Jeremiah Milbank (April 18, 1818 – June 1, 1884) American businessman, was a successful

dry goods Dry goods is a historic term describing the type of product line a store carries, which differs by region. The term comes from the textile trade, and the shops appear to have spread with the mercantile trade across the British Empire (and forme ...

commission merchant, speculator in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

territorial bonds, manufacturer, and railroad investor. His most successful business efforts were the New York Condensed Milk Company (1857, renamed the

Borden Company Borden, Inc., was an American producer of food and beverage products, consumer products, and industrial products. At one time, the company was the largest U.S. producer of dairy and pasta products. Its food division, Borden Foods, was based in ...

in 1899) which he co-founded with inventor

Gail Borden Gail Borden Jr. (November 9, 1801 – January 11, 1874) was a native New Yorker who settled in Texas in 1829 (then still Mexico), where he worked as a land surveyor, newspaper publisher, and inventor. He created a process in 1853 to make sweet ...

and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway (1876) where he was a member of the executive committee of the Board of Directors. Milbank was a founder and president of the board of trustees of the

Madison Avenue Baptist Church The Madison Avenue Baptist Church is a Baptist church located in Manhattan, New York City. It is affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists, the American Baptist Churches USA, the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, and the Baptist P ...

at 31st. Street, New York City, and trustee of the Baptist's Rochester Theological Seminary (

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

). The city of

Milbank, South Dakota Milbank is a city in Grant County, South Dakota, United States, located along the South Fork of the Whetstone River. The population was 3,544 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Grant County. Milbank is the birthplace of American Legio ...

, which is the seat of Grant County, was founded in 1880 and named in his honor. Among other interests, Milbank was in 1870 an original subscriber of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

and owned a box at the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

Biography

Milbank was born April 18, 1818, at 51/2 Bancker Street,

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 ...

, the eleventh child of Samuel Milbank (1775–1853) and Elizabeth Wall Milbank. He married Elizabeth Lake (1827–1891), the daughter of banker Joseph Lake of New York and Greenwich, CT on May 11, 1847. At the time of his death on June 1, 1884, his fortune was estimated at $32 million, one-half of which he bequeathed to his son Joseph and the remainder to his daughter

Elizabeth Milbank Anderson Elizabeth Milbank Anderson (December 20, 1850 – February 22, 1921), American philanthropist and advocate for public health and women's education, was the daughter of Jeremiah Milbank (1818–1884), a successful commission merchant, manufactur ...

(Mrs.

Abraham Archibald Anderson Abraham Archibald Anderson (1846 – 1940) was an American artist, rancher and philanthropist. Biography Anderson was born in New Jersey as one of ten children of William Anderson (1814 – 1887), a civil engineer turned Dutch Reformed Churc ...

) and his granddaughter, Eleanor Milbank Anderson (1878–1959). His grandson

Jeremiah Milbank Jeremiah Milbank (April 18, 1818 – June 1, 1884) American businessman, was a successful dry goods commission merchant, speculator in Texas territorial bonds, manufacturer, and railroad investor. His most successful business efforts were the New Y ...

was a close friend of Herbert Hoover and a prominent philanthropist for people with disabilities. Milbank was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn and in 1917 interred in the Milbank Mausoleum,

Putnam Cemetery Putnam Cemetery is a non-sectarian cemetery located at 35 Parsonage Road in Greenwich, Connecticut. It is affiliated with adjacent Saint Mary's Cemetery at 399 North Street, which is a Catholic cemetery; the two cemeteries share the same office. T ...

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milbank, Jeremiah 1818 births 1884 deaths Businesspeople from New York City American merchants 19th-century American railroad executives