nary face. He is plainly dressed, and
has a somewhat careworn look, and ap-
pears to be fifty or sixty years of age.
One naturally feels that is, if he be a
poor man that it is quite a rare thing
to address a capitalist, and especially
when that capitalist is the representa-
tive, say of twenty-five millions of dol-
lars. His daily income has been esti-
mated at six thousand dollars !
The care of Mr. Astor's estate the
largest in America is a vast burden.
His tenements, of all grades, number
several hundreds, ranging from the
dwelling at three hundred dollars per
annum, to the magnificent warehouse
or hotel at thirty thousand dollars. To
relieve himself from the more vexatious
features of his business, he has com-
mitted his real estate collections to an
agent, who does the work well, and
who is, no doubt, largely paid. He,
with his clerks, collects rents, and
makes returns of a rent roll whose very
recital would be wearisome. As a mat-
ter of course, such a man must employ
a small army of painters, carpenters, and
other mechanics, in order to keep up
suitable repairs ; and as Mr. Astor pays
no insurance, the work of rebuilding
after fires is in itself a large item. A
large part of Mr. Astor's property con-
sists of vacant lots, which are in con-
tinual demand, and which he generally
prefers to hold rather than sell ; hence
he is much employed with architects
and master builders, and always has
several blocks in course of erection.
This is a very heavy burden, and, were
it not for the help derived from his
family, would, doubtless, crush him.
His son, John Jacob, is quite a busi-
ness man, and bears his share of the
load. In addition to this, Mr. Astor
has the aid of a gentleman of business
habits and character, once a member
of one of the largest shipping houses in
New York, who has become connected
with the family by marriage. The la-
bors of all these parties cannot be more
than adequate to the requirements of so
enormous a property.
C. K. Garrison, Merchant, of San
Francisco.
The financial and public position at-
tained by Mr. GARRISON, of San Fran-
cisco, so well known as one of the
mayors and leading merchants of that
city, was due to his own perseverance,
exhibited in a manner and to a degree
rarely witnessed even in American mer-
cantile character. Originating in New
York, near "West Point, his ancestors
were among the regular " Knickerbock-
ers " of that region the Coverts, Kings-
lands, Schuylers, and others. The pa-
terfamilias was at one time considered
quite wealthy, but from heavy indorse-
ments he became involved at an early
period in the life of the subject now
under notice. The latter, having to
look to his own resources, left home at
the age of thirteen, in the capacity of
a cabin boy in a sloop. It was not,
however, without great difficulty, that
young Garrison obtained from his pa-
rents their consent that he might leave
their home, and accept the situation
he sought. " What," said his mother,
with characteristic feminine perception,
" would the Van Buskirks, the Kings-
lands, the Schuylers, the host of other
respectable relatives, the thousand and
one cousins, &c., &c., say, if it reached
their ears that my son was a cabin
boy ? " From this small beginning he
worked his way up, until he finally
found himself in California, where,
shortly after, on account of his great
business tact, he was offered the Nica-
ragua Steamship Company agency, at a
salary of $60,000 a year, for two years
certain. In addition to this appoint-
ment, he received at the same time the
agency of two insurance companies, at
a salary of $25,000 per annum. At the
age of forty-five, he found himself the
possessor of a princely fortune ; with
a salary three or four times greater
EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES.
41
than that of the President of the United
States; with a revenue besides, from
other sources, of as much more ; and
occupying the position of Mayor of the
city of San Francisco. This is success
that rarely falls to the lot of those,
even, who are what may be called the
" successful " ones in commercial life.
William Hog-g, the Pennsylvania
Millionnaire.
More than seventy years ago, WIL-
LIAM HOGG who died at his residence
in Brownsville, Pa., leaving an estate
of more than a million dollars crossed
the Alleghany mountains with a small
pack of goods, all he possessed, and
which he bore upon his own back, and
established himself at Brownsville, then
called Red Stone. He soon after open-
ed a small store, the first in that region
of country, on the Monongahela river,
transporting his goods from Phila-
delphia by means of packhorses, and
increasing his stock, from time to time,
until he became the wealthiest mer-
chant in Western Pennsylvania a
rank which he prominently occupied
in the latter period of his life. He was
remarkable for his accurate habits of
business, his persevering and indefati-
gable application, and his great sa-
gacity in the management of his nu-
merous and extensive establishments.
Whether worth one dollar only, or a
million, he held that frugality was the
same virtue, and rigidly lived up to
this principle.
Herodotus a Merchant.
The opinion equally ingenious and
probable is advanced by Malte Brun,
that the great father of history and
geography, HERODOTUS, was a mer-
chant. " At least," says he, " this suppo-
sition affords the most natural solution
of his long voyages and numerous con-
nections with nations by no means
friendly to the Greeks." His silence re-
specting commerce is presumed to have
arisen from the same motives which in-
duced the Carthaginians to throw every
voyager into the sea who approached
Sardinia, lest the sources of their com-
merce and riches should be discovered.
Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy, Parsee Banker
and Merchant.
JEEJEEBHOY DADABHOY, of Bombay,
was a Parsee banker, merchant, agent,
and broker, for more than forty years,
and sustained important business rela-
tions to many European mercantile
houses. So extensive were his transac-
tions, that his name was well known in
all the commercial towns of England,
Scotland, France, Germany, Austria,
Egypt, India, China, Mauritius, &c.
A few years before his death, which
occurred in 1849, at the age of sixty-
four years, he retired from the firm of
Messrs. Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy, Sons &
Co., but left his name by associating
his sons, who have since carried on the
business, the firm ranking among the
first Parsee commercial houses in India.
Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy was one of the
most active among the native capi-
talists in the establishment of the va-
rious banks in Bombay ; and he served
his time as director respectively in the
Oriental and Commercial Banks. To
him and to Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy
the people of Western India are in-
debted for the introduction of steam
navigation for commercial and passen-
ger traffic the first, and by far the best
paying of these steamers having been
built by them. Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy,
the manager of this company, so judi-
ciously conducted the business, that
in the course of six years he divided
profits amounting to nearly the out-
lay.
He shared, indeed, in every enterprise
which promised to promote public
advantage, however little his personal
interests might be benefited. Among
the commercial joint-stock companies,
he was a large shareholder in the fol-
lowing : the Railway Companies, Cot-
ton Screw Companies, Steam Naviga-
42
COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.
tion Company, Colaba Land and Cot-
ton Companies, most of the Bombay
Marine and Life Insurance Companies,
the Bengal India General Steam Navi-
gation Company, several Calcutta In-
surance Companies, &c. His capital
was likewise engaged in advances on
coffee, sugar, &c., &c.
For nearly twenty years he was a
member of the Parsee Punchayet, a po-
sition which frequently imposed im-
portant duties upon him for the gen-
eral benefit of the Parsee community.
He was also constantly called upon to
arbitrate and settle matters in dispute
between members of his caste, and his
straightforward judgment invariably
gained for him the esteem of those who
had submitted their difficulties to his
decision.
In matters of charity his purse was
always open to the poor of his com-
munity. His name was likewise to be
found on almost all the lists of public
subscriptions and private charities, both
European and native. At the time of
his death, forty-two schools, in various
parts of the Bombay Presidency, were
wholly supported by his bounty.
He left a widow, four sons, three
daughters, twenty-one grandchildren,
and six great-grandchildren, to whom
he bequeathed immense wealth. He
likewise, by his will, left one hundred
thousand dollars, to be invested in Gov-
ernment securities in the names of eight
trustees, four of these being his sons,
the interest of this amount to be an-
nually divided in charities for the re-
lief of the suffering of his caste.
Abbott Lawrence, Merchant, of
Boston.
ABBOTT LAWRENCE, one of the most
eminent of American merchants, was
born in Groton, Mass., in 1792. His
ancestors were people in humble cir-
cumstances, who had for one hundred
and fifty years been settled in Groton
as cultivators of the soil, and his father,
Major Samuel Lawrence, served with
credit in Prescott's regiment at Bunker
Hill, and in many of the severest bat-
tles of the war of Independence. For
a brief period in his boyhood, he at-
tended the district school and the acad-
emy at Groton, and in his sixteenth year
went to Boston, with less than three
dollars in his pocket, and was bound
an apprentice to his brother Amos,
then recently established there in busi-
ness. In 1814 he became one of the
firm of A. & A. Lawrence, which for
many years conducted a prosperous
business in the sale of foreign cotton
and woollen goods on commission. Sub-
sequently to 1830, they were largely in-
terested as selling agents for the manu-
facturing companies of Lowell ; and, in
the latter part of his life, Abbott Law-
rence participated extensively in the
China trade.
In addition to his business pursuits,
Mr. Lawrence took a deep interest in
all matters of public concern, and was
at an early period of his career a zeal-
ous advocate of the protective system.
In 1834, he was elected a representative
in the twenty-fourth Congress, and was
there a member of the important com-
mittee of ways and means. He also
served for a brief period in 1839-'40.
In 1842, he was appointed a commis-
sioner, on the part of Massachusetts, on
the subject of the northeastern boun-
dary, in the discharge of which trust
he rendered the most important ser-
vice. In the Whig Nominating Con-
vention of 1848, he was a prominent
candidate for Vice-President of the
United States, lacking but six votes of
a nomination the choice falling upon
Mr. Fillmore. On the accession of Gen-
eral Taylor, whose election Mr. Law-
rence had zealously advocated, a seat in
the cabinet was offered to Mr. Law-
rence, but declined by him. He was
subsequently appointed the representa-
tive of the United States at the court
of Great Britain, a position which he
occupied with credit until October,
1852, when he was recalled at his own
EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES.
43
request. The remainder of his life was
devoted to his private business.
The benefactions of Mr. Lawrence,
for private and public purposes, were
numerous and wisely bestowed, al
though, from the nature of the circum-
stances under which the greater part
of his life was passed, the amount can-
not, as in his brother Amos's case, be
accurately estimated. In 1847, he gave
to Harvard University fifty thousand
dollars to found the Scientific School,
bearing his name, connected with that
institution ; and he bequealjled a like
sum in aid of the same object. He left
a further sum of fifty thousand dollars,
for the purpose of erecting model lodg-
ing houses, the income of the rents to
be forever applied to certain public
charities. He was greatly esteemed in
private life for his benevolence of dis-
position and genial manners, and in his
public relations commanded the respect
of all parties. Mr. Lawrence died in
Boston, August 18th, 1855.
Jacob Barker, Merchant, of New-
Orleans.
Mr. BARKER is descended from the
same stock as Dr. Franklin, to whom
he is proud to claim a certain family
resemblance and certainly in some of
their personal characteristics there is a
striking identity. He was brought up
in the Quaker communion, to which,
and to their unpretending costume, he
long adhered.
At the age of sixteen he was adrift
in the world, and came to New York,
where he got employment with Isaac
Hicks, a commission merchant, and,
beginning the trade on his own ac-
count, in a small way, "before 7iis major-
ity was in possession of four ships and
a brig, and had his notes regularly dis-
counted at the United States Bank.
Sitting at his wedding dinner, August
27th, 1801 (he married Elizabeth,
daughter of Thomas Hazard, of New
York), -with Mr. Henry Dewees, for
whom he had heavily indorsed, news
was brought him of the ruin of them
both ; he passed the letter over to Mr.
Dewees, drank wine with him, and took
no further notice of the matter.
For some transactions concerning
the North River Bank, Mr. Barker was
once openly insulted by one David
Rogers, to whom he sent a note de-
manding an explanation. No explana-
tion came, but in place of it an indict-
ment by the grand jury for sending a
challenge. Mr. Barker defended him-
self with infinite subtlety on the trial,
denying the fact of the challenge ; but
the jury would not be persuaded, nor
the judges afterward, when he argued
the question of law, and he was sen-
tenced to be disfranchised of his politi-
cal rights from which sentence he was
relieved by Governor Clinton. But at
length, on the failure of the Life and
Fire Insurance Company, he was in-
dicted, with others, for conspiracy to
defraud. The trial was long, the coun-
sel wanted time to look over their
notes, and it was suggested that Mr.
Barker should begin his defence. He
had no brief, and had taken no notes,
but professed his readiness. u Yes,"
said Mr. Emmet, " if they were all to
be hanged, Mr. Barker would say, hang
me first ! " His defence was a prodigy
of ability. At the first trial the jury
disagreed, on the second he was con-
victed, but a new trial granted. After
the third the indictment was quashed.
Some years since he appeared in his
own defence in a suit brought in New
Orleans, and obtained a verdict after a
long personal address to the jury, which
is said to have made a most vivid im-
pression both upon them and a numer-
ous auditory. In reciting the chequer-
ed history of his life his unrivalled
commercial enterprise, " that the can-
vas of his ships had whitened every
sea, and that the star-spangled banner
of his country had floated from the
mast head of his ships in every clime,"
his aid in procuring a loan of five
million dollars for the Government du-
44
COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.
ring the last war with England lie
said lie canie to New Orleans poor, and
in debt, that he had since made a great
deal of money, and spent it in the sup-
port of his family and the payment of
his debts outstanding in New York ;
that all those debts were now settled, as
was proved, and that he owed nothing
in the world at present but one account
(on a note, he believed) of about a
thousand dollars.
During the war, Nantucket was in
want of supplies : Mr. Barker purchased
the New York pilot boat Champlain,
and caused her to be landed at Nor-
folk with flour, and despatched for that
place. When near the island a heavy
fog set in ; when it cleared away she
was within a half gunshot of a British
seventy-four, captured, and vessel and
cargo lost.
Alexander Fordyce, the Shark of the
Exchange.
The career of this notorious broker
one of the shrewdest ever known on
the roll of British financiers furnishes
a dark phase in the dealings of the ex-
change. Bred a hosier at Aberdeen,
he found the North too confined for
such operations as he hoped at some
future day to engage in ; and, repair-
ing to London, as the only place worthy
of his genius, obtained employment as
clerk to a city banking house.
Here he displayed great facility for
figures, with great attention to busi-
ness, and rose to the post of junior part-
ner in the firm of Koffey, Neale &
Jaines. Scarcely was he thus estab-
lished, ere he began to speculate, and
generally with marked good fortune
and, thinking his good luck would be
perpetual, ventured for sums which in-
volved his own character and his part-
ners' fortune. The game was with him ;
the funds were constantly on the rise ;
and, fortunate as daring, he was en-
abled to purchase a large estate, to sup-
port a grand appearance, to surpass
nabobs in extravagance, and parvenus
in folly. He marked " the marble with
his name," upon a church which he os-
tentatiously built. His ambition vied
with his extravagance, and his extrava-
gance rivalled his ambition. The Aber-
deen hosier spent thousands of pounds
in attempting to become a titled mag-
nate, and openly avowed his hope of
dying a peer. He married a woman of
title ; made a fine settlement on her
ladyship ; purchased estates in Scot-
land at a fancy value ; built a hospital ;
and founded charities in the place of
which he hoped to become the repre-
sentative.
But a change came over his fortunes.
Some political events first gave him a
shake; then another blow followed,
and he had recourse to his partners'
private funds to supply his deficiencies.
On being smartly remonstrated with, a
cool and insolent contempt for their
opinion, coupled with the remark that
he was quite disposed to leave them to
manage a concern to which they were
utterly incompetent, startled them ; and
when, with a cunning which provided
for everything, an enormous amount of
bank notes, which Fordyce had borrow-
ed for the purpose, was shown them,
their faith in his genius returned with
the possession of the magic paper it
being somewhat doubtful whether the
plausibility of his manner or the agree-
able rustle of the notes decided them.
Ill fortune, however, still continued
to cast its gaunt shadow on Mr. For-
dyce's track the price of the funds
would not yield to his fine combina-
tions and plans. But with all his great
and continued losses, he retained to the
last hour a cool and calm self-posses-
sion. Utter bankruptcy finally follow-
ed, and the public feeling was so vio-
lent, as he detailed the tissue of his un-
surpassed fraud and folly, that it was
necessary to guard him from the popu-
lace. He broke half the commercial
town. Two gentlemen, ruined by the
broker's extravagance, shot themselves
dead, and many of the wealthiest fami-
EARLY CAREER OF BUSINESS CELEBRITIES.
45
lies were beggared. NOT is this sur-
prising, when it is known that bills to
the amount of twenty millions of dollars
were in circulation, with the name of
Fordyce attached to them a name still
synonymous with that of " the Shark
of the Exchange."
Nicholas Longworth, Millionnaire, of
Cincinnati.
NICHOLAS LONGWORTH, who recently
died in Cincinnati, at the age of eigh-
ty years, was born in Newark, N. J.,
in the year 1783, and was brought up
to the shoemaking business in his early
life. His father, having been reduced
to poverty, became a shoemaker, and
had all his children educated to follow
trades. It was intended that Nicholas
should obtain his living as a regular
shoemaker ; but at an early age he im-
proved the opportunity offered him of
going to the South with a brother, and
became a clerk in the latter's store in
Savannah. After being in mercantile
business at the South about two and
a half years, he removed in 1804 to
Cincinnati, then only a scattered and
sparsely populated village of about
seven hundred and fifty inhabitants,
adjoining to Fort "Washington, on the
banks of the Ohio, where the Federal
Government maintained a garrison, the
expenditure of which at that and earlier
periods formed no small share of the
business of Cincinnati.
The beginning of Mr. Longworth's
career in Cincinnati was a very curious
one. He commenced the study of the
law, under Judge Burnett, an eminent
lawyer, and was admitted to the bar in
advance of the ordinary period. Until
1819, he followed the law as his profes-
sion. Meantime he had married a wid-
ow of some means, and had devoted
himself to speculations in lots, foresee-
ing that the value of real estate must
enhance immensely. In this way he
laid the foundation of his gigantic for-
tune. At that time, property was at a
very low valuation, and many of Long-
worth's lots cost him no more than ten
dollars each, which in a few years mul-
tiplied in value a hundredfold. His
property increased so rapidly that in
1850 his taxes rated higher, perhaps,
than those of any other man in the
United States except William B. Astor,
the taxes of the latter amounting to
some twenty-three thousand, while
those of Longworth were over seven-
teen thousand. The ground occupied
by the celebrated Observatory of Cin-
cinnati was a free gift from Mr. Long-
worth. He donated four acres of his
land on Mount Adams for that purpose.
Mr. Longworth devoted much of his
time to agriculture and horticulture
the grape and the strawberry especially.
Every one has heard of his Catawba
wine, both still and sparkling cham-
pagne. Indeed, Nicholas Longworth,
Esq., the " fifteen millionnaire," is not
half so well known as " old Nick Long-
worth," who did so much for the cul-
ture of the Catawba and Isabella grape
in the Ohio valley. His gardens and
hothouses abounded in the rarest ex-
otics, and were freely accessible to visi-
tors who wished to enjoy them, and, if
his gardeners were not on hand to point
out their beauties, it is very probable
that Nicholas Longworth himself would
perform the part of chaperon. Mr.
Longworth was a ready writer, full of
wit, humor, and sarcasm.
Mr. Longworth had four children
three daughters and one son. One of
the daughters married Larz Anderson,
of Cincinnati, brother of the hero of
Fort Sumter, a prominent lawyer. The
wealth of which Mr. Longworth died
possessed is put down at fifteen mil-
lions ; but it is probable that it may be
quoted at a much higher figure. His
city lots alone would probably amount
to that sum. The value of his prop-
erty in the suburbs of Cincinnati and
the different counties of Western Ohio,
from Hamilton county to Sandusky,
would perhaps swell his estate to twen-
ty millions.
46
COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.
John Overend, the Pioneer Bill Broker
of London.
JOHN OVEREND'S name stood, for a
long time, at the head of the most an-
cient as well as extensive and renown-
ed bill-brokering establishment in the
world. Bill brokering in its present
form was commenced about half a cen-
tury ago. This house Overend & Co.
so well known in Europe and Ameri-
ca, was formed in the year 1807, under
the firm of Richardson, Overend & Co.
The partners were Thomas Richardson,
a clerk in the banking house of Smith,
Wright & Gray ; John Overend, a clerk
to a woollen dealer ; and Samuel Gur-
ney, then twenty-one years of age, the
second son of Mr. John Gurney, a part-
ner in the Norwich Bank. This bank
was established in 1770, by Henry
Gurney, who was succeeded by his
son, Bartletfc Gurney, and the latter, in
1803, took into partnership his cousin,
John Gurney, and several other mem-
bers of his family. Mr. John Gurney
had previously been a woolstapler and
spinner of worsted yarn. In this char-
acter he was acquainted with Mr. Joseph
Smith, who was extensively connected
with the trade of Norwich, and was en-
gaged by the Norwich Bank to employ
their surplus funds in discounting bills
for his numerous connections. This
business became so extensive that, upon
the suggestion of John Overend, a firm
was established expressly for the pur-
pose of carrying it on, under the super-
intendence of the Norwich Bank. Mr.
Samuel Gurney had, for three years
previously, been a clerk to Mr. Fry,
who had married Mr. Gurney's sister,
the celebrated Elizabeth Fry. After
the death or retirement of Mr. Richard-
son, the firm was Overend & Co. On
the death of Mr. Overend, Samuel
Gurney became the senior partner, un-
til his death in 1856, when he was suc-
ceeded by David Barclay Chapman.