Discover how J.P. Morgan built America’s greatest banking empire, saved Wall Street twice, cheated death on the Titanic — and why his money couldn’t save him from a horrific end.
J.P. Morgan: The Banker Who Saved America — But Couldn’t Save Himself
When J.P. Morgan backed out of the Titanic’s maiden voyage, he thought he’d cheated death. He was wrong. A year later, the same illness that haunted his childhood returned to claim him in the most horrific way imaginable.
The House of Morgan: Born Into Power
John Pierpont Morgan was born in 1837 in Hartford, Connecticut — into the already well-established Morgan family. From the moment he drew breath, he had everything he needed, and it showed.
By the time JP was 10, his father inherited a fortune and became a partner in a banking firm. Even his mother brought unusual prestige to the family, hailing from a line of poets — including the composer of “Jingle Bells.” The Morgans had wealth, connections, and status. But there were some things even they couldn’t protect their son from.
The First Brush With Death
At 15, Morgan contracted an illness that blossomed into a painful rheumatic fever. His father sent him to Portugal to convalesce, but recovery took a full year. Even then, Morgan suffered flare-ups of pain for the rest of his life.
This brush with death perhaps only made him more determined to leave his mark upon the world. His father obliged, sending him to Switzerland and Germany to study, then providing his first job in banking.
For the next 14 years, Morgan built his reputation on Wall Street in his father’s business, carving out a name for himself. But eventually, he tired of working under his father’s shadow. He dreamed of something more.
The Coffee Gamble: A Glimpse of the Future
While working for Duncan, Sherman and Company, Morgan operated in the South ostensibly to learn the cotton trade. But when he saw an opportunity to trade coffee at a profit, he took it — without company authorization.
The bank chastised him. But at 22, Morgan hardly took the warning. Instead, he began planning alongside his father to go into business for himself. His best-laid plans, however, never expected the next twist.
Love and Loss: The Tragedy of Amelia Sturgis
In the summer of 1859, Morgan met Amelia Sturgis and fell deeply in love. After two years of courting, they knew they wanted to marry. But by that point, they had already waited too long.
At some point during their courtship, Amelia contracted tuberculosis. By the day of their wedding, most would have accepted that she was too far gone. Most would have — but not J.P. Morgan.
The pair married in October 1861. Amelia was so ill she lacked the energy to even walk to the ceremony. Morgan had to carry her to the drawing room, where they tied themselves together in a small private ceremony. He then carried his bride to the carriage that transported them to the pier for their honeymoon in Algiers.
Why Algiers? They had promised to love each other until death do them part, and Morgan still refused to accept that parting might come sooner rather than later. He hoped the warm weather would restore them both to full health, insistent that he could make whatever dream he had a reality.
Morgan remained married to Amelia for just over four months — such a short time that every hour counted. At some point, the couple traveled to Nice, where Amelia spent her final days. She passed in February 1862.
Her parting shattered whatever desires Morgan held for romance. With nothing else left, he poured his grief and energy into what he’d always known: business.
Profiting From War: The Civil War Years
In early 1861, Morgan opened his first private company: J. Pierpont Morgan and Company. But this endeavor had its own bloody problems.
America erupted into the Civil War, and the Union needed men to fight. Men exactly like the young J.P. Morgan. The trouble was, Morgan thought he was put to better use elsewhere. When the draft pulled his name, he had a problem his money could solve: he paid another man $300 to take his place in the Union Army.
Having settled that matter, Morgan was free to focus on his business, which was booming thanks to the volatile economic climate the war produced.
Before the war, Morgan worked primarily in cotton and iron imports for railroads. Both disappeared as battles began. But Morgan hadn’t gotten this far without being versatile — or without being willing to bend, or even break, a rule or two.
He took advantage of his connections in England to ensure he continued to profit while his fellow Americans suffered. Shortly after losing Amelia, he manipulated the markets to ensure he came out the winner. He and his partner made a large profit off the sale of their gold holdings. As average Americans went down, Morgan rose up.
The Hall Carbine Affair: Profiteering at Its Worst
Everything started to go downhill when Morgan loaned New York attorney Simon Stevens $20,000. Stevens used that money to purchase 5,000 carbine rifles, then turned around and sold them to a Union general for twice the price. Thanks to his loan, Morgan turned a pretty profit.
Tensions ran high, and the House of Representatives would call all such profiteers “worse than traitors in arms.”
Even worse, when public interest in the deal rose again in 1910, new information made Morgan look even more reprehensible. Not only did the general overpay for the rifles, but they were defective — likely to explode out of the back instead of firing properly.
Through legitimate means and questionable acts, Morgan saw success throughout this period. By the time the Civil War ended, the public viewed his company as a strong and reliable banking house.
The Guano Empire: Nothing Was Off-Limits
There was almost nothing Morgan wouldn’t trade in — including excrement. Based on the advice of a vice president, in 1865 Morgan decided his next big move should be in guano. He negotiated a contract to be the exclusive importer of Peruvian guano, used in fertilizer and gunpowder.
That same year, Morgan must have overcome his heartbreak from Amelia’s loss, as May saw him waiting for another woman at the end of the aisle. This time, he married Frances “Fanny” Louisa Tracy. Together, they would have four children.
But this outward image of success hid a darker truth.
A Marriage of Convenience, A Life of Affairs
Though likely fond of Fanny when they married, it didn’t appear to stay that way. By 1890, Morgan was thoroughly tired of his marriage and proceeded to spend nearly all his time with women who were not his wife.
Morgan didn’t sleep around so much as practice extramarital serial monogamy — spending time with one woman before moving on to another, rather than stringing several along at once. He had the wealth and charisma to back this up, never seeming to have problems finding a new companion.
According to one acquaintance, a visit from Morgan left him with the feeling “as if a gale had blown through the house.”
The Nose That Hid an Empire
By his 40s, Morgan began to suffer from a condition that caused the skin on his nose to deform — twisting with pits, nodules, and fissures, giving it a large bulbous appearance and a purplish hue. Unable to bear the stigma, he often hermited himself away.
Morgan refused to have pictures taken unless they were professionally retouched, and he could attack if surprised by a photographer. The public response was less than kind, and Morgan heard taunts like: “Johnny Morgan’s nasal organ has a purple hue.”
What was surprising was that Morgan didn’t need to live like this at all. Medical practices had evolved enough that he could have had the growths removed. However, he refused surgery. His son-in-law suspected the reason linked back to Morgan’s childhood and a fear he’d never been able to shake: in addition to rheumatic fever, Morgan had suffered from infantile seizures, and he feared the procedure would induce them again.
He had too much to lose.
The Savior of Wall Street: 1895 and 1907
J.P. Morgan proved so successful that by the turn of the century, everyone depended upon him — even the U.S. government.
Twice, in 1895 and again in 1907, the United States sat on the brink of financial crisis. As downturns threatened American livelihoods and the Treasury’s gold reserves dwindled to almost nothing, Morgan provided what was needed, saving the Treasury — though sinking President Grover Cleveland’s career in the process.
In 1907, matters proved more complicated. The American banking system was in crisis, with major banks facing bankruptcy and no government safety net to save them. Morgan once more overpowered the situation, playing a major role in reallocating funds between banks and trusts.
Of course, he got something out of it — conveniently removing his competition. When one firm, Moore & Schley, couldn’t repay its loans, Morgan proposed a solution: his own company, U.S. Steel, would absorb them. Gaining special permission from President Roosevelt, U.S. Steel absorbed its competition, becoming a virtual monopoly.
The crisis ended, and somehow Morgan ended up even better off than before.
The Titanic: Cheating Death
By the 1900s, J.P. Morgan and Co. was well-established, investing in many companies — including the International Mercantile Marine Co., an Atlantic shipping company that controlled smaller lines, among them the White Star Line.
In 1912, the White Star Line had banked everything on their latest luxury liner: the biggest, “unsinkable” ship ever made — the RMS Titanic.
The big boss, J.P. Morgan, intended to set sail on the Titanic’s maiden voyage. He bought one of their luxury suites, complete with his private promenade deck. But whatever light guided Morgan led him to safety again. At the last minute, he changed his plans, and the Titanic set sail without him.
When news came of the sinking, Morgan knew he’d saved his life. While other wealthy Americans like John Jacob Astor IV — the richest man aboard — lost their lives, Morgan’s financial investments didn’t get so lucky. The Titanic’s sinking took the White Star Line and International Mercantile Marine Co. with it.
Morgan showed social grace in the tragedy, announcing: “Monetary losses amount to nothing in life. It is the loss of life that counts. It is that frightful death.”
But though Morgan had narrowly avoided this grim fate, his past now caught up with him.
The Final Sinking: Death Comes Slowly
The fever that Morgan suffered from as a teen never fully went away. And near the end of his life, it returned to rob him of even the ability to walk.
Just a year after the Titanic’s sinking, Morgan went into rapid decline. His downward spiral started with extreme weakness, and eventually his own body began to rebel against him. When he attempted to speak, his throat contracted, stopping him. Then fear surely took over when he realized that not only could he not speak — he couldn’t eat. The muscles in his throat had ceased to work entirely.
The only thing Morgan could do now to escape his suffering was sleep. Most people wish for a quick end. For all his money and wealth, that proved to be one of the only things Morgan couldn’t buy. Instead, he spent his last weeks suffering from a long sinking spell, meeting his end slowly — one painful step at a time.
The End: March 31, 1913
J.P. Morgan died on March 31, 1913, having spent much of the days before slipping in and out of consciousness, being sustained by injections as he could no longer consume food. Traveling abroad, his life ended in Rome, Italy.
The man who had been larger than life returned home in a box, and the empire he built waited to honor him. The stock market closed for two hours in observance of his death — a custom usually reserved for heads of state.
J.P. Morgan revolutionized the banking system, saving Wall Street several times over. Even so, his critics accuse him of creating a still-present culture where the few control the bulk of the wealth.
Both things can be true, as can the fact that J.P. Morgan changed the world — for better or worse.
The Lesson
J.P. Morgan built an empire that shaped modern America. He saved the financial system twice, created monopolies, and amassed a fortune beyond imagination. Yet for all his power, he couldn’t escape the illness that haunted him since childhood.
Money could buy him out of the Civil War draft. It could buy him the Titanic’s luxury suite. It could buy him the U.S. Treasury. But it couldn’t buy him a quick, painless death.
Enjoyed this story? Subscribe to WealthPast on YouTube — new stories of history’s greatest fortunes, every week.