Head of New York’s oldest bank—Alexander Hamilton was a director. He established funds at The Trust in memory of his wife and son.
Herbert L. Griggs (1855-1944)
Herbert L. Griggs began his banking career when he was only 15, an age when boys traditionally are more interested in ball scores than bond prices. From this early start, he advanced steadily, eventually serving as the head of New York City’s oldest bank for 24 years.
The bank itself had played an important part in financing the struggling young republic, so it seems fitting that the president and later chairman of that bank also traced his ancestry to the early days of the United States.
Born in Boston on March 28, 1855, Herbert Lebau Griggs was a direct descendant of Thomas Griggs, who came from England to Boston in 1638, only eight years after the city was founded. In the Griggs family, admiration for colonial fathers ran high. Herbert’s father was named Benjamin Franklin Griggs. A hay and grain dealer in Boston, Benjamin wanted his son to have an advanced education. But Herbert was eager to start work. Immediately after his graduation from English High School in Boston in 1869, he became an apprentice in the Boston investment banking firm of Kidder, Peabody and Company.
Eight years later, he was transferred to the New York branch. There his talent and industry were rewarded with a partnership in 1886, and he remained with the firm for 15 years. In 1892, he accepted a second partnership with Baring, Magowan and Company. In 1901, at age 46, Herbert Griggs was elected president of the Bank of New York Banking Association, the oldest bank in New York City and the third-oldest in the country.
The bank could boast an impressive history in the colonial beginnings of America. Alexander Hamilton had been a leader in its organization at the Merchant’s Coffee House in 1784. He wrote its constitution, as he did some of the fundamental banking laws of the United States, when he was only 27. Hamilton served as the bank’s director during its first four years. The bank was a loyal supporter of the young republic of America and made our government its first loan in September 1789. The amount was $200,000, a stabilizing sum of money in those days!
The Bank of New York was the first American bank to negotiate a loan in a foreign country. In 1822, on behalf of New York State, it borrowed £200,000 from London bankers. It also was the first American bank to organize a gold department and the first (in 1865) to establish a safe-deposit system.
In the 21 years he served as president of the Bank of New York, Herbert Griggs saw the capital, the undivided profits, and the total deposits of the bank triple. In 1922, he merged the bank with the New York Life Insurance and Trust Co. and served as chairman of the new institution, the Bank of New York & Trust Co., until his retirement in 1925.
Herbert’s investment banking experience was invaluable to the four insurance companies he served. He was a director of the Eagle Fire Insurance Company of America, the Phoenix Indemnity Company, and the Sun Indemnity Company. He also was a trustee of the Atlantic Mutual Company.
Herbert Griggs was already a solidly established investment banker in 1890, when he married Emily Thompson, the daughter of another New York banker. They had a son, Arthur, who moved to France as a young man and became a translator, writer, and literary critic. For a long time, Herbert and Emily hoped to establish a residence in France, too. At last, the dream was realized. ”How excited I am to be sailing,” wrote Griggs to a friend as they departed for Paris, their “dream paradise.” But the year was 1914, and paradise was infested with serpents. Sarajevo, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was shot, may have seemed far away at the time, but two months later, Germany declared war on France and the German army advanced on Paris.
Despite this, France remained Emily’s special love. So she could continue to live in her paradise and he could continue as head of the Bank of New York, Herbert Griggs became a frequent trans-Atlantic passenger at a time when German submarines were a constant menace.
Meanwhile, his wife gave many hours to relief work during the early years of World War I, before the American Expeditionary Forces arrived. The tasks were especially difficult for her because she suffered from arthritis that had progressed to the stage of painful crippling. In 1919, in recognition of her years of devoted service, she was decorated with the French Legion of Honor.
The Griggses lived in France through the Roaring 20s. Then, in 1934, Arthur died in France. In 1938, Emily Thompson Griggs died, a victim of the arthritis that had tortured her for so many years.
It was a lonely Herbert Griggs who returned to America at the outset of World War II. Yet, his stubborn Yankee humor remained. He went back to some of his business ventures, and in the summertime, he escaped the city smoke by going to his favorite retreat: the Mountain View House in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. There the cool, clean mountain air relieved his chronic bronchitis and asthma. In July 1944, he wrote to a friend: “It is my fifth successive summer here, and it is really like coming home to arrive and be greeted by friends of past years. There are bound to be many new people every year, but they are golfers, bridge players, and other ‘unreliable’ people.”
When on vacation, the handsome gentleman with the devilish sense of humor preferred to do absolutely nothing, for his business life was strenuous enough. “It takes me the whole vacation just to find myself,” he’d say with a chuckle.
At vacation’s end, Herbert always returned to the Savoy-Plaza Hotel on Fifth Avenue in New York City, where he maintained his residence and sent out his voluminous business correspondence.
During the last 10 years of his life, Griggs served as treasurer and trustee for the Boys Club of New York City. He also enjoyed memberships in the Metropolitan Club, the Down Town Association, and the New York Athletic Club. But he had developed asthma and it grew steadily worse. After surgery and recuperation in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, he returned to the Mountain View House in New Hampshire. He died there on September 19, 1944, at age 89.
Before Emily’s death, the couple had made plans to establish a charitable trust fund, called the Emily Griggs Fund, to help New Yorkers suffering from arthritis. Aware of how the simplest motions can become both difficult and agonizingly painful, they searched for ways to make life more comfortable for others.
In addition to the Emily Griggs Fund, Herbert Griggs established a second fund in memory of his son, Arthur, to be used for charitable purposes. It was a source of satisfaction for both Herbert and Emily that they could bring some measure of comfort to others.