Henry Baldwin Hyde (February 15, 1834–May 2, 1899)
was an American businessman. He is notable for having founded
The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States in 1859. By the time of Hyde's death, The Equitable was the largest life
insurance company in the world.
Early life
Hyde was born in
Catskill, New York
Catskill is a town in the southeastern section of Greene County, New York, United States. The population was 11,298 at the 2020 census, the largest town in the county. The western part of the town is in the Catskill Park. The town contains a v ...
on February 15, 1834, the son of Henry Hazen Hyde (1805–1873), a successful merchant, and Lucy Baldwin (
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Beach) Hyde (1807–1846). He attended the public schools of Catskill, and when he was 16 his teacher decided to move to New York City to join the growing life insurance industry. The teacher persuaded both Hydes to join him, and all three became agents for the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York.
Career
The younger Hyde worked for several months in
Honesdale, Pennsylvania before deciding to return to New York City, where he became a clerk for Merritt, Ely & Company, a dry goods import and wholesale company. He remained there for two years, and then returned to Mutual Life, where his father had recently been appointed to the executive ranks and a place on the board of directors. Hyde rose through the home office staff to become the company's cashier.
Equitable Life
In March 1859, Hyde left Mutual Life and established his own company,
Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States
Equitable Holdings, Inc. (formerly The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States and AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, and also known as The Equitable) is an American financial services and insurance company that was founded in 1 ...
.
William C. Alexander
William Alexander (1848–1937) was an author of over ten works, over sixty-five year employee of The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, and a founder of Pi Kappa Alpha.
Biography
Alexander was born to theologian James Wadd ...
initially served as president, and Hyde was vice president and general manager. Hyde succeeded to the presidency after Alexander's death in 1874, and remained in the position until his death.
He led the company to construct the
Equitable Life Assurance Building
The Equitable Life Assurance Building, also known as the Equitable Life Building, was the headquarters of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, at 120 Broadway in Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, ...
for its headquarters, completed on May 1, 1870, and pushed to have the first passenger
elevator
An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...
s installed in what was then the tallest office building in the United States.
Personal life
In 1864, he was married to Annie Fitch (1845–1922), a daughter of Capt. Martin Halenbeck Truesdell and Jane Maria (née Reed) Fitch.
Together, they were the parents of:
* Anna Baldwin Hyde (1865–1865), who died in infancy.
*
Mary Baldwin Hyde (1866–1938), who married
Sidney Dillon Ripley
Sidney Dillon Ripley II (September 20, 1913 – March 12, 2001) was an American ornithologist and wildlife conservationist. He served as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution for 20 years, from 1964 to 1984, leading the institution through ...
in 1886. After his death in 1905, she married banker Charles R. Scott in 1912.
* Henry Baldwin Hyde (1872–1880), who died in childhood.
*
James Hazen Hyde (1876—1959),
who married Marthe Leishman (1882–1944), a daughter of
John George Alexander Leishman
John George Alexander Leishman (March 28, 1857 – March 27, 1924) was an American businessman and diplomat. He worked in various executive positions at Carnegie Steel Company and later served as an ambassador for the United States.
Early life
...
and the widow of Count Louis de Gontaut-Biron.
He was a founding member of the
Jekyll Island Club aka The Millionaires Club.
Hyde died at his home in
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 ...
on May 2, 1899.
He was buried at
Woodlawn Cemetery in the
Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
.
His widow died in 1922.
Legacy
Hyde sought to guarantee that his son
James Hazen Hyde would continue the family’s control of the company after his death. The younger Hyde was appointed a vice president of the company at 22, and was 23 when he inherited a majority interest in the company. By the terms of his father's will, he was scheduled to assume the company presidency in 1906, but a concerted effort against him by the current president and several members of the board of directors led James H. Hyde to leave the company and move to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
Through his son, he was a grandfather of Henry Baldwin Hyde (1915–1997), who married Marie de La Grange, a daughter of Baron Amaury De La Grange
and Emily Eleanor, Baroness De La Grange (daughter of
Henry T. Sloane
Henry Thompson Sloane (December 1, 1845 – September 18, 1937) was an American businessman during the Gilded Age.
Early life
Sloane was born in New York City on December 1, 1845. He was the fourth son of William Sloane (1810–1879) and Euphem ...
),
in 1941.
Marie's brother was
Henry-Louis de La Grange, a
musicologist and
biographer of
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...
.
References
Further reading
*Henry Baldwin Hyde, prepared under supervision of J. W. Alexander, J. H. Hyde, and Wm. Alexander (1901)
*The Proc. at the Convention to Commemorate the Fortieth Anniversary of the Equitable Life Assurance Soc. (1899?)
*The First Fifty Years of the Equitable Life Assurance Soc. (1909)
*Mark Sullivan, Our Times, III (1930)
*Investigations of 1877 in Docs. of the Assembly of the State of N. Y., 1877 (1877), nos. 93, 103
*Report of the committee in 1905-06, Ibid., 1906 (1906), no. 41, pp. 90–150
*Testimony : taken before the Joint Committee of the Senate and Assembly of the State of New York to Investigate and Examine into the Business and Affairs of Life Insurance Companies Doing Business in the State of New York (10 vols. and index, 1905–06)
*R. H. Walworth, Hyde Geneal. (1864), vol. I
*World (N. Y.), May 3, 1899.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hyde, Henry Baldwin
1834 births
1899 deaths
American chief executives of financial services companies
People from Catskill, New York
Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)
19th-century American businesspeople