SCOTS IN BANKING, FINANCE, INSURANCE AND RAILROADS

In the financial and commercial field in this country the Scots have held a foremost place and stand unrivalled for integrity, energy, fidelity, and enterprise.  Many jibes are made at the expense of the Canny Scot, but American business men have realized his value.  In business and commercial life the success of the average Scot is remarkable and many of the guiding spirits among America’s successful business men are Scots or men of Scottish descent.

James Blair (b. 1807), brother of John Inslee Blair, was largely identified with the development of banks and railroads in Pennsylvania.  George Smith (1808-99), born in Aberdeenshire, founded the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company (1839) and was later a prominent banker in Georgia.  Alexander Mitchell (1817-87), financier, railroad builder, and one of the Commissioners of Public Debt of Milwaukee, was born near Ellon, Aberdeenshire.  Brown Brothers, bankers in New York, was founded by Alexander Brown (1764-1834) who was born in Ballymena of Ulster Scot parentage.  George Bain (1836-91), merchant, banker, and director in many railroads, banks, and insurance companies, was born in Stirling, Scotland.  Robert Craig Chambers (b. 1831), miner, financier, and State Senator of Utah, was of Scottish descent.  John Aikman Stewart (b. 1822), President of the United States Trust Company and Assistant Treasurer of the United States, was born in New York city, son of a native of Stornoway, Hebrides.  Alonzo Barton Hepburn (b. 1847), descendant of Patrick Hepburn who came from Scotland in 1736, President of the Chase National Bank, a distinguished New York banker, has written much on financial subjects.  Thomas William Lamont (b. 1870), whose forefather came from Argyllshire, is a member of the firm of J.P.  Morgan & Co., and prominent in international finance.  Walter Edwin Frew, President of the Corn Exchange Bank, New York, and President of the New York Clearing House is of Scottish parentage.  He was a pioneer of the branch banking system in New York.  James Berwick Forgan, born in St. Andrews, in 1852, President of the First National Bank of Chicago, is a pillar of finance.  Andrew Glassell (1827-1901), descendant of a Dumfriesshire emigrant of 1756, was a prominent lawyer and banker in Los Angeles.  James Alexander Linen (b. 1840), President of the First National Bank of Scranton, was of Scottish parentage.  George Rutledge Gibson (b. 1853), of Scottish descent, has written largely on questions of foreign finance.  John Hall McClement (b. 1862), railroad and financial expert, is of Scottish parentage.  Duncan MacInnes, born at Inveresk, near Edinburgh, has been Chief Accountant of the City of New York for many years, and is one of the best equipped men in municipal finance in America.  Robert Graham Dun (1826-1900), mercantile credit expert, was grandson of Rev. James Dun, minister in Glasgow, who emigrated to Virginia, c. 1815.