Frederick Ayer

Frederick Ayer, 1911

Frederick Ayer (born December 8, 1822 in Ledyard , Connecticut , United States ; died March 14, 1918 in Thomasville , Georgia ) was an American entrepreneur, wealthy businessman, and investor. He was the younger brother of James Cook Ayer , in whose company he was responsible for the distribution of pharmaceuticals and after whom the city of Ayer is named. However, he earned most of his fortune as an entrepreneur in the textile industry. His home at Frederick Ayer Mansion in Bostonis now listed as a National Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places . He was buried in Lowell Cemetery .

Early life and education

Frederick Ayer, whose father of the same name served as an officer in the British-American War , was a paternal descendant of John Ayer , one of the first European settlers who settled in the area around what is now Haverhill (Massachusetts) in 1632 . After elementary school in Ledyard, Connecticut , Ayer attended a private school in Baldwinsville, New York, and then worked as an office worker at John H. Tomlinson & Company. After a short time, he moved to Syracuse (New York) as manager of a business of the same company , in order to build up the McCarthy & Ayer partnership with Dennis McCarthy three years later . Ayer left the company in 1855 and joined the company of his brother James Cook Ayer as managing director, which he managed from then on together with him. He was named the company's chief financial officer and held that post until 1893.

Economic success

In 1871, Frederick Ayer and his brother acquired a majority stake in the Tremont Mills and Suffolk Manufacturing Company in Lowell and merged them under the name Tremont and Suffolk Mills . In 1885, Washington Mills was auctioned in Lawrence , renamed the Washington Mills Company, and became its CFO. In 1899 he founded the American Woolen Company, which is still active on the market today, and was its first president until 1905.

In his professional life as a businessman and investor, Frederick Ayer was able to amass a considerable financial fortune, which he earned in the pharmaceutical, haberdashery , textiles, railways, sewer construction, mining and real estate industries . He supported among others today Verizon Communications is part of New England Telephone and Telegraph Company to 1896 as one of its directors and helped with the establishment of the Keweenaw Waterway in Michigan . He has also held other board and director positions at Boston Elevated Railway , Central Savings Bank, Columbian National Life Insurance Company, International Trust Company, American Loan and Trust Company, Lowell and Andover Railroad and the United States Mining Company.

Private life

In 1858 Ayer married his wife Cornelia Wheaton and had four children with her. After her death in 1878, he married Ellen Banning and had three more children with her. Shortly after marrying his second wife, he toured Europe, North Africa and the Middle East with her and four children . During this two-year trip from 1896 to 1898, they collected a wide variety of furnishings and art objects, which they brought with them to their new home in Boston, from whose design Louis Comfort Tiffany was inspired in his orientalist work. His daughter Beatrice married the future general of the US Army George S. Patton .

literature

Leslie Donovan, Bernard Zirnheld, Carolyn Pitts, Patty Henry: National Historic Landmark Nomination. ( PDF ) National Park Service , March 24, 2003, accessed May 18, 2016 .

Web links

Commons : Frederick Ayer - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ cf. Find a grave.
^ ^A ^b ^c ^d Samuel Atkins Eliot: Frederick Ayer in: Biographical history of Massachusetts; biographies and autobiographies of the leading men in the state , Massachusetts Biographical Society, 1911 [1]
↑ ^a ^b cf. Donovan et al., P. 18.
↑ Michael Keane: George S. Patton: Blood, Guts, and Prayer , Regnery Publishing , 2014, pp. 41-62 ISBN 9781621572985 [2]

personal data
SURNAME	Ayer, Frederick
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH	December 8, 1822
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ledyard , Connecticut , United States
DATE OF DEATH	March 14, 1918
Place of death	Thomasville , Georgia

[FindAGrave-1] . Find a grave.

[Eliot-2] A ^b ^c ^d Samuel Atkins Eliot: Frederick Ayer in: Biographical history of Massachusetts; biographies and autobiographies of the leading men in the state , Massachusetts Biographical Society, 1911 [1]

[Donovan-3] . Donovan et al., P. 18.

[4] Michael Keane: George S. Patton: Blood, Guts, and Prayer , Regnery Publishing , 2014, pp. 41-62 ISBN 9781621572985 [2]