businessman and philanthropist
Augustus was born on April 19, 1836 at sea while his parents, French Protestants, were on the three-months voyage in a sailing vessel to America from Burgundy. In Stark County, Ohio, the children were reared in the Lutheran faith. His parents were Jean Nicolas and Anna (Burlette) Juilliard.
Augustus left home at an early age, got work, and while still a youth made his way to the city of New York.
Juilliard attended local schools at Louisville, Ohio.
In New York he found his first employment in a textile house, where in due time he was advanced to a place of trust and responsibility. The financial crash of 1873 threw the business into bankruptcy. Juilliard was made receiver. In that capacity his management of affairs was skillful and successful in conserving the firm's assets. After the revival of trade he was able to organize his own dry-goods commission company, the beginning of a prosperous business that made for him a life-long career.
Later he became heavily interested in the manufacture of woolens, silk, and cotton, particularly in the Atlantic Mills at Providence, the Standard Silk Company, Phillipsburg, cotton mills at Aragon, and Brookford and the New York Mills Corporation.
At his death he was a director in the Guaranty Trust Company, the Bank of America, the Mercantile Insurance Company of America, and other financial institutions. He was also a trustee of the Central Trust Company, the Title Guaranty & Trust Company, the New York Life Insurance & Trust Company, and the Mutual Life Insurance Company. At the same time he held a directorship in the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad.
From the early years of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, Juilliard was an active supporter of that enterprise. When he died, he was president of the Metropolitan Opera & Real Estate Company, the holding corporation. He was a regular attendant at the performances; in fact, he had been present at the opera early in the evening of April 19, 1919, on which he came down with the attack of pneumonia that caused his death, less than six days later.
Augustus D. Juilliard gradually became an outstanding figure in the New York banking and investment field. His will provided that the bulk of his great fortune should go to a fund to establish musical departments in American colleges, provide musical education at home or abroad for promising students, encourage musical composition, and produce operas of merit. The Juilliard Foundation maintains a school of music in New York and a number of fellowships in other institutions, and has contributed to the support of the Metropolitan Opera Company and the summer Stadium concerts.
In politics he was never especially active except in the sound-money campaign of 1896, when he supported McKinley. He was always a high-protectionist.
In 1877, Juilliard married Helen Marcelus Cossitt (November 16, 1847 - April 2, 1916), daughter of Frederick H. and Catherine (Andrus) Cossitt of New York.
She was for many years a member of the managing board of the Lincoln Hospital and Home for colored persons. She endowed St. John's Guild, which in summer transported mothers and children from the New York tenements to Coney Island for rest and refreshment; gave the Guild its first boat, the Helen C. Juilliard, and later, with her husband, gave the Guild a hospital ship. For Colorado College she built the Frederick H. Cossitt Memorial, designed to serve as a center of social and athletic life for the men of the college. She also made a bequest of $50, 000 to the American Museum of Natural History, of which her husband was a trustee for over twenty years and to which he left $100, 000 by his will in addition to numerous gifts in his lifetime.
