Skip to main content

J. Pierpont Morgan signs for J.S. Morgan Co. & Drexel, Morgan Co. in his hand dated August 25, 1879 - Autograph - 4 Documents

Inv# AU1532   Autograph
State(s): New York
Years: 1879

John Pierpont Morgan signs for Drexel, Morgan & Co. on Stock transfer plus a letter regarding such transfer for the Niagara Bridge & Canandaigua RR. Also included is a handwritten note. Additional Stock Transfer included. 4 Documents for this Lot.

John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known as J.P. Morgan and Co., he was the driving force behind the wave of industrial consolidation in the United States spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Over the course of 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 subsequently fell under his supervision. He and his partners also held controlling interests in numerous other American businesses including Aetna, Western Union, Pullman Car Company and 21 railroads. Due to the extent of his dominance over U.S. finance, Morgan exercised enormous influence over the nation's policies and the market forces underlying its economy. During the Panic of 1907, he organized a coalition of financiers that saved the American monetary system from collapse.

As the Progressive Era's leading financier, J.P. Morgan's dedication to efficiency and modernization helped transform the shape of the American economy. Adrian Wooldridge characterized Morgan as America's "greatest banker". Morgan died in Rome, Italy, in his sleep in 1913 at the age of 75, leaving his fortune and business to his son, John Pierpont Morgan Jr. Biographer Ron Chernow estimated his fortune at $80 million (equivalent to $2.2 billion in 2021).

J.P. Morgan & Co. is a commercial and investment banking institution founded by J. P. Morgan in 1871. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the company is now a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase, one of the largest banking institutions in the world. The company is sometimes referred to as the "House of Morgan" or simply "Morgan".

The origins of the firm date back to 1854 when Junius S. Morgan joined George Peabody & Co. (which became Peabody, Morgan & Co.), a London-based banking business headed by George Peabody. Junius took control of the firm, changing its name to J.S. Morgan & Co. in 1864 on Peabody's retirement. Junius's son, J. Pierpont Morgan, first apprenticed at Duncan, Sherman, and Company in New York City, then founded his own firm with a cousin, J. Pierpont Morgan & Company, in 1864. J. Pierpont Morgan & Company traded in government bonds and foreign exchange. It also acted as an agent for Peabody's. Junius, however, considered some of Pierpont's ventures to be highly speculative. Therefore, Pierpont took on Charles H. Dabney (a connection established when Pierpont was sent to the Azores as a child) as a senior partner, and the firm was known first as Dabney, Morgan, and Company (beginning in 1864) and then "Drexel, Morgan & Co." (in 1871). In those firms, Pierpont used his Peabody connection to bring British financial capital together with the rapidly-growing U.S. industrial firms, such as railroads, which needed financial capital. The Drexel of Drexel, Morgan & Co. was Philadelphia banker Anthony J. Drexel, founder of what is now Drexel University.

On Junius's death in 1890, Pierpont Morgan took his place at J.S. Morgan and Company. After Drexel's death, Drexel, Morgan reorganized in 1895 and became J.P. Morgan and Company. It financed the formation of the United States Steel Corporation, which took over the business of Andrew Carnegie and others and was the world's first billion-dollar corporation. In 1895, it supplied the United States government with $62 million in gold to float a bond issue and restore the treasury surplus of $100 million. In 1892, the company began to finance the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad and led it through a series of acquisitions, which made it the dominant railroad transporter in New England.

Built in 1914, 23 Wall Street was known as "The Corner" and "The House of Morgan". At noon, on September 16, 1920, an anarchist bomb exploded in front of the bank, killing 38 and injuring 400. Shortly before the bomb went off, an unknown person placed a warning note in a mailbox at the corner of Cedar Street and Broadway. The warning read: "Remember we will not tolerate any longer. Free the political prisoners or it will be sure death for all of you. American Anarchists Fighters." While theories abound about who was behind the Wall Street bombing and why they did it, after twenty years of investigation the FBI rendered the file inactive in 1940 without ever finding the perpetrators.

Read More

Read Less

Condition: Excellent
Item ordered may not be exact piece shown. All original and authentic.
OUT OF STOCK