Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

anking house of Morgan, Ketchum &
Company. Remaining in New"York only
about two years, he returned to his native
city and then- established himself in busi-
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
as a dry goods merchant in the firm
of Howe. Mather & Company and Mather,
Morgan & Company. Subsequently he
went again to Boston, and, still continu-
ing in the dry goods business, became a
partner of J. M. Becbe in the famous firm
of Becbe. Morgan & Company, which in
its prime was one of the largest and most
influential houses in that trade in the
United States.
Mr. Morgan visited England in 1853,
and, upon the invitation of George Pea-
body, became associated with that great
banker as his partner in October, 1854.
In ten years he succeeded entirely to the
business of Mr. Peabody, and established
the house of J. S. Morgan & Company,
which shortly became one of the largest
banking houses in the world. The later
years of his life were spent largely abroad,
but he never lost his love for his native
country, and during the civil war he gave
substantial assistance to the cause of the
national government. He was a man of
generous instincts, and contributed handsomely
to the support of educational and
public institutions. His activity as a layman
in the affairs of the Protestant Episcopal
church was noteworthy, and among
other institutions, Trinity College, of
Hartford, Connecticut, owed much to his
munificence. He died in Nice, France, in
1895, as the result of an accident. He
married, in Boston, in 1836, Juliet Pierpont,
daughter of Rev. John and Mary
Sheldon (Lord) Pierpont.
(VII) John Pierpont Morgan, only son
of Junius Spencer and Juliet (Pierpont)
Morgan, was born in Hartford, Connecti-
cut. April 17, 1837; died in Rome, Italy,
March 31, 1913.
He was educated in the English high
school in Boston, and then studied in the
University of Gottingen, Germany, where
he completed a full course, returning to
the United States when twenty years of
age. lie engaged in the banking business
with Duncan Sherman & Company, of
New York City, in 1857, and there ob-
tained a full knowledge of finance in a
house which at that time was one of the
most prominent in the country. In i860
he became American agent and attorney
for George Peabody & Company, of Lon-
don, with which house his father was connected,
and in [(S64 he engaged in banking
on his own account in the firm of Dabney,
Morgan & Company. In 1871 he became
a member of the famous banking house
of Drexel, Morgan & Company, the name
of which in 1895 was changed to J. P.
Morgan & Company. At the same time
he was also a member of the firm of J. S.
Morgan & Company, of London, of which
his father was the founder, and, upon the
death of his parent, he succeeded him in
that concern. Thus he was head of the
greatest private bank in America, and of
one of the most influential monetary insti-
tutions in England.
His preeminence as a banker and finan-
cier was recognized for nearly a quarter
of a century. In those respects he was
one of the most potent powers that the
United States has ever known, and rivaled
even the strongest men in Europe. In
the wonderful industrial and financial development
which characterized the clos-
ing years of the nineteenth century in the
United States, and especially in the development
toward the consolidation of in-
dustrial enterprises, Mr. Morgan was not
only prominent, but it is not too much to
say that, at that time, he exercised the
most powerful and helpful influence ever
displayed by any man in the financial his-
tory of the country. Particularly will his
genius and indefatigable labors in the