The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-07-17
JAY COOKE.
Famous Financier of Rebellion
Times Yet Alive.
Story ola Remarkable Financial Career
Recalled.

that did so much for the government IN
the days Of the Civil War. The New York
Tribune says Of the famous firm:
More than a quarter of century ago
the financial world was startled by the
announcement that the great banking
house of Jay Cooke & Co., which had
stood behind the Government throughout
the trying times of the Civil War, ana
had put through some OF the mos5 Slga4-
tic financial deals on record, was unable
to meet it's obligations and the panic OF
| 1878 began its career of wreck and ruin
| Jay Cooke himself is today the only
living great figure of that catastrophe.
OF all the men who were originally IN
the Northern Pacific railroad scheme,
which was Immediately responsible for
the failure of his banking hrm, none are
alive today except Mr.. Cooke.
Mr.. Cooke is a native of Sandusky,
| Ohio, and leaving a country grocery SCOFe
for a clerkship in Philadelphia banking
house, became, on attaining his majority,
a partner in the firm OF W. ~. CLARK q
Co., and made money rapidly for himself
and his patrons.
In 1858 he retired from the banking
business and became interested In large
railroad enterprises some of them IN the
western part of Pennsylvania and some OF
| them in the great Northwest, deStlned
/ to become the theatre of the most fateful
/
| Northern Pacific railroad. In this time
he negotiated the sale of the Pennsylvas-
MIA State Canal, which led to the COM
pletiOn Of one of the greatest railroad
systems Of the world-the Pennsylvania
railroad.
The house of Jay Cooke & Co. IS wide
Iy remem bered through the work it &C
complished in raising the money neces-
sary to carry on the operations OF the
government in the Civil War. Colossal
as the figures may appear, 1t is a TACT
that in one year, during which 1t was
the sole financial agent Oh the govern
ment, the house of jay Cooke q Co.
| transacted busine IS OF $3,OOO,0 O0, OOO
| This was in the year in which the great
| 7-3O government loans were HOated.
Within less than five months of that
year Jay Cooke q Co. paid to the United
States government Ss5O. DOO, OOO In gold.
! Indeed the reputation OF Mr.. Cooke and
his place in history will be fixed by these
enormous negotiations Of the govern
ment during the Civil War. lie may be
compared with Robert Morris for what
Morris did for Washington Jay Cooke q
| Co. did for Lincoln and Stanton.
| At the outbreak Of the W ar the Nation
al Treasury was empty, and it became
necessary to raise at times So, GU, QUO a
day. Chase, Fessenden and McCullOch
had exhausted all their ingenuity, and
| finally Mr., Cooke was called upon and
was appointed sole fiscal agent OF the
government General Grant after the
war in a letter still in the possession of
Mr.. Cooke, said that through his efforts
the nation was indebted for the means
that rendered military success possible.
| Mr.. Cookies vast enterprises in Heating
government loans gave him wide for
eign acquaintance, and after acquiring
controlling interest in the company
organized under the old Purham charter
for a road from Lake Superior to Puget
Sound, the fight against the Union Pa
cific syndicate for the special act OF Con-
gress authorizing a bonded indebtedness
was successfully carried out. Then came
the celebrated meeting at Ogontz, Mr.
| Cookies summer home, near Philadel-
| phia, where the Northern Pacific scheme
was talked over with Baron Gerolt then
German minister to the United States,
one of the chief figures, and a number
of leading German bankers. On that
evening Mr.. Cooke received an exchange
on Amsterdam for $500, 900 in gold as a
mere guarantee for an agreement that
these bankers would cDntri butte $50, 00O,
600 to build the Northern Pacific.
| The negotiations went on, and in the
meantime the house of Jay Cooke & Co
held this $500, 600 of gold in it's vaults,
| Two days before the outbreak of the
| Franco russian war Mr.. Cooke received
a cable message that the $50, coo, 900 would
within forty-eight hours be on deposit in
a we'll known banking house in London.
Thus the inception OF the Northern Pa
ciflc railroad on the broad basis planned
by Mr. Cooke and his friends appeared
to be assured.
| Within two days war was declared be-
tween France and Prussia, and the guar
antee of $50, 0O0, 900 fell through ana the
$500, coo was returned by Mr.. Cooke.
| But Mr.. Cooke and his friends still did
n OF lose faith in their Northwestern en-
| terprise. A pool of So, COG, 900 was formed,
and the road was built for two hundred
and fifty miles, from Duluth to the Red
river, on the credit OF Jay Cooke & Co.
AS a mere matter of detail it may be
| stated that the firm received 5000, 00O in
| commissions in this transaction. After
that the road was finished to Bismarck,
four hundred and fifty miles.
In the mean time a syndicate had been
| formed in London to furnish SIC, OO0, 600
to continue the road and the money was
actually deposited But just then the
dispute between the United States and
Great Britain reached a critical stage,
and war, or something like it, seemed
inevitable, and for q second time the
whole brunt Of the enterprise was thrown
back upon Mr.. Cookies house, 1t was
these untoward circumstances which put
the house of Jay Cooke q Co. front to
front with the crisis of 1878. "Our sus-
PENSION said Mr.. Cooke recently, In
| speaking of the disaster, twas the result
of such misfortune in the face of an in
evitable stringency in thu money market,
the result Of the unnabural expansion
of business resulting from post war
specuIations."
| After the panic following the failure
died away Mr.. Cooke started in to aid
the receivers of his firm in settling its
affairs. This work required five years.
| At the enu Of that time he was again on
the road to wealth, and soon accumu-
lated second fortune. He began the
| payment of the creditors of the old firm,
and in 1890 the Last outstanding Obliga-
tiOn of the house was settled in full. Mr..
| Cooke later on invested in mining prop.
erty in Montana and Idaho, out of which
he has cleared millions of dollars He
owns vast tracts of farming lands in Ore
gon and Southern California, mining
territory in Utah, and is interested, be-
sides, in half dozen or more railroads.
Today he is probably nearly as wealthy
as ever in his life.
BROUGHT N O NEWS.