Enoch White Clark

Enoch White Clark
Banker, founder of E.W. Clark & Co., and one of the richest men in Philadelphia at his death
Born(1802-11-16)November 16, 1802
Easthampton, Massachusetts, US
DiedAugust 4, 1856(1856-08-04) (aged 53)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Known forfounder of E. W. Clark & Co.
SpouseSarah Crawford Dodge
ChildrenEdward White Clark
Sarah Crawford Clark
Clarence Howard Clark, Sr.
J. Hinckley Clark
Frank Hamilton Clark
Sarah Crawford Clark
Mary White Clark

Enoch White Clark (November 16, 1802 – August 4, 1856) was the founder of E. W. Clark & Co.,[1] a prominent financial firm based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that helped the U.S. government finance the Mexican–American War. In 1857, Clark was listed as one of Philadelphia's 25 millionaires.[2]

Clark also launched the financial career of Jay Cooke, who helped finance the Union's war effort in the Civil War and establish a true national currency.

Biography

Clark was born in November 16, 1802, in Easthampton, Massachusetts, a descendant of Captain William Clark (1609–1690), who emigrated from England aboard the ship Mary and John and landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1630, and moved to the town of Easthampton in 1639.[3] Enoch traced his descent from William as follows: John (1651-1704), John (1679-1768), Eliakim (1707-1781), Lt. Asahel (1737-1822), to his father, Bohan (1772-1846), a merchant and miller who married Mary White (1777-?) on February 11, 1802.[4][5]

Enoch Clark got his start in finance by working as an office boy[6] at S. & M. Allen & Company, a prominent Philadelphia bank. In 1823, he was made a partner of a new branch of the bank in Providence, Rhode Island.[6] On February 1, 1826, Clark married Sarah Crawford Dodge (1806-1878), a daughter of Nehemiah Dodge.[7] (After she died, her son Edward White Clark commissioned a stained-glass window in her memory in the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia.[8])

In 1832, Clark launched his own bank in Boston, Massachusetts; it failed four years later, whereupon he headed back to Philadelphia.[9]

In 1837,[1] he created the E. W. Clark & Co. financial house with his two brothers, Luther Clapp Clark (July 4, 1815 - 1877) and Joseph Washington Clark (1810-1892); and brother-in-law, Edward Dodge.[10] It was described as a "general banking, commission, and exchange business."[11]

Clark's Philadelphia firm did well, earning enough to pay off his debts in seven years,[9] then to propel the Clarks to a place among the city's wealthiest families.[2] The firm opened branches in New York City, St. Louis, New Orleans,[6] and Burlington, Iowa,[10] and made considerable money performing domestic exchanges in the wake of the 1836 revocation of the charter of the Second Bank of the United States and the Panic of 1837. Moody's magazine, a monthly publication of the Moody's credit rating agency, later wrote:

During the first ten years of its development the firm gained wide recognition and public confidence, owing to the indomitable energy of Enoch W. Clark. The drafts of this house drawn between the various branches, were regarded as the very best circulating medium in the West. There were more than $2,000,000 worth of these drafts in circulation within a short time after the establishment of the western branch offices and they were considered everywhere as the equivalent of gold.[10]

Along the way, Clark hired a clerk who would one day shape the American financial system: 16-year-old Jay Cooke of Sandusky, Ohio. "Enoch W. Clark liked the boy's looks and he gave him a job. Cooke was assigned to the clerical department where his devotion to his work and his exceptional abilities in financial matters caused Mr. Clark to push him along," a 1914 history of the firm recounted.[11]

At the outbreak of the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), the U.S. government borrowed about $50 million (about $1,791,666,667 today[12]) from the firm, then recognized as "the leading domestic exchange house" in the country.[10]

In 1849, Enoch's oldest son, Edward White Clark, became a member of the firm. That same year, Cooke was made a partner. (Cooke retired from the firm in 1854, and went on to help to sell the bonds that financed the U.S. Civil War and push the cash-strapped American government to form a true national currency.)[11]

Enoch Clark "withdrew from the really active management" of his firm in 1850.[13] He died on August 4, 1856, of nicotine poisoning.[14][13]

Family

Enoch W. Clark was the patriarch of a family that gained much prominence in Philadelphia and national affairs. He married Sarah Crawford Dodge.[15][16] Together they had at least four sons and three daughters:

1 Edward White Clark (1828–1904)[6]. Financier whose children included Edward Walter Clark II, Joseph Sill Clark, Sr., and Percy Hamilton Clark. Their descendants included Edward Walter Clark III, Joseph Sill Clark, Jr., Mary Todhunter "Tod" Clark, Rodman Rockefeller, Steven Clark Rockefeller, and Michael Clark Rockefeller.[17][6]
2 Sarah Crawford Clark (1832-1835). Buried in North Burial Ground in Providence, Rhode Island.
3 Clarence Howard Clark, Sr. (1833–1906). Financier and developer whose children included Clarence Howard Clark, Jr.
4 J. Hinckley Clark (ca. 1835-1889). Became partner in E.W. Clark & Co. in 1872.[11]
5 Frank Hamilton Clark (1844-1882). Banker, president of the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad.
6 Sarah Crawford Clark (?-?)[18] whose descendants included Clarence Clark Zantzinger and Gei Zantzinger.
7 Mary White Clark (Sept. 6, 1842-1926):[19] Married John Appleton Burnham (?-1910[19]) in 1842.[20][21]

References

  1. ^ a b "E. W. Clark & Co. Observing 100th Anniversary Today". The Wall Street Journal. February 15, 1937. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved December 8, 2010.
  2. ^ a b Vitiello, Dominic; George E. Thomas (2010). The Philadelphia Stock Exchange and the City It Made. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-0812242249. Retrieved December 8, 2010. There is obviously some confusion by the source; Clark died in 1856. But the passage was directly about fellow financier Francis Drexel.
  3. ^ Andrew Wallace Barnes (1911). History of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. The founder of the firm was Enoch W. Clark, who was born in 1802 in East Hampton, Mass., and received his business ... Enoch W. Clark died in 1856. The present partners are Edward Walter Clark, Clarence M. Clark, Herbert L. Clark, ...
  4. ^ Memorials of Elder John White, One of the First Settlers of Hartford, Conn., and of His Descendants, 1860
  5. ^ Proceedings of the New England Historic Genealogical Society
  6. ^ a b c d e Young, John Russell; Jenkins, Howard Malcolm; Seilhamer, George Oberkirsh (1898). Memorial History of the City of Philadelphia, from Its First Settlement to Year 1895: Special and biographical. New York History Company. ISBN 9785871274941. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  7. ^ "Married". Providence, Rhode Island. Christian Telescope. February 4, 1826. p. 108. Retrieved October 19, 2013.
  8. ^ Census of Stained Glass Windows in America Window: First Unitarian Church - Window L1
  9. ^ a b Barnes, Andrew Wallace (1911). History of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, Banks and Banking Interests. Cornelius Baker.
  10. ^ a b c d "E.W. Clark & Company". Moody's Magazine. 17: 72. January–December 1914.
  11. ^ a b c d "E.W. Clark & Co". United States Investor. 25 (27–52): 2013–14 (43–44). 1914.
  12. ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  13. ^ a b "Enoch W. Clark". The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. 1896. Retrieved December 8, 2010. Clark, Enoch W., banker, was born in East Hampton, Mass., Nov. 16, 1802, a descendant of Capt. William Clark, who came from England in 1630, and removed to the town of East Hampton in 1639. At the age of sixteen our subject removed to Philadelphia, and entered the office of S.tfc M. Allen, one of the leading financial houses, with main offices in Philadelphia and New York, and branches in Charleston, Louisville, Albany, and other cities. ...
  14. ^ "Death of a Banker". The Baltimore Sun. August 5, 1856. Retrieved December 8, 2010. Mr. Enoch W. Clark, of the firm of E W. Clark & Co, bankers and exchange brokers, Third street, died yesterday morning after a long and painful illness, caused by cancer of the tongue Mr Clark is extensively known over the whole Union, being connected with the house of Clark, Dodge & Co., New York, and also with houses in the West, St Louis, ...
  15. ^ "Clark and Madeira Family Papers • University Archives and Records Center". University Archives and Records Center. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  16. ^ "CLARK AND MADEIRA FAMILY" (PDF). ARCHIVAL COLLECTIONS; Clark and Madeira Family Papers, 1820 - 1942 (bulk 1850 - 1925). University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Records Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 5, 2013. Retrieved December 8, 2010.
  17. ^ Reich, Cary. The Life of Nelson A. Rockefeller: Worlds to Conquer, 1908 - 1958, New York: Doubleday, 1996.
  18. ^ A committee of the Society of the alumni (1894). University of Pennsylvania. Biographical catalogue of the matriculates of the college, together with lists of the members of the college faculty and the trustees, officers and recipients of honorary degrees. 1749-1893. University of Pennsylvania. p. 212. hdl:2027/mdp.39015036766767. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  19. ^ a b "TimesMachine: Sunday August 22, 1926 - NYTimes.com". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  20. ^ Son's NYT marriage announcement, 1911
  21. ^ Lineage Book; National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Daughters of the American Revolution. 1910. p. 173.
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