Louis McLane (expressman)

Last updated • 3 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Sophie Latimer Hoffman
(m. 1849)
Louis McLane Jr.
President of Nevada Bank
In office
1875–1881
Relations Robert Milligan McLane (brother)
Kitty Garesche (niece)
Robert McLane (nephew)
Allan McLane (grandfather)
Children8
Parent(s)Catherine Milligan McLane
Louis McLane

Louis McLane Jr. (January 20, 1819 – December 13, 1905) was an American financier from a prominent Maryland family who became a prosperous California forty-niner.

Contents

Early life

McLane was born on January 20, 1819, in Wilmington, Delaware. [1] He was one of thirteen children born to Catherine Mary "Kitty" (née Milligan) McLane and Louis McLane, who served as a U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of State in President Jackson's cabinet (until his resignation in 1834), and Minister to the United Kingdom. [2] He later served as president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Among his siblings were Robert Milligan McLane (a U.S. Representative and Governor of Maryland who served as Ambassador to Mexico, France, and China), Lydia (née McLane) Johnston (wife of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston), Allan McLane (president of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company), James Latimer McLane (president of the National Bank of Baltimore and father of Baltimore mayor Robert McLane), and Juliette (née McLane) Garesché (wife of Peter Bauduy Garesché). [1]

His paternal grandfather was Col. Allan McLane of the Continental Army. [1]

Career

Currier and Ives engraving of the USS Ohio, where McLean served aboard from 1838 to 1840 Ohio-ship-of-the-line-Currier-Ives.jpeg
Currier and Ives engraving of the USS Ohio, where McLean served aboard from 1838 to 1840

In 1835, at just sixteen years old, he left his classes at Newark College when he was appointed a midshipman in the U.S. Navy, serving aboard the USS Ohio from 1838 to 1840. McLean submitted his resignation of his commission as a Lieutenant on January 20, 1850, to the Secretary of the Navy. Secretary William Ballard Preston accepted his resignation on January 21, 1850. [1]

Business career

Shortly after his marriage and resignation from the Navy, McLane left for San Francisco and a career as a financier which was to take him away from his family many times during the next thirty years. He was a founder of the Safe Deposit & Trust Co. in 1864 and, during the 1850s, was Wells Fargo's first general manager in San Francisco. [3] [4] On November 1, 1866, he succeeded Danford N. Barney to become president of the Wells Fargo & Company Express, which he reorganized after its takeover of Holladay Overland. [5] He was replaced by Ashbel H. Barney in 1869. McLane also served as the first president of Nevada Bank in 1875, which had been started by William S. O'Brien and James Clair Flood, who succeeded McLane as president in 1881. He returned to Balitmore in 1892. [6]

In his later years, he served as chairman of the executive committee of the Mercantile Trust Company of Baltimore and a director of many financial institutions. [7]

Personal life

On June 12, 1849, McLane was married to Sophie Latimer Hoffman (1827–1907), daughter of Samuel Hoffman, a well known Baltimore merchant, and the former Elizabeth Rebecca Becker Curzon. [8] Together, they were the parents of eight children, including: [8]

McLane suffered a stroke of paralysis in October 1901 but survived. After several years of ill health, he died on December 13, 1905, at 1101 North Charles Street, his residence in Baltimore, Maryland. [7] [13] He was buried at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cockeysville, Maryland</span> Census-designated place in Maryland, United States

Cockeysville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 20,776 at the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Fargo</span> American businessman and politician (1818–1881)

William George Fargo was a pioneer American expressman who helped found the modern-day financial firms of American Express Company and Wells Fargo with his business partner, Henry Wells. He was also the 27th Mayor of Buffalo, serving from 1862 until 1866 during the U.S. Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis McLane</span> American lawyer and politician (1786–1857)

Louis McLane was an American lawyer and politician from Wilmington, in New Castle County, Delaware, and Baltimore, Maryland. He was a veteran of the War of 1812, a member of the Federalist Party and later the Democratic Party. He served as the U.S. representative from Delaware, U.S. senator from Delaware, the tenth U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, the twelfth U.S. Secretary of State, ambassador to Great Britain, and president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Milligan McLane</span> American politician (1815-1898)

Robert Milligan McLane was an American politician, military officer, and diplomat. He served as U.S. minister to Mexico, France, and China, as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 4th district, as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and as the 39th governor of Maryland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James G. King</span> American politician (1791–1853)

James Gore King was an American businessman and Whig Party politician who represented New Jersey's 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives for one term from 1849 to 1851.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maryland Route 45</span> State highway in Maryland, US

Maryland Route 45 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known for most of its length as York Road, the state highway runs 30.06 miles (48.38 km) from U.S. Route 1 /US 40 Truck in Baltimore north to the Pennsylvania state line in Maryland Line, where the highway continues as State Route 3001. MD 45 is the primary highway between Downtown Baltimore and Towson, the county seat of Baltimore County. North of Interstate 695 (I-695), the state highway parallels I-83 and serves the suburban communities of Lutherville, Timonium, Cockeysville, and Hunt Valley. MD 45 also connects the northern Baltimore County communities of Hereford and Parkton. The state highway is maintained by the Maryland State Highway Administration in Baltimore County and by the Baltimore City Department of Transportation in the city, where the highway also follows Greenmount Avenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis E. McComas</span> American judge (1846–1907)

Louis Emory McComas was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as a member of both branches of the United States Congress and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert McLane</span>

Robert Milligan McLane was the 34th Mayor of Baltimore, serving from May 19, 1903, to his death on May 30, 1904. He is known for his role in the Great Baltimore Fire, and for his sudden death in office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baltimore County Public Library</span> Public library system of Baltimore County, Maryland, United States

Baltimore County Public Library (BCPL), established in 1948, is a public library system located in central Maryland and headquartered in Towson, Maryland BCPL serves Baltimore County, Maryland, which surrounds but does not include the city of Baltimore. Still, occasionally the two library systems share resources and expertise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James G. Berret</span> American politician

James Gabriel Berret was an American politician who served as a Maryland state legislator from 1837 to 1839 and again in 1891 and as the eighteenth Mayor of Washington, District of Columbia, from 1858 to 1861, when he was forced to resign from office after being jailed by the Lincoln administration for sedition. He was also President of the Electoral College in 1888.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Towson United Methodist Church</span> Church in Maryland, United States

Towson United Methodist Church is a large United Methodist Church in the historic Hampton subdivision of Towson, a suburb in Baltimore County, Maryland. Its past, rooted in 19th-century America and subsequent growth in the two centuries since then, has closely paralleled the nation's political and sociological trends. It was a congregation split in 1861 on the eve of the American Civil War in a border state of divided loyalties, which eventually reunited and built a church in the post–World War II era of the 1950s, a time of reconciliation and rapid growth by mainline Protestant denominations, especially in the more affluent suburbs.

Ashbel Holmes Barney was an American banker and expressman who served as president of Wells Fargo & Company in 1869–1870.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clinton L. Riggs</span> American businessman and government official

Clinton Levering Riggs was an American businessman, government official, military officer, and lacrosse coach. He served as the Adjutant-General of the Maryland National Guard and the Secretary of Commerce and Police of the Philippine Commission from 1913 to 1915. Riggs was also the second head coach of the lacrosse team at Johns Hopkins University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerome H. Joyce</span>

Jerome H. Joyce, Sr. was president of the Aero Club of Baltimore and owner of the Hotel Joyce.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Goucher</span> American missionary and academic (1845–1922)

John Franklin Goucher was an American Methodist pastor and missionary and the namesake of Goucher College, formerly the Women's College of Baltimore City. He was one of the college's co-founders along with fellow clergyman John B. Van Meter and served as its second president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allan McLane Hamilton</span> American psychiatrist (1848–1919)

Allan McLane Hamilton was an American psychiatrist, specializing in suicide and the impact of accidents and trauma upon mental health, and in criminal insanity, appearing at several trials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kitty Garesche</span>

Katherine Milligan “Kitty” Garesché was the founder and headmistress of the Convent of the Sacred Heart High School in San Francisco, California. She was Kate Chopin's longtime friend.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael William Fisher</span> American priest of the Catholic Church

Michael William Fisher is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo in New York since 2021. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington in the District of Columbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles M. Nes Jr.</span> American architect (1906–1989)

Charles M. Nes Jr. (1906–1989) was an American architect in practice in Baltimore from 1936 to 1988. He was president of the American Institute of Architects for the year 1966–67.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "McLane-Fisher Family Papers circa 1800-1905, MS. 2403". www.hitandstay.com. Maryland Historical Society . Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  2. "Death of Hon. Louis McLane". The New York Times . 9 October 1857. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  3. Rasmussen, Fred (January 18, 1996). "Sophie Baylor, 97, helped schools, needy". Baltimore Sun . Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  4. "Wells Fargo & Co Incorporation". Scott's Monthly Stamp Journal. Mar-Feb 1924-25. Scott Publishing Company: 273. 1924. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  5. "This Day In History: 2020-07-15". www.wellsfargohistory.com. Wells Fargo History. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  6. 1 2 "CHARLES E. M'LANE, TURFMAN, BROKER; President of Maryland Jockey Club, 1917-38, Succeeded by A. C. Vanderbilt, Dies at 70 OF DISTINGUISHED FAMILY His Grandfather in Jackson's Cabinet, Envoy to London-- Uncle a Maryland Governor". The New York Times . 2 June 1941. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  7. 1 2 Times, Special to The New York (14 December 1905). "Louis McLane". The New York Times . Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Pleasants, Jacob Hall (1919). The Curzon Family of New York and Baltimore, and Their English Descent. p. 49. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  9. "CATHERINE M. McLANE.; Member of Prominent Baltimore Family Dies at 77". The New York Times . 13 April 1927. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  10. "McLANE--BLANCHARD". Napa Valley Register . 12 August 1887. p. 2. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  11. Bachrach, Bradford (22 August 1956). "BETSY M'L. FISHER BECOMES FIANCEE; Cockeysville, Md., Girl Future Bride of Thomas Cover 4th, Who Attended Yale". The New York Times . Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  12. "C. A. BROCKLEBANK, EX-RECTOR, 43, DIES; Served 4 Years at St. Mark'sin-the-Bouwerie--Formerly at Baltimore Churches". The New York Times . 2 November 1948. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  13. "LOUIS McLANE BREATHES HIS LAST IN BALTIMORE". San Francisco Call . Vol. 99, no. 14. 14 December 1905. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
Business positions
Preceded by
Inaugural holder
President of Nevada Bank
1875–1881
Succeeded by
Preceded by President of Wells Fargo & Company Express
1866–1869
Succeeded by