1868 John Jacob Astor III Autograph Check NY Natl Bank of Commerce + 2c Stamp For Sale

This 1868 John Jacob Astor III + New York National Bank of CommerceBank Treasurer Autograph $897.75 Check + 2c Washington Cancelled Stamp is the exact item you will receive and has been certified Authentic by REM Fine Collectibles. $897.75 equals $33,000 in 2024.
John Jacob Astor III June 10, 1822 – February 22, 1890) was an American financier, philanthropist and a soldier during the American Civil War. He was a prominent member of the Astor family, becoming the wealthiest member in his generation and the founder of the British branch of the family.
During the American Civil War, Astor served as a volunteer aide-de-camp, with the rank of colonel, to Major General George B. McClellan (then commanding general of the U.S. Army) from November 30, 1861, to July 11, 1862. In recognition of his services during the Peninsular Campaign, Astor was brevetted as a brigadier general of Volunteers in March 1865.
In 1880 he became a companion of the New York Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States—a military society of officers who had served in the Union armed forces. He was assigned insignia number 1909.
The Astor family achieved prominence in business, society, and politics in the United States and the United Kingdom during the 19th and 20th centuries. With German roots, some of their ancestry goes back to the Italian and Swiss Alps, the Astors settled in Germany, first appearing in North America in the 18th century with John Jacob Astor, one of the wealthiest people in history.
In business, Astor dabbled in railroad investment, but was outsmarted by Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt and forced to yield control of the original New York Central Railroad line (from Albany to Buffalo) to him. His principal business interest was the vast Astor Estate real estate holdings in New York City, which he managed profitably and parsimoniously.The National Bank of Commerce in New York was a national bank headquartered in New York City that merged into the Guaranty Trust Company of New York (which later became the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, predecessor to J.P. Morgan & Co.).
At the time of the National Banking Acts of 1863 and 1864, the Bank of Commerce was the largest bank in the country.
Charles Handy Russell, a dry goods merchant with Charles H. Russell & Co., succeeded Stevens as president in 1865 when the bank was converted to the National Bank of Commerce of New York. In 1859, Robert Lenox Kennedy was elected a director and, in 1868, he began serving as the bank's fourth president.
He retired from the presidency in 1878 but remained involved as vice-president of the Bank under his successor Henry F. Vail (who had previously founded the Bank of the Republic with Gazaway Bugg Lamar).
In 1900, the bank acquired the National Union Bank of New York which had been founded in 1893 by the directors of the New York Guaranty and Indemnity Company and its successor, the Guaranty Trust, and was associated with the Mutual Life Insurance Company (Mutual Life's president, Richard A. McCurdy, was a director of National Union).
Joseph C. Hendrix, a former U.S. Representative from New York, was the president of National Union from its formation until its merger into the Bank of Commerce. Hendrix became president of the combined entity and J. Pierpont Morgan, the long-time vice president of the Bank of Commerce continued on as vice president of the combined entity.
The combined entity had capital of $10,000,000, which was the capital of the Bank of Commerce in 1877 prior to its reduction to $5,000,000. The consolidation plan "also has the merit, it is said, of providing for the Bank of Commerce the President which it has been looking for since W. W. Sherman retired from the place last July because of ill-health.
William C. Duvall, who was cashier under Mr. Sherman, has been acting as President since then. It was at one time reported that the post was offered to Secretary of the Treasury Gage."In 1959, Guaranty Trust merged with J.P. Morgan & Co.
Although Guaranty Trust was nearly four times the size of Morgan, the Morgan executives took over management of the combined entity Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York.
Ten years after the merger, Morgan Guaranty established a bank holding company called J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated, but continued to operate as Morgan Guaranty through the 1980s before beginning to migrate back to use of the J.P. Morgan brand.
In 1988, the company once again began operating exclusively as J.P. Morgan & Co. The firm merged with Chase Manhattan Bank in 2001 to form JPMorgan Chase.