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In 1940, J.P.Morgan reorganized from a private partnership to a public company, with Jack as its first chairman. Over the next 60 years, the firm remained an innovative leader in the financial industry, and in 2000, merged with Chase Manhattan to form JPMorgan Chase.
- J.P. Morgan: Early Years and Family
- J.P. Morgan: Banking Titan
- J.P. Morgan: Congressional Investigation
- J.P. Morgan: Art Collection and Final Years
John Pierpont Morgan was born into a distinguished New England family on April 17, 1837, in Hartford, Connecticut. One of his maternal relatives, James Pierpont (1659-1714), was a founder of Yale University; his paternal grandfather was a founder of the Aetna Insurance Company; and his father, Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90), ran a successful Hartford dry-goods company before becoming a partner in a London-based merchant banking firm. After graduating from high school in Boston in 1854, Pierpont, as he was known, studied in Europe, where he learned French and German, then returned to New York in 1857 to begin his finance career.
Did you know? "Jingle Bells" was written by James L. Pierpont, the uncle of famed financier J.P. Morgan. The song, originally titled "The One Horse Open Sleigh," was actually written about Thanksgiving, and was considered a failure when first published in 1857.
During the late 19th century, a period when the U.S. railroad industry experienced rapid overexpansion and heated competition (the nation’s first transcontinental rail line was completed in 1869), Morgan was heavily involved in reorganizing and consolidating a number of financially troubled railroads. In the process, he gained control of significant portions of these railroads’ stock and eventually controlled an estimated one-sixth of America’s rail lines.
Titanic, owned by one of the IMM companies, White Star, sank on its maiden voyage after hitting an iceberg. Morgan, who attended the ship’s christening in 1911, was booked on the ill-fated April 1912 voyage but had to cancel.
During Morgan’s era, the United States had no central bank so he used his influence to help save the nation from disaster during several economic crises. In 1895, Morgan assisted in rescuing America’s gold standard when he headed a banking syndicate that loaned the federal government more than $60 million. In another instance, the financial panic of 1907, Morgan held a meeting of the country’s top financiers at his New York City home and convinced them to bail out various faltering financial institutions in order to stabilize the markets.
Morgan initially was widely commended for leading Wall Street out of the 1907 financial crisis; however, in the ensuing years, the portly banker with the handlebar mustache and gruff manner faced increasing criticism from muckraking journalists, progressive politicians and others that he had too much power and could manipulate the financial system for his own gain. In 1912, Morgan was called to testify before a congressional committee chaired by U.S. Representative Arsene Pujo (1861-1939) of Louisiana that was investigating the existence of a “money trust,” a small cabal of elite Wall Street financiers, including Morgan, who allegedly colluded to control American banking and industry. The Pujo Committee hearings helped bring about the creation of the Federal Reserve System in December 1913 and spurred the passage of the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914.
The famous financier died at age 75 on March 31, 1913, in Rome, Italy. On April 14, the day of his funeral, the New York Stock Exchange closed in his honor until noon. He was buried in the Morgan family mausoleum at a Hartford cemetery.
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In the 1880s and ’90s Morgan reorganized several major railroads, notably the Erie Railroad and the Northern Pacific. He was instrumental in achieving railroad rate stability and discouraging overly chaotic competition, and he became one of the world’s most powerful railroad magnates, controlling about 5,000 mi (8,000 km) of railway by 1902.
He began reorganizing railroads in 1885, when he arranged an agreement between two of the largest railroads in the country, the New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad, that minimized a potentially destructive rate war and rail-line competition between them.
Apr 23, 2024 · Fact checked by. Michael Rosenston. When John Pierpont Morgan arrived on Wall Street, it was a disorganized jumble of competing interests and one of the many financial centers in a...
May 18, 2018 · John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), the most powerful American banker of his time, helped build a credit bridge between Europe and America and financially rescued the United States government twice. On April 17, 1837, J. P. Morgan was born in Harford, Conn.
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Dec 14, 2023 · Morgan reorganized the company to become J. P. Morgan & Co. He used this firm to become a steel magnate by purchasing Andrew Carnegie’s steel company for $480 million. His company also became a fiscal agent overseeing transactions between the United States government and the newly independent Panama.
