Frederic P. Olcott

Frederic P. Olcott, Businessman and New York State Comptroller

Frederic Pepoon Olcott (February 23, 1841, Albany, Albany County, New York – April 15, 1909, Bernardsville, Somerset County, New Jersey) was an American banker and politician.

Life

He was the eleventh and last child of Thomas Worth Olcott, President of the Mechanics and Farmers Bank and the Mechanics and Farmers Savings Bank of Albany, New York. He was educated at The Albany Academy, and then worked at his father's bank. In 1866, he relocated to New York City and became a stockbroker in Wall Street. He married Mary Esmay. They had two children: a son, Dudley Olcott, 2nd, and a daughter, Edith, who married Barend van Gerbig.

On January 1, 1877, he was appointed New York State Comptroller to serve for the remainder of the unexpired term of Lucius Robinson who had been elected Governor. At the New York state election, 1877, he was elected on the Democratic, German-American Independent and Bread-Winners' League tickets to succeed himself, and remained in office until the end of 1879. He was defeated for re-election at the New York state election, 1879.

From 1884 to 1905, he was President of the Central Trust Company of New York, which after mergers and acquisitions found its way into the JPMorgan Chase company. In this capacity he was involved in the re-organization of many railroads in financial trouble, like the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, the Brooklyn Elevated Railroad, the Third Avenue Railroad, and the Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City Railroad. He also was a director of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad.

In 1896, because of his opposition to William Jennings Bryan whom he accused of trying to destroy the American economy, he became a Republican and was a delegate from New Jersey to the 1900 Republican National Convention.

After suffering from heart trouble and chronic Bright's disease, he died at his farm in Bernardsville, N.J., and was buried at Albany Rural Cemetery, Section 53, Lot 12.^[1]

References

Sources

• Obit in NYT on April 16, 1909 (PDF)
• The Central Trust at www.smokershistory.com The Central Trust, Banking history
• Tickets for state election, in NYT on October 29, 1877 (PDF)
• His opinion of Bryan, in NYT on June 16, 1900 (PDF)