Stephen Girard

Wealthy banker, merchant and philanthropist, Girard is known for his charitable work and his contribution to establishment of the American banking system.

Born in France in 1750, Stephen Girard was blind in one eye but that didn’t prevent him to rise from humble origins to become one of the richest men in American history. Girard left France as a teenager, following his father’s death, and went on the sea. By the 1770s he was already a prosperous captain with a lucrative mercantile trade between New York, New Orleans, and the West Indies.

When a British naval blockade during the American Revolutionary War prevented him to return to New York, he decided to settle in Philadelphia. Through shrewd business decisions he managed to accumulate a sizable fortune by war’s end. Around 1790 he expended his business affairs and added the shipbuilding to already established international trade business. During a yellow fever epidemic that struck Philadelphia in 1793 he earned a great respect for his efforts to curb and heal people.

In the following period, he developed a fleet of around 9 ships that traded mostly with the East Indies in products such as coffee, tea, wine and tobacco. He also chartered additional ships from others. His personal fortune and reputation grew in the American society. By 1795 he was worth about $250,000; in 1800 this figure doubled, and by 1810 his fortune was valued at $2 million that made him one of the first millionaires in American history. In the period during and after the War of 1812 his wealth additionally increased and in 1819 was worth $4 million.

In the early 1800’s foreseeing the outbreak of the war with England, Girard invested a portion of his assets in the First Bank of the United States in Philadelphia, and in 1811 after the bank’s charter expired he turned it into a private bank. His bank served as the main financier during the War of 1812 and extended credit to the American government to support its war loans. He also acquired a large number of properties in Philadelphia and other parts of Pennsylvania, as well as in Kentucky, and Louisiana.

In latter period of his life he supported many charities. He founded school for poor children which operate to this day, and the Girard College is known as the largest private charitable donation up to that time in American history.