Stephen Girard

Stephen Girard (born Étienne Girard; May 20, 1750 – December 26, 1831) was a French-born American banker and philanthropist. Born in Bordeaux, Girard subsequently immigrated to the Thirteen Colonies where he established himself in the American banking industry. During the War of 1812, Girard single-handedly saved the federal government of the United States from bankruptcy by personally financing the American war effort.

Eventually accumulating a large estate which included a slave plantation in Louisiana, Girard was, according to a 2007 article in Fortune Magazine the fourth-richest American in history. Having no children, Girard devoted much of his fortune to philanthropy, in particular the education and welfare of orphans, and his estate continues to fund philanthropic endeavors in the present day.

Early life

Girard was born in Bordeaux, France, on May 20, 1750, the son of a sea captain. He lost the sight in his right eye at the age of eight and had little education. In 1760, he travelled to the colony of New York as a cabin boy and stayed there, working in the coastal trader system along the east coast and as far south as the Caribbean. In 1783, Stephen's brother John Girard left him with a slave, a woman in her twenties named Hannah, during a visit from Saint-Domingue. as well as opium, which was smuggled into China. Mary was the daughter of John Lum, a shipbuilder who died three months before the marriage. In 1778 Girard became a resident of Pennsylvania. By 1785 Mary had begun succumbing to sudden, erratic emotional outbursts. Mental instability and violent rages ensued, leading to a diagnosis of incurable mental instability. Though Girard was initially devastated, by 1787 he took a mistress, Sally Bickham. In August 1790 Girard committed his wife to the Pennsylvania Hospital (today part of the University of Pennsylvania) as an incurable lunatic, providing her every luxury for comfort. During this time she gave birth to a girl whose sire is not entirely certain. The child, baptized with the name Mary, died a few months later while under the care of Mrs. John Hatcher, who had been hired by Girard as a nurse. Girard spent the remainder of his life with mistresses. Again during the yellow fever epidemic of 1797–1798 he took the lead in relieving the poor and caring for the sick.

Girard's Bank was the principal source of government credit during the War of 1812, worth an outstanding $1 million. Towards the end of the war, when the financial credit of the U.S. government was at its lowest, Girard placed nearly all of his personal resources at the disposal of the government and underwrote up to 95 percent of the war loan issue, which enabled the United States to carry on the war. After the war, he became a large stockholder in and one of the directors of the Second Bank of the United States.

Girard's Bank ceased operations upon his death in 1831, but Philadelphia businessmen, eager to cash in on Girard's reputation, opened a bank called the Girard Trust Company, and later Girard Bank. It merged with Mellon Bank in 1983, and was largely sold to Citizens Bank two decades later. Its monumental headquarters building still stands at Broad and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia.

Death, will and legacy

On December 22, 1830, Stephen Girard was seriously injured while crossing the street near Second and Market Street s in Philadelphia. He was knocked down by a horse and wagon, and one of its wheels ran over the left side of his face, lacerating his cheek and ear as well as damaging his good (left) eye. Despite his advanced age of 80 years old, he got up unassisted and returned to his nearby home, where a doctor dressed his wound. He threw himself back into his banking business, although he remained out of sight for two months. Nevertheless, Girard never fully recovered and he died on December 26, 1831. He was buried in the vault he built for his nephew in the Holy Trinity Catholic cemetery, then at Sixth and Spruce Streets. Twenty years later, his remains were re-interred in the Founder's Hall vestibule at Girard College behind a statue by Nicholas Gevelot, a French sculptor living in Philadelphia. posit that, with adjustment for inflation, Girard was the fifth-wealthiest American of all time as of 1996, behind John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and John Jacob Astor. He was worth around $7.5 million at the time of his death, was contested by his family in France but was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark case, Vidal et al. vs Girard's Executors, 43 U.S. 127 (1844).

He bequeathed nearly his entire fortune to charitable and municipal institutions of Philadelphia and New Orleans, including an estimated $6 million (approximately $ in ) for establishing a boarding school for "poor, male, white orphans" in Philadelphia, primarily those who were the children of coal miners, which opened as Girard College in 1848.

To his friend the judge Henry Bree, he bequeathed the plantation he owned in Louisiana, including thirty slaves.

When Girard's former counting house on 22 North Water Street near the corner of Front and Market Streets was demolished in 1907, a set of underground cells were uncovered. At the time of discovery, it was alleged that the cells were used to incarcerate slaves.

Although no longer in common use, people used to use the phrase "Stephen Girard work" or "Stephen Girard job" to refer to useless work. Girard did not believe in idleness, and in a time when people were loath to take handouts, he instead would pay for useless work. An example is paying workers to move bricks from one side of a yard to another (and then back again).

Homages A number of places are named after Stephen Girard: Girard Avenue is a major east–west thoroughfare of North Philadelphia and West Philadelphia and the location of Girard College. The neighborhood now known as Girard Estate is part of what was a successful farm that he established in the late 1700s, and includes the Stephen Girard Park where his "country mansion" still stands. Girard Fountain Park is in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, in which a sculpture of Benjamin Franklin is displayed. The borough of Girardville, Schuylkill County, is located roughly 110 miles northwest of Philadelphia, bordered by many acres of land still connected to the Girard Estate. Stephen Girard Avenue is located in the Gentilly area of New Orleans. The town of Girard, Pennsylvania is located in Erie County, roughly 450 miles northwest of Philadelphia. It was named for him in 1832. The community of Girard, Louisiana, is in Richland Parish, where Girard financed and oversaw the startup of a plantation managed by his friend and agent, Henry Bry, in 1821. A Liberty ship was built and christened USS Stephen Girard in 1942.