Francis Martin Drexel#Children

{{Infobox person

| name = Francis Martin Drexel

| image = File:Francis Martin Drexel SelfPortrait with Family 1824-2.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Drexel family self-portrait

| birth_date = {{birth date|1792|04|07}}

| birth_place = Dornbirn, Vorarlberg, Holy Roman Empire

| death_date = {{death date and age|1863|06|05|1792|04|07}}

| death_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

| occupation = Banker

| spouse = {{marriage|Catherine Hookey|April 23, 1821|}}

| parents =

| children = Mary Johanna Drexel
Francis Anthony Drexel
Anthony Joseph Drexel
Joseph William Drexel
Heloise Drexel
Caroline Drexel

}}

Francis Martin Drexel (April 7, 1792 – June 5, 1863) was an Austrian-American banker and artist. He was the father of Anthony Joseph Drexel, the founder of Drexel University, and present-day J.P. Morgan & Co, and the grandfather of Katharine Drexel.{{cite web|author=Loughlin, John|title=Francis Anthony Drexel|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05159a.htm|website=www.newadvent.org|publisher=Catholic Encyclopedia|access-date=23 February 2017}}

Early life

File:Blas Cerdeña.jpg

File:San Martín por Drexel.jpg by Drexel]]

Drexel was born April 7, 1792, the eldest son of Franz Josef Drexel and Magdalena Wilhelm, in Dornbirn, in Vorarlberg, Holy Roman Empire, not far from the Switzerland border. His father was a successful merchant with business associates in both Switzerland and Italy. In 1803, Francis was sent to study Italian and French at a Catholic convent school In Italy. Drexel eventually became conversant in five languages.{{clarification needed|date=May 2022}} He returned two years later and was apprenticed to a painter in a nearby village. When Napoleon invaded Austria, in order to escape conscription, and with help from his father, he crossed the Rhine River into Switzerland, where he remained for about five years, painting portraits, houses, and signs to support himself.{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=Elsa Loacker |title=Francis Martin Drexel's Years in America |journal=Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia |date=1974 |volume=85 |issue=3/4 |pages=129–140 |jstor=44210857}} In 1812, he returned to the Tyrol incognito. Conscription was still in force, so he went to Bern and continued his study of painting.

Career

In May 1817, Drexel took a ship from Amsterdam on the John of Baltimore, headed for Philadelphia,{{cite web |last1=Knowles |first1=Scott |title=In the Footsteps of Francis Martin Drexel: A Field Trip to Dornbirn, Austria |url=https://drexel.edu/now/archive/2018/October/A-Drexel-Field-Trip-to-Dornbirn-Austria/ |website=DrexelNow |language=en |date=October 16, 2018}} where he opened a studio and found work as an art instructor at Bazeley's Female Academy. A popular portrait painter, his work was frequently shown at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts annual exhibitions in Philadelphia.{{cite book|last=Hughes|first=Cheryl C. D.|title=Katharine Drexel: The Riches-to-Rags Life Story of an American Catholic Saint|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LYNyCgAAQBAJ&q=Francis+Anthony+Drexel\&pg=PA18|year=2014|publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-1-4674-4216-9|page=18}}

A lawsuit for libel against his brother-in-law, Bernard Gallagher, was settled out of court as damages would have bankrupted the latter. Although Gallagher acknowledged the false statements, nonetheless, commissions for paintings decreased and Drexel lost his position at Bazeley's. He then left his wife and two children in Philadelphia, to travel to Peru and Chile, painting portraits, including one of General Simón Bolívar.{{cite web|title=Francis Martin Drexel, Journal of a Trip to South America {{!}} The PACSCL Diaries Project|url=http://diaries.pacscl.org/2015/10/09/81/|publisher=Drexel University Archives|access-date=23 February 2017|date=October 9, 2015}} Drexel visited South America twice as well as Mexico.

=Drexel & Co.=

In 1837, after his permanent settlement in Philadelphia, he founded the banking house of Drexel & Co. which became one of the largest banks in the United States. The original business of Drexel & Co. was discounting privately issued bank notes, the value of which was largely dependent on the character of the principal officers of the issuing bank. The exposure to the principals gained from portrait painting is said to have given Drexel inside knowledge.{{failed verification|date=August 2019}}

After his death in 1860, the Paris firm, Drexel, Harjes & Co., was founded in 1868, and the New York firm, Drexel, Morgan & Co., was founded in 1871.{{cite web|last1=Stiefel|first1=Jay Robert|title=Francis Martin Drexel (1792-1863), Artist Turned Financier|url=http://www.librarycompany.org/Francis%20Martin%20Drexel.pdf|website=librarycompany.org|publisher=Maine Antique Digest|access-date=23 February 2017}}

Children

Drexel married Catherine Hookey (1795–1870) at the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church at Sixth and Spruce streets on April 23, 1821. They had the following children:{{cite book |last=Rottenberg |first=Dan | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tDDZPuL7svkC&pg=PA185 | title=The Man who Made Wall Street: Anthony J. Drexel and the Rise of Modern Finance | publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press | year=2001 | location=Philadelphia | pages=185 | isbn=9780812236262}}

Mary Johanna Drexel (1822–1873), who married John D. Lankenau (1817–1901), a businessman and philanthropist{{cite news|last1=Paulsen|first1=Frederik|title=JOHN D. LANKENAU.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1901/09/01/archives/john-d-lankenau.html|access-date=23 February 2017|work=The New York Times|date=1 September 1901}}{{cite news|title=JOHN D. LANKENAU DEAD.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1901/08/31/archives/john-d-lankenau-dead.html|access-date=23 February 2017|work=The New York Times|date=31 August 1901}}
Francis Anthony Drexel (1824–1885), who married Hannah J. Langstroth (1826–1858), and then Emma Mary Bouvier (1833–1883){{Cite web |url=http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Drexel__St_Katharine.html |title=Larkin, Tara Elizabeth. "Drexel, St. Katharine Mary", Pennsylvania State University, Fall, 2006 |access-date=2017-02-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141017035017/http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Drexel__St_Katharine.html |archive-date=2014-10-17 |url-status=dead }}
Anthony Joseph Drexel (1826–1893), who married Ellen B. Rozet (1832–1891). He was one of the founders of modern finance as well as Drexel University.
Joseph William Drexel (1833–1888), who married Lucy Wharton (1841–1912). He was a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and director of the Metropolitan Opera
Heloise C. Drexel (1837–1895), who married James Charles Smith (1828–1893){{cite book|last1=Rottenberg|first1=Dan|title=The Man Who Made Wall Street: Anthony J. Drexel and the Rise of Modern Finance|date=May 22, 2006|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Philadelphia|isbn=081221966X|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZL-BpElFOVwC&q=Heloise+Drexel+smith&pg=PA190|access-date=23 February 2017|language=en}}
Caroline "Carrie" Drexel (1838–1911), who married stockbroker John Goddard Watmough (1837–1913), son of Col. John Watmough.{{cite news|title=John G. Watmough.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1913/10/12/archives/john-g-watmough.html|access-date=23 February 2017|work=The New York Times|date=12 October 1913}}{{cite news|title=WATMOUGH WILL PROBATED.; Maid to Get $100,000, Friends $400,000 and Kinsmen Nothing.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1914/01/04/archives/watmough-will-probated-maid-to-get-100000-friends-400000-and.html|access-date=23 February 2017|work=The New York Times|date=4 January 1914}}

Drexel died in 1863, a result of injuries suffered in a train accident,{{cite web|title=Schwarz Gallery - Francis Martin Drexel|url=http://www.schwarzgallery.com/artist/128/Francis-Martin-Drexel|website=www.schwarzgallery.com|access-date=23 February 2017}} and was buried in The Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

=Descendants=

Through his eldest son, Francis Anthony Drexel, he was the paternal grandfather of Saint Katharine Drexel (1858–1955).[http://www.katharinedrexel.org/Katharine_Drexel.html Katherine Drexel profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014173936/http://www.katharinedrexel.org/Katharine_Drexel.html |date=2013-10-14 }}, katharinedrexel.org; accessed October 19, 2014. Through his son, Joseph William Drexel, he was the paternal grandfather of Elizabeth Wharton Drexel (1868–1944), a prominent socialite who married John Beresford, 5th Baron Decies (1866–1944).{{cite news |title=Lady Decies, Widow of Irish Peer, Dies; Former Elizabeth Drexel of Philadelphia Was Once the Wife of Harry Lehr |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1944/06/14/archives/ladydeoieswidow-of-irish-peer-dies-former-elizabeth-drexel-ofi.html |work=The New York Times |date=June 14, 1944 |access-date=2007-07-21 }}

Death and legacy

File:Francis M Drexel Woodlands.JPG]]

He died on June 5, 1863.

A sculpture of Drexel stands atop the Francis M. Drexel Memorial Fountain in Drexel Square in Chicago. Drexel donated the land that came to be known as Drexel Boulevard. One of the oldest public sculptures in Chicago, it was commissioned by his sons Francis A. and Anthony J. Drexel.[https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/media/washington-park-drexel-fountain "Drexel Fountain" at Washington Park, Chicago Park District]

Drexel Park, located on S. Damen St. in Chicago is named after Drexel Blvd. Drexel presented another large tract – one further east – to the South Park Commission for use as parkland.[https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks-facilities/drexel-francis-park "Drexel (Francis) Park", Chicago Park District]