Charles Yerkes

Charles Tyson Yerkes ( born June 25, 1837 in Philadelphia, † December 29, 1905 in New York City ) was an American financier who played a crucial role in the construction of mass transportation in Chicago and London. He also financed the construction of the Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago.

Philadelphia

Yerkes ' mother died of puerperal fever when he was five years old and a little later his father was disowned by the Quakers, because he had married a non- Quaker. After the completion of the Central High School in Philadelphia Yerkes began at the age of 17 years, his professional career as an employee of a grain trading company. In 1859 he founded over 22 years of his own trading company and joined the Stock Exchange of Philadelphia. In 1865, he expanded his business activities on banking, specializing in the sale of municipal, state and federal government bonds. He built an extensive network of contacts and was about to ascend into the highest social circles of the city.

As Yerkes worked as an agent for the financial management of the City of Philadelphia, he had used city funds for risky stock speculation. The money was lost when the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 caused a nationwide financial panic. Yerkes went bankrupt, was no longer in a position to repay the lost money and was sentenced to 33 months in prison. Order as quickly as possible to get out of jail, Yerkes tried to extort two influential politician from Pennsylvania, which failed for the time being. Soon, however, came feared compromising information to the public and politicians such as Ulysses S. Grant, that the revelations would affect their chances in the upcoming elections. They promised to pardon Yerkes, if he would withdraw his accusations. Yerkes agreed and was released after seven months in prison. In the next ten years, he did everything he could to restore its previous financial and personal position, and succeeded him.

Chicago

1881, Yerkes to Fargo in the Dakota Territory, in order to get a divorce after 22 years of marriage. In the same year he married the 24 - year-old Mary Adelaide Moore and took residence in Chicago. There he founded a cattle and grain trading companies, but was soon involved in public transport in the city. In 1886 he took over with other shareholders, the North Chicago City Railway and after a short time, he controlled most of the trams in the northern and western parts of the city. However, he missed his target to build a streetcar monopoly, since the Chicago City Railway remained independent in the south of the city.

Yerkes was attacked by the press vehemently. The criticism was not unjustified: Yerkes turned against legislation that would help commuters. He bribed MPs, they extorted or even put specially hired ladies ( "Professional Vamps " ) on them in order to seduce her. In addition, he brought windy stocks and bonds on the market, which earned him considerable profits. Yerkes ' reputation was so bad that his commercial projects were at risk.

For the improvement of his image he had several bridges under the Chicago River renovate and built two bridges over the river. In addition, he donated large sums of money for scientific purposes. In 1892 he supported William Rainey Harper, the director of the University of Chicago, for the construction of a biological research laboratories. In the same year Harper and the astronomer George Ellery Hale persuaded him to build an observatory with the then-largest telescope in the world. Yerkes felt cheated but because he believed only to finance the telescope - and not the construction of a complete observatory. After Hale, however, a press campaign started, in which he was celebrating him as a generous sponsor and benefactor, Yerkes wanted to do not back out and secured funding to. The Yerkes Observatory was officially opened on 21 October 1897. Yerkes financial generosity calmed the public opinion only temporarily, to which probably also the fact that the Chicago Times was edited by his main political opponent, Carter Harrison Sr. contributed.

1895 Yerkes launched a political campaign, which aimed to extend the term of the tram concessions. He tried John Peter Altgeld, the governor of Illinois to come with a high bribe to his side, but Altgeld refused and spoke out against the bill. Yerkes launched a campaign again in 1897 and the Legislature of Illinois passed a law that allowed the city authorities to extend the term of concessions. The City Council of Chicago, otherwise usually on the side of Yerkes, however, turned against him and decided not to apply the law. 1899 Yerkes sold the majority of its transport shares in Chicago and moved to New York to.

London

In August 1900 Yerkes, decided to move to London and to participate in the expansion of the London Underground, after he had visited one of the planned routes and left on the highest point of the Hampstead Heath conduct surveys. He founded in 1901 the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, took over the financially troubled Metropolitan District Railway and acquired the concessions for the not yet built railways Baker Street & Waterloo Railway, Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway and Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway. Yerkes employed as in North America on complicated financing methods to raise the necessary funds for the construction of new lines and the electrification of existing lines. Similar ambitions of John Pierpont Morgan was able to successfully prevent Yerkes.

The end of 1905, he died in New York at the age of 68 years from kidney disease. None of the projects in London was completed at the time of his death. However, the construction was well advanced and the first sections could be opened in the following year.

Yerkes ' time in prison and his later financial successes processed the writer Theodore Dreiser in his novels The Financier, The Titan, and The Stoic, in which Yerkes is represented by the fictitious character " Frank Cowperwood ." After Charles Tyson Yerkes Yerkes of the crater is named on the moon.