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Anthony Joseph Drexel

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For the statue by Moses Jacob Ezekiel, seeStatue of Anthony J. Drexel.
Anthony Joseph Drexel
Born(1826-09-13)September 13, 1826
Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedJune 30, 1893(1893-06-30)(aged 66)
Karlsbad,Bohemiain theAustro-Hungarian Empire
OccupationBanker
SpouseEllen B. Rozet
Children9
Parent(s)Francis Martin Drexel
Catherine Hookey
RelativesFrancis Anthony Drexel(brother)
Joseph William Drexel(brother)
St.Katharine Drexel(niece)
Elizabeth Wharton Drexel(niece)
Anthony Drexel Biddle Sr.(grandson)
Anthony Drexel Biddle Jr.(great-grandson)
Official nameAnthony J. Drexel (1826–1893)
TypeCity
CriteriaBusiness & Industry, Education, Entrepreneurs, Railroads
DesignatedApril 2005[1]
CountyPhiladelphia County
Location48 S Third Street,Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, U.S.
39°56′56″N75°08′45″W/ 39.94899°N 75.14581°W/39.94899; -75.14581

Anthony Joseph Drexel Sr.(September 13, 1826 – June 30, 1893) was an American banker who played a major role in the rise of modern global finance after theAmerican Civil War.As the dominant partner ofDrexel & Co.ofPhiladelphia,he foundedDrexel, Morgan & Co,which later becameJ.P. Morgan & Co.,inNew York Cityin 1871 withJ. P. Morganas his junior partner. He also foundedDrexel UniversityinPhiladelphiain 1891.[2][3]

In 1892, Drexel was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society.[4]He was also the first president of the Fairmount Park Art Association, now theAssociation for Public Art,the nation's first private organization dedicated to integrating public art and urban planning.[5]

Early life

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Drexel's statue atDrexel UniversityinPhiladelphia

Drexel was born in 1826 inPhiladelphiatoFrancis Martin Drexel(1792–1863) and Catherine Hookey (1795–1870). He was the brother ofFrancis Anthony Drexel,andJoseph William Drexel.He was the uncle of SaintKatharine Drexel.Anthony Joseph Drexel was raised aRoman Catholic,but he joined theEpiscopal Churchlater.[6]

Career

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Main articles:J.P. Morgan & Co.andDrexel, Harjes & Co.

At the age of 13, Drexel began working in the banking house founded three years earlier by his father, the Austrian-born American bankerFrancis Martin Drexel.[7]In 1847 he was named a member of the firmDrexel & Company,the original predecessor of what would becomeDrexel Burnham Lambert.[7]

After the death of his father in 1863, Drexel closed the bank's Chicago and San Francisco offices and changed the name of its New York branch from Read, Drexel & Co. to Drexel Winthrop. In 1867, he founded a separate Paris-based banking partnership,Drexel, Harjes & Co.,with John H. Harjes and Eugene Winthrop.[7]

Three years later, in 1871, at the urging ofJunius Spencer Morganin London, Drexel became the mentor of Junius's troubled son,John Pierpont Morganof New York, and entered into a new partnership with young Morgan, formingDrexel, Morgan & Co.[2]This new merchant banking partnership, which was based in New York, rather than Philadelphia, served initially as an agent for Europeans investing in the United States. Over the next generation, this partnership assumed the leading role in financing America's railroads and stabilizing and revitalizing Wall Street's chaotic securities markets. The firm created a national capital market for industrial companies— a market that had previously existed only for railroads and canals. To restore investor confidence, Drexel, Morgan & Co. underwrote the pay of the entire U.S. Army when Congress refused to do so in 1877, bailed out the U.S. government during the Panic of 1895 and rescued the New York Stock Exchange during the Panic of 1907.[2]With the formation of Drexel, Morgan & Co., Drexel Harjes became the French affiliate of an international banking firm with offices inLondon,Philadelphia,New York Cityand Paris that would subsequently becomeJ.P. Morgan & Co.

Two years after Drexel's death in 1893, Drexel, Morgan & Co. was renamedJ.P. Morgan & Co.,one of the original predecessors of what is todayJPMorgan Chase.In 1901, the bank financed the formation of theUnited States Steel Corporation,the world's first billion-dollar corporation, which took over the business ofAndrew Carnegieand other companies.

Personal life

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Drexel married Ellen B. Rozet (1832–1891), the daughter of John Roset (1794–1870) and Mary Ann Laning (1807–1880) in 1850 in a service officiated by Dutch Reformed clergyman Rev. John D. Ludlow, father-in-law of the bride's sister.[8] Although raised a Roman Catholic, Drexel subsequently converted to his wife's Episcopalian faith. He and his family were members of the Church of the Saviour, nowPhiladelphia Cathedral,where Drexel served first as a vestryman, and later as warden. Murals located in the apse of the church honor his memory.[9]

The Drexels had nine children:

  • Emilie Taylor Drexel (1851–1883), who married EdwardBiddleIII (born 1851)
  • Frances Katherine Drexel (1852–1892), who married James William Paul Jr.
  • Marie Rozet Drexel (1854–1855), who died young.
  • Mae E. Drexel (1857–1886), who married Charles T. Stewart
  • Sarah Rozet "Sallie" Drexel (1860–1929), who married John R. Fell Sr. (1858–1895), and after his death marriedAlexander Van Rensselaer(1850–1933)[10]
  • Francis Anthony Drexel II (1861–1869), who died young.
  • John Rozet Drexel(1863–1935), who married Alice Gordon Troth (1865–1947)
  • Anthony Joseph Drexel Jr.(1864–1934), who married Margarita Armstrong (1867–1948).[11]They divorced in 1917 and in 1918, she marriedBrinsley FitzGerald(1859–1931)
  • George William Childs Drexel (1868–1944), who married Mary Stretch Irick (1868–1948).
Historical marker commemorating Drexel in Old City, Philadelphia.

Upon the death of his sister-in-law, Hannah Jane Langstroth Drexel, in 1858, Anthony and Ellen cared for his nieces, three-year-old Elizabeth and five-week-old Katherine for the next two years. When his older brother Francis married Emma Bouvier in 1860, Francis brought his two daughters home.[12]

Anthony was also the grandfather ofAnthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Sr.(1874–1948)[13]and the great-grandfather ofAnthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr.(1897–1961), the United States Ambassador toCzechoslovakia,Poland,andNorway.[14]

Drexel died of a heart attack on June 30, 1893, in Karlsbad (in the German-speaking part of Bohemia, Austrian Empire), todayKarlovy Vary,Czech Republic,at the age of 66, and was buried inWoodlands Cemeteryin Philadelphia.[15]

References

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  1. ^"Pennsylvania Historical Marker Search".PHMC.Retrieved3 November2018.
  2. ^abcRottenberg (2001).
  3. ^"Anthony Joseph Drexel | American banker".Encyclopedia Britannica.Retrieved2017-08-22.
  4. ^"APS Member History".search.amphilsoc.org.Retrieved2024-04-03.
  5. ^White, Theo B. (1975).Fairmount: Philadelphia's Park.Philadelphia, PA: The Art Alliance Press. p. 94.ISBN0879820152.
  6. ^F. Rzeznik, Thomas (2013).Church and Estate: Religion and Wealth in Industrial-Era Philadelphia.Penn State Press. p. 126.ISBN9780271063256.
  7. ^abcMcDonald, Edward D.; Edward M. Hinton (1942).Drexel Institute of Technology 1891–1941.Haddon Craftsmen, Inc. pp. 4–5.ISBN1-4067-6374-8.
  8. ^Rottenberg, Dan.The Man Who Made Wall Street: Anthony J. Drexel and the Rise of Modern Finance,University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006, p. 46ISBN9780812219661
  9. ^"Anthony J. Drexel", West Philadelphia Collaborative History
  10. ^Times, Special To The Now York (19 July 1933)."A.VAN RENSSELAER, ARTS PATRON, DEAD | Philadelphia Philanthropist and Sportsman Succumbs to Long Illness at 82. | PRINCETON LIFE TRUSTEE | President of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association From 1901 Till Recently".The New York Times.Retrieved22 February2017.
  11. ^"MRS. BRINSLEY FITZGERALD".The New York Times.February 13, 1948.Retrieved10 August2016.
  12. ^Larkin, Tara Elizabeth. "Drexel, St. Katharine Mary", Pennsylvania State University, Fall, 2006Archived2014-10-17 at theWayback Machine
  13. ^"The Theater: New Plays in Manhattan".Time magazine.December 3, 1956. Archived fromthe originalon February 8, 2007.RetrievedMarch 17,2011.
  14. ^"Anthony J. Drexel Biddle Dead. Ambassador to Spain Was 64. Envoy and Officer in World War II. Tributes Paid by Kennedy and Eisenhower".The New York Times.November 14, 1961.RetrievedApril 10,2010.Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, ambassador to Spain and for many years one of this country's most distinguished diplomats, died today at Walter Reed Army...
  15. ^"Anthony J. Drexel is Dead".The New York Times.July 1, 1893.Retrieved2008-12-23.News of His Death Sent by Cable from Carlsbad. He Went There in Poor Health to Spend the Summer. Last of the Sons of the Founder of His House. Known All Over the World as a Financier. A Philanthropist as Well. Connected with Many Gigantic Transactions.

Further reading

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