Isaac Henry Bry immigrated to America from Geneva, Switzerland in 1801 and arrived in Ouachita Parish in 1803 (the year of the Louisiana Purchase) and fell in love with the area. A renaissance fellow, curious, intelligent and interested in everything, he was a drafter and signer of the first Louisiana Constitution in 1812, a Parish Judge, President of the Board of Public Works (helping to identify the rivers navigable for steamboats), acted as a translator with the local Native American tribes, and established a plantation called Mulberry Grove, growing cotton and sugar, primarily.
He also developed a brick making business on the property and experimented with all kinds of crops and plants to see what would grow best in the area. He had one of the largest libraries in Northern Louisiana. He was also a slave owner and at the time of his death listed 58 enslaved people in his will.
NOTE: With the help of University of Louisiana - Monroe, an initial focus of the Bry-Layton Archives is to transcribe and index documentation related to enslaved people to support genealogists and historians in their research.
MONROE: Bry played a role in Monroe acquiring it's name:
The first steamboat to arrive in what was called Fort Miro at that time, was the James Monroe (1819). The locals, excited by this, got together, led by Bry, and headed down to the steamboat and a party ensued. There was apparently much imbibing involved. Bry suggested they rename "Fort Miro", "Monroe" - and all agreed.
FAMILY: Bry had six children with his first wife, Marie Agnes Seuzeneau (1786-1821), most of whom lived to adulthood. Seuzeneau died in 1821 - a partial gravestone is in the family cemetery (Bry-Layton Cemetery).
Bry married the widow Nancy Tennille Barlow in 1823. Nancy Tennille and Henry had eight children, though few lived to adulthood. You'll find many gravestones in the family cemetery of the children who died. Melinda Tennille Bry, their youngest child, (1838-1892) inherited the house and grounds and married Robert Layton II from New Orleans, hence it later became known as Layton Place.
Stephen Girard (May 20, 1750 – December 26, 1831; born Étienne Girard) was a naturalized American citizen, philanthropist, and banker of French origin.[1] He singularly saved the U.S. government from financial collapse during the War of 1812 by personally financing the war, and is known to have been the first multi-millionaire in US history. He is estimated to have been the fourth richest American of all time, based on the ratio of his fortune to contemporary GDP.[2] Childless, he devoted much of his fortune to philanthropy, particularly the education and welfare of orphans. His legacy is still felt in his adopted home of Philadelphia and his estate continues to fund philanthropic endeavors to this day.[3]
Early life
Girard was born in Bordeaux, France on May 20, 1750, the son of a common sailor.[4]: 767
He lost the sight of his right eye at the age of eight and had little education. He travelled to New York as a cabin boy in 1760 and stayed there, working in the coastal trader system along the east coast and as far south as the Caribbean.[4]: 766 He was licensed as a captain in 1773, visited New York in 1774, and thence with the assistance of a New York merchant began to trade to and from New Orleans and Port au Prince. In May 1776, Girard sailed into the port of Philadelphia to avoid a group of Royal Navy warships and settled there running a grocery and liquor shop.[5]
By 1790, he had a fortune of $6000 plus a small fleet of trading vessels. In 1791, his merchantmen in the French colony of Saint-Domingue were involved in salvaging goods owned by French planters during the Haitian Revolution. He was left with $10,000 of goods stowed on his ships, the owners of which were likely massacred. Because the owners of the goods were not found, Girard added the goods to his possessions.[4]: 767
Girard participated in the Old China Trade, financing voyages to Canton. These voyages profited Girard through the sale of legitimate goods[6] as well as opium, which was smuggled into China.[6] Girard's business ventures in China ended in 1824 following an incident between one of his ships, the Terranova, and Chinese authorities.[6]
Marriage
In 1776, Girard met Mary Lum, a Philadelphia native nine years his junior. They married soon afterwards, and Girard purchased a home at 211 Mill Street in Mount Holly Township, New Jersey.[7] She was the daughter of John Lum, a shipbuilder who died three months before the marriage. In 1778 Girard became a resident of Pennsylvania. By 1785 Mary had begun succumbing to sudden, erratic emotional outbursts. Mental instability and violent rages ensued, leading to a diagnosis of incurable mental instability. Though Girard was initially devastated, by 1787 he took a mistress, Sally Bickham. In August 1790 Girard committed his wife to the Pennsylvania Hospital (today part of the University of Pennsylvania) as an incurable lunatic, providing her every luxury for comfort. During this time she gave birth to a girl whose sire is not entirely certain. The child, baptized with the name Mary, died a few months later while under the care of Mrs. John Hatcher, who had been hired by Girard as a nurse. Girard spent the remainder of his life with mistresses.[7]
Yellow fever
In 1793, there was an outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia. Although many other well-to-do citizens chose to leave the city, Girard stayed to care for the sick and dying. He supervised the conversion of a mansion outside the city limits into a hospital and recruited volunteers to nurse victims, and personally cared for patients. For his efforts, Girard was feted as a hero after the outbreak subsided.[8]: 121–133 Again during the yellow fever epidemic of 1797-1798 he took the lead in relieving the poor and caring for the sick.[5]
Girard's Bank
Main article: Girard Bank
Steel engraving of Stephen Girard by Alonzo Chappel
After the charter for the First Bank of the United States expired in 1811, Girard purchased most of its stock and its facilities on South Third Street in Philadelphia, and reestablished it under his direct personal ownership. He hired George Simpson, the cashier of the First Bank, as cashier of the new bank, and with seven other employees, opened for business on May 18, 1812. He allowed the Trustees of the First Bank of the United States to use some offices and space in the vaults to continue the process of winding down the affairs of the closed bank at a very nominal rent.[8]: 249 Although Pennsylvania law prohibited an association of individuals from banking without a charter, it made no such prohibition on a single individual doing so.[8]: 249–250 Philadelphia banks balked at accepting the notes that Girard issued on his personal credit and lobbied the state to force him to incorporate, without success.[9]
Girard's Bank was the principal source of government credit during the War of 1812, an outstanding $1 million.
Towards the end of the war, when the financial credit of the U.S. government was at its lowest, Girard placed nearly all of his resources at the disposal of the government and underwrote up to 95 percent of the war loan issue, which enabled the United States to carry on the war. After the war, he became a large stockholder in and one of the directors of the Second Bank of the United States. Girard's bank ceased operations upon his death.
Philadelphia businessmen, eager to cash in on Girard's reputation, opened a bank called the Girard Trust Company, and later Girard Bank. It merged with Mellon Bank in 1983, and was largely sold to Citizens Bank two decades later. Its monumental headquarters building still stands at Broad and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia.
Death, will and legacy
Statue in Stephen Girard Park, Philadelphia, PA
On December 22, 1830, Stephen Girard was seriously injured while crossing the street near Second and Market Streets in Philadelphia. He was knocked down by a horse and wagon, and one of its wheels ran over the left side of his face, lacerating his cheek and ear, as well as damaging his good (left) eye. Despite his age (80), he got up unassisted and returned to his nearby home, where a doctor dressed his wound. He threw himself back into his banking business, although he remained out of sight for two months. Nevertheless, he never fully recovered and he died on December 26, 1831. He was buried in the vault he built for his nephew in the Holy Trinity Catholic cemetery, then at Sixth and Spruce Streets. Twenty years later, his remains were re-interred in the Founder's Hall vestibule at Girard College behind a statue by Nicholas Gevelot, a French sculptor living in Philadelphia.[3]
At the time of his death, Girard was the wealthiest man in America.[8]: 329–333 Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther, in their book The Wealthy 100,[10]: 26 posit that, with adjustment for inflation, Girard was the fifth-wealthiest American of all time as of 1996, behind John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Jacob Astor. He was worth around $7.5 million at the time of his death,[10]: xi equal to $190,851,563 today. That worth made him the richest man in America in 1831.
He was an atheist all the way up to his death, and he included his views on religion in his last testament.[11]
Girard's will[12] was contested by his family in France but was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark case, Vidal et al. vs Girard's Executors, 43 U.S. 127 (1844).[13]
He bequeathed nearly his entire fortune to charitable[14] and municipal institutions of Philadelphia and New Orleans, including an estimated $6 million (at 1831 value) for establishing a boarding school for "poor, male, white orphans" in Philadelphia, primarily those who were the children of coal miners, which opened as the Girard College in 1848.[10]: 28
Girard also made a bequest of $10,000 to the public schools of Philadelphia, with the income from its investment to be used for the purchase of books for the school libraries, and a bequest for the establishment of funds to procure medals for deserving pupils.[15]
North America a bargue built by Stephen Girard (circa 1816)
Although no longer in common use, people used to use the phrase "Stephen Girard work" or "Stephen Girard job" to refer to useless work. Girard did not believe in idleness, and in a time when people were loathe to take handouts, he instead would pay for useless work. An example is paying workers to move bricks from one side of a yard to another (and then back again).[16]
A number of places are named after Stephen Girard.
Girard Avenue is a major east–west thoroughfare of North Philadelphia and West Philadelphia and the location of Girard College.
The neighborhood now known as Girard Estate is part of what was a successful farm that he established in the late 1700s, and includes the Stephen Girard Park where his "country mansion" still stands.
Girard Fountain Park is in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, in which a sculpture of Benjamin Franklin is displayed.
The borough of Girardville, Schuylkill County, is located roughly 110 miles northwest of Philadelphia, bordered by many acres of land still connected to the Girard Estate.
Stephen Girard Avenue is located in the Gentilly area of New Orleans.
Girard, Pennsylvania is located in Erie County, Pennsylvania, roughly 450 miles northwest of Philadelphia; named for him in 1832.
The community of Girard, Louisiana, is in Richland Parish, where Girard financed and oversaw the startup of a plantation managed by his friend and agent, Henry Bry, in 1821.[17]
A Liberty ship was built and christened USS Stephen Girard in 1942.
See also
Biography portal
Philadelphia portal
Stephen Simpson (writer), former employee at Girard's bank and author of book Biography of Stephen Girard, with His Will Affixed (1832), very critical of Girard.
List of richest Americans in history
List of wealthiest historical figures
War of 1812
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The crops that are grown include cotton, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar cane, opium, sisal, oil seeds, oil palms, fruits, rubber trees and forest trees. Protectionist policies and natural comparative advantage have sometimes contributed to determining where plantations are located.
In modern use the term is usually taken to refer only to large-scale estates, but in earlier periods, before about 1800, it was the usual term for a farm of any size in the southern parts of British North America, with, as Noah Webster noted, "farm" becoming the usual term from about Maryland northwards. It was used in most British colonies, but very rarely in the United Kingdom itself in this sense. There, as also in America, it was used mainly for tree plantations, areas artificially planted with trees, whether purely for commercial forestry, or partly for ornamental effect in gardens and parks, when it might also cover plantings of garden shrubs.[1]
Among the earliest examples of plantations these were the latifundia of the Roman Empire, which produced large quantities of grain, wine and olive oil for export. Plantation agriculture grew rapidly with the increase in international trade and the development of a worldwide economy that followed the expansion of European colonialism.
The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Slavery was established throughout European colonization in the Americas. From 1526, during early colonial days, it was practiced in what became Britain's colonies, including the Thirteen Colonies that formed the United States. Under the law, an enslaved person was treated as property that could be bought, sold, or given away. Slavery lasted in about half of U.S. states until abolition. In the decades after the end of Reconstruction, many of slavery's economic and social functions were continued through segregation, sharecropping, and convict leasing.
By the time of the American Revolution (1775–1783), the status of enslaved people had been institutionalized as a racial caste associated with African ancestry.[1] During and immediately following the Revolution, abolitionist laws were passed in most Northern states and a movement developed to abolish slavery. The role of slavery under the United States Constitution (1789) was the most contentious issue during its drafting. Although the creators of the Constitution never used the word "slavery", the final document, through the three-fifths clause, gave slave owners disproportionate political power by augmenting the congressional representation and the Electoral College votes of slaveholding states.[2] The Fugitive Slave Clause of the Constitution—Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3—provided that, if a slave escaped to another state, the other state had to return the slave to his or her master. This clause was implemented by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, passed by Congress. All Northern states had abolished slavery in some way by 1805; sometimes, abolition was a gradual process, a few hundred people were enslaved in the Northern states as late as the 1840 Census. Some slaveowners, primarily in the Upper South, freed their slaves, and philanthropists and charitable groups bought and freed others. The Atlantic slave trade was outlawed by individual states beginning during the American Revolution. The import trade was banned by Congress in 1808, although smuggling was common thereafter.[3][4] It has been estimated that about 30% of congressmen who were born before 1840 were, at some time in their lives, owners of slaves.[5]
The rapid expansion of the cotton industry in the Deep South after the invention of the cotton gin greatly increased demand for slave labor, and the Southern states continued as slave societies. The United States became ever more polarized over the issue of slavery, split into slave and free states. Driven by labor demands from new cotton plantations in the Deep South, the Upper South sold more than a million slaves who were taken to the Deep South. The total slave population in the South eventually reached four million.[6][7] As the United States expanded, the Southern states attempted to extend slavery into the new western territories to allow proslavery forces to maintain their power in the country. The new territories acquired by the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican Cession were the subject of major political crises and compromises.[8] By 1850, the newly rich, cotton-growing South was threatening to secede from the Union, and tensions continued to rise. Bloody fighting broke out over slavery in the Kansas Territory. Slavery was defended in the South as a "positive good", and the largest religious denominations split over the slavery issue into regional organizations of the North and South.
When Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election on a platform of halting the expansion of slavery, seven slave states seceded to form the Confederacy. Shortly afterward, on April 12, 1861, the Civil War began when Confederate forces attacked the U.S. Army's Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. Four additional slave states then joined the Confederacy after Lincoln, on April 15, called forth in response "the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress" the rebellion.[9] During the war some jurisdictions abolished slavery and, due to Union measures such as the Confiscation Acts and the Emancipation Proclamation, the war effectively ended slavery in most places. After the Union victory, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on December 6, 1865, prohibiting "slavery [and] involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime."[10]