13 Facts About Moses Taylor

Moses Taylor was a 19th-century New York merchant and banker and one of the wealthiest men of that century.

Moses Taylor's father was a close associate of John Jacob Astor and acted as his agent by purchasing New York real estate while concealing Astor's interest.

At age 15, Taylor began working at JD Brown shippers.

Moses Taylor nurtured relationships with those planters, who relied on him for loans and investments to support their plantations.

Moses Taylor soon discovered that loans and investments provided returns that were as good as, or better than, those from the sugar business, although the sugar trade remained a core source of income.

Moses Taylor himself had doubled his fortune during the panic, and brought his growing financial connections to the bank.

Moses Taylor acquired equity in the bank and in 1855 became its president, operating it largely in support of his and his associates' businesses and investments.

Moses Taylor held an interest in the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company that Cyrus West Field had founded in 1854.

Moses Taylor had controlling interest in the largest two of the seven gas companies in Manhattan, which were merged to form the Consolidated Gas Company in 1884, eventually becoming Consolidated Edison.

Moses Taylor sat in 1871 on a committee made up of New York's most influential and successful businessmen and signed his name to a report that commended Tweed's controller for his honesty and integrity.

Moses Taylor died in 1882 and although he owned a vault at the New York City Marble Cemetery that already contained members of his family, he was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York City.

Moses Taylor left his fortune to his wife and children.

Percy's son Moses Taylor Pyne was a benefactor of Princeton University who supported its development from a college into a university and left an estate worth $100 million at his death in 1921.