Charles Tyson Yerkes Jr. ( ; June 25, 1837 – December 29, 1905) was an American financier. He played a part in developing mass-transit systems in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
and
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
.
Philadelphia
Yerkes was born into a
Quaker family in the
Northern Liberties
Northern Liberties is a neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Prior to its incorporation into Philadelphia in 1854, it was among the top 10 largest cities in the U.S. in every census from 1790 to 1850.
Boundaries
Northern Liberties is loc ...
, a district adjacent to
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
, on June 25, 1837. His mother Elizabeth Link Yerkes died of
puerperal fever when he was five years old and shortly thereafter his father Charles Tyson Yerkes Sr. was expelled from the
Society of Friends for marrying a non-Quaker. After finishing a two-year course at Philadelphia's
Central High School, Yerkes began his business career at the age of 17 as a clerk in a local grain brokerage. In 1859, aged 22, he opened his own brokerage firm and joined the Philadelphia
stock exchange.
By 1865 he had moved into banking and specialized in selling municipal, state, and government bonds. Relying on his bank president father's connections, his political contacts, and his own acumen, Yerkes gained a name for himself in the local financial and social world. However, while serving as a financial agent for the City of Philadelphia's treasurer, Joseph Marcer, Yerkes risked public money in a large-scale stock speculation. This speculation ended calamitously when the
Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 10 ...
sparked a financial panic. Left insolvent and unable to make payment to the City of Philadelphia, Yerkes was convicted of larceny and sentenced to thirty-three months in
Eastern State Penitentiary
The Eastern State Penitentiary (ESP) is a former American prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located at 2027 Fairmount Avenue between Corinthian Avenue and North 22nd Street in the Fairmount section of the city, and was operational from ...
.
In an attempt to remain out of prison, he attempted to blackmail two influential Pennsylvania politicians. The blackmail plan initially failed; however the damaging information on these politicians was eventually made public and political leaders including then-President
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...
feared that the revelations might harm their prospects in the upcoming elections. Yerkes was promised a pardon if he would deny the accusations he had made. He agreed to these terms and was released after serving seven months in prison.
Chicago
![Carter Henry Harrison caricature cph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Carter_Henry_Harrison_caricature_cph.3g06778.jpg)
In 1881 Yerkes traveled to
Fargo in the
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of N ...
in order to obtain a divorce from his wife. Later that year, he remarried and moved to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
. There, he opened a stock and grain brokerage but soon became involved with planning the city's public transportation system. In 1886, Yerkes and his business partners used a complex financial deal to take over the
North Chicago Street Railway and then proceeded to follow this with a string of further take-overs until he controlled a majority of Chicago's
street railway systems on the north and west sides. Yerkes was not averse to using bribery and blackmail to obtain his ends.
In an effort to improve his public image, Yerkes decided in 1892 to bankroll the world's largest telescope after being lobbied by the
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...
George Ellery Hale and University of Chicago president
William Rainey Harper
William Rainey Harper (July 24, 1856 – January 10, 1906) was an American academic leader, an accomplished semiticist, and Baptist clergyman. Harper helped to establish both the University of Chicago and Bradley University and served as the ...
. He had initially intended to finance only a telescope but eventually agreed to foot the bill for an entire
observatory. He contributed nearly $300,000 to the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
to establish what would become known as the
Yerkes Observatory
Yerkes Observatory ( ) is an astronomical observatory located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, United States. The observatory was operated by the University of Chicago Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics from its founding in 1897 to 2018. Owner ...
, located in
Williams Bay,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
.
In 1895, Yerkes purchased the Republican partisan newspaper, the ''
Chicago Inter Ocean
The ''Chicago Inter Ocean'', also known as the ''Chicago Inter-Ocean'', is the name used for most of its history for a newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, from 1865 until 1914. Its editors included Charles A. Dana and Byron Andrews.
Histo ...
,'' using the publication to support his political agenda.
Yerkes embarked upon a campaign for longer streetcar franchises in 1895, however Illinois governor
John Peter Altgeld vetoed the franchise bills. Yerkes renewed the campaign in 1897, and, after a hard-fought battle, secured from the
Illinois Legislature
The Illinois General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. It has two chambers, the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 18 ...
a bill granting city councils the right to approve extended franchises. The so-called franchise war then shifted to the
Chicago City Council — an arena in which Yerkes ordinarily thrived. A partially reformed council under Mayor
Carter Harrison, Jr.
Carter Henry Harrison IV (April 23, 1860 – December 25, 1953) was an American newspaper publisher and Democratic politician who served a total of five terms as mayor of Chicago (1897–1905 and 1911–1915) but failed in his attempt to becom ...
, however, ultimately defeated Yerkes, with the swing votes coming from aldermen
"Hinky Dink" Kenna and
"Bathhouse" John Coughlin.
In 1899, Yerkes sold the majority of his Chicago transport stocks and moved to
New York.
Art collection
![Bouguereau 1892 painting](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Bouguereau_1892_painting_%22Invading_Cupid%27s_Realm%22.jpg)
While living in Chicago, Yerkes became an art collector, relying on
Sarah Tyson Hallowell
Sarah Tyson Hallowell or Sara Tyson Hallowell (December 7, 1846 – July 19, 1924) was an American art curator in the years between the Civil War and World War I. She curated a number of major exhibitions in Chicago, arranged the loan exh ...
(1846–1924) to advise him on his purchases. After the
Chicago World's Fair in 1893, she tried to interest him in the works of
Auguste Rodin, which were part of the loan exhibitor of French art. Because the subject matter was controversial, Yerkes initially turned the works down, but he soon changed his mind and acquired two Rodin marbles, ''Cupid and Psyche'', and ''Orpheus'', for his Chicago mansion, the first two of Rodin's works known to have been sold to an American collector. Yerkes' art collection also included works by the
French academic painters, such as ''
Pygmalion and Galatea'' by
Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism. His paintings were so widely reproduced that he was "arguably the world's most famous living artist by 1880." The ra ...
and works by
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
William-Adolphe Bouguereau (; 30 November 1825 – 19 August 1905) was a French academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female ...
and members of the
Barbizon School
The Barbizon school of painters were part of an art movement towards Realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870. It takes its name ...
. In 1904 he published a two volume catalog of his collection, which by that time was in New York:
* ''Catalogue of paintings and sculpture in the collection of Charles T. Yerkes, esq.'', New York, 1904
London
In August 1900, Yerkes became involved in the development of the
London underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England.
The ...
railway system after riding along the route of one proposed line and surveying the city of
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
from the summit of
Hampstead Heath. He established the
Underground Electric Railways Company of London
The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited (UERL), known operationally as the Underground for much of its existence, was established in 1902. It was the holding company for the three deep-level "tube"A "tube" railway is an und ...
to take control of the
District Railway and the partly built
Baker Street and Waterloo Railway
The Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (BS&WR), also known as the Bakerloo tube, was a railway company established in 1893 that built a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London. The company struggled to fund the work, and construction di ...
;
Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway; and
Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway
The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR), also known as the Piccadilly tube, was a railway company established in 1902 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London.A "tube" railway is an underground rail ...
. Yerkes employed complex financial arrangements similar to those that he had used in America to raise the funds necessary to construct the new lines and electrify the District Railway (today known as the
District line
The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One branch runs to in south-west London and a short branch, with a limited serv ...
). In one of his last great triumphs, Yerkes managed to thwart an attempt by
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...
to enter the London underground railway field. Yerkes did not live to see his London tube lines in operation. The now
Bakerloo
The Bakerloo line () is a London Underground line that goes from in suburban north-west London to in south London, via the West End of London, West End. Printed in brown on the Tube map, it serves 25 stations, 15 of which are underground, ove ...
and
Piccadilly lines opened in 1906, a few months after his death, and the Charing Cross line (today part of the
Northern line
The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs from North London to South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. The Northern line is unique on the Underground network in having two different routes through central London, tw ...
) the following summer.
Death and legacy
![Charles Tyson Yerkes by Jan van Beers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Charles_Tyson_Yerkes_by_Jan_van_Beers.jpg)
Yerkes died at the
Waldorf Astoria Hotel Waldorf can have the following meanings:
People
* William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor (1848–1919), financier and statesman
* Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor (1879–1952), businessman and politician
* Pappy Waldorf (1902–1981), 1966 ...
in New York on December 29, 1905, of
kidney disease. The events of Yerkes's life served as a blueprint for the
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...
novels, ''
The Financier'', ''
The Titan'' and ''
The Stoic'',
in which Yerkes was fictionalized as Frank Cowperwood.
The
crater Yerkes on the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
is named in his honor.
Yerkes and his second wife Mary were painted by his favorite artist Jan van Beers (National Portrait Gallery,
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
). His wife, the daughter of Thomas Moore of Philadelphia, was also painted in 1892 by the Swiss-born American artist
Adolfo Müller-Ury
Adolfo Müller-Ury, KSG (March 29, 1862 – July 6, 1947) was a Swiss-born American portrait painter and impressionistic painter of roses and still life.
Heritage and early life in Switzerland
He was born Felice Adolfo Müller on 29 March ...
(1862–1947). In 1893 Müller-Ury painted from miniatures portraits of Yerkes's Quaker grandparents, Mr and Mrs Silas Yerkes. A year after Yerkes's death, his widow married playwright and raconteur
Wilson Mizner
Wilson Mizner (May 19, 1876 – April 3, 1933) was an American playwright, raconteur, and entrepreneur. His best-known plays are ''The Deep Purple'', produced in 1910, and ''The Greyhound'', produced in 1912. He was manager and co-owner of The ...
.
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Chicago "L".org*
**
ttp://www.chicago-l.org/personnel/figures/yerkes/yerkes01.jpg Photograph of Charles YerkesUniversity of Chicago - Biography of Yerkes*
Wall Street Journal ReviewLondon Transport Museum Photographic Archive**
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yerkes, Charles
1837 births
1905 deaths
American people of Dutch descent
Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni
Businesspeople from Philadelphia
Businesspeople from Chicago
People associated with astronomy
American railway entrepreneurs
People associated with transport in London
History of the London Underground
Deaths from kidney disease
American businesspeople convicted of crimes
19th-century American businesspeople