John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier and banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. J.P. Morgan was known for reorganizing businesses to make them more profitable and stable and gaining control of them. He reorganized several major railroads and became a powerful railroad magnate. He also financed industrial consolidations that formed General Electric, U.S. Steel, and International Harvester.
Born at Hartford Connecticut, U.S.A., in 1837, J.P. Morgan was the son of Junius Spencer Morgan and Juliet Pierpont, descended from families that came to the United States before the American Revolution, with family tree laden with members with distinguished credentials. Genetics aside he was built to play the role of financial leader—was six feet and weighed two hundred pounds, and with his large head well poised on his broad shoulders. Actually whoever met him came away to talk about the impression of....
