George Fisher Baker was an American financier and philanthropist. Known as the "Dean of American Banking," Baker was known for his silence in public. He made a huge fortune after the Civil War in railroads and banking, and at his death he was estimated to be the third richest man in the United States, after Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller.
In 1863, Baker, along with his mentor, John Thompson, and Thompson's sons Frederick Ferris Thompson and Samuel C. Thompson, co-founded the First National Bank of the City of New York. The first national bank to be chartered in New York City under the National Currency Act of 1863, it became a forerunner of today's Citibank N.A. At age 37, Baker became First National's President on September 1, 1877. His 20,000 shares were worth about $20 million. He retired as president in 1909, and became chairman of the board. He was succeeded in the presidency by Francis L. Hine, the former Vice President of the bank. An avid investor, he held interests in many corporations and was the largest stockholder in the Central Railroad of New Jersey. In addition, he was a director in 22 corporations, which with their subsidiaries had aggregate resources of $7.27 billion. Owning $5,965,000 of U.S. Steel stock in the early 1920s, Baker was also the largest individual owner of U.S. Steel stock, according to a May 4, 1924 Time magazine article. According to a July 4, 2008 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article by labor and human rights lawyerDaniel Kovalik, U.S. Steel became "one of the largest users of forced labor" in the southern United States after it "purchased a coal mine--indeed, a slave mine--from the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. at the beginning of the 20th century" and "signed a lease with the state of Alabama to acquire hundreds of prisoners, almost all black and almost all arrested on absurd charges, who it put to work in its Alabama mine No. 12."
Media depiction
The April 14, 1924, edition of Time said of Baker: Baker was “closely associated with” the late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. robber-baron, monopolist and Wall Street banker J.P. Morgan “in his manifold enterprises,” according to Richard Boyer and Herbert Morais’s 1955 book, Labor’s Untold Story. The same book also noted that “Morgan and associates organized super-trusts in steel, shipping, and agricultural machinery ;” and it also “had its hands in other fields—the railroads, anthracite coal.” In addition, other Morgan monopolies included electrical machinery, communications, traction companies, and insurance.” The March 26, 1934, Time magazine article called him A 1934 article in Newsweek describes him as one of the most imposing figures in banking history. In the November 1994 issue of Worth magazine, James Grant, editor of a financial newsletter, calls Baker a hidebound turn-of-the-century banker who always got his loans repaid. Baker was famously silent in public, never commenting on events or giving interviews, until 1922, at age 82, when he gave his first newspaper interview. Thereafter, he spoke occasionally at luncheons and gatherings.
Personal life
In 1869, Baker was married to Florence Tucker Baker, a daughter of Benjamin Franklin Baker and Sophronia J. Baker. Together, they were the parents of:
Evelyn Baker, who married Howard Bligh St. George in 1891.
George Fisher Baker Jr., who married Edith Brevoort Kane. Their daughter Elizabeth married John M. Schiff of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. and their son, George F. Baker III married Frances Drexel Munn, a daughter of Mary Astor Paul and member of the Drexel banking family.
In 1929, Baker commissioned the construction of a one-of-a-kind Pierce-Arrow town car for the wedding of his daughter. Built by LeBaron, the car's roof line was 5 inches taller than standard models so Baker could keep his top hat on. Trim lining in the rear compartment is made of 24-carat gold, as are perfume dispensers and an intercom. The car was rediscovered in 1978 in a barn in Ohio alongside a Rolls Royce Boat Tail Speedster formerly owned by Fred Astaire.. It is now part of the White Glove Collection in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Philanthropy
Baker provided much of the initial funding for Harvard Business School with a 1924 grant of $5 million, for which Harvard gave him an honorary doctorate and named the library after him. In 1922, Baker established a $1 million dollar endowment fund for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Baker had been a member of the museum board since 1909. Baker donated $2 million to Cornell University for the construction of the Baker Laboratory of Chemistry, as well as Baker dormitories, and he endowed the Baker Lecture Series, the oldest continuous lectureship in chemistry in the United States. He made other large donations to charitable causes throughout New York City and funded the construction of Baker Field, Columbia University's primary athletic facility. He provided $2 million for Baker Memorial Library at Dartmouth College.
