Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Co. signed by J. Pierpont Morgan for Drexel Morgan Co. - 1875 dated Bond

$10,000 Bond signed by J. Pierpont Morgan for Drexel Morgan Co. on back. Ink smudge on front.

John Pierpont Morgan, born on April 17, 1837, and passing away on March 31, 1913, was an American financier and banker who held immense influence on corporate finance on Wall Street during the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that eventually became J.P. Morgan and Co., he played a pivotal role in the wave of industrial consolidation that swept across the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Throughout his career on Wall Street, J.P. Morgan spearheaded the formation of several prominent multinational corporations, including U.S. Steel, International Harvester, and General Electric, which he later supervised. He and his partners also held controlling interests in numerous other American businesses, such as Aetna, Western Union, Pullman Car Company, and 21 railroads. Morgan’s extensive influence over U.S. finance extended to shaping the nation’s policies and the underlying market forces of its economy. During the Panic of 1907, he demonstrated his leadership by organizing a coalition of financiers that successfully prevented the collapse of the American monetary system.

As the leading financier of the Progressive Era, J.P. Morgan’s commitment to efficiency and modernization played a transformative role in shaping the American economy. Adrian Wooldridge aptly described Morgan as America’s “greatest banker.” Tragically, Morgan passed away in his sleep in Rome, Italy, on March 31, 1913, at the remarkable age of 75. He left his vast fortune and business to his son, John Pierpont Morgan Jr. Biographer Ron Chernow estimated Morgan’s fortune at an astonishing $80 million (equivalent to $1.2 billion in 2019), a net worth that allegedly prompted John D. Rockefeller to remark, “and to think, he wasn’t even a wealthy man.”

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