USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. X > Part 27
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
Neither then nor for many years after were the inestimable services of Jay Cooke fully realized, but it is pleasant to remember that they were understood and appreciated by the wise and brave soldier then in command of our army. In March, 1865, when Jay Cooke, Jr., was about to start on a trip to Fortress Monroe and thought it probable that he should see General Grant while in Virginia he tele- graphed his father, asking if he had any message to send the commander. The reply was: "Tell the general to push the fighting. We will supply all the money that is needed." This message was deliv- ered and in reply General Grant said : "Tell your father that I appreciate his
message and his services. Tell him that he is doing more than all the generals in the army; for without his aid we could not do any fighting."
When the storm and stress of the con- flict had become things of the past Mr. Cooke turned his attention to a variety of enterprises including coal, iron and railway interests, and also the life insur- ance business. His favorite enterprises, however, were railway companies with some of which he had become connected during the war. For many years he had been warmly interested in the project of building a railroad to the Pacific coast, and in 1866 he identified himself with the cause, becoming, eventually, its heart and soul. In 1870 Jay Cooke & Company be- came the financial agents of the Northern Pacific Railroad and thenceforth Mr. Cooke imparted to the project the im- mense impetus of his vitalizing energy. .He was always enthusiastically interested in the development of the Northwest, and its progress during a period of many years was, perhaps, due more to his efforts than to those of any other one man. Then came the panic of 1873 when the historic house of Jay Cooke & Company was forced to suspend. Never was this great man greater than in this hour. One who was then a clerk in the Philadelphia house says: "I shall never forget the evening of that fateful 18th of September, 1873. * * * To every one in the building the failure was a personal grief. It was our failure. About five o'clock Mr. Cooke, wearing his broad-brimmed felt hat and his long cloak, emerged from his private office and with head bowed walked slowly across the banking house and out through the door into the street. * * Every heart in the great room went out to our stricken chief."
Within a few years Mr. Cooke was en- abled, in great part, to repair his fallen
187
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
fortunes, largely through the gratitude of one whom he had, when a Philadelphia banker, assisted in the hour of need. Thus the closing years of this noble life were passed in the ease and prosperity which its labors and achievements had so richly merited.
In educational, charitable and religious institutions Mr. Cooke was always deeply interested. He was a vice-president of the Citizens' Association of Pennsylvania and of the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. He made large dona- tions to the Sanitary Fair and actively aided in the work of the Christian Com- mission. For several years he contributed six hundred dollars annually to Princeton University to support a prize fellowship in mathematics. He was a trustee of the Divinity School of the Protestant Epis- copal church in West Philadelphia, and in 1864 gave it thirty thousand dollars in United States ten-forty coupon bonds to endow a chair of Pulpit Eloquence and Pastoral Care. The endowment was in- creased by later gifts and accretions until it stands to-day at fifty-four thousand dollars, being known as the Jay Cooke Professorship of Homileties. In May, 1866, Mr. Cooke gave Bishop Lee, of Iowa, ten thousand dollars in aid of Gris- wold College in that State, and in the same year twenty-five thousand dollars (later increased to thirty thousand) to found a chair at Kenyon College at Gam- bier, Ohio, where Bishop Bedell was in- creasing the endowment of the theolog- ical seminary. In 1890 Mr. Cooke do- nated five thousand dollars to the Divinity School at Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was long the president or vice-president of the American Sunday School Union to which he gave freely, sending it, in 1867, five thousand dollars to further its work in the South. During his early years in Philadelphia Mr. Cooke attended the
Methodist Protestant church at Eleventh and Wood streets, and after his marriage he and his wife became members of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church on Third street below Walnut. To the close of his life Mr. Cooke maintained his con- nection with the Protestant Episcopal church, most bountifully contributing to its support and generously aiding in its work.
The secret of Mr. Cooke's wonderful success in his work for the government has been eagerly but vainly sought, but a study of his life and personality seems to prove that it lay, apart from his mar- vellous abilities, in a singularly magnetic individuality, the subtle, fascinating pow- er of a man who, always confident him- self, knew how to impart to others the overflowing enthusiasm of his nature. Ardently loved as a leader he was also greatly feared, the mere mention of his name terrorizing gold hoarders, disloyal speculators and "bears" on government bonds in Wall street. To his financial genius he added rare clarity of vision, his quick mind grasping situations in an in- stant and thus rendering that unhesitating action which was always one of his sali- ent characteristics rich in much needed and much desired results. Possessing the very highest sense of honor all his business relations were invested with a certain moral grandeur which becomes more and more impressive as time reveals in their true light his great work and noble character. To his loyalty in friend- ship a multitude, many of whom have now passed to the Great Beyond, could most abundantly testify. The description already quoted of Mr. Cooke's personal appearance as a young man might well be supplemented by one which would show him as he was in his latter years when, clad in his great cape cloak and with his wide-brimmed, light-gray soft
188
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
felt hat set over a gentle face adorned by a long white beard, he looked like the pa- triarch he was. But this is not within the province of the biographer. It belongs to the artist to execute a portrait which, in time to come, will be grouped with those of the two men whose names are the most sacred in our national history inasmuch as it was Jay Cooke who, in the darkest days of the Civil War, aided Lin- coln to preserve what Washington had created.
Mr. Cooke married, August 21, 1844, Dorothea Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Nun and Sarah (Hughes) Allen, of Bal- timore, Maryland, and they became the parents of the following children: 1. Jay, Jr., whose sketch follows. 2. Laura El- mina, born 1849; married Charles D. Bar- ney, whose sketch follows. 3. Caroline Clara, born 1850, died in infancy. 4. Sarah Esther, born 1852, became the wife of John M. Butler. 5. Dora Elizabeth, born 1853, died in infancy. 6. Catharine Moor- head, born 1855, died in her ninth year. 7. Pitt, born 1856, died in infancy. 8. Henry Eleutheros, born 1857; graduated at Princeton University and entered the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal church ; married Esther Clarkson, daugh- ter of William Russell, a banker of Lewis- town, Pennsylvania. The marriage of Mr. Cooke was an extremely happy one, resting as it did upon perfect sympathy of taste and feeling. Love of home and family were ever dominant motives with him and never was he so happy as at the fireside presided over by his cherished life-companion. For a time Mr. and Mrs. Cooke resided in Philadelphia and then, in 1858, took up their abode at "The Cedars," on the old York road among the Chelten hills. In 1866 they moved to "Ogontz," built by Mr. Cooke and named in memory of an Indian chief who had been one of the familiar figures of his
childhood. This house was said to be one of the "private palaces" of America and was famed for its hospitalities and benevolences. Here it was that the de- voted wife and mother, the joy and sun- shine of the home, passed away on July 21, 1871. After the reverses of 1873 Mr. Cooke left "Ogontz," not returning when his fortunes mended, but instead convert- ing the mansion into a school for girls, an institution which acquired a national reputation and in which he always took a special interest. The last twenty-five years of Mr. Cooke's life were spent at "Eildon," the home of Mr. and Mrs. Barney, on the York road. So great was Mr. Cooke's enjoyment of domestic life that he never belonged to any club but the Union League of which he was one of the founders.
It was at "Eildon" that Mr. Cooke closed a long and most honorable career, a career of noble service to his City, his State and his Country. On February 16, 1905, he breathed his last, leaving a record in which his descendants, to the remotest generation, may take just and worthy pride. He was a man of marvellous gifts, for with the brain of a great financier he possessed a heart that "loved his fellow- men.”
Among the many tributes offered to the character and work of Mr. Cooke was the following, taken, in part, from a Philadel- phia paper :
The death of Jay Cooke, the veteran financier, must cause a sigh of regret as wide as this con- tinent. While his great work was finished long ago he lingered as a living reminder of two memorable epochs with which his name was in- separatably linked. In the one he was the master spirit and in the other he was the supreme un- fortunate. These two epochs covered the period of the Civil War and the great panic of 1873. While from the first he emerged with unparalleled financial power, world-wide fame and a great fortune and from the second he walked forth a
189
.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
penniless man, he came from both with an equal measure of personal honor and credit.
Jay Cooke was the financier of the Union dur- ing the Civil War. Not only was he the banker who sold for the United States government many hundred millions of bonds, but the patriot who preached faith in the Union when even strong men halted. His banking house in Third street was the cornucopia from which flowed a steady and powerful stream of gold to feed the national treasury. The government asked of him no serv- ice in the field of finance that was too hazardous for him to perform successfully. No burden in the shape of unmarketable bonds was too heavy for him to carry. There was real heroism in some of the deeds by which Jay Cooke maintained the credit of the Nation and so kept the Federal armies in the field and the Union's warships on the seas. This splendid service was fully recog- nized by Lincoln and Grant. Without a Cooke the mighty plans of those two could not have been carried on so triumphantly.
When the war was over the banker-patriot turned his vast abilities in many directions and prospered. He projected the Northern Pacific Railroad, but as he often said himself afterwards, "the Franco-Prussian war came a few days too soon." The fifty million dollars pledged by Euro- pean bankers was withdrawn when that conflict started and Cooke was unable to float the enter- prise in America. This eventually led to his own failure and the dismal panic of 1873. To his everlasting honor this man, who had financed the Nation during a long and costly war, paid to his creditors every dollar that he owed them. There was no shrinking nor evasion. Jay Cooke met personal disaster as courageously as he had faced national catastrophe and likewise triumphed.
Philadelphia has a peculiar right to feel proud of Jay Cooke. He was one of a trio of her sons, or adopted sons, who supplied their coun- try with funds in war-time. Robert Morris was the financier of the Revolution. Stephen Girard advanced millions in the struggle of 1812. Jay Cooke financed the cause of the Union during the Rebellion.
Personally the veteran banker was lovable, gen- tle and philanthropic. He seemed to radiate sun- shine. He was an optimist who saw good all around him. He believed in his fellowmen and in his country and he helped both. He bore his unequalled triumph no more serenely than his misfortune. Jay Cooke's long and useful life was crowded with incidents that ought to be at once a hope and an inspiration for every American.
More than half a century has elapsed since this man of heroic memory stretched forth his strong hand to enable us to re- main an undivided Nation. A new era has dawned. The mists of detraction are dispelled and we see his action in its true light as the action of a man whose su- preme passion was love of country. But the day of perfect comprehension and ap- preciation-which will surely come-has not yet arrived, for the human race must reach a higher level than it has now at- tained before it can render full justice to this great-souled, pure-hearted patriot.
COOKE, Jay, Jr.
Financier.
The name of the late Jay Cooke, Jr., banker, is one of those accorded the trib- ute of wide recognition in his home city of Philadelphia and the far more valuable homage never given save to worth of character and rectitude of life.
Jay Cooke, Jr., son of Jay and Dorothea Elizabeth (Allen) Cooke, was born Aug- ust 10, 1845, in old Congress Hall (a hotel), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While he was still a youth the stirring events of the Civil War aroused in him the patriotic ardor which has always been characteristic of his Face, and he enlisted in the Gray Reserves. Those were the days when General Lee carried the war into Pennsylvania, and Mr. Cooke was under fire at Carlisle very shortly before the battle of Gettysburg. On that famous field his regiment was not represented, but later did good service in the vicinity of Hagerstown.
Immediately after the close of the war Mr. Cooke became a partner in his fa- ther's famous banking house, and in 1869 became a member of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, maintaining his connec- tion with that body to the close of his life. He also occupied a seat on the board of
190
C
by :
Charles D.G. Saray
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
directors of the Guarantee Trust Com- pany. After the memorable financial crash of 1873, when even the great house of Jay Cooke & Company failed to weath- er the storm, Jay Cooke, Jr., formed the banking house of C. D. Barney & Com- pany with Mr. Barney his brother-in-law. He later retired from partnership in this firm.
The same spirit of patriotism which had led Mr. Cooke, when a youth of eighteen, to enroll himself among the defenders of the Union made him, in his maturer years, a man truly civic-spirited, and ac- tive in all projects which in his judgment tended to further municipal reform and impart strength to the cause of good government. His political principles were those advocated by the Republican party. He was bountiful in his charities, but preferred that his benefactions should be bestowed with an entire absence of ostentation. He was a member of the Episcopal church. He belonged to the Union League, the Huntingdon Valley Country Club and several clubs of New York City. Mr. Cooke was a man of most attractive personality, quiet and somewhat undemonstrative, but reveal- ing in the intercourse of daily life a rare capacity for friendship and a nature rich in those qualities which endear a man to all those of whatever class who are in any way associated with him.
On April 23, 1868, Mr. Cooke married Clara Alice, daughter of the late J. Bar- low and Elizabeth (Hirons) Moorhead, of Philadelphia. On another page of this volume may be found a full account of the Moorhead family with a portrait of J. Barlow Moorhead and the Moorhead Arms. Mr. and Mrs. Cooke became the parents of two children: I. Caroline Clara, born August 29, 1870; became the wife of Robert Wilder Bush, of Boston, Massachusetts, and has a daughter, Alice
Gardner Bush, born February 24, 1901. 2. Jay, born April 22, 1872; member of the banking house of C. D. Barney & Company, Philadelphia and New York; married Nina Louise Benson, daughter of the late Edwin North Benson, of Phil- adelphia, and has a son: Jay, born April 2, 1897, now a first lieutenant in the United States Army. Jay Cooke, Jr., was a man of strong family affections and had the joy of seeing in his son the develop- ment of those talents which he himself had inherited from his father. Jay Cooke, the third, is now a leader in the financial world of Philadelphia and manifests the patriotic spirit of his race by his activity in government work for the prosecution of the present war with Germany, being federal food controller of Philadelphia county.
In the latter years of his life Mr. Cooke withdrew from the turmoil of the financial arena, and on December 16, 1912, he passed away, being still in the full matur- ity of his powers. While inheriting his father's powers, he was not granted an equally conspicuous opportunity for their exercise, but in his own day, albeit not of such signal storm and stress, he stood forth as a man of the noblest motives and the highest purposes.
BARNEY, Charles Dennis, Man of Affairs.
Among the solid business men of Phil- adelphia must be numbered Charles D. Barney, a prominent representative of the banking interests of that city, and officially connected with many other busi- ness institutions.
Charles Dennis Barney was born in Sandusky, Ohio, July 9, 1844. His father, Charles Barney, a native of New York, became a grain merchant of Sandusky, where he conducted an extensive business
19I
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
until his death, which occurred at the comparatively early age of thirty-seven years, one of the victims of the cholera epidemic of 1849. He was well known for his charity and philanthropy. The ancestry of the family is traced back in direct line to Jacob Barney, who sailed from England in 1634 and settled at Sal- em, Massachusetts. The mother, Eliza- beth Caldwell (Dennis) Barney, was a representative of an old New York fam- ily ; her maternal uncle was a lifelong friend of Eleutheros Cooke, the father of Jay Cooke, and emigrated to Ohio with him. Mrs. Barney passed away Decem- ber 16, 1908.
Charles D. Barney received his educa- tion in the public schools of Sandusky, and afterward spent two years in the hardware store of an uncle there, subse- quent to which time he entered the Uni- versity of Michigan. A year later, how- ever, he left that school to enlist in the one hundred days' service, doing guard duty in Washington during that period. When mustered out he secured a position in the Second National Bank of Sandusky, the president of which was L. S. Hub- bard, the first employer of Jay Cooke, the financier. Mr. Barney remained in the bank until September, 1867, as clerk and bookkeeper, after which he came to Phil- adelphia, and on September 18, 1867, en- tered the office of Jay Cooke & Company, bankers, with whom he remained until December, 1873, when in connection with Jay Cooke, Jr., he established the firm of Charles D. Barney & Company, bankers and brokers. In July, 1907, he retired from this firm, after thirty-four years' association with the business as its head. The business, however, is still continued under the old firm name with J. Horace Harding, Jay Cooke, the third, and others as the present partners.
Although practically retired, Mr. Bar- ney still holds various directorships. He is trustee of the Penn Mutual Life In- surance Company, director of the Hunt- ingdon & Broad Top Mountain Railroad & Coal Company, and director of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York. He is president of the Hahne- mann Medical College and Hospital. He is a member of the Union League, Hunt- ingdon and Valley Country clubs, of Philadelphia; the Bankers Club of New York, Ohio Society of Philadelphia, Ohio Society of New York, and Pennsylvania Society in New York. He is rector's warden and one of the oldest vestrymen of St. Paul's Church (Cheltenham), Ogontz, where he succeeded Jay Cooke as rector's warden in 1905. He has also been actively identified with its Sunday school for many years and has been its superintendent since 1900. In politics Mr. Barney is a Republican, and every- thing pertaining to the welfare and prog- ress of his city finds in him a warm sup- porter. As a progressive business man he is regarded as a safe adviser, his en- terprise being tempered by a wise con- servatism, and for the same reason his influence is potent in all boards upon which he serves.
On April 22, 1869, Mr. Barney married Laura E., eldest daughter of Jay Cooke, of Philadelphia, and they are the parents of the following children : Dorothea, wife of J. Horace Harding, of New York; Eliz- abeth, wife of John H. Whittaker, of Philadelphia; Katherine, wife of Joseph S. Bunting, of New York; Emily, wife of Baron Friederich Hiller von Gaertring- en; Laura, wife of Henry M. Watts, of Ogontz, Philadelphia ; and Carlotta, wife of Archibald B. Hubbard. A man of strong domestic tastes, Mr. Barney finds .in his home the sources of his highest happiness.
192
Schie ! mi balmont
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
McCALMONT, John E.,
Lawyer.
The twentieth century lawyers of Pitts- burgh, that is to say, those who have come in with the century and are there- fore not beyond early middle life, con- stitute an increasingly influential class among representatives of the bar. Among them John E. McCalmont, now in the fifteenth year of a successful practice, holds a leading position. Mr. McCal- mont is identified with the club life of the metropolis and also with her religious interests. John E. McCalmont was born November 29, 1878, in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and is a son of James Proudfit and Mary Catherine (Mc- Farland) McCalmont. The McCalmont family is of Scotch-Irish origin and has been for many generations resident in the United States.
The elementary education of John E. McCalmont was received in the public schools of his native county whence he passed to the Ingleside Academy at Mc- Donald, Pennsylvania. He then entered Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, and in 1900 received from that institution the degree of Bachelor of Arts. It was in the Law School of the Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh) that he pursued his legal studies, graduating in 1903 with the degree of Doctor of Laws. Immediately thereafter Mr. Mc- Calmont entered upon the practice of his profession in the office of Henry A. Davis, remaining until the death of Mr. Davis, which occurred in March, 1910. Some years prior to that event Mr. McCalmont had established an independent reputa- tion for the possession of those qualities which go to the making of a successful lawyer and this reputation has ever since
steadily increased. Since the death of Mr. Davis he has had no business asso- ciate and has become widely and favor- ably known as a general practitioner.
Deeply imbued as he is with the spirit of good citizenship Mr. McCalmont never loses an opportunity of co-operating in any cause which he deems calculated to promote municipal reform or in any way to further the best interests of the com- munity. He belongs to the Allegheny County Bar Association, and his clubs are the Duquesne, University, Americus and Pitt Handball. He is a member of the United Presbyterian church.
The personality of Mr. McCalmont is that of a man of strength of character, tenacity of purpose and clarity of vision. All these are constantly brought into play in his work at the bar, as is also the tact which enables him to deal wisely and suc- cessfully with men widely differing in motive, disposition and environment. His appearance and manner are those of such a man as we have, in the foregoing outline, inadequately endeavored to de- scribe. He is well liked and numbers many friends both within and without the pale of his profession.
Mr. McCalmont married, August 18, 1915, Sidney A., daughter of Matthew and Priscilla (McGinnis) Robinson, of Pittsburgh, and they are the parents of one child: Agnes Louise. Both Mr. and Mrs. McCalmont, the latter a woman of most attractive personality, are thorough- ly domestic in taste and feeling, and find one of their greatest pleasures in the ex- ercise of hospitality.
The record of John E. McCalmont, as it now stands, justifies the belief that, in its completed form, it will constitute a worthy chapter in the history of the Pitts- burgh bar.
Pa-10-13
193
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
SIMPSON, G. Wallace,
Mortgage Broker.
Well known among the younger gen- eration of business men in Philadelphia is G. Wallace Simpson, mortgage broker, who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, July 22, 1877, son of the late Lewis P. and Sarah (Price) Simpson. Lewis P. Simpson, father of G. Wallace Simpson, was one of Philadelphia's best known real estate dealers; his death occurred in May, 1908.
G. Wallace Simpson received his edu- cation in the public and private schools of Philadelphia, and then entered the real estate business, being associated with his father, the firm name being L. P. Simp- son & Son. This continued until the death of the elder Simpson, in 1908, at which time Mr. Simpson changed his line of endeavor, and has since specialized as a mortgage broker. In this he has won a commanding position, and has placed mortgages on some of the city's finest buildings, among them being the Belle- vue-Stratford Hotel, the St. James Hotel, Lennox Apartments, Swarthmore Apart- ments, and the recently completed Medi- cal Arts Building, corner Walnut and Sixteenth streets. The scope of Mr. Simpson's activities are not confined to Philadelphia, but extend as far as the Pacific coast, where he has been success- ful in placing many large mortgages. He is also vice-president and director of the Medical Arts Realty Company, of Phil- adelphia. In politics Mr. Simpson is a Republican, but has never held office. Among his clubs is the New York Ath- Jetic.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.