Charles M. Fry

Charles Meriwether Fry (April 24, 1822 – November 18, 1892) was an American banker.

Early life Fry was born in Madison County, Virginia, on April 24, 1822. He was the eldest son of Henry Belville Fry (1794–1836) and Annie ( Clarke) Fry. After his mother's death, his father married Lucy Clarke, and had three more daughters, Sarah A. Fry (who married R. S. Thomas, Clerk of Madison County), Mary E. Fry (who married Jerry Garnett), and Clara H. Fry (who married Absalom G. Garnett). His great-aunt, Clary Stubbs ( Walker) Hawes, was the mother of Richard Hawes, 2nd Confederate Governor of Kentucky and U.S. representative Albert Gallatin Hawes.

Career Fry moved to New York City in 1848. He was elected a director of the Bank of New York in 1874, the same year he was made vice-president of the bank. In 1888, he wrote a letter to the editor of The New York Times, claiming that the Bank "does not hold one dollar of C. G. Francklyn's paper nor has it ever lost a dollar by Mr. Francklyn." He served in that capacity until his death in 1892 when he was succeeded by Ebenezer S. Mason.

Personal life Fry was married to Elizabeth Wickham Leigh (1824–1895), a daughter of U.S. senator Benjamin W. Leigh and, his third wife, Julia Wickham (a daughter of John Wickham). Her elder half-brother, William B. Leigh, married Mary White Colston (a daughter of U.S. representative Edward Colston). Through William, she was an aunt of artist William Robinson Leigh.

He died at 279 Lexington Avenue, his home in Manhattan (a four-story brownstone designed by Charles Buek at a cost of $50,500), on November 18, 1892. He was buried at Shockoe Hill Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.