Jonathan Sturges- Merchant of Old New York

Striking out from his home in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1822, Jonathan Sturges —Merchant of Old New York, obtained a clerk position in a merchant firm in New York City, and rose to become the lead partner of the largest coffee and tea trading house in New York. For five decades he rode the American wave of growth and ingenuity from the opening of the Erie Canal, through the Civil War, to the dawning of the Gilded Age—when robber barons such as his son-in-law, J.P. Morgan, were taking main stage. Through these transformational times for the nation, he founded banks, railroads, hospitals and was a pioneering Hudson River Art School patron and civic activist. His Committee of Seventy brought down the Tweed Ring and his intimate circle of friends and associates were a who’s who of national politicians, generals, businessmen and men of the arts, and he had the ear of many Presidential administrations. This engaging historical biography is a quintessential American success story and provides an intimate window into iconic events in American history as experienced by the Sturges family. Open the book and you’ll open the door into the extraordinary life and times of Jonathan Sturges.