Balthazar P. Melick (also known as Baltus) (October 26, 1770 – November 20, 1835), an American merchant and banker, was the founder of

Chemical Bank Chemical Bank was a bank with headquarters in New York City from 1824 until 1996. At the end of 1995, Chemical was the third-largest bank in the U.S., with about $182.9 billion in assets and more than 39,000 employees around the world. Beginning ...

in 1823. Melick served as the first president of Chemical from 1823 to 1831.

Biography

Melick who was born in

Lebanon Township, New Jersey Lebanon Township is a township located at the northernmost point of Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 6,588, reflecting an increase of 772 (+13.3%) from the 5,816 cou ...

in 1770, started as an apprentice at a mercantile house at the age of thirteen.Life in New Jersey in the eighteenth century
Unionist-Gazette, 1889 In 1792, at the age of twenty-one he was admitted to a partnership and for many years he was a prosperous merchant in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In 1795, he was listed as a "grocer" doing business at 183 Washington Street. Melick founded the commercial house of Melick & Burger, which owned trade vessels sailing in the Caribbean, doing much of its business with the island of

St. Croix Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincor ...

. The firm, which had its offices at 76 Washington Street, owned a ship known as "Chase" which afterwards was prominent in the sugar trade. He became a Director in the Equitable Fire Insurance Company, the Greenwich Fire Insurance and the Union Marine and Life Insurance Company. Melick was also a noted member and secretary of the Black Friars Society, also known as the Friary, a music and social club.The Old Merchants of New York City
Thomas R. Knox & Co., 1885

Founder of Chemical Bank

Melick founded the New York Chemical Manufacturing Company, the predecessor of

in 1823 together with John C. Morrison, Mark Spenser, Gerardus Post, James Jenkins, William A. Seely and William Stebbins.History of the Chemical Bank 1823-1913
Privately Published by The Chemical National Bank, 1913 Melick and his partners used the manufacturing company, which produced

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...

s such as

blue vitriol Copper(II) sulfate, also known as copper sulphate, is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It forms hydrates , where ''n'' can range from 1 to 7. The pentahydrate (''n'' = 5), a bright blue crystal, is the most commonly encountered hy ...

alum An alum () is a type of chemical compound, usually a hydrated double salt, double sulfate salt (chemistry), salt of aluminium with the general chemical formula, formula , where is a valence (chemistry), monovalent cation such as potassium or a ...

nitric acid Nitric acid is the inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but older samples tend to be yellow cast due to decomposition into oxides of nitrogen. Most commercially available nitri ...

camphor Camphor () is a waxy, colorless solid with a strong aroma. It is classified as a terpenoid and a cyclic ketone. It is found in the wood of the camphor laurel ('' Cinnamomum camphora''), a large evergreen tree found in East Asia; and in the k ...

and

saltpeter Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . This alkali metal nitrate salt is also known as Indian saltpetre (large deposits of which were historically mined in India). It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitrat ...

, as well as medicines, paints, and

dye A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution an ...

s as a means to securing a bank charter from the New York State legislature.scripophily.net - Retrieved November 8, 2007
During the 1820s, prospective bankers found that they were more likely to be able to successfully secure a charter if the bank were part of a larger business. The following year, in April 1824, the company successfully amended its charter to allow Chemical to begin its banking practice. Melick retired as president of the bank in 1831 in favor of John Mason, one of the richest merchants of his day in New York, and an early shareholder in the bank. Melick, who never married, died shortly thereafter in 1835.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melick, Balthazar P. 1770 births 1835 deaths American bankers People from Lebanon Township, New Jersey 18th-century American people JPMorgan Chase people Colonial American merchants