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254MORGAN, JOHN PIERPONTBibliographyA. Papers at the archives of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross in Byfield,Mass.; Letters to Her Companions, ed. Vida Scudder (Byfield, Mass., 1944).B. DC, 148–54, 159; EDC, 343; FD, 144–51; Joanna Bowen Gillespie, “Emily M. Morgan’s‘Religious Order’: The Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross, 1884,”Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society 44 (2002): 83–105; Miriam U.Chrisman, To Bind Together: A Brief History of the Society of the Companions ofthe Holy Cross (Byfield, Mass., 1984).MORGAN, JOHN PIERPONT (17 April 1837, Hartford, Conn.–31 March1913, Rome, Italy). Education: Graduated from English High School, Boston,1854; two years of mathematics study, University of Göttingen, Germany. Career:Junior accountant, firm of Duncan, Sherman and Co., New York, 1857–60; NewYork agent for his father’s London-based Junius Morgan and Co., 1860–64; partner,Dabney, Morgan and Co., investment securities, 1864–71; partner, Drexel,Morgan and Co. (after 1895, J.P. Morgan and Co.), 1871–1913.J.P. Morgan, a philanthropist, financier, and prominent Episcopal layman, wasborn in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1837. In 1857, he began his banking career inNew York. He rose to prominence during the 1870s, when his firm emerged fromthe financial panic of 1873 as the dominant player in the field of governmentfinancing. His stature further increased in the 1880s as he became successfullyengaged in the reorganization of major railway companies in the United States.Morgan found ways to eliminate wasteful competition, to reduce managerial inefficiency,and to centralize financial control, thus making the railroads moresecure and profitable. In the 1890s he also began consolidating industrial corporations.His investment banking firm organized General Electric, AmericanTelephone and Telegraph, International Harvester, and, in 1901, United StatesSteel, the first billion-dollar corporation. By 1909, many Americans viewed himas the most powerful man in the country—the personification of individual financialpower.Morgan also made many significant contributions to the life of the EpiscopalChurch. As senior warden of St. George’s Church in New York, he helped revitalizea moribund congregation in 1883 by extending a call to William S. Rainsford.*The dynamic new rector transformed the church and made it a center ofoutstanding preaching and vigorous social service. Rainsford and Morgan hadbreakfast together every Monday morning. Despite grumbling a bit about Rainsford’sfervor for social democracy, he admired his priest’s drive and conviction.On one memorable occasion, Morgan tried to resist Rainsford’s effort to makethe St. George’s vestry more representative of his socially diverse congregationby increasing the size of its membership. Ultimately accepting the worthiness ofRainsford’s plan, Morgan had wanted to limit the vestry to, as he put it, “a bodyof gentlemen whom I can ask to meet in my study.” After Morgan’s death, Rainsfordsaid that “without Pierpont Morgan I certainly could not have made the