Henry Clews

Clews was born on August 14, 1834, in Staffordshire, England.Ingham, John N. "Clews, Henry." Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders, Volume 1. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1983. p. 172. Digital Scans, Google Books (Web). July 7, 2015. He was the youngest of four sons born to Elizabeth "Bessie" (née Kendrick) Clews and James Clews, a prosperous manufacturer of Staffordshire ware.{{cite book |last1=Hare |first1=Peter H. |title=A Woman's Quest for Science: Portrait of Anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons |date=1985 |publisher=Prometheus Books |isbn=9780879752743 |page=23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5TWAAAAAMAAJ |access-date=February 6, 2019 |language=en}}

At age 14, while in training for the Anglican Church, Clews traveled to New York City, where he "began to perceive the possibilities that presented themselves to a young man."

After emigrating to the United States, Clews organized the firm of Stout, Clews & Mason and eventually brought his brother James Clews over from England to help him manage a branch of the brokerage firm. In 1877, he split away from Livermore, Clews, and Company and started Henry Clews & Company, a member of the New York Stock Exchange,{{cite news |title=The Arrest of Henry Clews. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1877/03/20/80639864.pdf |access-date=2024-07-17 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 20, 1877 |page=8}}{{cite news |title=Marks His Half Century With Henry Clews & Co. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1947/04/01/96693288.pdf |access-date=February 6, 2019 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 1, 1947 |language=en |page=41 |url-access=subscription}} which made him enormously wealthy.{{cite news |title=The Great Banking House of Henry Clews & Co. {{!}} Its Magnitude and Success. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1886/01/01/103092366.pdf |access-date=2024-07-17 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 1, 1886 |page=4}} In an 1886 article in The New York Times, his firm was referred to thusly:

They have called together a staff of assistants who for ability and character are unsurpassed, and from the senior member down to the lowest clerk they are one and all actuated by the same idea, and are untiring in their efforts to further the interest of the patrons and also that of the firm itself. The value of this co-operation on the part of employes will be readily understood when it is taken into consideration that the present business of this firm aggregates thousands of millions of dollars annually, including a general banking business and the execution of orders on the New-York Stock Exchange, New-York Produce Exchange, New-York Petroleum Exchange, and the Chicago Board of Trade, with all of which concerns this house is connected by membership, but which also necessitates the employment of a large number of brokers to aid them in their large commission business.

In politics, Clews was a Republican and organized the "Committee of 70", which deposed the corrupt ring associated with William M. Tweed in New York City. He was a friend of President Abraham Lincoln and served as an economic consultant to President Ulysses Grant.{{cite book |last1=Zumwalt |first1=Rosemary Lévy|author1-link=Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt |last2=Abrahams |first2=Roger D. |title=Wealth and Rebellion: Elsie Clews Parsons, Anthropologist and Folklorist |date=1992 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252019098 |page=17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=08Zyq1ljcJQC&pg=PA17 |access-date=February 6, 2019 |language=en}} Clews, in regards to Grant & Ward, Grant's brokerage firm with Ferdinand Ward, was quoted as saying "It is marvelous how the idea of large profits when presented to the mind in a plausible light has the effect of stifling suspicion."{{cite news |last1=Maslin |first1=Janet |title='A Disposition to Be Rich' by Geoffrey C. Ward |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/14/books/a-disposition-to-be-rich-by-geoffrey-c-ward.html |access-date=2024-07-17 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 13, 2012}}

Towards the end of his life he wrote one of the most famous classics about life on Wall Street entitled "Fifty Years in Wall Street".Clews, Henry. Fifty Years in Wall Street "Twenty-Eight Years in Wall Street," Revised and Enlarged by a Resume of the Past Twenty-Two Years, Making a Record of Fifty Years in Wall Street. New York: Irving Pub. Co, 1908. His nephew, James Blanchard Clews (son of John Clews), succeeded as senior member of Henry Clews & Co. after the death of Clews in 1923.{{cite book |title=Men and Women of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries |date=1909 |publisher=L.R. Hamersly |page=[https://archive.org/details/menwomenofameric00newy/page/363 363] |url=https://archive.org/details/menwomenofameric00newy |access-date=December 13, 2019 |language=en}}

File:Henry Clews' Newport Villa 'The Rocks'.png

In 1874, Clews was married to Lexington, Kentucky born heiress Lucy Madison Worthington (1851–1945).{{cite news |title=Mrs. Henry Clews is Dead Here at 93; Widow of Noted Broker Was a Founder of Colony Club-- Grandniece of Madison |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/05/20/305303052.pdf |access-date=February 6, 2019 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 20, 1945 |language=en |page=31 |url-access=subscription}} Lucy, a daughter of William Hord Worthington and Anna (née Tomlinson) Worthington, was a second cousin of U.S. President James Madison{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/onceupontimeatla0000unse/page/22/mode/1up |title=Once upon a Time at La Napoule: The Memoirs of Marie Clews |edition=3rd |first=Marie |last=Clews |publisher=Editions La Mancha |isbn=9782912900074 |page=22 |date=2007 |access-date=2024-07-17 |via=Internet Archive |url-access=registration}} and American Revolutionary War brigadier general Andrew Lewis. Together, they were the parents of three children, two of whom lived to adulthood:

• Elsie Worthington Clews (1875–1941), an anthropologist who married U.S. Representative Herbert Parsons (1869–1925), a son of John Edward Parsons, in 1900.{{cite news |title= Miss Clews is Married |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times-mrs-admiral-baldwin-1/103335565/ |newspaper=The New York Times |location=Newport, Massachusetts |date=1900-09-01 |publication-date=September 2, 1900 |page=5 |access-date=2024-07-17 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Henry Clews Jr. (1876–1937), an artist who married divorced New York socialite Louise Hollingsworth (née Morris) Gebhard (1877–1936) in 1901.{{cite web|title=Henry Clews Jr. Marries Mrs Louise M. Gebhard|date= November 29, 1901|newspaper= The New York Times|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1901/11/29/102630405.pdf |page=1 |access-date=2024-07-17}} They also divorced and in 1914 he married Elsie "Marie" (née Whelan) Goelet (1880–1959), the first wife of Robert Wilson Goelet.{{cite news |title=Goelet Divorce Up To-Day. Petitions of Mrs. Robert Goelet and Mrs. Amos T. French Similar. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/03/03/101917033.pdf |access-date=2024-07-17 |newspaper=The New York Times |place=Newport, Rhode Island |page=6 |publication-date=March 3, 1914 |date=1914-03-02}}{{cite news |title=Mrs. Henry Clews of Art Memorial; Sculptor's Widow, Who Created Foundation to Aid U.S.-French Ties, Dead ' |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/04/16/80769496.pdf |access-date=September 10, 2018 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 16, 1959 |language=en |page=33 |url-access=subscription}} They lived at the Château de la Napoule in France.{{cite news |title=Mrs. Robert Goelet Weds H. Clews, Jr. Divorcees Are Married in Her Home a Few Hours After Obtaining License. A Surprise for Friends; Bridegroom, Son of Banker, Is an Artist, and Bride Studied Painting in His Newport Studio. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/12/20/301762642.pdf |access-date=2024-07-17 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 20, 1914 |page=3}}
• Robert Bower Clews (1878–1890), who died aged 12 of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Clews died of bronchitis in New York City, New York on January 31, 1923.{{cite news |title=Henry Clews Dies in His 89th Year. Notable Wall Street Figure for More Than Sixty Years Succumbs to Bronchitis |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_new-york-times_1923-02-01_72_23749/mode/1up |quote=Henry Clews, the banker, died at his home, 27 West Fifty-first Street, yesterday after a long Illness. He had been in failing health for several months, and the direct cause of his death was chronic bronchitis. He was in his eighty-ninth year. ... |newspaper=The New York Times |page=1 |date=February 1, 1923 |access-date=2024-07-17 |via=Internet Archive}} He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. His widow died, at the age of 93, at her home, 15 East 69th Street in New York on May 19, 1945.

Through his son Henry, he was the grandfather of Henry Clews III (1903–1983); Louise Hollingsworth Morris Clews (1904–1970), who married Ian Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll and became the Duchess of Argyll;{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/02/11/archives/mrs-louise-c-timpson-dead-former-duchess-of-argyll-65.html|title=Mrs. Louise C. Timpson Dead; Former Duchess of Argyll, 65|newspaper=The New York Times |page=47 |date=February 11, 1970 |access-date=2024-07-17}} and Mancha Madison Clews (1915–2006), an electrical engineer.{{cite news |last1=Downey |first1=Sally A. |title=Margaret Strawbridge Clews, 91, artist and businesswoman |url=https://www.philly.com/philly/obituaries/20100823_Margaret_Strawbridge_Clews__91__artist_and_businesswoman.html |access-date=February 6, 2019 |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |date=August 23, 2010}}

• Clews, Henry. The Wall Street Point of View, Silver, Burdett and Company, New York, copyright, 1900.
• Clews, Henry. [https://books.google.com/books?id=s-vq6AwWQPkC Fifty Years in Wall Street]. Hoboken, N.J.: J. Wiley & Sons, 2006.

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Category:1834 births

Category:1923 deaths

Category:American financiers

Category:English emigrants to the United States

Category:People from Staffordshire

Category:Deaths from bronchitis

Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)

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