J. Pierpont Morgan.
J. Pierpont Morgan, known as the “Railroad Reorganizer,” and who has won a place in the front rank among American financiers, is a son of the well-known Junius S. Morgan, the head of the firm of J. S. Morgan & Co., of London, and the successor of George Peabody, the great philanthropist in the banking business there. George Peabody, some years before his death, visited this country, and, desiring a partner in his great banking house, made inquiry in Boston for a suitable person. Junius S. Morgan was recommended as a young man of exceptional business talents and he was selected for the responsible post, the firm being known as George Peabody & Co. On the death of the celebrated head of the firm, the name was changed to J. S. Morgan & Co. The success of the father has been repeated in the signally successful career of the son. During the palmy days of the firm of Duncan, Sherman & Co., once renowned among the financial strongholds of the country, J. Pierpont Morgan was one of the clerks. It was there he graduated as a practical student of financial achievements; it was there he won his spurs for the monetary campaigns that awaited him. Leaving the house that was then a synonym for invincible solidity, Mr. Morgan established the firm of Dabney, Morgan & Co. Mr. Dabney was formerly one of the firm of Duncan, Sherman & Co. After a few years the firm in which Mr. Morgan had thus first engaged in business on his own account was dissolved. But the check, if it may so be termed, was only momentary, and colossal feats of financiering were to deck his career with triumphs. He formed a connection with the wealthy Drexels, of Philadelphia, and a New York branch of their banking house was established, under the name of Drexel, Morgan & Co., which has for some years been largely engaged in the reorganization of crippled railroads like the West Shore, Reading and many others. And they have been very successful. They have been financial physicians, healing sick corporate bodies; monetary surgeons, amputating needless expenditures and reckless methods; or, in perhaps more happy figure, skilful pruners of the vine, that the ultimate vintage might be more abundant.
Yrs Sincerely
H. Victor Newcombe
Mr. Morgan is endowed with very positive traits of character. He has the driving powers of a locomotive. He cares nothing for show; he is a plain man of action. He strikes hard blows; he is naturally aggressive. In speech he is candid to the verge of bluntness; in action he is short, sharp and decisive. Like a true soldier, he is a man of acts rather than words. Rugged as a Spartan in his nature, hating circumlocution, bombast and palaver, going straight to the mark, yet with due caution and prudence, he exhibits many of the best traits of the practical financier.
I have asked Mr. Morgan for his picture for publication in this book, but with natural personal modesty, he has recommended that his handsome partner, Anthony Drexel, of Philadelphia, be selected in his place, and with a view to encouragement in Wall Street of blushing modesty—that century flower of the financial conservatory—I have complied with his request.
Thomas L. James.
President of the Lincoln National Bank, has had a career in New York brilliant in the service of the public, and marked in the practical skill with which confidences and enterprises have been directed by him. His training has contributed largely to his success as a financier. He came from Utica in 1861 and entered the Custom House as Deputy, and finally attained the position of Postmaster-General after a long and successful term as Postmaster of the City of New York. Mr. James directed the affairs of the Lincoln Bank so successfully that what promised to be a small up-town bank has developed into a National bank of considerable importance. He is one of the men of the times, one who feels the tide of local affairs, a man of the people who acts from wholly conscientious motives, and whose ambition has never exceeded his sense of duty.
Moses Taylor