The Manhattan Company was a New York bank and

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

established on September 1, 1799. The company merged with

Chase National Bank JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Trade name, doing business as Chase, is an American National bank (United States), national bank headquartered in New York City that constitutes the retail banking, consumer and commercial bank, commercial banking su ...

in 1955 to form the

Chase Manhattan Bank JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and financial services holding ...

. It is the oldest of the predecessor institutions that eventually formed the current JPMorgan Chase & Co.

History

18th century

The Manhattan Company was formed in 1799 with the ostensible purpose of providing clean water to

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

. However, the main interest of the company was not in the supply of water, but rather in becoming a part of the banking industry in New York. At that time, the banking industry was monopolized by Alexander Hamilton's

Bank of New York The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, commonly known as BNY, is an American international financial services company headquartered in New York City. It was established in its current form in July 2007 by the merger of the Bank of New York an ...

and the New York branch of the

First Bank of the United States The President, Directors and Company of the Bank of the United States, commonly known as the First Bank of the United States, was a National bank (United States), national bank, chartered for a term of twenty years, by the United States Congress ...

. "To circumvent the opposition of Hamilton to the establishment of a bank," and following an epidemic of yellow fever in the city,

Aaron Burr Aaron Burr Jr. (February 6, 1756 – September 14, 1836) was an American politician, businessman, lawyer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805 d ...

founded the company and successfully gained banking privileges through a clause in its charter granted to it by the state that allowed it to use surplus capital for banking transactions. The company raised $2 million, used one hundred thousand dollars for building a water supply system, and used the rest to start the bank. The company apparently did a poor job of supplying water, using hollowed out tree trunks for pipes and digging wells in congested areas where there was the danger of raw sewage mixing with the water. After a multitude of cholera epidemics, a water system was finally established with the construction between 1837 and 1842 of the

Croton Aqueduct The Croton Aqueduct or Old Croton Aqueduct was a large and complex water supply network, water distribution system constructed for New York City between 1837 and 1842. The great aqueduct (water supply), aqueducts, which were among the first in t ...

. On April 17, 1799, the Manhattan Company appointed a committee "to consider the most proper means of employing the capital of the Company" and elected to open an office of discount and deposit. The "Bank" of the Manhattan Company began business on September 1, 1799, in a house at

40 Wall Street 40 Wall Street (also the Trump Building; formerly the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building and Manhattan Company Building) is a neo-Gothic skyscraper on Wall Street between Nassau and William streets in the Financial District of Manhattan in Ne ...

. Its first board of directors members were Daniel Ludlow, John Watts, John Barker Church, Brockholst Livingston, William Edgar, William Laight, Paschal N. Smith,

Samuel Osgood Samuel Osgood (February 3, 1747 – August 12, 1813) was an American merchant and statesman born in Andover, Massachusetts, currently a part of North Andover, Massachusetts. His family home still stands at 440 Osgood Street in North Andover ...

, John Stevens, John Broome, John B. Coles, and Aaron Burr. Among its original stockholders were such men as Nicholas Fish,

John Delafield John Delafield (March 16, 1748 – July 3, 1824) was an English-American businessman and diplomat. Known for his 1783 delivery of the Treaty of Paris, Delafield would settle in New York City, achieving further financial prosperity there. Early ...

John Jacob Astor John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor; July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) was a German-born American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor. Astor made his fortune mainly in a fur trade monopoly, by exporting History of opiu ...

Richard Varick Richard Varick (March 15, 1753 – July 30, 1831) was an American lawyer, military officer, and politician who has been referred to as "The Forgotten Founding Father." A major figure in the development of post-Independence New York City and the ...

, Stephen Van Rensselaer, John Rodgers, Joshua Sands, Peter Stuyvesant, George Clinton, Israel Disosway, John Slidell,

Henry Rutgers Henry Rutgers (October 7, 1745 – February 17, 1830) was a United States Revolutionary War hero and philanthropist from New York City. Rutgers University was named after him, and he donated a bond which placed the college on sound financial f ...

, and Daniel Phoenix.

19th century

In July 1800, the bank started paying dividends, and in 1808, the company sold its waterworks to the city, pocketing $1.9 million and turning completely to banking. Even so, it identified as a water company as late as 1899. The company maintained a Water Committee which yearly assured, quite truthfully, that no requests for water service had been denied, and moreover conducted its meetings with a pitcher of the water at hand to ensure quality. In 1825, John Gerard Coster was appointed president of the company. He was succeeded by Maltby Gelston in 1829. Gelston, a former member of the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Ass ...

, was the son of Collector

David Gelston David Gelston (July 4, 1744 – August 21, 1828) was an American merchant and politician. Early life Gelston was born on July 4, 1744, in Bridgehampton in Suffolk County on Long Island in what was then the Province of New York. He was a son ...

and the father of Mary Gelston, who married Henry Rogers Winthrop (father of Buchanan Winthrop). In 1847, Caleb O. Halsted, a cloth merchant from

Elizabeth, New Jersey Elizabeth is a City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Halsted succeeded Jonathan Thompson, who had been made president in 1840. Before he was president, Thompson had served nine years as the

Collector of the Port of New York The Collector of Customs at the Port of New York, most often referred to as Collector of the Port of New York, was a federal officer who was in charge of the collection of import duties on foreign goods that entered the United States by ship at ...

having been appointed by President

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American Founding Father of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. He was the last Founding Father to serve as presiden ...

and also serving under

John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was the sixth president of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825. During his long diploma ...

. In 1853, the Manhattan Company became one of the original 52 members of the New York Clearing House Association. In 1860, the board of directors promoted James M. Morrison as president of the bank to succeed Halsted. Morrison, who had begun working for the bank as the "first teller" in 1840, served as president until ill health forced him to resign in the latter part of 1879. Morrison was succeeded by John S. Harberger, who began working for the bank in 1857 as assistant cashier. Harberger died of malarial fever a year later in October 1880. In October 1880, William Henry Smith of the

dry goods Dry goods is a historic term describing the type of product line a store carries, which differs by region. The term comes from the textile trade, and the shops appear to have spread with the mercantile trade across the British Empire (and Common ...

house of William H. Smith & Co. was elected to succeed Harberger as president of the Bank of the Manhattan Company. By 1885, Smith had retired from the company but remained interested in the affairs of the LaFarge Decorative Arts Company. 40 Wall Street Manhattan New York City

In 1891, the board of directors of the Bank of Manhattan Trust Company elected Stephen Baker vice president. Baker, a son of former

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

Stephen Baker and protégé of financier

John Stewart Kennedy John Stewart Kennedy (January 4, 1830 – October 30, 1909) was a Scottish-born American businessman, financier and philanthropist. He was a member of the Jekyll Island Club (also known as The Millionaires' Club) on Jekyll Island, Georgia al ...

, was the grandson of Stephen Baker, a New York merchant who was one of the original stockholders of the Manhattan Company. Two years later, in 1893, Baker was elected president at the age of only 34, succeeding John Stewart Kennedy who served as president ''

pro tem ''Pro tempore'' (), abbreviated ''pro tem'' or ''p.t.'', is a Latin phrase which best translates to 'for the time being' in English. This phrase is often used to describe a person who acts as a '' locum tenens'' ('placeholder'). The phrase is ...

'' for a few months following the resignation of D. C. Hays.

20th century

During his tenure as president, the bank expanded from its single original office at 40

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

, opened in September 1799, to a chain of forty-eight offices in many different sections of New York City, with resources of $300,000,000. It also absorbed, in succession, the Bank of Long Island, the Bank of the Metropolis, and the Merchants' National Bank of New York on March 1, 1920, effective March 27, 1920. Merchants' then president, Raymond E. Jones, became vice president and second in command of the combined institutions. Coincidentally, Merchants' National had been chartered in 1804 through the efforts of Alexander Hamilton as a rival to the Manhattan Company, launched by Aaron Burr. In 1923, it moved its headquarters briefly to the Prudence Building and then in May 1929, construction began on what was briefly the tallest building in the world, at

(known as the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building) on the site of the Gallatin Bank Building, from April 1930 until May 1930 when it was surpassed by the

Chrysler Building The Chrysler Building is a , Art Deco skyscraper in the East Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. Located at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, it is the tallest brick building in the world wit ...

. In 1927, after thirty-four years as president, and an increase from one branch to a network with forty-eight branches and an increase in deposits to $300,000,000, Baker turned the presidency and a considerable stock ownership over to his son, J. Stewart Baker, who had just turned thirty-four. The elder Baker served as chairman of the board until 1932 when he became honorary chairman and was again succeeded by his son. In 1928, the Company increased its capital from $12,500,000 to $15,000,000 in connection with its acquisition of the Flushing National Bank, the Bayside National Bank, the Queens-Bellaire Bank, and the First National Bank of Whitestone. Later that year, it again increased its capital to $16,000,000 when it acquired the Bronx Borough Bank, and the First National Bank of Brooklyn. The acquisitions led to the bank having sixty-one offices throughout New York City. In December 1928, the 129-year-old Bank of the Manhattan Company announced a joint affiliation with the International Acceptance Bank (and its subsidiary, the International Acceptance Trust Company), which had been organized in 1921 by

Paul Warburg Paul Moritz Warburg (August 10, 1868 – January 24, 1932) was a German-born American investment banker who served as the second vice chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1916 to 1918. Prior to his term as vice chairman, Warburg served as one o ...

. The plan was for each institution to retain their present identities, but have the Bank of the Manhattan Company shareholders own the stock of the International Acceptance Bank, leading its owners to receive shares of the Bank of the Manhattan Company "in an amount that will make it one of the most important factors in that organization." In March 1929, the shareholders of the Bank of the Manhattan Company approved its plan to increase capital from $16,000,000 to $22,500,000 to acquire all the stock of the International Acceptance Bank, Inc. After completion, J. Stewart Baker remained president of the Bank of the Manhattan Company and became vice chairman of the board of International Acceptance. Warburg became associate chairman of the board of the Bank of Manhattan and F. Abott Goodhue remained as president of International Acceptance and became a member of the board of the Bank of the Manhattan Company. The business of the International Acceptance Trust Company was taken over by the Bank of the Manhattan Company. At the same time, the two banks created the International Manhattan Company, Inc. with Warburg's son,

James Warburg James Paul Warburg (August 18, 1896 – June 3, 1969) was a German-born American banker, businessman, and writer. He was well known for being the financial adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt. His father was banker Paul Warburg, member of the Warb ...

, as president of the new company which succeeded to the foreign securities business of the International Acceptance Bank, Inc. All of the stock of the new corporation was held by International Acceptance and the Bank of the Manhattan Company. In December 1929, the name Bank of the Manhattan Company was abandoned and the firm was transformed into a holding corporation under the name Manhattan Company while also increasing its capital to $40,000,000 to allow for further acquisitions. The new holding company owned the entire capital stock of the Bank of Manhattan Trust Company, the International Acceptance Bank, and the International Manhattan Company. At that time, Baker also became president of the Bank of Manhattan Trust Company, which he later relinquished to Goodhue on December 10, 1931, to enable Baker to devote more time to the affairs of the Manhattan Company. In February 1932, following the death of Paul Warburg on January 24, 1932, J. Stewart Baker was elected successor chairman of the board of the Manhattan Company, Warburg's son James succeeded to Baker's vice chairman role (after recently becoming president of the International Acceptance Bank) and Goodhue was elected successor chairman of the International Acceptance Bank. In October 1932, the directors of the Manhattan Company restored the company to its old status as a bank, absorbing or distributing to shareholders the various banking institutions which it controlled. The New York Title and Mortgage Company was distributed to shareholders through a holding company, and the International Acceptance Bank, Inc. was merged into the Bank of Manhattan Trust Company, with that entity then being absorbed by the Manhattan Company. The banking business was then continued under the name Bank of the Manhattan Company and had the same capital, $56,816,466.

For some time the officers and directors of the Manhattan Company group have recognized that public opinion no longer favors the affiliation of a banking institution with other companies, and that conditions have so changed since 1929 that many of the advantages which at that time were inherent in the affiliation of various companies through a holding company have disappeared.

By March 31, 1938, the Bank of the Manhattan Company reported total deposits of $505,477,944 and total assets of $612,951,711, compared, respectively, with $504,800,925 and $566,271,489 on December 31, 1937. In December 1948, Goodhue retired as president of the combined bank and was succeeded by Lawrence C. Marshall, who served as president of the bank until 1955. The bank merged with

in 1955 to become Chase Manhattan. In 1996, Chase Manhattan was acquired by

Chemical Bank Chemical Bank, headquartered in New York City, was the principal operating subsidiary of Chemical Banking Corporation, a bank holding company. In 1996, it acquired Chase Bank, adopted the Chase name, and became the largest bank in the United Stat ...

, which retained the Chase name, to form what was then the largest bank holding company in the United States.

21st century

In December 2000, the bank acquired J.P. Morgan & Co. to form JPMorgan Chase & Co. Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited continues as of August 2020 to issue a credit card by the name of Manhattan, descending from its acquisition of the retail banking business in Hong Kong of Chase Manhattan in 2000.

List of presidents of the Manhattan Company

* Daniel Ludlow, 1799 * Henry Remsen, 1808 * John Gerard Coster, 1825 * Maltby Gelston, 1829 * Jonathan Thompson, 1840 * Caleb O. Halsted, 1847 * James M. Morrison, 1860 *John S. Harberger, 1879 * William Henry Smith, 1880 * D. C. Hays *

, 1893 * Stephen Baker, 1893 * J. Stewart Baker, 1927 * F. Abott Goodhue, 1932 * Lawrence C. Marshall, 1948

References

Notes Sources

External links

*
History of JPMorgan Chase

National Information Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bank Of The Manhattan Company American companies established in 1799 Banks established in 1799 1799 establishments in New York (state) 1955 disestablishments in New York (state) Banks disestablished in 1955 Banks based in New York City JPMorgan Chase