I am assured that the association with The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company has been a real pleasure to the members of my staff who have been most intimately concerned with the financial transactions of these forces." The London offices of the Company are still the official bank- ers of the United States Navy for Great Britain. Owing to the expansion of war activities in London, the British Tanks Department on August 11th, 1917, commandeered the building at 14-16 Cockspur Street, London, S.W. 1., in which the West End office was located. The British Govern- ment was most courteous and considerate m their treatment of the representatives of the Company, and provided alterna- tive quarters at 16 Pall Mall East, London, S.W. 1., about one block from the Cockspur Street office. At Pall Mall East, an entire building was placed at their disposal, rent free, and they were moved to that building and afterwards reinstated at Cockspur Street entirely without expense to the Company. One floor of the building at Pall Mall East was placed at the disposal of the American University Union in Europe, an or- ganization formed by practically all the American universities and colleges to look out for the interests of American gradu- ates and under-graduates who were serving with the American 290 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Expeditionary Forces. The London office of the American University Union in Europe was made use of by a great number of men who used it as their headquarters in London and for the forwarding of their mail and for obtaining information as to the whereabouts of their friends in England. These head- quarters the Company supplied to the American University Union in Europe without expense. During the war all of the able-bodied English staff enlisted for military service, and it was necessary to carry on with the assistance of certain men who were graded as not physically fit and by employing a number of girls. For a long period during the war the Company had the London banking accounts of the U. S. War Trade Board and the U. S. Food Administration. These accounts were closed, with the winding up of the London offices of these organizations. The Paris Branch had been opened in 1906. Although it was at first a tiny office in a street back of the Credit Lyonnais, with a typical French housekeeper sitting knitting at the doorway" down- stairs, it had evolved into more commodious quarters at 41 Boule- vard Hausmann; and by 1914 it was occupying two floors, had a staff of twenty people, and deposits of four million francs. During the latter weeks of July, as the cataclysm approached, there were runs on all the banks in France, transfers could no longer be made through ordinary exchange channels, and t'le Cashier of the Company used to go in person to St. Lazare station with a porter to bring back a case containing bags of a thousand sovereigns each from the Bank of England sent over by the London office. Thus was built up an emergency fund of gold to serve the needs of American travellers. This was soon a vital matter, since most of the available supply of French bank- notes and currency had been withdrawn from circulation by frightened depositors throughout the country. Then came the mobilization orders. The staff was suddenly cut to two representatives, one bookkeeper, one woman steno- grapher, and one porter. Nevertheless, the office opened at 10 o'clock on Saturday morning, July 31st. There was al- ready a large crowd in line in the courtyard. Each representa- tive acted as a teller; the supply of notes proved ample to satisfy all depositors who called, and the English sovereigns took care of holders of letters of credit and all who required gold. The many clients who needed special attention and advice were invited to call between 4 and 8 o'clock in the evenings and on Sundays. The physical strain was slightly lessened the follow- ing week bv the arrival of two clerks from the London office. AUNIQUEWARRECORD 291 A moratorium had been established on August 2nd, follow- ing those in surrounding countries, some of which limited the amount to be withdrawn to 50 francs a week a person. Pay- ments under all sorts of instruments were being refused; people were arriving without baggage and almost destitute; and the surprise and relief of finding prompt banking facilities still in operation were indescribable. In one case, a client had several million francs with a foreign bank and was offered 50 francs for each of the six members of his family to carry them through France to America. With the utmost difficulty he secured a thousand francs and finally reached the office of the Farmers' Loan, — where his needs were at once met. In another, a client of the New York office (not a Paris depositor), sent a messenger from Genoa with a request for 100,000 francs — and got it in cash. There were many Americans who never forgot their feeling for that office as one spot of stability left during those chaotic times. Personal assistance in the thousand and one perplexities that beset our travellers was as freely given as financial accommoda- tion; and by the end of August most Americans who had been taken by surprise were safely out of the country. During most of September, while the seat of the French Government was moved to Bordeaux, business was attended to from Marseilles; but the Paris office was kept open to answer inquiries, and after the German retreat from the Aisne, head- quarters were at once transferred back to the capital. There was a great development of business during the next two years, hundreds of individual and bank accounts coming to the concern. It played an important part in financial opera- tions connected with American exports, in the French war loans, and as bankers for the ambulance, relief and flying or- ganizations which were so nobly representing the United States. Additional office space had just been provided by taking in the adjoining quarters at 39 Boulevard Hausmann, the force had grown to seventy-five people, and the deposit accounts showed an aggregate of thirty million francs when it became clear that America was about to enter the war. As the time approached for the arrival of the first troops of the A. E. F., it was realized that the chief need for banking facilities would be not in Paris but at the landing ports and in the army zone where the training- camps would be located. Accordingly, preparations were made with great haste to open branch offices at important points. Strict army regulations, to prevent any useful information reaching the enemy, made it impossible even to inform the home office of the 292 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK location of these proposed branch offices. However, after the difficulty was explained to the Superintendent of Banks, the necessary permission was obtained, u. der date of March 28, 1918, in the following very unusual language: "NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE I. SKINNER, Superin- tendent of Banks of the State of New York, DO HEREBY AUTHORIZE The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, of New York, N. Y., to open and occupy a branch office at a place on the coast of France, in the War Zone, now occupied by the United States Expeditionary Forces, which for military reasons cannot be more definitely named. "NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE I. SKINNER, Superin- tendent of Banks of the State of New York, DO HEREBY AU- THORIZE The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, of New York, N. Y., to open and occupy a branch office in the War Zone, in the interior of France, convenient to headquarters of the United States Forces, at a place which cannot be more definitely named for military reasons." Permission was also at the same time given for a branch at Bordeaux, which port was being used as a landing place for American troops. Accordingly all the necessary permissions were obtained from the various French authorities, both civil and military, and by July 23d quarters for a branch had been secured in the club of St. Nazaire, right in the center of town. While prep- arations were made for exchanging money, the main idea was to encourage saving and to transfer funds back home for officers and men; and the business was not undertaken as a money- making venture, but in the belief th'at it might at the outset be run at a loss. Events soon proved the wisdom of the step. Our men came ashore at Landing Place No. 1 into a foreign land and con- ditions that increased their inevitable difficulties. The men received their pay in U. S. currency, the officers in checks on the U. S. Treasury. Some units had left in such haste that there had been no time to arrange for allotments to their families; when they got their first pay, often two or three months' arrears, they could frequently neither send funds home nor exchange their dollars except at the local shops; some had a surplus they needed to deposit, others had nothing because of pay arrears and no means of getting anything from across the water. The branch of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company was speedily crowded whenever a transport came in: a long line would stretch out and down the hallway to the street — men A UNIQUE WAR RECORD 293 wanting to deposit, to change money, to find out about con- ditions. "Their surprise and delight was great," reports one of those who helped conduct the branch, "to learn on entering the bank that we had an English-speaking force. On ascer- taining that, a volley of questions poured forth, and they felt at once that any money transactions they had to make were safe in our hands, whereas their dealings at the stores and cafes, which all advertised that they did an exchange business, were not always to their advantage." In those first weeks no army arrangements covered the re- mitting of money to friends and relatives at home. In carry- ing through this, and in urging all not to throw away their money but to save regularly, the company's branch did an enormous amount of good. In hundreds of cases this timely advice was ;ust what was needed to turn a spree into a savings account. Even with the colored labor troops, lavish with their wages, completely ignorant, unable to write, giving addresses not understandable — an unlimited stock of patience succeeded in working wonders. Many thousands of cable and mail transfers, niostly to the United States, were made during the first year; there was a be- wildering list of company funds, hospital funds, accounts with paymasters and secretaries of all the relief organizations; and when the troops went on to the firing line, the officers had their monthly checks sent direct to the Trust Company. Frequent demands for branches at hospital bases and elsewhere were met by arrangements with officials of the Red Cross and Y. M. C. A. On August 16, however, just as the Engineers were arriving, the Bordeaux office had been opened as planned. Here, in the beginning, banking facilities were carried right into the camps by frequent visits; but since the number of deposit accounts soon reached three thousand, these personal visits had to be given up for the distribution of printed forms by the officers. All sorts of complexities arose, which had to be solved by personal ingenuity and initiative. In the case of company accounts, for instance, when the regiment had moved on, letters would repeatedly arrive from some unknown individual claim- ing to have taken over the account, though no such notification had been sent to the Trust Company — destroying at one blow all the precautions taken for identification. The predecessor might have fallen in action, or gone to some inaccessible point; and it was often impossible to learn from any source even who was in command of a particular regiment. Almost as difficult was the matter of sudden withdrawals after the armistice, when 294 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK companies might receive orders to leave for an embarkation point within a few hours. In spite of everything, however, the agency was carried along with such success that around Easter of 1918 it had deposits of ten million francs, and had proved itself more than self supporting. After encountering a great deal of red tape, and finally apply- ing to the Prime Minister, permission was secured for the third agency at Neufchateau, and an office there was opened on September 20, 1917. This was one of the busiest centres in the area occupied by the American forces and only a few miles from General Pershing's headquarters at Chaumont. Here one of the most successful officers' clubs was established, being financed for the officers by the Trust Company. The detail work here was soon enormous, the Company's office being crowded from morning till night; and the distance of over forty miles from the nearest branch of the Bank of France made the supplying of notes and currency an affair of much risk. In four months they were hand- ling about 2500 deposits, had negotiated nearly 10,000 checks on other towns, and made thousands of mail and cable transfers. Throughout the war, these agencies of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company were the only American banks within the Army Zone. What they meant to the men in our army can be readily imagined, and expressions of the heartiest apprecia- tion came in from enlisted men and officers of every rank. The whole thing was a unique contribution by a great financial institution across the sea — entirely in line with the spirit that pervaded America which enlisted every capability possessed by any citizen. All the time, the Paris staff, increased to 200, had many activities beside directing and supervising the Army Zone agencies. The first General Headquarters were there, and many departments were directed from there all through the war. The large reading and writing rooms of the Trust Companj^'s office was soon given over to army business. Besides the de- partment accounts there was an increasing stream of deposit accounts by mail, and in September the Company was appointed as one of the special agencies in Paris for the convenience of army paymasters. Contrary to the foreign custom, the office was, for the conven- ience of members of the A. E. F., not closed between 12 and 2 o'clock, lunch being served to the cashiers behind the counter. Arrangements were made with the Sociile Generate to open accounts with the society's local branch in all towns where a large number of American troops were concentrated, thus ex- From a photograph by John Wallace Gillies, .V. I'., 1020 MODERN WALL STREET The heart of America's financltil Kfe and perhaps the most famous thoroughfare in the world, as it appears three hundred years after it was first laid out J ,: r, t! In [J lo tile EXCHANGE PLACE, LOOKING EAST Showins the corner of William Street as it looked about 1830 From a litlwiraph hy G. IJay'a'ard, iSjj BROAD STREET IN 1853 Showing one of the old buildings that survived from the Dutch period A U N I Q U E W A R R E C O R D 295 tending a part of the agencies' work to every place where it was needed; and hundreds of deposits and mail transfers ar- rived weekly during 1918 from this source. To avoid the delays and confusion in payments to the front by postal orders, a "green circular check" was devised, which as stated on the check was payable at sight and without charge at all of the many offices of the three largest French banks. Soon these checks were being cashed all over France; also a "service check" to be sold to the troops at the American embarkation ports and training camps; and finally, to supply United States funds for the home-going soldiers, a "circular dollar check" was evolved, and special agencies opened at Brest and at Camp Pontenezen for the distribution of these. All this work was of course done under the greatest pressure, and amid the perpetual difficulties of securing efficient help. Especially during the regular night air raids of 1918 it was a severe test to work at such high pitch day after day and spend the night in a cellar. "One bright Saturday morning, full of sunshine, March 23, 1918, we received an American mail of over 5,000 letters, among which were 1,700 directed to the payment order department containing payment instructions," states one report. "At 9:30 a. m. a terrific crash was heard. Immediately afterwards, fire engines passed in the streets announcing with their lugubrious sirens that an air raid was taking place over Paris. "All the necessary precautions had been taken in advance to avoid panic in case an air raid occurred during business hours. Each department had the following instructions on record : Tn the event of daylight raid by enemy aircraft or inten- sive bombardment of Paris making it advisable for the staff to take shelter in the cellars, — when the money is in the safe, members of the following departments will go to the cellars of which the entrance is in the northwest corner of the courtyard: Payment Order Department, Exchange, Correspondence, Book- keeping, Stationery, Porters, Grooms. Members of the Cor- respondence and Stationery Departments will descend to the ground floor by the small (servants') staircase opening on the corridor leading to the Stationery Department, the others by the main stairway.' "Everybody quietly carried out these instructions and there was not a single moment of abnormal excitement. Some 150 people spent the morning in the various cellars. The explo- sions went on all morning, no business was done, and the bank closed regularly at noon as on other Saturdays. The staff 296 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK could not be kept in the cellar after 12 o'clock, but as all street traffic, subways and taxis were suspended, each one preferred to walk home under the explosions rather than miss a lunch. "The so-called air raid lasted until 6 p. m., and it was made known on the following morning that it was the long distance gun, known as 'Big Bertha', that was firing on Paris." All told, when peace came again, the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company could look back upon a service rendered to Americans in France unmatched by any other bank or trust company. It had opened in two years many thousands of soldier accounts; it had contributed largely to, and aided French loans for war and for reconstruction. It had supplied what seems to be a unique instance of a financial corporation going to the war zone and serving its countrymen there after its proper fashion. IV EARLY INSURANCE ACTIVITIES The first fire insurance policy of the Company was issued July 6, 1822, to Thomas S. Townsend, to be in force for one year from that date, for $7,500 on the same terms and con- ditions as were expressed in policy No. 85 issued to him by the Merchants' Fire Insurance Company under date of June 29, 1819. The premium charged him was $22.50. On July 19, 1822, the By-Laws were adopted; No. 13 of these was as follows: "The amount to be insured by this Company on any one building and the property contained therein shall not exceed in any case the sum of $25,000." This department of the Company's business was carried on between 1822 and 1827 under circumstances causing much anxiety. In a report signed by President ChampHn to the Board of Directors on December 28, 1827 he used the following language: "The Directors will please to remember that this Company has been in business only five years; the first two years of which it labored under those disadvantages incident to the organiz- ing such establishments, and, of course, little business was done; and it must be remembered, too, that during a very consider- able part of the last three years, there was proceeding in the City, among all the Fire Insurance offices, a ruinous jealousy and rivalship which reduced the rates 20 to 25 percent. Under all these disadvantages to which my own inexperince must be super-added, and which is no small item in the estimate — notwithstanding, the Company has been able, with one ex- ception, to make semi-annual dividends of 3^^ percent, since its establishment, and has also accumulated a nominal surplus INSURANCE ACTIVITIES 297 of upwards of $70,000. But the rates of premiums are now advanced to what is considered the standard rate here, and we not only have almost all the business in that Western Country, but have a decided preference over any other Company." On May 18, 1827, the board accepted a proposition from the Western Fire Insurance Company to re-insure all the unex- pired policies of the latter company at the rate of premium originally received; the number of policies being 1016 — and the total risk about $2,250,000. The amount of business done in fire insurance for the five years ending December, 1827, is shown in the President's report of that date: The premiums received were in all $186,188.97 The losses in aggregate were in all 120,781.01 The net profit was $65,407.96 The amount charged to loss Included some claims yet un- adjusted. There had been extraordinary losses in 1827 in Mobile and Atlanta, amounting to more than $54,000, which was divided among 39 different risks; 8 in Atlanta and 31 in Mobile — show- ing that the risks had been assumed with care. Leaving out these unusual losses, the ordinary casualties had averaged about $21,000 a year. The losses of that year were more than counter- balanced by the fact that premium rates were advanced, so that the business became at once more remunerative. While the great fire of 1835 holds the pre-eminence in the city's history, the years 1825-30 show heavy fire losses. In 1826 the company took the initiative in the matter of increas- ing fire rates, as shown in these records of the Board of Directors: "August 5, 1828. "Whereas the frequent and disastrous fires which have of late taken place in the City and which have produced the most unparalleled losses to all the Fire Insurance Companies, im- periously demand of them, in the opinion of this Board, prompt and efficient measures to be taken by all the Fire Institutions, in order to prevent inevitable ruinous consequences. There- fore, Resohed, unanimously, that Fredk. O. Tracy be associ- ated with the President to be a special committee from the Board to attend the next regular meeting of the Association of Fire Insurance Companies on the 7th inst., for the purpose of promoting and adopting such measures as in their judgment and discretion may be deemed proper under such extraordinary 298 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK circumstances. Further, that a special letter be forwarded to each of the other Fire Insurance Companies, suggesting to them the adoption of a like measure, or to unite in adopting some other measure which may be calculate! to effect the object hereby contemplated." The insurance business of the Company had been partially in the hands of agencies located in the West and South; but on May 9th, 1833, the board, in consideration of the fact that through these agencies it had sustained losses incommensurate with the amount of business done, voted unanimously that the President be requested to write to the several agents to close up their concerns, to desist from any further insurance, and to render their accounts as soon as practicable. On June 6, 1835, a Committee appointed to consider the fire insurance business recommended that the "Company cease from insuring fire risks, and hereafter confine its operations exclusively to the other business authorized by the Act of In- corporation." The board then resolved "that a Committee be appointed with power to effect a re-insurance in other Com- panies of all the fire risks, and to settle or compromise all claims for losses. Hereafter the Company will not insure against loss or damage by fire." Evidently the fire risks were not all re-insured and trans- ferred; since on January 15, 1836, the board voted to pay claims from the great fire of 1835, when such claims should be ratified by ihe joint Committee for adjusting claims. That fire, with its stupendous losses, confirmed the wisdom of this Company's action taken in June of the previous year. Insurance had become more complex, calling for specialization, and the Company desired to develop other features under its charter. There was also some adverse criticism in the news- papers against the concern for acting as guardian or receiver, while it was an insurance company. Not until 1835 was life insurance undertaken seriously. Here is a copy of the first policy issued: No. 1 Farmers' Fire Insurance and Loan Company, Office 34 Wall Street. Engafled onl}/ in the business of Insurance on Lives, Granting Annuities and Execulinij Trusts. This policy of insurance witnesseth that the Farmers' $7500. Fire Insurance and Loan Companv in consideration of the sum of $147, to them in hand paid by GEORGE MAN- Premium NING TRACY, and of the annual premium of $147, to $147. be paid on or before the 4th day of September in every year during the continuance of this policy. INSURANCE ACTIVITIES 299 Age 45 DO ASSURE the life of George Manning Tracy of the Business, City of New York and County of New York and State Broker of New York, in the amount of $7500 for the term of seven years from date of this pohcv. AND THE COMPANY do hereby promise and agree to and with the said assured, his executors, administra- tors and assigns, well and truly to pay or cause to be paid Term, the said sum insured to the said assured, his executors, 7 years administrators, and assigns, within 60 days after due notice and proof of death of the said George Manning Tracv. PROVIDED, always, and it is hereby declared to be the true intent and meaning of this policy and the same is accepted by the assured upon these express conditions, that in case the said George Manning Tracy shall die upon the seas, or shall, without the consent of this Company previously obtained, and endorsed upon this policy, pass beyond the settled limits of the United States (excepting into the settled limits of the British provinces of the two Canadas, Nova Scotia, or New Brunswick) or shall, with- out such previous consent thus endorsed, visit those parts of the United States which lie South of the Southern boundaries of the States of Virginia and Kentucky, or shall, without previous consent thus endorsed, enter into any military or naval service whatsoever, (the militia not in active service excepted) or in case he shall die b^ his own hand, or in consequence of a duel or by the hs of justice, or in the known violation of any law of these States or of the United States, or of the said provinces, — this policv shall be void and of no effect. AND IT IS ALSO UNDERSTOOD AND AGREED to be the true intent and meaning hereof, that if the declarations made by the said George Planning Tracy, and bearing date of tfie 3rd day of September, 1835, and upon the faith of which this agreement is made, shall be found in any respect untrue — then, and in that case, this policy shall be null and void; or, in case the said George Manning Tracy shall not pay the said annual premiums on or before the day hereinbefore mentioned for the payment thereof — then, and in any such case, the said Company shall not be liable for the payment of the sum insured or of any part thereof, and this policy shall cease and determine. AND IT IS FURTHER AGREED that in any case when this policy shall cease or become or be null and void, all previous payments made thereon shall be forfeited to the Company. IN WITNESS WHEREOF the Farmers' Fire Insur- ance and Loan Company have by their Vice President and Actuary signed and delivered this Contract this 4th day of September, 1835. by ids (L. S. The active writing of policies lasted only a few years; though one application in 1838, for $2,000, resulted in insurance paid in 1898, sixty years after the date of issue. 300 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK From 1835 to 1842, when the last poHcy was issued, there were 218 poHcies on lives, involving risks aggregating about $700,000. The credit to the premium account after the busi- ness was closed was about $15,000. V THE TRUST DEVELOPMENT It was a number of years before the trust privileges under the company's charter were developed to any extent. A com- mittee of the directors reported that "in proportion as the public confidence in the institution can be secured and extended, business to a very great extent can be carried on, which will be the source of at least a fair profit to the company — and, at the same time, useful to the portion of the community who may be disposed to avoid the trouble and risk of the invest- ment and management of their own funds." Two months later the president was authorized, with the advice of the loan committee to execute such contracts, and the following form of deed was adopted: An early Jorm oj Deed oj Trust issued by the Company "Know all men b^' these presents, that I, A. B., do hereby grant unto the F. F. I. & L. Co. the sum of $10,000, to be by them received and held, upon the following terms, viz: to loan and invest the same in such manner, and upon such security, and at such rate of interest as they may deem proper, not exceeding the legal rate: to collect the interest accru- ing thereon, and to pay the same to such person or persons as I may hereafter appoint by an instrument in writing, or by my last will executed according to law; and in default of and until sach appointment, to pay said interest to me, my personal representatives or assigns, and at the expiration of ten years from this date, to pay the said principal sum of $10,000 in manner aforesaid. "And in consideration that the said Company agrees to guarantee the payment of the said sum of money, togetner with interest thereon, semi-annually, at the rate of 5% per annum from this date, and to relinquish all claim for commissions for the execution of the said Trust, I do hereby authorize them to retain, for their own use, all the interest received on the loan and investment of said principal sum, over and above the said 5 per cent." A standing rule was adopted providing that "It shall be the special duty of the President and Actuary, on the first Monday, in each year, in accordance with the requirements of the Act vesting in this Company the power to execute Trusts, to return a statement in writing, to be signed by them and under their several oaths, to the Court of Chancery, containing a true and just account of all and every Trust fund in the possession of the Company; the object and interest thereof, and the manner in which the same has been invested and applied." DEVELOPMENT OF TRUSTS 301 One of the early trusts was from a railroad: "New York, July 1, 1835. " Cash Dr. To Deposits in Trusts "Received from John Delafield, Treasurer of the Long Island Rail- road Company, to be held in trust for account of said Company and payable in three months, or to be continued to such further periods as said Treasurer shall determine, with interest at the rate of 4^ percent, per annum, certificates issued "Nos. 1 to 10, for $5,000 each "Nos. 11 to 60, for $1,000 each "Total, $100,000." Still nobody dreamed of the vast extension which was to come in this field. It was perceived that the trust company could supplement the bank, and that there were many inactive properties where its functions could be exercised to better ad- vantage than those of an individual; but the part it was to play in handling a multiplicity of financial operations which were to develop with the growth of the business structure would have astonished its originators themselves. Little did they imagine as they slowly built up the trust side, and emphasized the advantages of the corporate form of trustee that eighty years later, in 1916, their company would undertake the custodianship and care as Trustee of the British Loan of $250,000,000 — the mere physical certification of the bonds for which would have seemed to them a superhuman task. They might have been almost as much nonplussed at the knowledge that the concern would one day, in carrying out its duties as administrator, find itself engaged in the manufacture of pickles. In handling one large estate it became necessary to take charge of what was then the largest pickle factory in the country; and the company had to prove, when the govern- ment brought suit charging violation of the pure food law, that alum was no longer used as a preservative in the product. By a similar chance later on the corporation found itself actively engaged in making and selling musical instruments; and at an- other time it conducted one of the most fashionable New^ York dress-making establishments. As it was, the business in hand and in sight provided all the problems needed to absorb their time and imagination. From 1840 to 1845 the interests of the Company were vested in a large number of trusts, variously located; but the Michigan lands, the Holland Land Company, in the western part of New York State, the Philadelphia holdings through Mr. Lloyd, 302 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK together with trusts of Riggs, Hunt, Walbridge, Le Roy, Red- field, the Canal Bank of Albany, and the Miller, Jones, Graham, Fowler, and Evans Trusts claimed the attention of the com- mittee and of the board almost constantly during the years mentioned above. The Holland Patent or Purchase in Western New York was owned by a Dutch Company with its principal office at Batavia. It had acquired about four miUion acres in that region which had been the property of Robert Morris of Revolutionary fame, covering the five most westerly counties of New York State, and portions of three others. In 1801, the Dutch trustees conveyed this great tract to William Willink and others, and it later passed to various par- ties, one large area being held by Messrs. Redfield and Le Roy. These last two owners established trusts and borrowed nearly a million and a half dollars from the Trust Company. The agreement gives some idea of the responsibilities under- taken: "To the President and Directors of the Farmers' Fire Insurance and Loan Company: t ti ir u i. "The undersigned, Jacob Le Roy and Herman I. Redheld, havmg purchased the lands and debts of the Holland Land Company in the Counties of Erie, Genesee, Orleans and Niagara, are desirous of puttmg a portion of that property in Trust, for the purpose of enabling them to raise money and to make the payments required in the purchase aforesaid, as well as to secure to the purchasers and settlers on the land an opportunity of executing their engagements and obtaining a perfect and unencumbered title to the lands they have contracted to purchase. j l iU "Thev therefore propose to convey or cause to be conveyed by the Holland Land Company, one-half "of their purchase, amounting to more than one million of dollars, and on which property there will be due for lands sold and partly paid for, and well secured, an amount that will fall but little if any short of that sum. The whole property will furnish unquestionable security for the credit which is asked of the Company, in advance of money being expected. "The Trust will be made on the following conditions: "First: — The Company agrees to receive and collect the money due on existing contracts made by purchases with the Holland Land Com- pany and'on such other contracts as may be hereafter made for the sale' of any of the aforesaid land by the undersigned, their legal repre- sentatives or asslsns, and on receiving the full amount of the considera- tion monev to execute deeds of conveyance to the respective purchasers. "Secondly: — In cases where contracts shall be made to that effect, bonds and mortgages shall be received and deeds executed to the settlers or purchasers, provided the property offered to be mortgaged shall be twice the value of the debt to be secured. " Thirdly:— i:\\e Company shall give their certificate of Trust, pay- able in ten, fifteen and twenty years, bearing Interest at 5% per annum, payable half-yearly in various sums, and amounting in the aggregate, to one million of dollars. • j • "Fourthly: — Whenever the Company shall have received in money and securities. In bonds and mortgages, the sum of one million of dollars, DEVELOPMENT OF TRUSTS 303 with legal interest from the date and delivery of the certificates afore- said, they shall convey the residue of the property belonging to the Trust to the undersigned or their legal representatives, and the dif- ference of interest which they may have received or may be entitled to receive, over the interest they will be obligated to pay on their cer- tificates, shall be deemed and taken as a full compensation for the services in executing the Trust aforesaid. " Lastly: — The undersigned wish to secure to themselves the right of borrowing of the Company on the same terms and securities as are exacted of others, the moneys which may be collected from their own property during the two first years which it shall have been in Trust with the Company. This will impose no burden on the Company, inas- much as no money will be required except such as it will receive from the resources furnished by the undersigned. "New York, Oct. 19, 1835 JACOB LE ROY H. I. REDFIELD" Eventually the Company came into possession of the entire holdings of Redfield and Le Roy. They also accepted additional trusts of about $700,000 on land in adjacent counties. Almost immediately they found themselves in a maze of complexities, as the largest land-holding corporation in the country,\vith prop- erties that had been handled and transferred in most unbusiness- like ways. Some of the Dutch trustees had not joined in the conveyance to the Willinks. It was believed that they were no longer liv- ing; but in order to insure the validity of titles granted to pur- chasers by The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, it was necessary to have evidence of the actual deaths of those old Dutch trustees. The counsel to the Company therefore advised that a messenger be sent to Holland with proper credentials and authority to obtain the proofs desired. Such representative was accordingly dispatched and his errand accomplished. The care of the mortgages and contracts, the collection of interest and payments upon contracts, the appraisals and sales, together with foreclosures and ejectments almost monopolized the energies of the company for six or eight years. The Holland Company's tenants had in many cases failed to have their mortgages and releases recorded. The granting oi deeds was therefore attended with much annoyance to all parties. Many counties had no county seat; three of four adjacent to each other used one common county seat. There being no rail- roads, nor easy means of communication, it would be a journey of two or three days for a farmer to go to the place where his mortgage could be recorded; hence, such papers were placed in a box and the box often lost or destroyed. When the Com- pany was persuaded that the amount had really been paid, a deed was granted. 304 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK How the Farmers' Loan was extending the conception of a trust company's duties even at this date (and justifying its title!), is shown by a letter to two correspondents named Wheaton with whom an agreement had just been closed to collect cattle, sheep and hogs in payment of interest — the said Wheatons to receive five thousand dollars a year for their services in "receiv- ing, appraising, driving and selling such cattle, sheep and hogs." OFFICE OF THE FARMERS' LOAN AND TRUST COMPANY "New York, August 12th, 1844. "Messrs. Erastus Wheaton & William E. Wheaton, "Gentlemen: — • "In engaging in the business of receiving cattle and other stock for this Company, we have to submit for your guidance the following views and instructions. "It has been found that many of the debts from purchasers of lands, in some sections have been much increased by the non-payment of in- terest as it fell due from year to year; until now in consequence of the great scarcity of money, it is almost beyond the control of the debtor to pay. The County of Wyoming and that part of Erie South of the Buffalo Indian Reservation being especially in this situation, the Com- pany have deemed it prudent to offer to receive from the debtor, in payment of such arrearages of interest, cattle, sheep and hogs, and have given notice that such stock will be so received for one year to come. "This undertaking being with a view of testing its practicability for the future, we desire to proceed cautiously, and in such manner as will insure us no great loss beyond the amount allowed the debtor, and to enable us to determine as to its future effect; and while at the same time it would be very desirable to receive as great amount as possible, it is necessary to avoid too great a loss in receiving such stock as would be unfit for sale at desirable points for markets. You will therefore be governed entirely by your views of those markets as to the price you can allow for the cattle and other stock, as well as the proper places at which to sell them readily; basing all your calculations upon the net amounts for which they will readily sell when delivered at those points. "Our agents at Batavia, Messrs. Redfield & Prindle, having already given notice that stock would be received for Interest, will issue further notices, that upon particular days you will be at the several places designated to receive and affix value to such stock, as may be offered. A clerk from the office at Batavia will accompany you, having with him a list of the various debts and amounts, a receipt book In which to enter all stock received and the amount allowed; one of which receipts will be given to the debtor, the other retained by him for us. When applica- tions are made you will ascertain from this clerk if such applicant Is a debtor, and to what amount, and the percentage to be allowed beyond the price affixed by you, and upon the taking of the same you will notify him that receipts may be prepared. The cattle are to be numbered and marked, and the other stock marked so as to prevent loss by stray- ing or mingling with other stock. As soon as you have finished at one station you will proceed to another, until a sufficient number is collected to make up a drove, when you will forward them under charge of some prudent discreet person to some point designated; the clerk preparing and handing him an Invoice of the drove, describing them by number and kind and forwarding a duplicate to us. You will employ all hands DEVELOP MENTOFTRUSTS 305 necessary, pay all expenses except that of the clerk, keeping a daily account of the same. The person in charge of the drove will also keep an account of all expenses incurred on the road, and present you his account for settlement. "The company leaves to your discretion the manner of selling and disposing of the stock, with the instruction that you extend no greater credit (except under extraordinary circumstances) than is usually allowed. On sale of the stock, vou will forward us an account of the same, affixing opposite the cattle or stock on the invoice the amount realized on the same. "As it is desirable to commence the taking of stock at as early day as possible, we shall be in readiness by the first proximo to furnish vou with the necessary data and instructions as to the places appointed at which to receive the stock. Meanwhile you will make such preliminary arrangements as is advisable in order to insure a speedy sale when the stock shall reach its destination. "Such funds as may be necessary will be furnished you by our agent at Batavia, to whom you will give your receipts as vouchers. "From the remarks in the preceeding part of this letter you will have learned our views and the motives that govern us in these proceedings. And we have to request that you will endeavor, as far as possible, to do away with any unpleasantness upon the part of these debtors, that may arise from a disparity in the price allowed to some, and to convince them of the justness of the discrimination. In this you will be assisted by the clerk sent with you from this office. "You will also keep our agents advised, as often as may be, of the progress you are making, and the feeling manifest among the debtors; as also ourselves, at this office, if any unexpected difficulty shall arise. "We shall from time to time, as occasion shall require, write you, should any change in the course at present adopted be necessary, or further matters to engage your attention. Meanwhile we remain, "Yours very truly, "The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company." Eventually these lands were disposed of; but under the terms of those old mortgages the Company is still entitled to lands covered by lakes, and lands used as highways, should any such roads be abandoned. So that, even at this late day, there may come into the hands of the Company some such lands. To complicate matters still further land troubles in New York State at about this date, 1845, culminated in what was termed the Anti-rent War. Hundreds of settlers occupying lands owned by non-resident landlords, had paid rent for a generation, since they were not permitted to purchase. Their leases provided for the payment of a specified rental "so long as grass grows and water runs." Questioning the legality of such contracts they refused longer to pay rent, and threatened the lives of agents who tried to col- lect it. The Sheriff of Delaware County was killed at Delhi by shooting, while performing his duty in selling a piece of property 306 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK at auction. The Anti-renters in a body were armed and masked, so that it was impossible to convict any one for the murder. In June, 1845, a request from some of the landlords, or their agents, for an appropriation by the Board of Directors of this Company, towards suppressing Anti-rentism was declined. The Company possessed real estate in different parts of New York City and was therefore directly interested in the city's development. In 1836 the Executive Committee voted to give out a contract for filling in 34th Street, between Second Avenue and the East River, using earth taken from 32nd Street; and plans and specifications were drawn for building a bulkhead, 300 feet in length, at the foot of East 34th Street — this action being under authority of the Street Commissioner. A contract was drawn in the matter of the removal of rocks on the Company's property between East 31st and 33rd Streets. It provides for the purchase of tools and powder, and stipulates that the ;ob shall be done by day's work. The period from 1870 to 1880 was remarkable for the number and the magnitude of trust mortgages accepted. It would appear from the record that practically every rail- road company from Nova Scotia to Mexico had established trusts with this Company in sums from $200,000 to $25,000,000 or more. The aggregate amount of these trusts during that period must have been more than one billion of dollars. The minutes of the meetings of the Executive or Trust Committee, which were held weekly, show acceptances of 31, 34, 38, 27, 25, 21, 17, 18, 53, 37, 20, 25, 18, 12, 25 milHons, and a vast number of from 5 to 10 millions each. This proves the confidence and good will, nation-wide, which the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company enjoyed. Now, in these days of gigantic corporations and enterprises which demand almost boundless resources, it is impossible for those outside of the official circle to estimate the aggregate of trust funds in the vaults of this Company. The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, in its capacity as Trustee under railroad mortgages, was one of the important pioneers in the field of determining and protecting the rights of railroad bondholders. As Trustee under many of the early mortgages of this character, before the scope and effect of this class of securities were fully understood, its activities in the courts, particularly the Federal courts, had much to do with shaping the law on this subject. Its name will be found as complainant in many of the celebrated and often cited cases which shaped the DEVELOPMENT OF TRUSTS 307 legal and equitable principles bearing upon railroad receiverships. And the development of the modern railroad mortgage, with its many far-seeing protective clauses, owes a great deal to this company. Another field of law in which it has been especially prominent is that bearing upon Federal income and other taxes. The case of Pollock V. The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, decided by the United States Supreme Court in 1895, is known throughout the country as the Income Tax Case and was the test case in which the Supreme Court struck down the Federal income tax of 1894. Other taxes in regard to which this Trust Company has taken an active position in the Courts include the so-called "Bankers' Tax" under the Revenue Act of 1898, when, in a test suit against the Collector of Internal Revenue, the Trust Company succeeded in obtaining a decision limiting the application of the tax with ref- erence to trust companies and compelling a refund of the tax as erroneously collected. When, in 1913, the present series of Fed- eral Income Tax Acts began. The Farmers' Loan and Trust Com- pany assumed a position of leadership in the constant endeavors, through discussion and Interchange of views, to clear up many ambiguities In the statutes and to aid In the equable and practical working of the law. In the State Courts also The Farmers' Loan and Trust Com- pany has taken In many fields a useful and leading position, for Instance, as Executor or Trustee under Wills or Trust Deeds. It has figured In numerous famous cases establishing the rights of legatees and beneficiaries Including, among other important points, the respective rights of life beneficiaries and remaindermen In trust funds. Its vast experience as Executor and Trustee has enabled It to aid materially Iri solving problems under such In- struments and In the administration of estates and trusts, and the avoidance of litigation thereunder. Under the present banking laws of this State, every trust company Incorporated under a special law possesses all the general powers now granted to such companies. These are very broad. The company may act as fiscal or transfer agent of the United States, of any state, municipality, or body politic, and in such capacity may receive and disburse money; transfer, register and countersign certificates of stock or bonds; may act as at- torney In fact, or agent of any person or corporation, foreign or domestic, for any lawful purpose. It may discount and negotiate notes, drafts, bills of exchange, and other evidences of debt; buy and sell exchange, coin and 508 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK bullion; lend money on real or personal security; receive de- posits of moneys, securities, etc., from any person or corpora- tion, upon such terms as the Conipany shall prescribe. It may lease, hold, purchase, and convey, any and all real property necessary in the transaction of its business, or which it may legally acquire. It may act as trustee under any mort- gage or bonds issued by any municipality or body politic, for- eign or domestic, and accept and execute any trust not pro- hibited by the laws of this State. It may act under order of any competent court, as guardian, receiver or trustee of the estate of any minor, and in any other fiduciary capacity. It may, under appointment of court, act as trustee or committee of the estate of a lunatic, idiot, drunkard, insolvent, or of one involved in bankruptcy proceedings, and may accept appointment as executor of, or trustee or administrator under a last will or testament. It may perform all duties in managing or disposing of estates, wherever located, and shall be accountable, to all interested parties, for the faithful discharge of every duty. It may purchase, invest in, and sell stocks, bills of exchange, bonds and other securities — but it shall have no right to issue bills to circulate as money. It may accept time drafts from its customers, and issue letters of credit in usual form. It may accept on deposit, on its own terms, valuables of all kinds, and may let to its patrons receptacles for safe deposit. It may exercise all powers not in conflict with the laws of this State. VI PERSONAL Four men cover the list of the Company's presidents for eighty years — from 1842 to 1921. These gentlemen, Messrs. Cornell, Williamson, Rolston and Marston had a large share in the Company's development. Robert Comfort Cornell Trustee of Bank for Savings, 1825 Secretary 1825 Director, Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., 1841-2 President 1842-5 Died May 20, 1845 He was the son of Comfort Cornell, and a lineal descendant of Thomas Cornell, who came to Boston from England in 1637 and later settled in the Bronx, N. Y., where he owned a vast estate. SOME PERSONAL RECORDS 309 He began business with his cousin, Ehjah Cornell, in 1810. In 1825 he vvas assessed on $20,000. He was Alderman g( the city in 1834; in religious faith he was a Quaker. From the Diary of Philip Hone: "In the midst of life we are in death. At four o'clock I attended the funeral of Robert C. Cornell — one of the best men in our City, who was engaged during his whole life in acts of benevolence; who has been employed in season and out of season in all the prominent charitable institutions of our City; and unlike most men, never blew the trumpet of his own fame. I have been associated with this good Samaritan more than twenty years in the Bank for Savings of which he was Secretary at its commencement. He never failed to perform his duties with alac- rity and fidelity. Since I have been President, his place at my right hand has never been vacant. How he will be missed." The following paragraphs are from the minutes of the Board, on May 28, 1845: "Robert C. Cornell was elected a Director of The Farmers' Loan & Trust Company on June 7th, 1841. "On the 9th day of July 1842 he was chosen President of the Com- Eany by the unanimous vote of the Board. By diligent attention to usiness for a number of years, he had acquired a competent fortune and then retired to devote himself entirely to the cause of benevolence. In this occupation he had been engrossed for several years when at the solicitation of the Board he consented to become its presiding officer. "This Board unanimously and cheerfully bear testimony that they have found him in disposition and bearing, amiable, courteous, and gentlemanly. As a man of business, clear headed, sagacious and possess- ing habits of punctuality, accuracy, and never tiring perseverance. "Above all, he was a man of truth and integrity, and perfectly fear- less in the discharge of duty. He devoted his talents, his time, and his industry to the business of the Board up to the last day and almost the last hour of his life. He deserved the thanks of every stockholder for his efifoits to preserve their property and to advance their interests." D. D. Williamson Douw Ditmars Williamson, the son of Nicholas Williamson and his wife, Alche Ditmars, was born January 4, 1789. His original ancestor in America was Willem Willemsen, born in Amsterdam in 1637. President Williamson belonged to the fifth generation from that ancestor. He was a militiaman in the war of 1812-14. He was Comptroller of the city of New York under several admin- istrations and was President of The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company from 1845 to 1865. To him all honor is due for guiding the growing company and upholding its name and honor while it was young and struggling and while its resources were small; that he did this through those critical years is no meagre praise. Upon the occasion of his retirement from this Company to become the chief executive of a bank in Indiana, the Directors 310 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK presented to him a generous gift as an earnest of their apprecia- tion of his long and distinguished services. He was an Elder in the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church. On November 1, 1810, he married Mary Ann Abeel at New Brunswick, N. J. She was born in 1790 and died April 29, 1864. He died in Indiana in 1869. They had nine children. The youngest, Douw Ditmars Williamson, Jr., was the founder of the firm of manufacturing chemists under the name of D. D. Wil- hamson & Co., whose offices were for many years at 14 Dey Street, and for the last twenty years at 86 Fulton Street, in this city. He was also an inventor of some renown. He died in 1897. ROSEWELL G. ROLSTON Mr. Rolston was born on the second day of September, 1832, in Belleville, New Jersey. He was trained in Dr. Chase's Academy at Middletown, Conn.; after which he became general clerk in the State Bank at Elizabeth, N. J. After several years experience in this work he entered business in partnership with his brother-in-law, Louis B. Hanks, in Sumpter, S. C. Finding himself strongly attracted toward finance he came to New York in 1858 and entered the Bank of the Manhattan Company where he remained until about the beginning of 1864, when the opening of the Fourth National Bank of New York occurred, of which he was elected Assistant Cashier. The first books of that institution are in Mr. Rolston's handwriting. He was on the point of being elected Cashier by the Directors when the objection was offered by one of the members "that he was not big enough for that position." Mr. Rolston was a man of less than the average height while the objector was a man of large stature. He soon demonstrated that his ability was not measured by his stature. On April 2nd, 1864, he was elected Vice President of The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company and on the resignation of President Williamson he was on January 4, 1865, elected Presi- dent of the Company, which position he filled until June 17, 1898. On the date of Mr. Rolston's election to the Vice Presidency of The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, the balance sheet, made at that time, shows that the Company had, outside of its dividend and trust accounts, fourteen depositors, to whom it was indebted for three hundred and fifty thousand dollars; and the surplus amounted to but little over sixteen thousand dollars. At that date (April 2, 1864) the Company occupied the front and '- ^lij!4||. -Alw:J^-:|1 fl ^ -r f.- •^-«*^ '"^ From a photograph by James W. Allison, N. Y. WHERE WILLIAM STREET MEETS BEAVER STREET An historic spot in lower New York, now occupied by the buildmg of The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company SOME PERSONAL RECORDS 311 back parlors of a private house at 56 Wall Street Mr. Rolston realized that the furniture and fixtures were old fashioned, and not in keeping with those of other financial institutions with which he was doing business. He determined that the offices of the Company should compare favorably with those of other like institutions; so an up-to-date counter, and proper furniture were installed, and carpets took the place of the old oilcloth which had seen long service. These changes transformed the offices and caused personal pride in the heart of Mr. Rolston, until one of the Directors complained that "this young man will ruin the Company by his extravagance." Time, however, proved that these fears were groundless. He introduced at once measures to increase the Company's business. Jotting down the names of Cotton Exchange and Stock Exchange firms, he visited them and solicited their deposits. This same energy caused him, when office hours were too short to accomplish the work which had been promised, to take to his own home bonds and stock certificates which it was necessary for him to sign, and there, in hours which should have been given to relaxation, he toiled without sparing himself, that his word of promise might be kept sacred. Mr. Rolston was a beautiful and rapid penman and the min- utes of the Board in his handwriting during the years when he was Secretary are a delight. During occasions when he was signing bonds as indicated above, a record of his speed was kept, and it was proven that he wrote his signature seven hundred times an hour. There were three rules to which he adhered strictly; 1. "Always be on lime to keep an appointment. 2. "Do it now. 3. "Be courteous to ei,>eri/ one." When he became President in 1865, the working force was numerically small, and the real development had scarcely begun. Conditions of growth became more favorable and Mr. Rolston's generalship was so able that within five years the assets had more than doubled and the profits and surplus had become seven times as great. He lived to see the assets become twenty times and the profits sixty-six times what they were in 1865. During his administration more than six millions of dollars were paid in dividends to the stockholders. On June 17, 1898, after more than thirty-three years of con- tinuous service as President, Mr. Rolston found the burden greater than he could endure, and he was therefore compelled to 512 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK tender his resignation. Tt was regretfully- accepted and he was made honorary chairman of the Board of Directors. About two months from that date, on August 25, 1898, Mr. Rolston passed from this life, leaving The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company as his monument. Edwin S. Marstox After being Secretary of the Company from 1889 to 1897, Vice President from 1897 to 1898 and Director in 1898, he became President upon the death of Mr. Rolston in that same year. Familiar with the business of the Company, in full sympathy with the policy of the successful administration which had just ended, and possessing rare executive ability, he was eminently fitted to take the helm. Under his leadership the progress of the Company was unbroken Its assets were multiplied by four and its profits and surplus increased nearly threefold. Its power and influence were extended to European lands, through its foreign branches, and its prestige more than kept pace with its development. In the crisis of 1907 when ruin stared certain banks in the face, the assistance rendered through this Company by funds and the conspicuous labor of President Marston, acting with the other members of the Committee, added renown to the Company and well earned fame to its President. Mr. Marston resigned in June, 1921. James H. Perkins James H. Perkins, born at Milton, Massachusetts, was gradu- ated at Harvard in 1898; was employed in an administrative ca- pacity by Walter Baker & Company, Limited, from 1898 to 1906; served as Vice President of the American Trust Company of Boston from 1906 to 1908, leaving to become Vice President of the National Commercial Bank of Albany. He was later made President of that institution, and also became President of the New York State Bankers Association. He left Albany in 1914 to accept the Vice Presidency of The National City Bank of New York; was promoted to the Execu- tive Managership and held this position until he went abroad with Colonel Grayson M. P. Murphy with the first American Red Cross Commission to France. When Colonel Murphy took up active service, Mr. Perkins served as Red Cross Commissioner to France and Europe, until he also entered the service, being retired in 1919 with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of the General Staff. He is an officer of the Legion of Honor, and holds the Amer- ican Distinguished Service Medal. SOME PERSONAL RECORDS Was elected President of the company, June 16, 1921. List of P reside nU John T. ChampHn 1822-1830 Oliver H. Hicks 1830-1832 Frederick A. Tracy 1832 Elisha Tibbets 1832-1835 Henry Seymour 1835-1837 Lewis Curtis 1837-1842 Charles Stebbins 1842 Robert C. Cornell 1842-1845 D. D. Williamson 1845-1865 Rosevvell G. Rolston 1865-1898 Edwin S. Marston 1898-1921 James H.. Perkins 1921 J 'ice Presidents Fred A. Tracy 1833 David Codwise 1836-7 Rosewell G. Rolston 1864-5 George F. Talman 1869-1883 Robert C. Boyd 1875 W. D. Searls 1881 Wm. Hopkins Leupp 1889-1899 E. S. Marston 1897-8 Thomas J. Barnett 1899-1909 Secrete Thomas Frankhn 1822 Archibald Mclntyre 1822-3 John King 1824-1832 Rufus K. Delafield 1836-1852 George P. Fitch 1852-1881 Samuel Sloan Augustus V. Heely William B. Cardozo Cornelius R. Agnew J. Herbert Case William A. Duncan Horace F. Howland Henry King Smith William H. Leupp Edwin S. Marston Samuel Sloan Augustus V. Heely John Ely, Jr. James Hoyt Robert C.^ Boyd Frank Munn Samuel Sloan Augustus V. Heely William B. Cardozo Cornelius R. Agnew William A. Duncan Horace F. Howland Robert E. Bovd Assistant 1822-4 1824 1867-1875 1881 1889-1897 1898-1907 1900-1909 1900-1909 1909-1917 1909-1917 1909-1917 Secretaries Edwin Gibbs Harry D. Sammis J. Courtney Talley Edward J. Boyd Irving H. Meehan James B. Little William A. Wilson S. Sloan Colt Francis W. Myers Thomas M. Godwin 1907- 1907- 1909- 1909- 1912-1917 1917- 1917- 1918- 1881-1889 1889-1897 1897-1907 1907- 1912-1919 1917- 1917- 1917- 1917- 1918- 1918- 1919- 1921- 1921- >14 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Directors Richard Harrison Benjamin Bailey Francis Depau Thomas Franklin Thomas Van Zandt Peter Remson John Bolton Francis Saltus Henry Mactier Augustin H. Lawrence H. C. De Rham George Griswold Thomas H. Smith Gabriel L. Lewis James De Wolf, Jr. Will W. Russell Benjamin Marshall Henry Wheaton Theodosius Fowler John T. Champlin John C. Green James McBride Archibald Mclntyre Churchill C. Cambriling John Johnston Thomas S. Townsend James Magee James Tallmadge Christian Shell William James John L. Vielle George Andrus David White Frederick A. Tracy John S. Crary David S. Kennedy Henry Cary William Osborn Joseph S. Shotwell Gideon Lee Samuel Packwood Lewis Curtis 1822 1823 1824 William Howard 1824 Robert M. Russell Richard N. Harison " George H. Stanton 1825 Philip Thomas " Samuel Hanway " Aaron O. King " Thomas J. Oakley 1826 William Hudson " William H. Adams Henry Parish Thomas Lord " Jacob Corlies W. W. Harison John W. Leavitt 1827 James Ries " Michael Mulden " Roger Prout 1828 William Jones " Ephraim Holbrook " Elias H. Elv Charles B. Tallmadge 1829 William C. Woolsey " Charles Dickenson 1830 John A. Taylor " William Sidney Smith " Walter R. Jones " Tyler Dibblee " Oliver H. Hicks Samuel F. Dorr 1831 Thomas Tileston " Samuel Downer, Jr. 1832 Eliphalet Wickes Thomas Wright Elisha Tibbitts Benjamin L. Swan " Lvnde Catlin William B. Astor Charles E. Dudley James Wadsworth " Thaddeus Phelps 1833 EK Hart SOME PERSONAL RECORDS 315 Pierre Lorillard, Jr. Samuel Alley Benjamin N. Brown Levi Beardsley George Newbold John Targee Daniel Jackson Henry Wyckoff Morgan L. Smith John L. Graham Isaac Townsend Henry Seymour Enos T. Troop John Delafield John Fleming David Codwise Lott Clark Levi Beardsley Cyrus Curtiss James Seymour Jeremiah Johnson Henry Vail John De Mott Elisha Riggs Ferdinand Suydam Joseph Kernochan William F. Havemeyer Abraham G. Thompson James Donaldson Dudley B. Fuller John Ferguson J. Woodward Haven Albert H. Tracy Gideon Hawley Robert C. Cornell Hiram Ketcham William Banks Robert Bayard Ernest Feidler Joseph W. Alsop, Jr. Charles Stebbins Ira B. Carv Direrlor.f 1833 Charles Humphrey " John K. Paige " Joel Rathbone " John Rankin " Chester Clark PhiHp M. Lydig " Moses Taylor 1834 Cornelius W. Lawrence " Cornelius Dubois, Jr. Henry A. Colt " Charles Kneeland 1835 Stephen Storm " John L. Lawrence D. D. Williamson " George I. Cornell " James J. Van Allen " Edward Curtis " Cornelius Bogert " Benjamin F. Dawson William Penfold " Thomas Mareau 1836 Seth Grosvenor A. S. Murray 1837 George F. Talman John F. A. Sanford 1838 D. D. Fearing '■ Elbert I. Anderson " Nelson Robinson " Erastus Corning " Robert Schuvler 1840 Eli Kelley " Solomon B. Stone " Gouverneur Morris " Isaac Newton 1841 Israel Randolph " Daniel Drew Elisha Peck Robert W. Kelley 1842 Cornelius Vanderbilt " Abraham Bay lis " Francis B. Cutting " Sheppard Knapp 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 ;16 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Charles E. Bill Charles H. Fisher Edward Whitehouse Charles P. Leverich Alanson Robinson Charles Morgan Moses Tucker David Kent Samuel Towner Edward Minturn John P. Moore Homer Ramsdell Nathaniel Marsh Alexander Duncan John Steward, Jr. Andrew Foster WiUiam E. Laight Alexander Campbell Isaac Bell, Jr. Abram R. Van Nest John I. Phelps Percy R. Pyne Nathaniel Thurston Peter Edes George R. Marten James Soames James H. Banker David Kent Rosewell G. Rolston Frederick G. Foster Peter H. Vandervoort John Jacob Astor, Jr. Samuel Sloan Robert L. Cutting William Walter Phelps Denning Duer Asa Otis George Milne Edward R. Bell William Remsen James Roosevelt William B. Astor Directors 1852 William H. Wisner 1876 John H. Mortimer 1878 1853 Thomas Rutter 1879 " Robert Lenox Kennedy " Charles H. Thompson 1880 " S. Clark Jervoise " 1855 Edgar S. Auchincloss " N. L. McCready 1881 1856 Frederick Billings 1883 Robert C. Boyd Henry Hentz 1884 Gardiner R. Colby 1885 Alexander T. Van Nest 1887 1857 Robert L. Cutting, 2nd " H. Van Rensellaer Kennedy " 1859 August Belmont. Jr. Charles E. Bill, Jr. 1888 1860 James Neilson " " Moses Taylor Pyne 1889 " James Stillman " Alfred C. Cheney 1861 D. O. Mills 1890 William Waldorf Astor Henry A. C. Taylor 1891 1862 E. R. Bacon Charles L. Colbv 1863 Franklin D. Locke 1892, R. F. Ballantine 1864 Cleveland H. Dodge 1894 Charles A. Peabody 1865 George F. Baker 1895 " Hugh D. Auchincloss " " William Rowland " 1866 David H. King, Jr. 1869 Stephen S. Palmer 1896 " John P. Townsend " 1871 John L. Riker 1898 1873 Edwin S. Marston " Daniel S. Lamont " 1874 Andrew G. Agnew 1899 Archibald D. Russell 1875 P. A. Valentine 1900 SOME PERSONAL RECORDS 317 W. S. Bogert H. H. Rogers James F. Horan Frederick Geller Samuel Sloan, Jr. James A. Stillman Marl T. Cox J. William Clark Frank A. Vanderlip Percy A. Rockefeller Augustus V. Heely John W. Sterling Ogden Mills John J. Riker Percy Chubb Thomas Thacher Directors 1901 Edgar Palmer 1913 1902 Henry R. Taylor « 1906 Harrv D. Sammis « " J. C.^Talley « 1907 Francis M. Bacon, Jr. " 1908 Anton A. Raven 1914 1909 Thomas F. Victor " " Beekman Winthrop " 1909 Parker D. Handy 1916 " Robert L. Gerry " " Percy R. Pyne, 2nd 1917 " Percy R. Pyne " 1910 Lewis Iselin 1919 " John G. Agar " 1912 Eustis Paine Frederick Osborn 1921 Offic 1922 James H. Perkins President Augustus V. Heely Secretary Samuel Sloan Augustus V. Heely William B. Cardozo Cornelius R. Agnew William A. Duncan Horace F. Howland Henry King Smith J. C. Talley Harry D. Sammis Edward J. Boyd Irving H. Meehan James B. Little William A. Wilson S. Sloan Colt Francis W. Myers Thomas M. Godwin Asst. Sec. Directors in 1922 James H. Perkins Edwin S. Marston Charles A. Peabody Franklin D. Locke Lewis Iselin John G. Agar Percy R. Pyne Samuel Sloan John J. Riker Henry R. Taylor Francis M. Bacon, J Robert L. Gerry Parker D. Handy Augustus V. Heely Ogden Mills Beekman Winthrop Eustis Paine Frederick Osborn 318 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Names oj Employees oj The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company who sensed their country in the Great JVar. MUton M. Abbott Oscar W. Anderson Charles F. Avers Alexander F. Bergren Edward Bolt Percy G. Browne Frederick W. Brush F. Campbell Burrows Christopher Cavanna S. Sloan Colt William R. L. Cook, Jr. Frank E. Coserove Arthur K. Davis Henrv J. Delaney Harold B. Dennis John R. Doyle Samuel E. Dribben Edward L. Ducker John R. Farrar, Jr. Francis V. Forrestal Walter J. Furlong Duncan F. Geery David H. Gibson John E. Greenia Albert Guder Daniel J. Hayes Laurence B. Hayward Laurence S. Heely Clifford Hendricks G. Russell Hess Stoddard Hoffman Vincent Hogan Charles C. Holmes Bernard de Hosson Paul Jacoby Milton G. Johnson Arthur H. Kiendl John G. Kilbreth Malcolm A. Leary Hugo G. Loeser Alan M. Lunberg Dennis Lynch John McConnell John McDermott Francis S. McGovern Leo J. McNamara Monroe Mayhoff Peter Meidenger Walter Monsees Samuel J. Mooney Harrison B. Moore, III Marcus M. Munsill Jacob F. Muschenheim Frank W. Myers Edward P. Naylor Walter I. Opsann Adam J. Orlet Carl Palmblad John Press, Jr. Redmond J. Reilly John Riquet E. Richard Schulz Ellsworth D. Scott George Sellarole * Alfred T. Slauson Julian R. Sloan Clarence B. Smith Elward Smith John J. Smith *Merritt H. Smith, Jr. Robert F. Smith Henry H. Sonntag William H. Steinhardt Garrett A. Storms Arthur C. Sullivan William J. Sullivan Dorothea Thomas Henry N. Tifft, Jr. Frank M. Totton Frederick C. Turner. Jr. Augustus Van der Poel *Ralph E. Van Valken- bureh ♦Richard J. Walsh Charles F. Weber Harry Wendell Leslie G. Wilmot George T. WIsner Wellford G. Wrenn Killed. ^^J^-- Chapter XIV HISTORY OF A DOirNTOTrN PLOT Sale of the lAaiu) for Sixty Guilders — First GrounJ-briefs — Origin of JV^all and ff^ilUanur Streets—Block L, Lot No. J— Merchant Princes, Captain Ki?d, and Successii'e Owners of the Corner of JVilliani and Bea^'er Streets 'n"fy iruEN the first white man who ever saw the land that is 0^/ now covered with the ghstening sky-scrapers of New York '^ ' sailed into the harbor in the spring of 1524, — Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine, who had been sent by Francis I, King of France, in a futile effort to discover a passage to Asia, — the island was occupied by a tribe of Indians named the Man- hattans. To state that the Indians "owned" the island would be stretch- ing a technically legal term. But the Indians occupied it, and by common consent among themselves, the various tribes were loosely allotted to the territories where they did their hunting and set up their homes. Real estate values were negligible; land was the Indians' one plentiful possession. In the colloquialism of the rural South, "land was the one thing that Indians had nothin' but of." Thus the early Manhattan Indians were the first known own- ers of the valuable downtown block in the heart of the crowded financial section of New York that is now occupied by one of the oldest banking institutions of the city, the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, the one-hundredth anniversary of which is being celebrated this year, 1922. Few bits of land in all New York have had a more interesting history than the site of this modern office building, bounded on the west by William Street, on the north by Exchange Place, on the south by Beaver Street, and on the east by the Post Building and Hanover Street. Indeed, its history goes back to the very earliest records of the New World, — even before New York was called New Amsterdam! 319 520 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Let us trace it from the beginning. Following the discovery of New York by Verrazzano, the next white man who is known to have arrived at what is now the greatest port in the world was the famous Hendrick Hudson, who arrived September 11, 1609, in the Half Moon. Hudson, who was an Englishman, and whose real name was Henry, was employed by the Dutch East India Company of Holland to dis- cover a new route to India by way of the North. His accidental and brief contact with the Indians he found here so impressed him, and through him the practical Hollanders, with the possi- bihties for acquiring wealth from the new land, that in 1610 or 1611 two Dutch mariners, Hendrick Corstiaensen and Adriaen Block chartered a vessel on their own account and hurried over here. Shortly after that certain merchants of Amsterdam and Hoorn sent over five vessels, filled with goods for barter with the savages. So profitable were these expeditions that in 1675 the Dutch merchants formed themselves into the United New Netherland Company, and obtained from their government the exclusive right to trade in the newly-found territory "for four voyages within the term of three years, commencing the first of January 1615." This Company was superseded in 1621 by the Dutch West India Company, which obtained all rights for trading in the new land. This was the beginning of what became a flourishing Dutch colony, which in 1623 had attained such importance, — its popu- lation had grown to several dozen by then, — that it attained the dignity of a Dutch province. In that year, too, the good ship New Netherland arrived, with thirty families aboard, — the first packet to make regular trips to and from the New World, and thus was the fore-runner of the regular ocean liners. As the new settlers arrived they established themselves in houses which they erected wherever their fancy dictated. Land was so plentiful and the population so small, — it numbered only about a hundred men, women and children in 1625, — that no effort was made to lay out streets or even to estabhsh each squatter's territory. Thus it came about that the paths which led to these scattered houses, as well as the paths made by the cows to the pasture lands, gradually grew into streets, and mod- ern Broadway and Pearl Street were once cowpaths that led to the green fields near what is now Wall Street. Sooner or later, however, some sort of title had to be acquired for the land. This was done in 1625 when Peter Minuit, Director- FIRST G R O U N-D -BRIE F S 32 1 General of the territory, established the first formal government. And one of his first acts was to make a legal contract with the Manhattan Indians whereby the West India Company came into possession of the entire island of Manhattan for sixty guilders, or $24.00, — paid not in the form of useless money, but in the form of articles dear to the Indians' heart, — kettles, shears, knives, toys; possibly even beads, bells and jewsharps. Thus the present site of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Com- pany came into its first legal ownership. Having thus acquired a claim to the island, the next step of the West India Company was to apportion certain sections of it to the white settlers who had been occupying it and who had thereby established a sort of a priori right to it, although they had been paying rentals to the company. Accordingly the land was roughly divided into blocks, designated by letters, and into lots designated by numbers. On July 20, 1638 was recorded the first known ground-brief, by Director-General Willem Kieft. Another was granted the following year. Gradually others followed. On July 3, 1643, one Tymen Jansen, a ship carpenter, was granted a ground-brief to the land he had been occupying on what is now a considerable portion of the site of The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company building. On May 15th, Augustyn Heermans, an exporter and importer, was granted another ground-brief to a lot adjoining Tymen Jansen's on the southeast, which also includes an important slice of the site of the present bank. And sometime in 1649 another lot, adjoining Tymen Jansen's on the northeast and just touching upon Augustyn Heerman's, was granted to Jacob Heinrich Vaervanger, a doctor. This third grant also included a portion of the present site of The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company's quarters. These three Dutchmen, — Tymen Jansen, a ship carpenter, Augustyn Heermans, and Jacob Heinrich Vaervanger, a doctor, — thus became friends and neighbors. The largest portion of the present site was granted to Tymen Jansen, who had been occupying a tract of land lying along the river road from about the present 125 Pearl Street to what is now the rear of the Seaman's Savings Bank building at the northwest corner of Pearl and Wall Streets, — a distance of about 450 feet. His property averaged about 225 feet in depth, so his entire holdings up to this time amounted to somewhat more than two acres. Jansen's new property, designated as Block M, Lot No. 12, 322 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK which was irregular in shape, comprised 646 rods, 10 feet and 5 inches. It was bounded on the north by an imaginary Hne starting at the corner of Wall and Pearl Streets (near what was then "the water poort") and ran southwesterly through the line of Wall Street, cutting Exchange Place just north of what is now the main entrance of The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company building, and extending southeast from that point to what is now Pearl Street, but which in those days was known merely as "the road to the Ferry" and later as "the Church Street of the English." From this point Tymen Jansen's property fol- lowed the line of Pearl Street northeast to the starting-point north of Wall Street. This property was granted to Tymen Jansen on July 3rd, 1643, by the Dutch West India Company, although the owner had apparently been occupying the land for several years before the legal papers were executed. Like the other settlers, he had merely built his house where he pleased, and after six years of residence as a "squatter," he was given his patent. So it appears certain that Jansen had occupied this spot as early as 1637, and his former land possibly even as early as 1624, when the Dutch West India Company sent over a number of colonists with cattle, tools and other equipment for establishing a permanent agricul- tural colony in New Amsterdam. At any rate Tymen Jansen came over as a young man, for the records show that he was in the employ of the Company before 1633, when he was thirty years old, and that he had for several years before that been the principal shipwright of the Company at New Amsterdam and had built many vessels. Certain it is that the shore opposite Tymen's residence, — and the waterfront in those days came up to Pearl Street, — must have been a busy center in an otherwise quiet old town, for the records of Director Van Twiller (who served from 1633 to 1638) state that Jansen "made many repairs, and built new vessels, with a wood-cutter's boat, and various farm boats and skiffs." Tymen evidently occupied a residence that was built for him in 1635 on his older property by Director-General Van Twiller. Later it appears that he built another house lower down on Pearl Street, which the records show was occupied by his widow Mar- ritie in 1653. This house is described as a comfortable place, situated in a large enclosure of ground sloping down to a small pond, and with green fields behind it. So far as the meagre descriptions of the period show, this pond was located about where the southern portion of The Farmers Loan and Trust Company building now stands. It is not. ORIGIN OF WALL AND WILLIAM 323 improbable that on its quiet waters at one time floated a lazy rowboat that Tymen made for his little daughter Elsie. But such pleasures of country life were not destined to last long in the prosperous and growing Dutch town, for the pond was eventually drained off by a ditch or "sloote," which in time became "Slote Lane," then "Stoat Street," "Merchants' Street," "Exchange Street" and finally "Beaver Street," by which it is known to-day. According to the early records, Jansen was a practical hard- working. God-fearing Dutchman who took an active part in the life of the thriving little village. On May 30, 1639, he gave a note of 100 guilders to the deacons, presumably to assist in sav- ing the souls of his fellow-citizens. That he was held in esteem is evidenced by the fact that he was appointed a "guardian of the children of the late Cornelis Van Vorst" and filed a bond to this effect on February 17, 1659. On July 5, 1643, he made a contract with William Robbertson to build a house, — presumably the house he later occupied, on his newly-acquired land. In the summer of 1640 the Council Minutes show that Jansen, jealous of his honor, became involved in a quarrel with one Laurens Haen, against whom he entered suit for slander on August 7, 1640; the case continued for several days and ended with a judgment for the plaintiff and a fine for the defendant. Apparently Jansen prospered, as there are numerous records of his business transactions; among them the records of large tracts of land which he acquired in 1642 and 1643, on Long Island, including the site of the present Court House of Queens County in Long Island City. "Whether he had grown independent with years, and was desirous of attending to his own private affairs, or whether he was not in as high favor with Director Kieft as with his prede- cessor, does not appear," writes J. H. Innis in "New Amsterdam and Its People," "but we find that in 1664 the Director and Council complained of him for neglecting to repair the yachts Amsterdam and Prins WiLlem, to which he responded, somewhat tartly, that he 'had done his best, and cannot know when a vessel is leaky unless those in charge inform him of the fact; furthermore, that nothing can be done without means'." While Mynheer Jansen's grant provided ample room for a house and outbuildings, as well as for an ample kitchen garden, it could hardly be regarded as a farm. It is probable, however, that a good part of the land was given over to the raising of garden truck. One may easily picture Mynheer Jansen in his 324 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK broad-brimmed hat and ample breeches of the period, amiably smoking his long-stemmed pipe as he wandered about his prop- erty, gazing southward over the waters where, as the ancient map declares, "the great ships ride at anchor," and contemplated little improvements here and there,— very likely including the planting of a hedge along the boundary line of his estate and that of his neighbor. Doctor Vaervanger, about where the offices that face Exchange Place are now located. Nor is it difficult to picture Mynheer as turning out at seven o'clock on the spring morning of April 4th, 1644, in response to a notice posted a few days before by his near neighbor, Cornelius van Tienhoven, Secretary of the Council, calling upon him along with "other interested persons," to help in the erection of a stout fence along the northern limits of New Amsterdam, — Wall Street, — to serve the double purpose of preventing cattle from straying off into the country and of preventing the Indians from making a too-easy descent upon the villagers. And having performed such public duties, it is easy to picture him in the cool of the evening as strolling homewards down the canal which in those days extended northward up Broad Street as far as what is now Beaver Street and enjoying to the full the similarity of the surroundings to his beloved Holland, — even to the extent of brushing from his path an occasional pig, which roamed the streets as scavengers. But the life in the colony was fraught with hardships and few of the early pioneers lived to old age. Tymen Jansen was no exception, and he died about 1645 when he was about forty-two years of age. The following year his widow Marritie married birk Cornelissen of Wensveen, a carpenter, and upon his death in 1648 she married Covert Loockermans and moved to the home of her new husband in what is now Hanover Square. A little later Marritie and Covert Loockermans sold the old Jansen homestead to Claes Hendricksen, a carpenter, who in turn exchanged it in 1653 for the house and grounds of Sergeant Daniel Litsche, a famous tavern keeper, situated nearer to the fort. Litsche lived in his new home (which by that time was located just outside of the "palisades" or town wall nine feet high, which was built as a protection against invaders in 1653, and from which Wall Street derived its name) until the property was condemned by the authorities because it stood too near the fortifications. To Augustyn Heermans, soldier, scholar, artist, merchant and speculator, — one of the most important as well as one of the most picturesque figures in old New Amsterdam, — was granted BLOCK L. LOT NO. 7 325 that plot of land about an acre in size designated as Block L, Lot No. 7. According to the records. Heermans came into legal possession of this property on May 15, 1647, when he was a Burgher. On the east side it included that portion of land that is now occupied by the west front of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company building, extending from a point a few feet north of the main entrance of the bank and extending southeast in a straight line to a point about thirty feet east on what is now Beaver Street. Thus Heermans' land included that portion of the present build- ing which is now occupied by the president and several of the chief executives of the bank. Incidentally, Heermans' grant included practically all of what is now William Street, between Exchange Place and Beaver Street (except a small triangular strip just south of Exchange Place) as well as about half of Beaver Street for a space of sixteen rods. A few years later, 1654, when Heermans disposed of a part of his land to Symon Jooster, in order to tide over a financial crisis, his claim to the property became confused when the town ran a road through it, and consequently he was unable to deliver it intact to the buyer. The quarrel led to the courts in 1656 where Heermans pleaded, properly enough, that he allowed Joosten to select his own plot and measure it himself and that he had offered him the proper conveyance, which Joosten had refused. Joosten answered that inasmuch as the new road was run through that part of the lot intended for a garden, and con- sequently the whole of his purchase could not be delivered to him, Heermans ought to deed over another lot of similar size to take its place. The road which caused this controversy was later designated as "Smee Street" or Smith's Street (now William Street) in honor of the village blacksmith. Burgher Jorisen Smit.* There is no evidence that Burgher Heermans actually lived on this land; indeed, the records show that at about the same time that he received this grant he obtained possession of about an acre of ground in the Smit's Vly (north of Wall Street) that was originally granted to Hendrick Jansen, the tailor. This property ran for 200 feet or more along the river and the house on it occu- * Burgher Jorisen, a native of Silesia, was in New Amsterdam as earlv as May 26, 1637, when he signed a contract with the Council of the Colony of Rensselaervuyck, which read: "inasmuch as Cornells Tomassen died and Arent Steverviersen, who married the widow, does not understand Smith's work, the Council of the Colony have decided to turn the iron and coal and all tools over to Burger J onsen Smit ..." Van Rensselaer Bowler JISS., 815-6. 326 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK pied the ground now covered by these buildings at 177 Pearl Street. After his marriage in 1650 to Janneken Verlett he built a larger residence which he called his "great house" which occu- pied the site of what is now 175 Pearl Street. And here it was that he spent the last ten or twelve years of his residence in New- Amsterdam, before he departed on an eventful journey that made him a great landed proprietor of Maryland. The land included in the grant of 1647 was apparently leased to Heermans' friend, Allard Anthony, "for garden purposes." Presumably Anthony raised such produce upon it as is now raised by the Long Island farmers, consisting principally of vegetables. Anthony, who became a successful business man and for a period served as Sheriff, leased the land for several years; in all likeli- hood the $500-a-foot ground now occupied by the towering office building designated as 25 Broad Street, as well as other sky- scrapers on the same block, was given over to the cultivation of cabbages and other delicacies dear to the Dutchman's heart, and were probably fed, at the town's expense, to Anthony's prisoners in the town lockup. As might be inferred from his name, Augustyn Heermans did not come from Holland but from Prague, Bohemia, where he was born in the year 1608. After serving as a youth in the army of Count Albert von Wallerstein in the Thirty Years' War, until that general's defeat by the Swedes in 1632, Heermans came over to New Amsterdam as an agent of the firm of Peter Gabry and Sons, merchants at Amsterdam. He prospered; the early Dutch records contain numerous references to his enterprises and numerous acquisitions of real estate property elsewhere in Manhattan. Aside from a few business trips, he seems to have remained quietly at home, attending to business and projecting himself only occasionally into the political life of the town, in which his experiences ^^•ere more or less disturbing. A brief impression of Heermans, the man, as well as an interest- ing snapshot of that part of the town, is given by J. H. Innes in the following paragraph: "Fronted by the shingly beach of the East River, and backed by its orchard and the hillside, the place (Burgher Heermans' home) was a quiet haven where its proprietor often, no doubt, found opportunities to contrast the prevailing calm with the turbulent experiences of his early life. All traces of the locality as it was in Heermans' day have long passed away, however; and he must live largely in imagination who can find in the dark street and melancholy warehouses and clattering trains of the SUCCESSIVE OWNERS OF THE CORNER 327 elevated railway overhead, anything to remind him that here Augustyn Heermans, awakened on a summer morning by the carolling of the robins in his orchard, could look from his windows upon the early mist covering the East River, and call to mind, perhaps, a foggy morning, a quarter of a century before, when he with 20,000 of his comrades stood under arms, and through the mists which covered the village and plain of Lutzen, on the day of the great battle, heard the Saxon troops of Gustavus Adolphus singing: — " Ein Jesle Burg ist unser Goll, " Ein gale Wehr and Waff en." But Heermans' early contact with men and events left an impression that even the quiet of a Dutch village could not entirely eradicate and his adventurous spirit prompted him to join in the opposition to the Colonial policy of the West India Company, and his name headed the list of "the Nine Men" who signed the historic document known as the "Remonstrance" to the States-General, in which Peter Stuyvesant and his secretary. Van Tienhoven, were handled without gloves. Between Van Tienhoven and Heermans, indeed, considerable enmity existed, which even extended to the point where the former attempted (unsuccessfully, be it said) to cause a breach between Heermans and his Dutch employers. Apparently the trouble between Heermans and the Colonial administration was adjusted in the course of time, for in 1659 Director-General Stuyvesant appointed his erstwhile enemy one of two deputies to visit the Governor of Maryland for the purpose of coming to an agreement respecting the boundaries of that colony and those of the Dutch settlements along the Dela- ware. While on this journey Heermans undertook to make a survey and map of the province for Lord Baltimore — a task which occupied him ten years and which he executed in such a dis- tinguished manner that he was rewarded by a grant of about 30,000 acres to which he gave the name "Manor of Nova Bohe- mia." Thither he removed his household in 1662, and he died there in 1686, one of the few men of the period to reach a ripe old age. The grant to the third neighbor Master* Jacob Heinrich Vaervanger (or Varavange) was the smallest of the three, com- prising only about a half acre designated as Block O, Lot No. 8. The original grant is not found in any of the old documents, although the good doctor apparently came into his property * This was the title given to surgeons. 328 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK in 1649, and the transaction was made a matter of official record by Governor Nicolls bv a confirmatory grant dated April 15, 1667. Doctor Vaervanger's land adjoined Tymen Jansen's on the northwest, and touched upon the northeast of Burgher Heer- mans' property. Described in terms that may be identified to-day, it included all of that part of the present building of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company that faces on Exchange Place, and nearly a half that faces on William Street. If a line be drawn from a point just north of the main entrance of the present building to a point northeast, about sixty feet west of Hanover Street, all that portion north of this imaginary line was a part of Doctor Vaervanger's house and garden. Doctor Vaeranger is described as a well-to-do physician, who had already been established here many years and who had acquired considerable property, principally in real estate. Appar- ently the lot of a doctor in those days did not differ materially from his lot to-day, for the records of the period show numerous court actions brought by Master Vaervanger against his debtors, from whom he accepted not only money for his professional ser- vices but beaver skins, tobacco, brandy, or in fact, pretty much anything of value that his patients could offer. Yet the good doctor was highly esteemed, and in a quiet way became a power in the community. In 1658 he worked to estab- lish a hospital for sick soldiers and negroes; in the same year he brought suit against the Burgomasters of New Amsterdam for indemnity for the property on the new grant which they had taken up from the land left to his two wards, the orphan children of Jacob Lopes and Cornelia Melyn. That he served as a public health officer may be assumed from the fact that he received money at times from the town, and occasionally he obtained funds for paying a salary to an assistant. Doctor Vaervanger built two houses on his grounds as well as a small outbuilding. One house was located upon what is now the northeast corner of William Street and Exchange Place, and the other what is now the southeast corner, — the very spot now occupied by The Farmers' Loan and Trust Companj^ One of these houses, — the records are not clear as to which, — Doctor Vaervanger rented early in 1660 to one Dirck Houthuyzen, a smith. Dirck, in turn, sublet the front room to a youth of good family. Marten Van de Waart. Both of these tenants proved troublesome fellows for the doctor. Dirck, the smith, absconded during the summer, and such of his belongings as he left behind were sold by the bailiff SUCCESSIVE OWNERS OF THE CORNER 529 for the benefit of Dirck's creditors, — among whom was pre- sumably his landlord. Marten was not disposed of so easily, however, for when Doctor Vaervanger desired to lease the house to another tenant. Marten refused to vacate his front room. The doctor brought the case to the courts on October 12th, where he asked "that the man who occupies the front room shall vacate the same." Marten held his ground, however, and declared that "he hired the front room for one year from the absconding Dirck Houthuyzen and paid thereon fl. 69.8" which was a very high rent in comparison with the rents that prevailed in the neigh- borhood. Marten was ordered to vacate "if he cannot agree with Master Jacob," Apparently he came to some sort of arrangement with his landlord, for he was occupying the same room the following May when he was arrested for theft. It was then revealed that he had been using his room as a cache for stolen goods. Marten confessed "without torture or force" that he had been stealing for seven or eight years. Out of consideration for his family, friends and his wife, however, the court was lenient with him, and reduced his original sentence of a public whipping at the stake and banishment for twenty-five years, with costs, to "a private scourging in a closed chamber, costs and banishment for ten years," and later to banishment only. Thus did social influ- ence affect the judgment of the courts even in the days of old New Amsterdam. Shortly after the doctor received his confirmatory patent in 1667 he leased the lower house to Gerrit Janse Stavast, and the upper house, together with what remained of the original grant, to William Pattison. The latter was confiscated by Governor Colve and assigned to Gerrit Hendricks, the butcher, to take the place of his demolished house that had been located in the south- ern end of the island. Just when the Vaervanger property was further cut up into lots, and just who the subsequent owners of these lots were, immediately following occupancies of Stavart and Hendricks, are details that are buried in old manuscripts and records that have not yet been straightened out. Prior to 1728, however, it appears from the "Montgomerie map," — (which was the first plan of the city to be made from an actual survey, and which was dedicated by the surveyor, James Lync to Captain-General John Montgomerie, Governor of His Majesty's Provinces of New York and New Jersey) — that a street had been cut into the lower part of the doctor's estate, known as Garden Street (now 530 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Exchange Place), extending from Broad Street to William.* It was not till 1763 that that portion of the old Vaervanger property which included the northwest corner of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Co. building appears in the present records of the city. The subsequent determination of this block by the cutting through of thoroughfares and the straightening and widening of Exchange Street in 1826 and again in 1836, by slicing off a bit on one man's land and adding a sliver of another's has given to this lot an unusual array of part-owners, some of whom apparently transferred but small strips to make up the present irregular shaped block. Certain it is that this plot of ground has been owned by many distinguished citizens of old New York; a list of them reads like a "Who's Who" of the period. About the middle of the 18th century this lot was a part of the holdings of Peter Prad Provost, who left it to his son David. In 1763 the Estate of David Provoost transferred the land to Elizabeth Richards. In 1786 that section of the lot that was owned by William Fundrum and wife was transferred to Thomas Witter. The following year, 1787, it fell into the hands of Sheriff Marinus Willet, — who played an important role in the stirring days during and following the Revolution, — who in his official capacity sold it to Richard Davis. It is apparent that prior to this time, however, a shce of this lot was a part of the holding of Sidney Breeze and wife, for in 1765 they transferred it to Henry Grigg. Among the other owners of this property during the post-Revo- lutionary period were Joseph Winter, Gerardus Duyckinck and wife, and Alexander Robertson. Some time before 1792 the lot was owned by James McEvers, who held considerable real estate in the neighborhood, includmg a good portion of what is the present block. McEvers served for a time as "stamp distributor" under the obnoxious Stamp Act imposed by the British in 1765. But his patriotism as well as his wisdom apparently induced him to retire from that unenviable job. The McEvers house stood at the northeast corner of Wall and William Streets, — where the City Bank was later established, — and it was there that the famous Liberty Boys paused in their work to cheer their com- patriot for his timely resignation, before they proceeded to Bowling Green with Lieutenant-Governor Cadwalader Colden's stolen chariot that contained a copy of the unpopular Act as well as an effigy of that official. * In 1824 Garden Street was extended to what is now Hanover Street and became known as Exchange Street. SUCCESSIVE OWNERS OF THE CORNER v")l From McEvers the lot passed to Daniel Ludlow, as did other parcels of real estate in the immediate neighborhood. Ludlow was one of the important and wealthy men of the period; at the time of his purchase of this lot he was president of the Man- hattan Bank. In 1801 the Ludlow Estate deeded the lots to Henry A. Coster, who with John Gerhardt Coster and the latter's wife, Catherine Margaretta, were to be important figures in the history of this block, but who were then just setting about to buy considerable real estate in this section. Their efforts were successful, for on April 5, 1825 is officially recorded in the Registrar's Ofhce of New York the several trans- fers of various holdings from John G. Coster to Henry Arnold Coster of various plots which they had been acquiring for a quarter of a century. Among the owners of this particular lot from 1798 to the date of this recorded transfer appear William Seton, Joseph Winter, Dennis Cassady, George B. Miller, Charles Oakley, James Oakley, Edward Lyde, Samuel Richards, David King, Richard V. W. Thorne, William Smith and Hina- ment Castles. Among the properties transferred to Henry A. Coster at that date were three other lots that now comprise the seven-lot site of The Farmers' Loan and Trust Company building. It is obvious that these holdings were concentrated in his hands for the purpose of facilitating the re- transfer on the same day to Joel Post, — who at that time started to buy up all of the lots on the block, and became one of the largest real-estate owners in the district. Indeed, by 1833 he owned all of the block with the exception of two lots on the southeast corner. "It is not clear to what use these properties were put during the English and American occupations prior to their acquisitions by Joel Post," writes Mr. C. L. Foster, who has made a study of the early history of this section of New York, "but a deed from William Seton to Henry Arnold Coster and John Gerhardt Coster of a considerable proportion of the block recites a descrip- tion of two dwelling houses on Smith Street (now William Street) at about the corner of the present Exchange Place. * From the imperfect access to other portions of the block, it is hardly likely that the property was occupied for business purposes at that date. As early as 1816, however, there was a store on the north side of Sloat Lane (now Beaver Street) that was conducted by Henry Arnold Coster and his brother John Gerhardt Coster. Certainly some of the early owners of lots on this property had * The site of the original Vaervanger house. 332 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK their places of residence elsewhere, — and the list of owners embraces some of the merchant princes of those days." Among these princes may well be included the Coster brothers, who succeeded both with their store as well as with their real estate and banking ventures. Shortly after the sale of his William Street property John G. Coster is referred to as a "wealthy merchant" who occupied a mansion on Broadway north of Vesey Street; presumably his fortune did not diminish when, in 1836, he sold it to John Jacob Astor, who incorporated it in the site of the Astor House. Not the least interesting of the former part owners of the block was the famous Captain Kidd who was eventually hanged as a pirate — although recent investigations of his career would indicate that he was a much-slandered personage. Captain Kidd, by his marriage to a widow, came into possession of the old residence of Govert Loockermans, who years before had married the widow of Tymen Jansen, the original owner under the Dutch grants of the larger portion of the block, and thereby came into ownership of Jansen's land. This residence stood near Hanover Street and Exchange Place, and so far as the meagre records show. Captain Kidd's coach-house stood somewhere on the east end of the present block. Joel Post, — who was also a merchant, — became an important property-holder when he bought practically all of the present block in 1825, for he owned in addition considerable land on Wall and Pearl Streets. During the period of his ownership the dis- trict began to build up rapidly; within ten years Joel Post's land was covered with stores and other business buildings, "supposed to be worth $850,000, subject to heavy mortgages and other charges." By that time William Street had become established as a shopping district for women, for the dry goods and millmery stores were located there. Both stores and offices in those days, however, were ding\ places, and despite the prosperity of a merchant, his place ot business was usually no criterion of his financial status. The store kept by Joel Post and his brother Jehiel on William Street was no exception to the rule. They apparently confined their efforts to a wholesale business, for they kept on hand only samples, and the place was as bare and comfortless as an empty barn. "It happened that a country merchant had received a note of theirs in course of trade," reports old Felix Oldboy, a personal friend of Joel Post's son, "and as he was in the city, he thought it would do no harm to look them up and find how they stood. On SUCCESSIVE OWNERS OF THE CORNER 333 entering the store, he was astonished to find their stock appar- ently very low, and everything bearing the appearance of a lack of trade. Beginning to grow alarmed, he entered the back office, and was still more disheartened by its appearance of poverty. At last he mustered up courage to remark that he held a note of the firm. "'Very well,' answered the senior, Jehiel, 'it will be paid when due.' "But this did not satisfy the countryman, and he ventured to inquire if the firm would not discount the note. "'We don't do business that way,' was the cold reply. '"But gentlemen,' stammered the man. 'I'll take off 10 per cent for cash — ^yes,' with a burst of terror, 'I'll take off 20 per centr "'Brother Jehiel, do you hear that?' whispered the other partner; 'let's take him up.' "The bargain was made and the money paid down. "'Now,' said one of the brothers, 'if you please, tell us the meaning of this strange transaction.' "The countryman made his confession, and the brothers roared. They were vastly more tickled by the joke than by the profit. Calling one of their clerks, they sent him around with the visitor to the bank where the note was to be paid, and there the latter was informed by the cashier that he would cash the check of the firm any day for $50,000." Joel Post's business enterprises flourished, and he bade fair to become the leading merchant of his day when he died intestate April 7th, 1835, leaving a widow and nine children, four ol whom were under age. Another blow fell upon his family on the night of December 16 of the same year, when the great fire of 1835 broke out and destroyed a large part of the Joel Post build- ings on William and Wall Streets. As a result, the estate became unproductive and financially embarrassed. Partition proceed- ings on behalf of the heirs were instituted, and the Post property was put up at auction and sold to various buyers early in 1836. By that year the city blocks and lots had been designated by numerals which they still bear in the Hall of Records. The block of which this chapter deals — bounded by William, Beaver and Hanover Streets and Exchange Place, — became known as Block No. 27. And that northwest corner of it, — where the original Vaervanger house stood about two centuries before, — was desig- nated as lot No. 39. And when the Joel Post properties were auctioned off in 1836, Lot No. 39 fell to Isaac Green Pearson on May 13th. He immediately resold it to Richard Lawrence on 334 A CENTURY OF BANKING IN NEW YORK Mav 20th, who resold it to Isaac G. Pearson and his wife, EHza. At about the same time Pearson acquired Lot No. 38, both of which are included in the present site of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Co. In the meantime, John Steward also began to buy property on this block. On April 4, 1836, he obtained Lots No. 32 and 30 from the Joel Post estate, both of which are included in the present site, and both of w^hich once belonged to the Costers. And lot No. 28 of the Post estate was transferred in the same year to Benjamin F. Lee, who resold it in 1837 to Cornelius W. Law- rence, a genial Knickerbocker who was one time mayor of New York. Lot No. 29 in 1837 also became the property of Mr. Lawrence. Thus eighty-five years ago the seven lots that now constitute the site of The Farmers' Loan and Trust Co. were owned by Isaac G. Pearson, John Steward and Cornelius W. Lawrence. In the forty-five years that followed, these lots passed through many hands. Lot No. 30 — originally a part of the old Jansen grant — which forms the nucleus of the present site of The Farm- ers' Loan and Trust Co., — passed from John Steward to Daniel Jackson Steward, Mary Anna Steward, Aaron Wolff, Jr., and Agnes Hendricks Wolff on February 28, 1882. On the same day it was transferred by them to the present owners for a considera- tion of $120,000. Upon that lot (20 William Street) the bank erected a two-and-a-half story building, and moved into its own home from rented quarters which it had occupied for fifteen years at 26 Exchange Place— a site which nearly two hundred years before was a part of both the Vaervanger and Jansen grants. But the bank soon outgrew its modest home. On February 15, 1889, the directors ratified the purchase of the property next door — No. 22 William Street — which, as Lot No. 32, had passed from John Steward to Edwin C. Litchfield and then to Edward H. and Madeline S. Litchfield. The price of the land was $250,000. On April 1st, 1889, plans for a new building were approved, to cost $450,000. On May 16, 1890, the building Committee reported the total cost of the property, including the old building, as $1,064,159.19. But still the bank grew. On April 2, 1903, it acquired three more lots, — Nos. 29, 38 and 39, from the Alliance Realty Com- pany which had acquired them for the purposes of sale, from Ralph Reiss, on April 14, 1902, who had acquired them a few days previously from John Lee Carroll and Thomas Maitland, SUCCESSIVE OWNERS OF THE CORNER 335 trustees of the will of Royal Phelps. Among the various owners of these lots during the preceding years appear many distin- guished names, including Peter Schermerhorn, Harry P. Jones, George B. Door, Henry C. De Rham, Robert L. Maitland, James K. Mills and the famous Ward and Howe families, including the celebrated Julia Ward Howe, author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." On these several lots, then, — which once were part of the country estates of the original Dutch settlers. Dr. Jacob Heinrich Vaervanger, Burghermaster Augustyn Heermans and ship car- penter Tymen Jansen, — The Farmers' Loan and Trust Co. erected its present building in 1909 at a cost of $1,476,037.94. And from that date to this the bank has made this building its home, under the identifying address of 16-18-20-22 William Street, or as it is generally known in the financial district, merely as "16 William Street." 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