Caleb O. Halsted

Caleb Ogden Halsted (June 13, 1792 – October 7, 1860) was an American merchant and banker.

Early life Halsted was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey on June 13, 1792. He was the third son of Maj. Matthias Halsted (1759–1824) and Nancy ( Norris) Halsted. His elder brother was Nathaniel Norris Halsted, who married Lucretia Perrine. As his brother died young, Caleb adopted his nephew, Nathaniel Norris Halsted Jr. (later a Civil War General), and raised him.

The patriarch of the Halsted family was Timothy Halsted, who emigrated from England to America as early as 1660 and settled in Hempstead, New York before relocating to Elizabethtown. His grandmother was a daughter of Robert Ogden who was a grandson of colonist John Ogden, an original patentee of the Elizabethtown Purchase, "the first English settlement in the Colony of New Jersey."

Career Halsted began his career as a cloth merchant. In 1847, however, he was made president of the Bank of the Manhattan Company, succeeding Jonathan Thompson, who had been made president in 1840. In 1853, the Manhattan Company became one of the original 52 members of the New York Clearing House Association and Halsted became its first president.

Personal life In December 1823, Halsted was married to Caroline Louisa Pitney (1796–1879), a daughter of Dr. Aaron Pitney and Anna Bowne ( Proovost) Pitney. Together, they were the parents of five children, three of whom died in infancy, including: who married Col. John Kean, son of Peter Philip James Kean and Sarah Sabina Morris, in 1847. in 1846. After a funeral at the Presbyterian Church on University Place and 10th Street in Manhattan, he was buried in the churchyard of the First Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth. His widow died in New York on July 1, 1879.

Descendants Through his daughter Lucy, he was a grandfather of nine, including Caroline Morris Kean (1849–1887) (wife of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State George L. Rives), U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator John Kean (1852–1914), U.S. Senator Hamilton Fish Kean (1862–1941) (who married Katharine Taylor Winthrop), and Christine Griffin Kean (who married Emlen Roosevelt).