Aldrich, Winthrop (02 November 1885–25 February 1974), lawyer, banker, and legal and political adviser, was born Winthrop Williams Aldrich in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich, a U.S. senator, and Abby Chapman. Aldrich graduated from Harvard College in 1907 and Harvard Law School in 1910. Upon graduation from law school Aldrich joined the New York City law firm of Byrne, Cutcheon & Taylor, specializing in finance and commercial law. In 1916 Aldrich was named a junior partner in the firm, and in December of that year he married Harriet Alexander, the granddaughter of California railroad and banking magnate ...
Article
Aldrich, Winthrop (1885-1974), lawyer, banker, and legal and political adviser
Frederick J. Simonelli
Article
Davison, George Willets (1872-1953), lawyer and banker
Robert Stanley Herren
Davison, George Willets (25 March 1872–16 June 1953), lawyer and banker, was born in Rockville Center, New York, the son of Robert Anthony Davison, a lawyer, and Emeline Sealy. Davison, a Methodist, attended Wesleyan University where his academic excellence earned him election to Phi Beta Kappa and graduation with honors in 1892. He earned an LL.B. in 1894 from New York University. He married Harriet Rice Baldwin the following year; they had two children who both died young....
Article
Few, William (1748-1828), lawyer, politician, and banker
Robert E. Wright
Few, William (08 June 1748–16 July 1828), lawyer, politician, and banker, was born near Baltimore, Maryland, the son of William Few, a failed tobacco planter turned frontier farmer, and Mary Wheeler. Few’s family moved in 1758 to North Carolina, where young William received little formal schooling but enough skills and enough love for reading that the future Founding Father was able to educate himself. In the early 1770s, the Few family joined the Regulator movement, rural westerners’ sometimes violent opposition to unrepresentative coastal political control. The family lost one of William’s brothers, the family farm, and the family fortune in the struggle for more local autonomy. The Fews then moved to Georgia, leaving William behind to settle the family’s affairs, to farm, and to teach himself law....
Article
Lanier, James Franklin Doughty (1800-1881), lawyer and banker
Patrick J. Furlong
Lanier, James Franklin Doughty (22 November 1800–27 August 1881), lawyer and banker, was born in Washington, North Carolina, the son of Alexander Chalmers Lanier, a farmer and storekeeper, and Drusilla Doughty. The family moved to Kentucky, then to Ohio, and finally to the frontier village of Madison, Indiana, in 1817. Although Lanier’s father was a man of modest means, he managed to send his son to an academy in Newport, Kentucky, for a sound education. In 1819 Lanier began to read law with Alexander A. Meek in Madison, and in the same year he married Elizabeth Gardner. They would have eight children. His father died the following year, deeply in debt, and Lanier, an only child, struggled to support his mother while also paying his father’s debts....
Article
McCloy, John Jay, Jr. (1895-1989), lawyer, banker, and diplomat
Thomas P. Wolf
McCloy, John Jay, Jr. (31 March 1895–11 March 1989), lawyer, banker, and diplomat, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of John Jay McCloy, a claims officer for an insurance firm, and Anna May Snader. McCloy’s father died just before McCloy’s sixth birthday. Left with a modest bequest, Anna McCloy learned hairdressing and developed a wealthy clientele to support herself, John, and her two spinster sisters. In summers Anna followed her clients to their vacation homes in the Adirondack Mountains, where John worked as a chore boy at resorts and taught tennis, a sport in which he excelled. Tennis opened doors for him for many years, as did his mother’s clients and his father’s business associated....
Article
Scammon, Jonathan Young (1812-1890), lawyer, banker, and civic promoter
Fred Carstensen
Scammon, Jonathan Young (27 July 1812–17 March 1890), lawyer, banker, and civic promoter, was born in Whitefield, Maine, the son of Eliakim Scammon and Joanna Young, farmers. As a boy he lost two fingers on his left hand, an injury that diverted his attentions away from farming and toward a profession. Scammon attended Maine Wesleyan Seminary, Lincoln Academy, and then Waterville (now Colby) College. Abandoning his studies at Waterville after only one year because of financial difficulties, Scammon went to Hallowell to read law at age nineteen and was licensed to practice in 1835....