COOKE, JAY

(1821-1905), banker and financier, b. Sandusky, Ohio. As a boy he became a clerk in a Sandusky store and at. fifteen joined the banking house of E. W. Ularke & Co., at Philadelphia, where he displayed such marked ability in grasping the complexities of finance that he was admitted into the firm as a junior partner when he was twenty-one. Upon his retirement from the firm in 1858 ne engaged in a general banking busine , mainly in financing railroad companies and negotiating their bond i ues. Jn 1861 he established the firm of Jay Cooke & Co. of Philadelphia in a ociation with his brother-in-law. The firm was the chief fiscal agent of the federal government during the Civil War. floating government bond i ues aggregating $2,500,000,000. After the war the firm financed the Northern Pacific Railway Company, but advanced the road too much money on its bonds, with the result that the house failed and precipitated the financial panic of 1873. Later the bonds greatly appreciated in value and the Cooke house recovered its stability and resources, paying its creditors both the principal and interest of their claims. He was a strong advocate of the national banking system that became established in the war period.