The Manhattan Company was a New York bank and holding company established on September 1, 1799. The company merged with
Chase National Bank
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fina ...
in 1955 to form the
Chase Manhattan Bank
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fi ...
. It is the oldest of the predecessor institutions that eventually formed the current
JPMorgan Chase & Co
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the w ...
.
History
The Manhattan Company was formed in 1799 with the ostensible purpose of providing clean water to Lower Manhattan.
However, the main interest of the company was not in the supply of water, but rather in becoming a part of the banking industry in New York. At that time, the banking industry was monopolized by
Alexander Hamilton's Bank of New York
The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, commonly known as BNY Mellon, is an American investment banking services holding company headquartered in New York City. BNY Mellon was formed from the merger of The Bank of New York and the Mellon Fina ...
and the New York branch of the
First Bank of the United States. "To circumvent the opposition of Hamilton to the establishment of a bank,"
and following an epidemic of
yellow fever
Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. ...
in the city,
Aaron Burr founded the company and successfully gained banking privileges through a clause in its charter granted to it by the state that allowed it to use surplus capital for banking transactions.
The company raised $2 million, used one hundred thousand dollars for building a water supply system, and used the rest to start the bank.
The company apparently did a poor job of supplying water, using hollowed out tree trunks for pipes and digging wells in congested areas where there was the danger of raw sewage mixing with the water.
After a multitude of cholera epidemics, a water system was finally established with the construction between 1837 and 1842 of the
Croton Aqueduct
The Croton Aqueduct or Old Croton Aqueduct was a large and complex water distribution system constructed for New York City between 1837 and 1842. The great aqueducts, which were among the first in the United States, carried water by gravity fro ...
.
On April 17, 1799, the Manhattan Company appointed a committee "to consider the most proper means of employing the capital of the Company" and elected to open an office of discount and deposit. The "Bank" of the Manhattan Company began business on September 1, 1799, in a house at
40 Wall Street
40 Wall Street, also known as the Trump Building, is a Gothic Revival architecture, neo-Gothic skyscraper on Wall Street between Nassau Street (Manhattan), Nassau and William Street (Manhattan), William streets in the Financial District, Manh ...
. Its first board of directors were Daniel Ludlow,
John Watts,
John Barker Church,
Brockholst Livingston, William Edgar, William Laight, Paschal N. Smith,
Samuel Osgood
Samuel Osgood (February 3, 1747 – August 12, 1813) was an American merchant and statesman born in Andover, Massachusetts, currently a part of North Andover, Massachusetts. His family home still stands at 440 Osgood Street in North Andover ...
,
John Stevens,
John Broome, John B. Coles, and Aaron Burr. Among its original stockholders were such men as
Nicholas Fish,
John Delafield
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
,
John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor; July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) was a German-American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor who made his fortune mainly in a fur trade monopoly, by History of opium in China, smuggl ...
,
Richard Varick
Richard Varick (March 15, 1753 – July 30, 1831) was an American lawyer, military officer, and politician who has been referred to as "The Forgotten Founding Father." A major figure in the development of post-Independence New York City and Stat ...
,
Stephen Van Rensselaer, Rev.
John Rodgers John Rodgers may refer to:
Military
* John Rodgers (1728–1791), colonel during the Revolutionary War and owner of Rodgers Tavern, Perryville, Maryland
* John Rodgers (naval officer, born 1772), U.S. naval officer during the War of 1812, first ...
,
Joshua Sands, Peter
Stuyvesant,
George Clinton,
Israel Disosway
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
,
John Slidell
John Slidell (1793July 9, 1871) was an American politician, lawyer, and businessman. A native of New York, Slidell moved to Louisiana as a young man and became a Representative and Senator. He was one of two Confederate diplomats captured by the ...
,
Henry Rutgers
Henry Rutgers (October 7, 1745 – February 17, 1830) was a United States Revolutionary War hero and philanthropist from New York City. Rutgers University was named after him, and he donated a bond which placed the college on sound financial f ...
, and
Daniel Phoenix
Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength"), ...
.
In July 1800, the bank started paying dividends, and in 1808, the company sold its waterworks to the city, pocketing $1.9 million and turning completely to banking. Even so, it identified as a water company as late as 1899. The company maintained a Water Committee which yearly assured, quite truthfully, that no requests for water service had been denied, and moreover conducted its meetings with a pitcher of the water at hand to ensure quality.
In 1825,
John Gerard Coster
John Gerard Coster (August 1762 – August 8, 1844) was a Dutch-American merchant who served as president of the Bank of the Manhattan Company.
Early life
Coster was born in August 1762 in Haarlem, Holland. He was a son of John Henry Coster (d. 17 ...
was appointed president of the company.
He was succeeded by
Maltby Gelston Maltby may refer to :
Places
*Maltby le Marsh, Lincolnshire, England
*Maltby, Lincolnshire, England, near Louth
* Maltby, North Yorkshire, England, near Middlesbrough
*Maltby, South Yorkshire, England, near Rotherham
*Maltby, Washington, USA
Othe ...
in 1829.
Gelston, a former member of the
New York State Assembly,
was the son of Collector
David Gelston and the father of Mary Gelston, who married Henry Rogers Winthrop (father of
Buchanan Winthrop).
In 1847,
Caleb O. Halstead, a cloth merchant from
Elizabeth, New Jersey, was made president of the bank.
Halstead succeeded
Jonathan Thompson, who had been made president in 1840. Before he was president, Thompson had served nine years as the
Collector of the Port of New York
The Collector of Customs at the Port of New York, most often referred to as Collector of the Port of New York, was a federal officer who was in charge of the collection of import duties on foreign goods that entered the United States by ship at t ...
having been appointed by President
James Monroe
James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...
and also serving under
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States ...
. In 1853, the Manhattan Company became one of the original 52 members of the
New York Clearing House
The Clearing House is a banking association and payments company owned by the largest commercial banks in the United States. The Clearing House is the parent organization of The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C., which owns and operates core ...
Association. In 1860, the board of directors promoted
James M. Morrison as president of the bank to succeed Halstead. Morrison, who had begun working for the bank as the "first teller" in 1840, served as president until ill health forced him to resign in the latter part of 1879.
Morrison was succeeded by
John S. Harberger, who had begun working for the bank in 1857 as assistant cashier.
Harberger died of
malarial fever
Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, fatigue (medical), tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In se ...
a year later in October 1880.
In October 1880, William Henry Smith of the
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 ...
house of William H. Smith & Co. was elected to succeed Harberger as president of the Bank of the Manhattan Company.
By 1885, Smith was retired from the company but remained interested in the affairs of the
LaFarge Decorative Arts Company.
Baker family leadership
![40 Wall Street Manhattan New York City](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/40_Wall_Street_Manhattan_New_York_City.jpg)
In 1891, the board of directors of the Bank of Manhattan Trust Company elected
Stephen Baker vice president. Baker, a son of former
U.S. Representative
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...
Stephen Baker and protégé of financier
John Stewart Kennedy
John Stewart Kennedy (January 4, 1830 – October 30, 1909) was a Scottish-born American businessman, financier and philanthropist. He was a member of the Jekyll Island Club (also known as The Millionaires' Club) on Jekyll Island, Georgia a ...
, was the grandson of
Stephen Baker, a prominent New York merchant who was one of the original stockholders of the Manhattan Company. Two years later in 1893, Baker was elected president at the age of only 34,
succeeding John Stewart Kennedy who served as president ''
pro tem
''Pro tempore'' (), abbreviated ''pro tem'' or ''p.t.'', is a Latin phrase which best translates to "for the time being" in English. This phrase is often used to describe a person who acts as a ''locum tenens'' (placeholder) in the absence of ...
'' for a few months following the resignation of D. C. Hays.
During his tenure as president, the bank expanded from its single original office at 40 Wall Street, opened in September 1799, to a chain of forty-eight offices in as many different sections of New York City with resources of $300,000,000.
It also absorbed, in succession, the Bank of Long Island, the Bank of the Metropolis, and the
Merchants' National Bank of New York on March 1, 1920,
effective March 27, 1920.
Merchants' then president, Raymond E. Jones, became vice president and second in command of the combined institutions.
Coincidentally, Merchants' National had been chartered in 1804 through the efforts of Alexander Hamilton as a rival to the Manhattan Company, launched by Aaron Burr.
In 1923, it moved its headquarters briefly to the
Prudence Building
The Prudence Building, or Prudence Bonds Building, was a fourteen-story edifice at the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and 43rd Street, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was the headquarters of the Prudence Bonds Corporation, opening ...
and then in May 1929, construction began on what was briefly the tallest building in the world, at
40 Wall Street
40 Wall Street, also known as the Trump Building, is a Gothic Revival architecture, neo-Gothic skyscraper on Wall Street between Nassau Street (Manhattan), Nassau and William Street (Manhattan), William streets in the Financial District, Manh ...
(known as the
Bank of Manhattan Trust Building) on the site of the
Gallatin Bank Building, from April 1930 until May 1930 when it was surpassed by the
Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. At , it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel fra ...
.
In 1927, after thirty-four years as president, and an increase from one branch to a network with forty-eight branches and an increase in deposits to $300,000,000, Baker turned the presidency and a considerable stock ownership over to his son,
J. Stewart Baker, who had just turned thirty-four.
The elder Baker served as chairman of the board until 1932 when he became honorary chairman and was again succeeded by his son.
In 1928, the Company increased its capital from $12,500,000 to $15,000,000 in connection with its acquisition of the
Flushing National Bank, the
Bayside National Bank, the
Queens-Bellaire Bank, and the
First National Bank of Whitestone.
Later that year, it again increased its capital to $16,000,000 when it acquired the
Bronx Borough Bank,
and the
First National Bank of Brooklyn.
The acquisitions led to the bank having sixty-one offices throughout New York City.
Merger with International Acceptance Bank
In December 1928, the 129-year-old Bank of the Manhattan Company announced a joint affiliation with the International Acceptance Bank (and its subsidiary, the International Acceptance Trust Company), which had been organized in 1921 by
Paul Warburg
Paul Moritz Warburg (August 10, 1868 – January 24, 1932) was a German-born American investment banker who served as the 2nd Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve from 1916 to 1918. Prior to his term as vice chairman, Warburg appointed as a member o ...
.
The plan was for each institution to retain their present identities, but have the Bank of the Manhattan Company shareholders own the stock of the International Acceptance Bank, leading its owners to receive shares of the Bank of the Manhattan Company "in an amount that will make it one of the most important factors in that organization."
In March 1929, the shareholders of the Bank of the Manhattan Company approved its plan to increase capital from $16,000,000 to $22,500,000 to acquire all of stock of the International Acceptance Bank, Inc.
After completion,
J. Stewart Baker remained president of the Bank of the Manhattan Company and became vice chairman of the board of International Acceptance. Warburg became associate chairman of the board of the Bank of Manhattan and
F. Abott Goodhue
Francis Abott Goodhue Jr. (June 14, 1883 – June 1963) was an American banker who was the president of the Bank of the Manhattan Company from 1931 to 1948.
Early life
Goodhue was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on June 14, 1883. He was a son of ...
remained as president of International Acceptance and became a member of the board of the Bank of the Manhattan Company.
The business of the International Acceptance Trust Company was taken over by the Bank of the Manhattan Company. At the same time, the two banks created the
International Manhattan Company, Inc. with Warburg's son,
James Warburg
James Paul Warburg (August 18, 1896 – June 3, 1969) was a German-born American banker. He was well known for being the financial adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt. His father was banker Paul Warburg, member of the Warburg family and "father" of ...
, as president of the new company which succeeded to the foreign securities business of the International Acceptance Bank, Inc. All of the stock of the new corporation was held by International Acceptance and the Bank of the Manhattan Company.
In December 1929, the name Bank of the Manhattan Company was abandoned and the firm was transformed into a holding corporation under the name Manhattan Company while also increasing its capital to $40,000,000 to allow for further acquisitions. The new holding company owned the entire capital stock of the Bank of Manhattan Trust Company, the International Acceptance Bank and the International Manhattan Company.
At that time, Baker also became president of the Bank of Manhattan Trust Company, which he later relinquished to Goodhue on December 10, 1931, to enable Baker to devote more time to the affairs of the Manhattan Company.
In February 1932, following the death of Paul Warburg on January 24, 1932,
J. Stewart Baker was elected successor chairman of the board of the Manhattan Company, Warburg's son James succeeded to Baker's vice chairman role (after recently becoming president of the International Acceptance Bank) and Goodhue was elected successor chairman of the International Acceptance Bank.
In October 1932, the directors of the Manhattan Company restored the company to its old status as a bank, absorbing or distributing to shareholders the various banking institutions which it controlled. The
New York Title and Mortgage Company was distributed to shareholders, through a holding company, and the International Acceptance Bank, Inc. was merged into the Bank of Manhattan Trust Company, with that entity then being absorbed by the Manhattan Company. The banking business was then continued under the name Bank of the Manhattan Company and had the same capital, $56,816,466.
For some time the officers and directors of the Manhattan Company group have recognized that public opinion no longer favors the affiliation of a banking institution with other companies, and that conditions have so changed since 1929 that many of the advantages which at that time were inherent in the affiliation of various companies through a holding company have disappeared.
By March 31, 1938, the Bank of the Manhattan Company reported total deposits of $505,477,944 and total assets of $612,951,711, compared, respectively, with $504,800,925 and $566,271,489 on December 31, 1937.
In December 1948, Goodhue retired as president of the combined bank and was succeeded by
Lawrence C. Marshall,
who served as president of the bank until 1955.
Merger with Chase National Bank
The bank merged with
Chase National Bank
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fina ...
in 1955 to become
Chase Manhattan. In 1996, Chase Manhattan was acquired by
Chemical Bank, which retained the Chase name, to form what was then the largest bank holding company in the United States. In December 2000, the bank acquired J.P. Morgan & Co. to form
JPMorgan Chase & Co
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the w ...
.
Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited continues (as of August 2020) to issue a credit card by the name of Manhattan, descending from its acquisition of the retail banking business in Hong Kong of Chase Manhattan in 2000.
List of presidents of the Manhattan Company
*
Daniel Ludlow, 1799
*
Henry Remsen, 1808
*
John Gerard Coster
John Gerard Coster (August 1762 – August 8, 1844) was a Dutch-American merchant who served as president of the Bank of the Manhattan Company.
Early life
Coster was born in August 1762 in Haarlem, Holland. He was a son of John Henry Coster (d. 17 ...
, 1825
*
Maltby Gelston Maltby may refer to :
Places
*Maltby le Marsh, Lincolnshire, England
*Maltby, Lincolnshire, England, near Louth
* Maltby, North Yorkshire, England, near Middlesbrough
*Maltby, South Yorkshire, England, near Rotherham
*Maltby, Washington, USA
Othe ...
, 1829
*
Jonathan Thompson, 1840
*
Caleb O. Halstead, 1847
*
James M. Morrison, 1860
*John S. Harberger, 1879
* William Henry Smith, 1880
* D. C. Hays
*
John Stewart Kennedy
John Stewart Kennedy (January 4, 1830 – October 30, 1909) was a Scottish-born American businessman, financier and philanthropist. He was a member of the Jekyll Island Club (also known as The Millionaires' Club) on Jekyll Island, Georgia a ...
, 1893
*
Stephen Baker, 1893
*
J. Stewart Baker, 1927
*
F. Abott Goodhue
Francis Abott Goodhue Jr. (June 14, 1883 – June 1963) was an American banker who was the president of the Bank of the Manhattan Company from 1931 to 1948.
Early life
Goodhue was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on June 14, 1883. He was a son of ...
, 1932
*
Lawrence C. Marshall, 1948
See also
*
Gallatin Bank Building
*
Morris Abraham Schapiro
References
;Notes
;Sources
Further reading
* Hunter, Gregory S. ''The Manhattan Company: Managing a Multi-Unit Corporation in New York, 1799-1842'' (Routledge, 2017).
* Hunter, Gregory S. "The Development of Bankers: Career Patterns and Corporate Form at the Manhattan Company, 1799-1842." ''Business and Economic History'' (1985): 59-77
online
* Murphy, Brian Phillips. "" A Very Convenient Instrument": The Manhattan Company, Aaron Burr, and the Election of 1800." ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 65.2 (2008): 233-266
online
* Murphy, Brian Phillips ''Building the Empire State: Political Economy in the Early Republic.''
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
:
University of Pennsylvania Press
The University of Pennsylvania Press (or Penn Press) is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The press was originally incorporated with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on 26 M ...
, 2015.
* Reubens, Beatrice G. "Burr, Hamilton and the Manhattan Company: Part I: Gaining the Charter." ''Political Science Quarterly'' 72.4 (1957): 578-607
online
* Reubens, Beatrice G. "Burr, Hamilton and the Manhattan Company: Part II: Launching a Bank." ''Political Science Quarterly'' 73.1 (1958): 100-125
online
* Bank of the Manhattan Company
Early New-York & the Bank of the Manhattan Company' New York, 1920.
External links
*
History of JPMorgan ChaseNational Information Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bank Of The Manhattan Company
American companies established in 1799
Banks established in 1799
1799 establishments in New York (state)
1955 disestablishments in New York (state)
Banks disestablished in 1955
Banks based in New York City
JPMorgan Chase