J. Borden Harriman

J. Borden Harriman was born on September 20, 1864.{{cite news |title=J.Borden Harriman, Ex-Banker, Is Dead; New York Financier Succumbs at 50 in Washington After a Long Illness. Cousin Of E. H. Harriman Took |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91655509/j-borden-harriman-ex-banker-is-dead/ |accessdate=2022-01-01 |newspaper=The New York Times |location=Washington, D.C. |page=13 |date=2 December 1914 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |title=Death of Oliver Harriman.; Prominent in City's Commercial and Social Life for Many Years. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1904/03/13/101388567.pdf |accessdate=2022-01-01 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=7 |date=13 March 1904}} His father, Oliver Harriman, was a partner of a dry goods commission house, which evolved into Low, Harriman & Co. (and then Harriman & Co.), an investment banking firm located on Worth Street, and later 111 Broadway, in Manhattan. Laura was the daughter of James Low, Oliver's business partner. He had seven siblings. In addition to brothers James, Oliver Jr., Joseph, and Herbert, J. Borden had three oft-married sisters—Emeline Harriman Dodge Olin, Anna Harriman Sands Rutherfurd Vanderbilt, and Lillie Harriman Travers Havemeyer.

In 1901, his mother died.{{cite news |title=Mrs. Laura Harriman's Will. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1901/06/16/101197574.pdf |accessdate=2022-01-01 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=7 |date=16 June 1901}} Later that year, he and his siblings successfully petitioned a New York court to declare their 70-year-old father incapable to manage his affairs due to senile dementia.{{cite news |title=O. Harriman, Sr., Insane.; Millionaire Septuagenarian incompetent to Manage His Estate. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1901/12/18/102639852.pdf |accessdate=2022-01-01 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=2 |date=18 December 1901}} At the time, his father's wealth was estimated at over $5 million. His father died the following year.

Harriman graduated from Princeton University in 1885.

Harriman joined his father's business, becoming an investment banker. In 1903, he bid for a seat on the New York Stock Exchange's governing committee, but was thwarted by an outside candidate, even though Harriman had received the committee's nomination, and all other regular nominees prevailed.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91658755/r-h-thomas-president-of-the-stock/ |title=R. H. Thomas President of the Stock Exchange |newspaper=The New York Times |page=2 |date=1903-05-13 |access-date=2022-01-01 |via=Newspapers.com}}

He and several brothers and cousins were founding directors or officers in the Day and Night Bank, established in 1906 as the world's first 24-hour bank.{{cite news |title=Day and Night Bank May 1.; Money at Any Hour Then -- for Those Who Have It. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/04/07/101838267.pdf |accessdate=2022-01-01 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=2 |date=7 April 1906}}{{cite news |title=First All-Night Bank in the World Opens To-morrow; An Innovation Which Is Without Precedent in Business Methods, but Has Been Long in Demand. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11413942/the-new-york-times/ |accessdate=2022-01-01 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=41 |date=29 April 1906 |via=Newspapers.com}} Once open, the owners added further innovations—a separate branch reserved for women customers,{{cite news |title=A Bank for Women All to Themselves; Night and Day Institution to Make Another New Departure. It Meets the Feminine Need There'll Be Sitting and Dressing Rooms, with Tea Later, Maybe -- Opens Oct. 1. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91656369/a-bank-for-women-all-to-themselves/ |accessdate=2022-01-01 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=9 |date=23 September 1906 |via=Newspapers.com}} and an automobile "safe on wheels" that would pick up cash and valuables from depositors' homes.{{cite news |title=An Automobile Bank to Call at Your Door; The Night and Day Officials Will Run a Safe on Wheels. Guarded Against Thieves the Plan Is to Save Depositors the Trouble of Going to the Teller, Especially at Night. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/11/10/101850233.pdf|accessdate=2022-01-01 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=W8 |date=10 November 1906}} In 1910, after four years of 24-hour operations, it began to restrict its weekday hours, closing from midnight to 8 am.{{cite news |title=No Banking After Midnight.; The Night and Day Bank Finds That Business Doesn't Warrant It. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91656569/no-banking-after-midnight/ |accessdate=2022-01-01 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=1 |date=1 June 1910 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Harriman left the bank's board of directors in January 1911, when the Day and Night Bank developed an intimate relationship with Merchants' National Bank of New York but changed its name to the Harriman National Bank (reflecting the continued influence of other members of the Harriman family in the bank's ownership and management).{{cite news |title=Night and Day to Be the Harriman Bank; The Fifth Avenue Institution Changes Its Name, but Not Its Hours. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1911/01/11/104854291.pdf |accessdate=2022-01-01 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=9 |date=11 January 1911}} Twenty-two years later, after the bank failed in the financial crisis of 1932–1933, its longtime president Joseph Wright Harriman, formerly of Harriman & Co., was convicted by a federal jury of misappropriating bank funds,{{cite news |title=Harriman Is Convicted of 16 Illegal Bank Acts; Austin, His Aide, Cleared; Judge Praises Verdict Says It Should Have a 'Salutary Effect' on Other Bankers. Jury Is Out Two Hours Stunned by Decision, 67-Year-Old Defendant Returns to Hospital Pending Sentence. He Is Expected to Appeal Faces Long Term and Fine for False Entries and Misuse of Bank Assets in Stock Drive. Harriman Guilty; His Aide Cleared |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/06/20/94542512.pdf |accessdate=18 June 2019 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=20 June 1934 |url-access=subscription}} and served 25 months in prison.{{cite magazine |last1=Inc |first1=Time |title=Private Lives |magazine=Life |date=15 November 1937 |page=112 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kj8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA112 |accessdate=18 June 2019 |publisher=Time Inc |language=en}}

Harriman retired the next month, at age 48, from Harriman & Co.{{cite news |title=Stock Exchange News. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/02/02/100252527.pdf |accessdate=2022-01-01 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=27 |date=2 February 1913}}{{cite news |title=J.B. Harriman's Will Filed.; He Transferred Most of His Property Before Death to His Wife. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/12/25/100127908.pdf |accessdate=2022-01-01 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=7 |date=25 December 1914}} Later that year, newly elected President Woodrow Wilson appointed Mrs. Harriman as a member of the first U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations. After President Wilson's appointment, the couple moved to Washington D.C., keeping a residence in New York City while donating their Mount Kisco, New York estate for use as a tuberculosis sanitorium. In early 1914, he lent his yacht, the SS Mohican, to German prince Wilhelm Friedrich Heinrich, who had been chosen by other European monarchs to rule as William, Prince of Albania.{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph To the New York |title=New King to Risk Trip for His Crown; Charters Harriman Yacht to Make an Impressive Entry Into Albania. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/01/26/100671098.pdf |accessdate=2022-01-01 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=1 |date=26 January 1914}}

Harriman, his wife and daughter found themselves in the middle of Europe as World War I erupted in the summer of 1914. Hoping that the healing waters in the Bohemian spa in Karlsbad would benefit his health, the family traveled to Europe in June 1914. After meeting with leading British and French officials while relations between the European powers deteriorated, they traveled through France to Karlsbad (then a part of Austria-Hungary), and were there when Austria-Hungary attacked Serbia in late July. After leaving Karlsbad on the last train crossing the frontier through Germany to France,{{Cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/08/08/118950098.pdf |title=Carlsbad a Trap for New Yorkers |newspaper=The New York Times |page=3 |date=1914-08-08 |access-date=2022-01-01}} they eventually returned, without their belongings, to New York on an armed British vessel, the {{RMS|Adriatic|1907|6}}.

File:Florence Jaffray Harriman (LCCN2014695667).jpg, was a suffragist, social reformer, and diplomat.]]

On November 13, 1889, he married nineteen-year-old Florence Jaffray Hurst, daughter of shipping executive (and former Civil War Union blockade runner) F.W.J. Hurst. The list of attendees at their wedding included past and future president Grover Cleveland, railroad tycoons Cornelius Vanderbilt and Edward Harriman, John Jacob Astor IV, and J. P. Morgan.{{cite news |title=The Wedding of Miss Hurst and Mr. Harriman at St. Thomas's |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91657154/brides-and-grooms/ |quote=Two of the most popular of the younger members of the hunting set, Miss Florence Jaffray Hurst, daughter of F.W.J. Hurst and granddaughter of E.S. Jaffray, and J. Borden Harriman, son of Oliver Harriman, were wedded yesterday ... |newspaper=The New York Times |page=2 |date=November 14, 1889 |accessdate=2022-01-01 |via=Newspapers.com}} Together, they had one child:Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, "[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=rbnawsa&fileName=n7479//rbnawsan7479.db&recNum=9&itemLink=r?ammem/nawbib:@field(NUMBER+@od1(rbnawsa+n7479))&linkText=0 From Pinafores to Politics]," (Henry Holt & Co., 1923) ASIN B00085GSYO (available in the [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/naw/nawshome.html National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, Library of Congress] and accessed July 31, 2010).

• Ethel M. Borden Harriman (1897–1953), who worked on Broadway and in Hollywood, as an actress and writer (as Ethel Russell or Ethel Borden).{{cite web |title=Ethel Borden – Broadway Cast & Staff {{!}} IBDB |url=http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=5447 |website=ibdb.com |publisher=Internet Broadway Database |accessdate=18 June 2019}}[http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=5447|Internet Broadway Database entry for Ethel Borden] and [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0096129/ Internet Movie Database entry for Ethel Borden].

Harriman became seriously ill in January 1913 with what newspapers described as a lingering "digestive troubles." His health continued to deteriorate,{{cite news |title=J. Borden Harriman Dying in Mt. Kisco; Former Banker Sinking at Summer Home Under Acute Attack of Digestive Trouble. Afflicted for Many Years Relatives Hurry to His Bedside -Hardships Suffered in War Zone Aggravated His Illness. |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-oct-08-1914-2920606/ |accessdate=2022-01-01 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=20 |date=8 October 1914 |via=NewspaperArchive}} and he died in Washington on December 1, 1914. His prolonged illness, the resulting lack of income, and the expense of maintaining several homes had reportedly consumed nearly all of his net worth.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91658882/the-inside-story-of-ethen-harrimans/ |title=The Inside Story of Ethel Harriman's War Romance |newspaper=The Washington Post |pages=35, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91659131/the-inside-story-of-ethen-harrimans/ 39] |date=1918-02-10 |access-date=2022-01-01 |via=Newspapers.com}} His widow immediately resumed her public and political service, which continued for several decades.{{cite news |title=Mrs. J. Borden Harriman Ill. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91658191/mrs-j-borden-harriman-ill/ |accessdate=2022-01-01 |newspaper=The New York Times |location=Denver, Colorado |page=1 |date=15 December 1914 |via=Newspapers.com}} She survived her husband by over fifty years (living 97 years until her death in 1967), but never remarried.{{cite news |title= Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, Ex-Envoy, Dies at 97. Served in Norway at Time of Nazi Invasion in 1940 Given First Citation of Merit by Kennedy in April, 1963 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/09/01/archives/mrs-j-borden-harriman-exenvoy-dies-of-97-served-in-norway-at-time.html |quote=Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, Minister to Norway at the beginning of World War II and an early crusader for social rights, died at her Georgetown home here today. She was 97 years old. |newspaper=New York Times |page=26 |date=September 1, 1967 |accessdate=2010-10-29 |url-access=subscription}}

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Category:1864 births

Category:1914 deaths

Category:Businesspeople from New York City

Category:Princeton University alumni

Category:American investment bankers

Category:Harriman family