Henry Clews.
When the long-sought-for opportunity to become a banker came to the ambitious young man, now the financier, Henry Clews, he did not let his chances pass him. He was born in Staffordshire, England, August 14, 1840, coming of a good old English family. His father, an able business man, intended Henry for the ministry of the Established Church of England. But at the age of fifteen the boy, visiting America with his father, became so interested in the country and its people that he gave up all idea of becoming a clergyman, and, with his parents’ consent, settled in the United States. His first position in this country was as a clerk with an importing firm, in which he rose to a position of responsibility. In 1859 he became a member of the firm of Stout, Clews & Mason, which subsequently became Livermore, Clews & Co. At the outbreak of the Civil War Secretary Chase invited him to become agent for selling government bonds. His unfaltering faith in their worth was shown by his subscribing to the National loan at the rate of five million or ten million dollars per day, even going into debt by borrowing on the bonds. This materially strengthened the public confidence in the government’s course of action. When Mr. Chase was congratulated upon his success in placing the war loans, he said: “I deserve no credit; had it not been for the exertion of Jay Cooke and Henry Clews I could never have succeeded.” Mr. Clews founded and organized the famous “Committee of Seventy” that successfully disposed of the “Tweed Ring.” After the Civil War, besides establishing a distinctive banking business, he became one of the largest negotiators of railroad loans in America or Europe. The present firm of Henry Clews & Co. was established in 1877, its members pledging themselves never to take any speculative risks. Mr. Clews has for many years been treasurer of the “Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,” and is also connected with many city institutions and financial corporations. He married Lucy Madison, of Worthington, Kentucky, a grandniece of ex-President Madison. He is a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines and the author of Twenty-eight Years in Wall Street.