A. Barton Hepburn

Alonzo Barton Hepburn (born July 24, 1846 in Colton, New York; died January 25, 1922 in New York City) was a United States Comptroller of the Currency from 1892 to 1893.^[1]

Barton Hepburn served as Comptroller for less than a year. He came to office from a varied and distinguished career. A descendant of a Scottish emigrant to the United States in the colonial era of the eighteenth century, he was a Professor of Mathematics at St. Lawrence Academy, before practicing law in his hometown. He was also the superintendent of banking of the state of New York, and five-term member of the New York State Assembly. He later was appointed as superintendent of the New York State Banking Department by Governor Alonzo B. Cornell. He then served as National Bank Examiner for the cities of New York and Brooklyn before his appointment as Comptroller of the Currency by President Benjamin Harrison. An internationally recognized authority on financial and economic questions, Hepburn returned to banking when President Grover Cleveland took office. He later succeeded Henry W. Cannon as president of the Chase National Bank.

After leaving the office of Comptroller he worked in the field of banking, becoming the president of the Third National Bank of New York then the Vice-President of the National City Bank in 1897 when the Third National Bank merged with other banks to form that company. He then became the President of the Chase National Bank.

Hepburn graduated from Middlebury College in 1871 and later served as a trustee.^[2] In 1906 he was given an honorary degree by St. Lawrence University.

Somewhat of a philanthropist, Hepburn donated funds to allow for the construction of a library for each school he served as a District Superintendent.

A prolific writer on the economy and financial matters, he wrote the books "History of Coinage and Currency in the United States: Perennial Contest for Sound Money" (1903), "A History of Currency in the United States" (1915), and "Artificial Waterways and Commercial Development". He also regularly contributed to magazines and periodicals.

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