John Stewart Kennedy

John Stewart Kennedy (January 4, 1830 – October 30, 1909) was a Scottish-born American businessman, financier and philanthropist.[1][2] He was a member of the Jekyll Island Club (also known as The Millionaires' Club) on Jekyll Island, Georgia along with J.P. Morgan and William Rockefeller among others.

John Stewart Kennedy
President of the Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York
In office
1884–1887
Preceded byWalter Watson
Succeeded byBryce Gray
In office
1879–1882
Preceded byJames Brand
Succeeded byWalter Watson
Personal details
Born(1830-01-04)January 4, 1830
Blantyre, Scotland
Died(1909-10-30)October 30, 1909
New York City, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Spouse(s)
Emma Baker
​
​
(m. 1858; his death 1909)​
RelationsJohn Kennedy Todd (nephew)
OccupationBusinessman, financier, philanthropist
Signature

Early life

Kennedy was born at Blantyre in Scotland on January 4, 1830.[3] He was the fifth son of nine children born to John Kennedy and Isabella (née Stewart) Kennedy.[4]

While a child, his family moved to Glasgow where he was educated until the age of thirteen before entering a shipping office as a clerk while still attending morning and evening classes in an attempt to complete his education.[5]

Career

From 1847 until 1850, he was a salesman with the Mossend Iron & Coal Company. In 1850, at age twenty, he was asked by William Bird, of the iron firm William Bird & Company of London, whom Kennedy had met during Bird's visit to Glasgow, to become the firm's representative in the United States and Canada.[4]

He arrived in the New York on June 29, 1850 and spent the next two years traveling to all the major cities in Canada and the United States, including Quebec and New Orleans. In Autumn 1852, he returned to Glasgow to lead the branch office of the firm following the accidental drowning of his brother who had led the office. Kennedy remained in Glasgow until 1856.[4]

M.K. Jesup & Company

Kennedy returned to New York in December 1856, and formed a partnership with Morris Ketchum Jesup known as M.K. Jesup & Company that began with a focus on railroad iron and materials but eventually shifted to banking. From this partnership he retired in 1867 and spent a year traveling abroad.[4]

During his partnership with Jesup, he spent a year in Chicago where he established a branch of the firm under the name Jesup, Kennedy & Co.[3]

J.S. Kennedy & Company

In 1868, he formed J.S. Kennedy & Company, a banking firm, and spent the next fifteen years devoting himself to "financial affairs of magnitude and importance."[4] He aided in the reorganization of various financial concerns, notably in 1888, when he acted with J. S. Harris as receiver of the New Jersey Central Railroad,[6] and served as president of the International & Great Northern Railroad Company of Texas as well as a director, and vice-president, of the Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Lafayette Railroad Company of which he helped reorganize after its 1870 bankruptcy.[4]

In 1872, Kennedy and Sir William John Menzies of Edinburgh organized the Scottish American Investment Company in Scotland. J.S. Kennedy & Company acted as the American agent of the Company which invested solely in bonds issued by North American railroad companies. Over time, the investment portfolio broadened out over time to include shares as well as bonds and industrial, commercial and public utility companies.[4]

On December 1, 1883, he retired and left the firm to his nephew, John Kennedy Tod, as well as other junior partners who reorganized the firm under the name J. Kennedy Tod & Company. In retirement, Kennedy broadened his role as a financier with diverse interests in leading New York financial intermediaries. Kennedy held the post of president pro tem of the Bank of the Manhattan Company from 1883 to 1884, when he became vice president until he resigned for reasons of health in 1888.[7]

Kennedy also served as a trustee of the Central Trust Company from 1882 until he died. Kennedy held similar positions with the National Bank of Commerce from 1887 to 1909, the New York Life Insurance Company from 1903 to 1906, the Title Guarantee and Trust Company from 1895 to 1909, and the United States Trust Company of New York from 1896 to 1909. As a result of his varied banking activities, Kennedy became a central figure in the history of American banking and in the New York business community.[7]

Personal life

In 1858, he was married to Emma Baker (1833–1930) in Elizabeth, New Jersey, only two years after moving to New York City. Emma was the daughter of Jenette Ten Eyck (née Edgar) Baker and Cornelius Baker,[4] one of the founders of New York University.[8] He had no children but mentored his sister Mary Kennedy's son John Kennedy Todd in the international banking and investment profession.[7]

He was a member of the Century Association, Metropolitan Club, Downtown Club, Grolier Club, Union League Club, City Club, New York Yacht Club and Atlantic Yacht Clubs, the Jekyl Island Club, and the New-York Historical Society.[9]

Kennedy died of whooping cough in 1909 at his home, 6 West 57 Street in New York.[10] Honorary pallbearers at his funeral included, Stephen Baker, president of the Bank of Manhattan Company (son of Stephen Baker); Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University; Robert W. DeForest, president of the Charity Organization Society; Cleveland H. Dodge; Howard Elliot, president of the Northern Pacific Railway; Seth Low; J. Pierpont Morgan; George A. Morrison; former President of the St. Andrews Society; Henry L. Smith, John A. Stewart and Frederick Sturges, Vice President of the Presbyterian Hospital. Others present in the church for his funeral were Andrew Carnegie and his wife, Louise Whitfield Carnegie, Henry De Forest and Eugene Delano.[11]

His widow continued his philanthropy after his death and gave millions of dollars to educational and charitable causes.[12][13] She died at their summer home, Kenarden Lodge in Bar Harbor, Maine in July 1930 at the age of 96.[14][15]

Philanthropy and legacy

Kennedy was prominently connected during his life with New York charities, and his will gave away $30,000,000—bequests of $2,500,000 each to Columbia University, the New York Public Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, Presbyterian Church Erection Fund, and Presbyterian Hospital of New York City; four gifts of $1,500,000 each; three of $750,000 each; nine (to colleges) of $100,000 each; and 10 (to colleges) of $50,000 each; besides numerous smaller gifts.[6][16]

Kennedy was also the President of the Board of Trustees of Robert College, Istanbul, Turkey, and the chairman of the Presbyterian Hospital and United Charities boards, Second Vice President and a member of the Executive Committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Second Vice President of the New York Public Library, and was at one time the Vice President of the New York Chamber of Commerce.[7]

As well as his many positions in finance Kennedy was a keen art collector. In his later life Kennedy donated many pieces to the Metropolitan Museum of Art including the second painting of Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze's famous Washington Crossing the Delaware, a full-sized replica of the first, in 1897.[7]

During his life Kennedy also funded the construction of Hamilton Hall, the home of Columbia University. The building is named after Alexander Hamilton; an American statesman and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, who attended King's College, Columbia's original name.[17]

The city of Kennedy, Minnesota is named for him.[7]

References
  1. "Mr. John S. Kennedy. Interesting Sketch Of The Life Of An Honored Citizen Of New-York". New York Times. February 20, 1893. Retrieved July 11, 2010.
  2. "John Stewart Kennedy". National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. 1913. Retrieved July 12, 2010. Kennedy, John Stewart, financier and philanthropist, was born at Blantyre, near Glasgow, Scotland, Jan. 4, 1830, son of John and Isabel (Stewart) Kennedy. He was educated in the public schools of Glasgow. His father's circumstances made it impossible to expect a college career, and at the age of thirteen the son began his business life as a clerk in a shipping office. Four years later he transferred his services to an iron and coal concern in Glasgow, and in 1850 a London firm in the iron and metal business made him an offer to travel for it in the United States and Canada, and he eagerly accepted the opportunity of broadening his experience and enlarging his prospects for advancement. He came to the United States in June,. 1850, and made his headquarters in New York city for two years. He went back to become the manager of the same firm's branch office in Glasgow, and he held that position from August, 1852, until December, 1856, but the institutions and the opportunities of the ...
  3. "J. S. KENNEDY DEAD OF WHOOPING COUGH; The Financier and Philanthropist Was Ill at His City Home Only Two Weeks. BEGAN HIS CAREER AT 13 Rose from a Scotch Mining Clerk to be a Railroad Man and Banker Worth Millions -- His Charities" (PDF). The New York Times. November 1, 1909. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  4. Morrison, George Austin (1906). History of Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York, 1756-1906. Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York. pp. 122–130. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  5. Johnson, Rossiter; Brown, John Howard (1904). The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans ... Biographical Soceity. pp. 232–233. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  6. "John Stewart Kennedy". New International Encyclopedia.
  7. Engelbourg, Saul; Bushkoff, Leonard (1996). The Man Who Found The Money : John Stewart Kennedy and the Financing of the Western Railroads. Michigan State University Press. ISBN 0870134140. Retrieved August 7, 2019.
  8. "Mrs. John Stewart Kennedy Gives a Philosophy Hall to New York University as a Memorial to Her Father, Cornelius Baker" (PDF). The New York Times. May 26, 1912. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  9. "Archives Directory for the History of Collecting". research.frick.org. Retrieved November 23, 2016.
  10. "John Stewart Kennedy Leaves More Than $25,000,000 to Charity". The Montreal Gazetteauthor=. November 6, 1909. Retrieved July 11, 2010.
  11. "JOHN S. KENNEDY'S FUNERAL Financiers and Trustees of Institutions at Services for Philanthropist" (PDF). The New York Times. November 4, 1909. Retrieved August 7, 2019.
  12. "WILL OF MISS DIKE RIDS LEAGUE GROUP; Smith College Also to Share in Her $100,000 Estate--Carstairs Left $383,309. HUBERT GIFTS DISTRIBUTED 33 Institutions to Get $4,600,000 Apportioned for Inventor--Kennedy Legacies to Charity" (PDF). The New York Times. December 19, 1930. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  13. "N.Y.U. GIFTS TOTAL $621,671 SINCE MAY; Largest Is Bequest of $402,213 From the Estate of Emma Baker Kennedy" (PDF). The New York Times. November 12, 1933. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  14. "MRS. J.S. KENNEDY DIES IN BAR HARBOR; Widow of Philanthropist Had Herself Given Millions to Many Charities. SHE WAS 96 YEARS OLD Honorary Degree Awarded Her Last Year for Her Help to New York University" (PDF). The New York Times. July 24, 1930. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  15. "FUNERAL HELD HERE FOR MRS. KENNEDY; Rev. Dr. M.C. Morgan Officiates at Services at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church" (PDF). The New York Times. July 29, 1930. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  16. "Mr. Kennedy Bequests". New York Times. November 7, 1909. Retrieved July 11, 2010. The list of bequests for public purposes made in the will of Mr. John Stewart Kennedy is an admirable picture of the nature of the man, his ideals, his interests, his mode of looking at life.
  17. "TRUSTEE AND NOTED BENEFACTOR DEAD John Stewart Kennedy, Donor of Hamilton Hall, Dies of Whooping-Cough DEAN VAN AM PAYS HIM TRIBUTE He Was Widely Known as a Prominent Financier, and a Generous Philanthropist". Columbia Daily Spectator. November 1, 1909. Retrieved August 7, 2019.
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