Stephen Girard

Stephen Girard
Stephen Girard, late in life
Born	(1750-05-20)May 20, 1750 Bordeaux, France
Died	December 26, 1831(1831-12-26) (aged 81) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Occupation	Sailor, banker, entrepreneur
Net worth	USD $7.5 million at the time of his death (approximately 1/150th of US GNP)[1]
Spouse(s)	Mary Girard
Children	Mary Girard (died in infancy)
Signature

Stephen Girard (May 20, 1750 – December 26, 1831) (born Étienne Girard) was a French-born, naturalized American, philanthropist and banker. He personally saved the U.S. government from financial collapse during the War of 1812, and became one of the wealthiest people in America, 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.

Early life

Girard was born in Bordeaux, France. He lost the sight of his right eye at the age of eight and had little education. His father was a sea captain, and the son cruised to the Caribbean and back, was licensed captain in 1773, visited California 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, he was driven into the port of Philadelphia by a British fleet and settled there as a merchant.^[3]

Marriage

In 1776, Girard met Mary Lum, a Philadelphia native and nine years his junior. They married soon afterwards and Girard purchased a home at 211 Mill Street in Mount Holly Township, New Jersey.^[4] She was the daughter of John Lum, a shipbuilder, who died three months before the marriage. Girard became a citizen of Pennsylvania (1778). By 1785, Mary had started to succumb to sudden, erratic emotional outbursts. Mental instability and violent rages led to a diagnosis of mental instability that was not curable. Although Girard was at first 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. After he gave her every luxury for comfort, 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 rest of his life with mistresses.^[4]

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 by the City Hall after the outbreak subsided.^[5] Again during the yellow fever epidemic of 1797-1798 he took the lead in relieving the poor and caring for the sick.^[3]

Girard's Bank

After the charter for the First Bank of the United States expired in 1811, Girard purchased most of its stock as well as the building and its furnishings on South Third Street in Philadelphia and opened his own bank, variously known as “Girard’s Bank,”^[6] or as “Girard Bank.” ^[7] or also as “Stephen Girard’s Bank” or even the “Bank of Stephen Girard.” ^[6] Girard was the sole proprietor of his bank, and thus avoided the Pennsylvania state law which prohibited an unincorporated association of persons from establishing a bank, and required a charter from the legislature for a banking corporation.^[8]

Girard 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.^[9]

Girard's Bank was a principal source of government credit during the War of 1812. 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 became 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 and will

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, whose wheel actually ran over the left side of his face, lacerating his cheek and ear, as well as damaging his good (left) eye. Despite his age (81), 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, coincidentally the Feast of St. Etienne--St. Stephen's Day in the Western Church. 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 reinterred in the Founder's Hall vestibule at Girard College behind a statue by Nicholas Gevelot, a French sculptor living in Philadelphia.

At the time of his death, Girard was the wealthiest man in America^[10] and he bequeathed nearly his entire fortune to charitable and municipal institutions of Philadelphia and New Orleans, including an endowment for establishing a boarding school for "poor, white, male" orphans in Philadelphia, primarily those who were the children of coal miners, which opened as the Girard College in 1848. Girard's will^[11] was contested by his family in France, however, 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). Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther, in their book The Wealthy 100, posit that, with adjustment for inflation, Girard was the fourth-wealthiest American of all time, behind John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Jacob Astor.

Girard Avenue, a major east-west thoroughfare of North Philadelphia and West Philadelphia and the location of Girard College, is named for him, as is the borough of Girardville, Schuylkill County, located roughly 110 miles northwest of Philadelphia, which is bordered by many acres of land still connected to the Girard Estate. Girard, Pennsylvania in Erie County, Pennsylvania located roughly 450 miles northwest of Philadelphia was also named for Stephen Girard in 1832.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stephen Girard.

Wikisource has the text of an 1879 American Cyclopædia article about Stephen Girard.

• Founder's Hall - Stephen Girard
• Stephen Girard at Find a Grave
• Country Farmhouse and Outbuildings of Mr. Stephen Girard, Philadelphia, May 1891 by D.J. Kennedy, Historical Society of Philadelphia
• The Polly ship of GIRARD

Authority control WorldCat VIAF: 62349139 LCCN: n50033287 ISNI: 0000 0000 6121 322X GND: 118999125

Persondata
Name	Girard, Stephen
Alternative names
Short description	American banker and philanthropist
Date of birth	May 20, 1750
Place of birth	Bordeaux, France
Date of death	December 26, 1831
Place of death	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania