Life and Successes of Industrialist J.P. Morgan

J.P. Morgan

John Pierpont Morgan was born on April 17, 1837 in Hartford, Connecticut; his family was a distinguished and wealthy New England family, so he had a head start on accumulating wealth because great success was role modeled for him as he grew up. For example, one of his maternal relatives, named James Pierpont (1659-1714), was a founder of Yale University, according to History.com. His grandfather on his father's side was a founder of Aetna Insurance Company, and his father, who was his principal role model, was a partner in a London-based banking company specializing in merchant investments and holdings. His father, Junius Spencer Morgan, also had a successful dry goods company in Hartford, Connecticut (History.com). 'J.P. Morgan went on to become fabulously wealthy and powerful; this paper explains how he did it and points to the powerful influence he had over America during his life.

J.P. Morgan's Life and Times

J.P. Morgan graduated from a Boston high school in 1854 and was sent to Europe to study; while there, he learned French and German. He returned to New York three years later and began his career in finance and banking, beginning as an accountant with the New York banking company Duncan, Sherman and Company (www.britannica.com). Soon J.P. Morgan joined his father's company -- Dabney, Morgan and Company (1864-1871) -- and then in 1871 J.P. Morgan joined as a partner in the New York City firm of Drexel, Morgan and Company, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

Drexel, Morgan and Company was known at that time as the "predominant source of U.S. government financing," and because of its success, J.P. Morgan reorganized the Drexel firm into J.P. Morgan and Company in 1895 (www.britannica.com). Known at that time as among the most powerful banking firms worldwide -- which came to pass as the Industrial Revolution was in full swing -- J.P. Morgan was able to help provide funds for America's industrial corporations with money that he obtained from banks in England (www.britannica). This was his initial dip into the well of international banking; later he went on to establish an enormous banking presence around the world (Japan, China, and elsewhere). Today J.P. Morgan Chase operates financial institutions in 60 countries (www.jpmorgan.com).

History.com explains that J.P. Morgan's marriage to Amelia Sturges in 1861 only lasted four months (she died of tuberculosis) and in 1865, during the Civil War, he married Frances Louisa Tracy, whose father was an influential New York attorney; they had four children.

The U.S. railroad industry was expanding very quickly in the late 19th century, in fact the expansion created cutthroat competition and so J.P. Morgan got involved and began "reorganizing and consolidating" several of the railroads that were struggling for capital (history.com). Soon he was in control of "significant portions of these railroads' stocks" and in time J.P. Morgan held ownership to "an estimated one-sixth of America's rail lines" (history.com). The positives in his life included the fact that loaned the U.S. government an estimated $60 million in 1895 -- basically rescuing America from financial disaster; he also led Wall Street out of a major financial crisis in 1907. He amassed an enormous collection of valuable art and donated those paintings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.