When JP Morgan canceled his plans to sail on the Titanic’s maiden voyage, he appeared to have escaped a catastrophic death. Less than a year later, the financier who had built one of America’s greatest fortunes died in a slow, grueling decline that his wealth could not prevent. Born in Connecticut in 1837, Morgan grew up in a family that was already established and prosperous. His father inherited a fortune and became a partner in a banking firm, while his mother came from a line that included the composer of “Jingle Bells.
” But money could not shield the young Morgan from illness. At 15, he contracted rheumatic fever and spent a year recovering, suffering painful flare-ups for the rest of his life. He built his reputation on Wall Street over 14 years, working in his father’s business before deciding to strike out on his own. While employed by Duncan Sherman and Company, he made an unauthorized coffee trade for profit and was chastised by the firm.
The warning did little to curb his ambition, and he began planning his own enterprise. His personal life was marked by tragedy early on. In 1861, Morgan married Amelia Sturgis, who was already severely ill with tuberculosis. She was too weak to attend her own wedding ceremony, and Morgan carried her to the drawing room where they were married.
He took her abroad, hoping warmer weather would restore her health, but she died in Nice in February 1862, just over four months after the wedding. Morgan poured his grief into business. During the Civil War, he bought his way out of the draft by paying another man $300 to take his place in the Union Army. He profited from the volatile wartime economy, including a deal involving 5,000 carbine rifles purchased with a $20,000 loan he made to a New York attorney.
The rifles were later sold to the U. S. government for double the price, and reports later emerged that they were defective and could explode in the wrong direction. The House of Representatives condemned such war profiteering, and the deal cast a shadow over Morgan’s reputation that would resurface decades later.
After the war, Morgan continued to expand his holdings. In 1865, he became the exclusive importer of guano from Peru, a substance used in fertilizer and gunpowder. That same year, he married Frances Louisa Tracy, with whom he had four children. But the marriage deteriorated over time, and by 1890, Morgan spent most of his time with other women, engaging in a pattern of serial monogamy rather than simultaneous affairs.
Despite his public success, Morgan was deeply self-conscious about a condition that deformed his nose. By his 40s, the skin on his nose had become twisted with pits, nodules, and fissures, giving it a large, bulbous, purplish appearance. He avoided having his photograph taken unless the images were professionally retouched, and he could become aggressive if surprised by a photographer. He was taunted with rhymes about his purple nose.
Though surgery could have removed the growths, Morgan refused, with his son-in-law suspecting that he feared the procedure would trigger the seizures he had suffered as an infant. Morgan’s influence reached its peak when the U. S. government itself depended on him.
In 1895 and again in 1907, he helped save the country from financial collapse. In 1895, he provided gold to rescue the Treasury, though the move damaged President Grover Cleveland’s political career. In 1907, during a banking crisis, Morgan played a central role in reallocating funds between banks and trusts. He also used the crisis to his advantage, arranging for his own company, U.
S. Steel, to absorb a failing competitor, Menelley, after receiving special permission from President Theodore Roosevelt. By the early 1900s, Morgan’s company, J. P.
Morgan and Co. , controlled investments in numerous firms, including the International Mercantile Marine Company, which owned the White Star Line. In 1912, Morgan booked a luxury suite with a private promenade deck on the Titanic’s maiden voyage. At the last minute, he changed his plans and did not board.
When the ship sank, Morgan publicly stated, “Monetary losses amount to nothing in life. It is the loss of life that counts. It is that frightful death. ” Though he had lost investments tied to the White Star Line, he had narrowly avoided the disaster that killed fellow wealthy American John Jacob Astor IV.
Morgan’s reprieve from the Titanic proved short-lived. The rheumatic fever he had suffered as a teenager caught up with him. Just a year after the sinking, his health collapsed rapidly. He grew extremely weak, and his throat muscles ceased to function, leaving him unable to speak or eat.
His only relief was sleep. In his final weeks, he slipped in and out of consciousness and was sustained by injections as he could no longer consume food. J. P.
Morgan died in Rome, Italy, on March 31, 1913. The stock market closed for two hours in observance of his death, a honor usually reserved for heads of state. He had saved Wall Street multiple times and revolutionized American banking, but his critics say he also created a culture in which a small number of people control the bulk of the nation’s wealth.
