Charles Yerkes
Encyclopedia
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Philadelphia
Yerkes was born in the Northern Liberties, a district adjacent to Philadelphia, on June 25, 1837. His mother died of puerperal feverPuerperal fever
Puerperal fever or childbed fever, is a bacterial infection contracted by women during childbirth or miscarriage. It can develop into puerperal sepsis, which is a serious form of septicaemia. If untreated, it is often fatal....
when he was five years old and shortly thereafter his father was expelled from the Society of Friends for marrying a non-Quaker. After finishing a two-year course at Philadelphia's Central High School
Central High School (Philadelphia)
Central High School is a public secondary school in the Logan section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Central, the second-oldest continuously public high school in the United States , was founded in 1836 and is a four-year university preparatory magnet school...
, Yerkes began his business career at the age of 17 as a clerk in a local grain brokerage. In 1859, aged 22, he opened his own brokerage firm and joined the Philadelphia stock exchange
Stock exchange
A stock exchange is an entity that provides services for stock brokers and traders to trade stocks, bonds, and other securities. Stock exchanges also provide facilities for issue and redemption of securities and other financial instruments, and capital events including the payment of income and...
. By 1865 he had moved into banking and specialized in selling municipal, state, and government bonds. Relying on his bank president father's connections, his political contacts, and his own business skill, Yerkes gained a name for himself in the local financial and social world. He was on the verge of entering Philadelphia society when disaster struck.
While serving as a financial agent for the City of Philadelphia's treasurer Joseph Marcer, Yerkes risked public money in a colossal stock speculation. Unfortunately for Yerkes, this speculation ended calamitously when the Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about in Chicago, Illinois. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S...
sparked a financial panic. Left insolvent and unable to make payment to the City of Philadelphia, Yerkes was convicted of larceny and sentenced to thirty-three months in the dreaded Eastern State Penitentiary
Eastern State Penitentiary
The Eastern State Penitentiary is a former American prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located on 2027 Fairmount Avenue between Corinthian Avenue and North 22nd Street in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia and was operational from 1829 until 1971...
, notorious for its system of solitary confinement. Scheming to remain out of prison, he attempted to blackmail two influential Pennsylvania politicians. The plan failed. However, the damaging information on these politicians was eventually made public and political leaders like President Ulysses Grant feared that the revelations might harm their prospects in the upcoming elections. Yerkes was promised a pardon if he would deny the accusations he had made. He agreed to these terms and was released after seven months in the Eastern State Penitentiary. Yerkes spent the next ten years rebuilding his fortune.
Chicago
In 1881 Yerkes traveled to FargoFargo, North Dakota
Fargo is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County. In 2010, its population was 105,549, and it had an estimated metropolitan population of 208,777...
in the Dakota Territory
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...
in order to obtain a divorce from his wife of over twenty-two years. Later that year, he wedded the 24-year-old Mary Adelaide Moore and moved to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
He opened a stock and grain brokerage but soon became involved with the city's public transportation system. In 1886, Yerkes and his business partners used a complex financial deal to take over the North Chicago City Railway and then proceeded to follow this with a string of further take-overs until he controlled a majority of the city's street railway systems on the north and west sides. However, he never achieved his ultimate goal—a monopoly of the city's streetcar lines: the South Side's Chicago City Railway
Chicago City Railway
The Chicago City Railway was a cable car system, designed by William Eppelsheimer and opened in Chicago in 1882.This system was to become, for a while, the largest and most profitable cable car system in the world. Counter to some people's expectations, the cable cars did not suffer much from the...
remained forever out of his reach. Yerkes was not averse to using bribery
Bribery
Bribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...
and blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
to obtain his ends.
In an effort to polish a badly tarnished public image, Yerkes decided in 1892 to bankroll the world's largest telescope after being lobbied by the astronomer George Ellery Hale
George Ellery Hale
George Ellery Hale was an American solar astronomer.-Biography:Hale was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was educated at MIT, at the Observatory of Harvard College, , and at Berlin . As an undergraduate at MIT, he is known for inventing the spectroheliograph, with which he made his discovery of...
and University of Chicago president William Rainey Harper
William Rainey Harper
William Rainey Harper was one of America's leading academics of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Harper helped to organize the University of Chicago and Bradley University and served as the first President of both institutions.-Early life:Harper was born on July 26, 1856 in New Concord,...
. He had initially intended to finance only a telescope but eventually agreed to foot the bill for an entire observatory. He contributed nearly $300,000 to the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
to establish what would become known as the Yerkes Observatory
Yerkes Observatory
Yerkes Observatory is an astronomical observatory operated by the University of Chicago in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. The observatory, which calls itself "the birthplace of modern astrophysics," was founded in 1897 by George Ellery Hale and financed by Charles T. Yerkes...
, located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
.
If Yerkes could have gotten his way, Chicago would never have had any elevated railroads. So it is no small irony that his greatest legacy to the city was The Loop
The Loop (CTA)
The Loop is the two mile circuit of elevated railroad that forms the hub of the 'L' rapid transit system in Chicago, Illinois. The Loop is so named because the railroad loops around a rectangle formed by Lake Street , Wabash Avenue , Van Buren Street , and Wells Street...
—a rectangle of elevated tracks enclosing Chicago's business district.
While in Chicago, Yerkes became an avid art collector. He relied upon Sarah Tyson Hallowell
Sarah Tyson Hallowell
Sarah Tyson Hallowell was an important American art curator in the years between the Civil War and World War I. She curated a number of major exhibitions in Chicago, arranged the loan exhibition of French Art at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, worked with Bertha Palmer to...
(1846-1924) to advise him on his purchases. After the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, she tried to interest him in the works of Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
, which were part of the loan exhibitor of French art. Because the subject matter was controversial, Yerkes and other collectors turned the works down. Within a short time he changed his mind and soon acquired two Rodin marbles, Orpheus and Cupid and Psyche, for his Chicago mansion, the first two of Rodin's works known to have been sold to an American collector. Yerkes art collection also boasted works by the French academic painters Jean-Leon Gerome
Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits and other subjects, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax.-Life:Jean-Léon Gérôme was born...
and William Adolphe Bouguereau and members of the Barbizon School.
Yerkes, hoping to escape from a city he had grown to detest, embarked upon a campaign for longer streetcar franchises in 1895. He offered Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld
John Peter Altgeld
John Peter Altgeld was the 20th Governor of the U.S. state of Illinois from 1893 until 1897. He was the first Democratic governor of that state since the 1850s...
an enormous bribe for his support, but Altgeld rejected the bribe and vetoed the franchise bills. Yerkes renewed the campaign in 1897, and, after a hard-fought battle, secured from the Illinois Legislature a bill granting city councils the right to approve extended franchises. The so-called franchise war then shifted to the Chicago City Council
Chicago City Council
The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 aldermen elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms...
—an arena in which Yerkes ordinarily thrived. A partially reformed council under Mayor Carter Harrison, Jr.
Carter Harrison, Jr.
Carter Henry Harrison, Jr. served as Mayor of Chicago . The City's 30th mayor, he was the first actually born in Chicago....
, however, ultimately defeated Yerkes, with the swing votes coming from aldermen "Hinky Dink" Kenna
Michael Kenna
Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna was one of the two aldermen elected in Chicago's First Ward, from 1897 to 1923.At the age of ten, Kenna left school and began selling newspapers. By the age of twelve, he had borrowed fifty dollars from a bar keeper and purchased a news stand at the corner of Monroe and...
and "Bathhouse" John Coughlin.
In 1899, Yerkes sold the majority of his Chicago transport stocks and moved to New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
London
In August 1900, Yerkes decided to become involved in the development of the London UndergroundLondon Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
railway system after riding along the route of one proposed line and surveying the City of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
from the summit of Hampstead Heath
Hampstead Heath
Hampstead Heath is a large, ancient London park, covering . This grassy public space sits astride a sandy ridge, one of the highest points in London, running from Hampstead to Highgate, which rests on a band of London clay...
. He established the Underground Electric Railways Company of London
Underground Electric Railways Company of London
The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited , known operationally as The Underground for much of its existence, was established in 1902. It was the holding company for the three deep-level "tube"A "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a circular tunnel by the use...
to take control of the Metropolitan District Railway
Metropolitan District Railway
The Metropolitan District Railway was the predecessor of the District line of the London Underground. Set up on 29 July 1864, at first to complete the "Inner Circle" railway around central London, it was gradually extended into the suburbs...
and the part built Baker Street & Waterloo Railway; Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway; and Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway
Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway
The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway , also known as the Piccadilly tube, was a railway company established in 1902 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London. The GNP&BR was formed through a merger of two older companies, the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus...
. Yerkes employed complex financial arrangements similar to those that he had used in America to raise the funds necessary to construct the new lines and electrify the District railway. In one of his last great triumphs, Yerkes managed to thwart an attempt by J. P. Morgan
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric...
to enter the London Underground field.
He died in New York aged 68 in 1905, a victim of kidney disease, before any of his works on the London railways were completed but with the construction well underway. Though initially estimated to be as high as twenty-two million dollars, Yerkes' fortune ended up being well less than one million dollars thanks to a vast number of debts.
The events of Yerkes' life served as a blueprint for the Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of...
novels, The Financier
The Financier
Published in 1912, The Financier, a novel by Theodore Dreiser, is the first volume of the Trilogy of Desire, which includes The Titan and The Stoic .-Plot summary:...
, The Titan
The Titan
The Titan is a novel written by Theodore Dreiser in 1914. It is Dreiser's sequel to The Financier.-Plot summary:Cowperwood moves to Chicago with his new wife Aileen. He decides to take over the street-railway system. He bankrupts several opponents with the help of John J. McKenty and other...
and The Stoic
The Stoic
The Stoic is a novel by Theodore Dreiser, first published in 1947. It is the conclusion to A Trilogy of Desire, his series of novels about Frank Cowperwood, a businessman based on the real-life streetcar tycoon Charles Yerkes...
, in which Yerkes was fictionalized as Frank Cowperwood.
The crater Yerkes
Yerkes (crater)
Yerkes is a lunar crater near the western edge of Mare Crisium. In the past the interior of this crater has been almost completely inundated by lava, leaving only a shallow remnant of a rim above the mare. The rim is widest on the western and southern portions, and barely existent to the east,...
on the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
is named in his honor.
Yerkes and his wife Mary were painted by his favorite artist Jan van Beers (National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC). His wife, the daughter of Thomas Moore of Philadelphia, was also painted in 1892 by the Swiss-born American artist Adolfo Müller-Ury
Adolfo Müller-Ury
Adolfo Muller-Ury was a Swiss-born American portrait painter and impressionistic painter of roses and still life.-Heritage and early life in Switzerland:...
(1862-1947). In 1893 Müller-Ury painted from miniatures portraits of Yerkes' Quaker grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Silas Yerkes.
External links
- Chicago "L".org
- University of Chicago - Biography of Yerkes
- Robber Baron: The Life of Charles Tyson Yerkes
- London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
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