J. Borden Harriman

Jefferson Borden Harriman (September 20, 1864 – December 2, 1914) was a New York financier and member of the Gilded Age's “hunting set.” He was best known as the supportive husband of Florence Jaffray Harriman, a socialite who became a progressive social activist and (after his death) a United States Ambassador to Norway during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was a cousin of railroad tycoon Edward Harriman, who was the father of statesman and diplomat W. Averell Harriman. A lingering gastrointestinal problem led to his early retirement and death.

J. Borden Harriman
BornSeptember 20, 1864
DiedDecember 2, 1914(1914-12-02) (aged 50)
Alma materPrinceton University
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1889)​
ChildrenEthel Harriman
Parent(s)Oliver Harriman
Laura Low
RelativesAnne Harriman Vanderbilt (sister)
Oliver Harriman Jr. (brother)
Herbert M. Harriman (brother)
E. H. Harriman (cousin)

Early life

J. Borden Harriman was born on September 20, 1864.[1][2] His father, Oliver Harriman, was a partner of a dry goods commission house, which evolved into Low, Harriman & Co. (and then Harriman & Co.), an investment banking firm located on Worth Street, and later 111 Broadway, in Manhattan. Laura was the daughter of James Low, Oliver's business partner.[2] He had seven siblings. In addition to brothers James, Oliver Jr., Joseph, and Herbert, J. Borden had three oft-married sisters—Emeline Harriman Dodge Olin, Anna Harriman Sands Rutherfurd Vanderbilt, and Lillie Harriman Travers Havemeyer.[2]

In 1901, his mother died.[3] Later that year, he and his siblings successfully petitioned a New York court to declare their 70-year-old father incapable to manage his affairs due to senile dementia.[4] At the time, his father's wealth was estimated at over $5 million. His father died the following year.[2]

Harriman graduated from Princeton University in 1885.

Career

Harriman joined his father's business, becoming an investment banker.[1] In 1903, he bid for a seat on the New York Stock Exchange's governing committee, but was thwarted by an outside candidate, even though Harriman had received the committee's nomination, and all other regular nominees prevailed.[5]

He and several brothers and cousins were founding directors or officers in the Day and Night Bank, established in 1906 as the world's first 24-hour bank.[6][7] Once open, the owners added further innovations—a separate branch reserved for women customers,[8] and an automobile "safe on wheels" that would pick up cash and valuables from depositors’ homes.[9] In 1910, after four years of 24-hour operations, it began to restrict its weekday hours, closing from midnight to 8 am.[10]

Harriman left the bank's board of directors in January 1911, when the Day and Night Bank developed an intimate relationship with Merchants' National Bank of New York but changed its name to the Harriman National Bank (reflecting the continued influence of other members of the Harriman family in the bank's ownership and management).[11] Twenty-two years later, after the bank failed in the financial crisis of 1932–1933, its longtime president Joseph Wright Harriman, formerly of Harriman & Co., was convicted by a federal jury of misappropriating bank funds,[12] and served 25 months in prison.[13]

U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations

Harriman retired the next month, at age 48, from Harriman & Co.[14][15] Later that year, newly elected President Woodrow Wilson appointed Mrs. Harriman as a member of the first U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations. After President Wilson's appointment, the couple moved to Washington D.C., keeping a residence in New York City while donating their Mount Kisco, New York estate for use as a tuberculosis sanitorium.[1] In early 1914, he lent his yacht, "The SS Mohican," to German prince Wilhelm Friedrich Heinrich, who had been chosen by other European monarchs to rule as William, Prince of Albania.[16]

Harriman, his wife and daughter found themselves in the middle of Europe as World War I erupted in the summer of 1914. Hoping that the healing waters in the Bohemian spa in Karlsbad would benefit his health, the family traveled to Europe in June 1914.[17] After meeting with leading British and French officials while relations between the European powers deteriorated, they traveled through France to Karlsbad (then a part of Austria-Hungary), and were there when Austria-Hungary attacked Serbia in late July.[17] After leaving Karlsbad on the last train crossing the frontier through Germany to France,[18] they eventually returned, without their belongings, to New York on an armed British vessel, the RMS Adriatic.[17]

Personal life
Harriman's wife, Florence Jaffray Harriman, was a suffragist, social reformer, and diplomat.

On November 13, 1889, he married nineteen-year-old Florence Jaffray Hurst, daughter of shipping executive (and former Civil War Union blockade runner) F.W.J. Hurst.[1] The list of attendees at their wedding included past and future president Grover Cleveland, railroad tycoons Cornelius Vanderbilt and Edward Harriman, John Jacob Astor IV, and J. P. Morgan.[19] Together, they had one child:[17]

Harriman became seriously ill in January 1913 with what newspapers described as a lingering “digestive troubles.”[1] His health continued to deteriorate,[22] and he died in Washington on December 1, 1914.[1] His prolonged illness, the resulting lack of income, and the expense of maintaining several homes had reportedly consumed nearly all of his net worth.[23] His widow immediately resumed her public and political service, which continued for several decades.[24] She survived her husband by over fifty years (living 97 years until her death in 1967), but never remarried.[25]

References
  1. "J.Borden Harriman, Ex-Banker, Is Dead; New York Financier Succumbs at 50 in Washington After a Long Illness. Cousin Of E. H. Harriman Took" (PDF). The New York Times. 2 December 1914. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  2. "Death of Oliver Harriman.; Prominent in City's Commercial and Social Life for Many Years" (PDF). The New York Times. 13 March 1904. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  3. "Mrs. Laura Harriman's Will" (PDF). The New York Times. 16 June 1901. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  4. "O. Harriman, Sr., Insane.; Millionaire Septuagenarian incompetent to Manage His Estate" (PDF). The New York Times. 18 December 1901. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  5. “R. H. Thomas President of the Stock Exchange,” New York Times, 1903-05-13.
  6. "Day and Night Bank May 1.; Money at Any Hour Then -- for Those Who Have It" (PDF). The New York Times. 7 April 1906. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  7. "First All-Night Bank in the World Opens To-morrow; An Innovation Which Is Without Precedent in Business Methods, but Has Been Long in Demand" (PDF). The New York Times. 29 April 1906. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  8. "A Bank for Women All to Themselves; Night and Day Institution to Make Another New Departure. It Meets the Feminine Need There'll Be Sitting and Dressing Rooms, with Tea Later, Maybe -- Opens Oct. 1" (PDF). The New York Times. 23 September 1906. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  9. "An Automobile Bank to Call at Your Door; The Night and Day Officials Will Run a Safe on Wheels. Guarded Against Thieves the Plan Is to Save Depositors the Trouble of Going to the Teller, Especially at Night" (PDF). The New York Times. 10 November 1906. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  10. "No Banking After Midnight.; The Night and Day Bank Finds That Business Doesn't Warrant It" (PDF). The New York Times. 1 June 1910. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  11. "Night and Day to Be the Harriman Bank; The Fifth Avenue Institution Changes Its Name, but Not Its Hours" (PDF). The New York Times. 11 January 1911. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  12. "Harriman Is Convicted of 16 Illegal Bank Acts; Austin, His Aide, Cleared; Judge Praises Verdict Says It Should Have a 'Salutary Effect' on Other Bankers. Jury Is Out Two Hours Stunned by Decision, 67-Year-Old Defendant Returns to Hospital Pending Sentence. He Is Expected to Appeal Faces Long Term and Fine for False Entries and Misuse of Bank Assets in Stock Drive. Harriman Guilty; His Aide Cleared" (PDF). The New York Times. 20 June 1934. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  13. Inc, Time (15 November 1937). "Private Lives". LIFE magazine. Time Inc: 112. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  14. "Stock Exchange News" (PDF). The New York Times. 2 February 1913. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  15. "J.B. Harriman's Will Filed.; He Transferred Most of His Property Before Death to His Wife" (PDF). The New York Times. 25 December 1914. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  16. Times, Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph To the New York (26 January 1914). "New King to Risk Trip for His Crown; Charters Harriman Yacht to Make an Impressive Entry Into Albania" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  17. Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, “From Pinafores to Politics,” (Henry Holt & Co., 1923) ASIN B00085GSYO (available in the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, Library of Congress and accessed 2010-07-31).
  18. “Carlsbad a Trap for New Yorkers,” New York Times, 1914-08-08.”
  19. "The Wedding of Miss Hurst and Mr. Harriman at St. Thomas's". The New York Times. November 14, 1889. Retrieved 2010-10-29. Two of the most popular of the younger members of the hunting set, Miss Florence Jaffray Hurst, daughter of F.W.J. Hurst and granddaughter of E.S. Jaffray, and J. Borden Harriman, son of Oliver Harriman, were wedded yesterday ...
  20. "Ethel Borden – Broadway Cast & Staff | IBDB". ibdb.com. Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  21. Broadway Database entry for Ethel Borden and Internet Movie Database entry for Ethel Borden.
  22. "J. Borden Harriman Dying in Mt. Kisco; Former Banker Sinking at Summer Home Under Acute Attack of Digestive Trouble. Afflicted for Many Years Relatives Hurry to His Bedside -Hardships Suffered in War Zone Aggravated His Illness". The New York Times. 8 October 1914. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  23. “The Inside Story of Ethel Harriman's War Romance,” Washington Post, 1918-02-10, (magazine section) p. 1.
  24. "Mrs. J. Borden Harriman Ill" (PDF). The New York Times. 15 December 1914. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  25. "Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, Ex-Envoy, Dies at 97. Served in Norway at Time of Nazi Invasion in 1940 Given First Citation of Merit by Kennedy in April, 1963". New York Times. September 1, 1967. Retrieved 2010-10-29. Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, Minister to Norway at the beginning of World War II and an early crusader for social rights, died at her Georgetown home here today. She was 97 years old.
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