Cooke, Jay, 1821–1905, American financier, b. Sandusky, Ohio. He founded Jay Cooke & Company, which marketed the huge Civil War loans of the federal government. He later turned to railroad bonds and in 1870 undertook to raise $100 million for the Northern Pacific and financed construction to Bismarck, N.Dak. The burden proved to be too great and continuing the financing became impossible. In 1873, Cooke's New York branch closed its doors and helped to precipitate the Panic of 1873.

Bibliography

See biographies by E. P. Oberholtzer (1907, repr. 1968) and H. M. Larson (1936, repr. 1968); M. Minnigerode, Certain Rich Men (1927, repr. 1970).

Cooke, Jay

(born Aug. 10, 1821, Sandusky, Ohio, U.S.—died Feb. 18, 1905, Ogontz, Pa.) U.S. financier and fund-raiser for the federal government during the American Civil War. He entered a Philadelphia banking house at age 18 and opened his own in 1861. That same year, he floated a $3 million war loan for the state of Pennsylvania. During the next four years he organized the sale of hundreds of millions in bonds for the federal government. Cooke's effort to finance construction of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1870 led to his firm's failure, but he rebuilt his fortune within a decade.

Cooke, Jay (1821–1905) financier; born in Sandusky, Ohio. In 1839 he went to work for the Philadelphia banking house of E. W. Clark and Co., becoming a partner at age 21. As head of Jay Cooke & Co. (1861–73), he gained acclaim for selling $500 million worth of Civil War bonds for the U.S. Treasury Department in 1862, then repeating this in 1865. His attempts to finance the Northern Pacific Railway failed, triggering the panic of 1873. By 1880 he had recovered his wealth by investing in Utah mining interests.