George Smith (financier)
George Smith | |
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Born | Aberdeen, Scotland | February 10, 1808
Died | October 7, 1899 London, England | (aged 91)
Occupation | Banker |
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George Smith (February 10, 1808 – October 7, 1899) was an important banker in the mid-19th century in Chicago.[1]
Biography
Born in
By 1839, he had founded an insurance company based in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company, whose notes he circulated in his new unchartered bank, George Smith and Company. These notes were used much like currency and came to be called "George Smith's money" and by 1842 were redeemable in gold and silver. Two years later Smith's was the only bank left in Illinois and by 1854 75% of Chicago's currency was backed by Smith.[3]
His efforts were interpreted differently across the country, for example a bank founded by
Smith accumulated a fortune in Chicago but by 1857 he was living in London where he was known as "Chicago" Smith, due to his association with that city.[4] For many years, he rented rooms in the Reform Club, where he died in late 1899.[5] He was a bachelor, and on his death he left his huge fortune (by one account it was between seven and eight million pounds) to two nephews in Chicago and Scotland.[4]
References
- Knox, John Jay, A History of Banking in the United States, 1900, Bradford Rhodes & Company, retrieved via Google Books
- Smith, Alice E., George Smith's Money: A Scottish Investor in America, (1966), The State Historical Society of Wisconsin
- White, Horace, An Elastic Currency: George Smith's Money in the Early Midwest, 1893, NY, retrieved via archive.org
Notes