Morris Ketchum Jesup

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Morris Ketchum Jesup

Morris Ketchum Jesup (born June 21, 1830 in Westport , Connecticut , † January 22, 1908 in New York) was an American banker ( Cuyler , Morgan & Jesup ) and philanthropist .

The early years

He was born the fifth child of Charles Jesup and Abigail Sherwood. He had 9 siblings, seven brothers and two sisters. But only his brother Richard reached the age of 30, while the other siblings died of consumption (tuberculosis). His parents were Puritans .

When Morris was 7 years old, the panic of 1837 swept the land and his father's fortune was lost, as was a significant portion of the money his mother had inherited from her father, Judge Sherwood. In the same year, his father, who was only 42 years old, suddenly died. Now the mother stood there alone. For a time she accepted the help of her father-in-law, but then her will for independence prevailed and she took her children to New York by steamer. They found a home at 39, New Bond Street, where they lived for over 10 years. When the house had to give way, Morris was able to give his mother a house of his own.

School education had to be kept to a minimum and by the age of 12 he was working for Robert, Ketchum & Grosvenor , which made locomotives and machines for cotton. He owed the job to Morris Ketchum , a friend of his father's. His area of ​​responsibility grew over the years, but unfortunately not his salary. For the 12 years his salary was still $ 600 and he was dissatisfied. He had no money left for his own business because he gave all of the money to his mother. Soon there was an opportunity through his brother Frederick, who worked as a cashier in the bank of "Ketchum, Robert and Bement", he met the accountant Charles Clark . They opened the company "Clark and Jesup", with the former bringing in the capital and working in the office and Jesup doing the sales force. When everything was settled, he quit his job at Grosvenor in 1852. After some initial surprise, Mr. Grosvenor offered to help. He introduced him to Union Bank on Wall Street and opened an account in Morris's name to vouch for. When Robert, Ketchum & Grosvenor later became Rogers Locomotive Works , Morris was offered the position of Vice President, which he accepted. He was friends with Jasper Grosvenor until his death in 1857.

Merchant and banker

Together with the Scotsman John S. Kennedy, he founded the company K. Jesup & Company in 1857 with offices on Exchange Place 44, which supplied materials for the construction of the railway, as did their company Clark & ​​Jessup , which had offices at 139 Pearl Street . At that time the only shipping service was the Cunard Line from Boston, which ran every two weeks via Halifax. Jesup had a request from the Chicago & Mississippi Railroad for railroad tracks from Crashay , Cardiff, Wales, the largest manufacturer. He went with his brother Arthur on the MS Europa on the trip to Wales and was able to close the deal for the required tracks. They had become intermediaries between the manufacturer and the railway line.

The acquaintance with men from the railway construction industry on both sides of the Atlantic had given them insight into the problems of railway construction and they began to trade in both raw materials and securities.

Kennedy, who was originally to stay in Glasgow, came to Chicago, where he opened a branch under the name "Jesup, Kennedy & Adams" from 1861–62. John Macgregor Adams previously worked as a representative. John Chippewa Crerar took over the management of the company. The partnership with Kennedy lasted for 10 years until 1867, when Kennedy founded his own company. In 1870 John Paton joined the company and the name changed to MK Jesup, Paton & Company. Jesup's nephew, Cornelius C. Cuyler, later joined the company. After Paton's death, the company name changed to "Cuyler, Morgan and Company".

After his retirement in 1884, Jesup remained a partner in the company.

Ketchum became widely known as a financier and in 1884 he retired from active business to pursue a variety of voluntary activities.

The benefactor

  • In 1872 he became president of the Five Points House of Industry ;
  • He was the founder of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in New York and became president in 1872.
  • In 1873, Anthony Comstock founded the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, which had an image of a book burn on its seal. Jesup supported this society. Comstock managed to get a Congressional resolution on the so-called Comstock laws , which banned obscene materials from literature to contraceptives from being sent by post.
  • In 1881 he became president of the New York City Mission and Tract Society, for which he built the DeWitt Memorial Church on Rivington street in memory of the Reverend Doctor DeWitt, his father-in-law
  • Also in 1881 he was elected President of the American Museum of Natural History , whose

He was co-founder and where he stayed for 25 years. He was instrumental in starting and building up the collections .

  • 1899 President of the New York Chamber of Commerce.

He was considered charitable and significantly financed the Arctic expeditions of Robert Edwin Peary - he had become President of the Artic Club in 1897 - and the Jesup North Pacific Expedition under the direction of Franz Boas . After he was Cape Morris Jesup in Greenland named.

He considered that

He was treasurer of the Slater Fund in its inception and he was also a member of both the Peabody Educational Board and the General Education Board. This gave him a connection to the Tuskegee Institute and George Washington Carver , for whom he financed a horse and cart, as mobile object lessons.

Jesup married Maria van Antwerp DeWitt Jesup (1834–1914) on April 26, 1854, who after his death donated a library to the city of Bar Harbor in memory of her husband and a large and valuable gift to the Metropolitan Museum, New York, from her Bequeathed painting collection.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ CC CUYLER KILLED BY HIS AUTOMOBILE. The New York Times, July 31, 1909
  2. ^ New York Stock Brokers: Cuyler, Morgan & Company
  3. ^ Cleveland-Marietta-Railway Company
  4. ^ Five points house of industry
  5. ↑ 150 years YMCA in New York
  6. ↑ Comstock - page 56 in: "Morris Ketchem Jessup"
  7. ^ DeWitt Reformed Church, Lower East Side, NYC Ruins of DeWitt Memorial Church
  8. ^ Tribute of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York to the memory of Morris K. Jesup: President of the Chamber 1899 to 1907
  9. ^ Members of the Peary Arctic Club
  10. ^ The Jesup North Pacific Expedition 1897-1902 led by Franz Boas, the first landmark research project of the Division of Anthropology was financed by Museum president Morris K. Jesup
  11. ↑ Mir't az-Zamân (AH 495-654), a facsimile reproduction of manuscript No. 136 of the Landberg Collection of Arabic manuscripts belonging to Yale University;
  12. ↑ George Washington Carver Biography ( Memento of the original from March 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.blackiowa.org
  13. ^ Mrs. Morris K. Jesup Gives Town a Memorial Library - New York Times July 31, 1911
  14. ^ The Jesup Collection in Museum of Modern Art Bulletin April 1, 1915

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Jesup, Morris Ketchum
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American banker and philanthropist
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1830
PLACE OF BIRTH Westport , Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 1908
Place of death new York