Frederick Henry Prince was an American investment banker and society figure.
Background
He was born on November 24, 1859 in Winchester, Massachussets, United States, the son of Frederick Octavius Prince and Helen Susan Henry Prince. His father, a politician who won a reputation as an ideal gentleman of the old school and represented Winchester in the Massachusetts legislature during the 1850's as a Whig, aligned himself with the Douglas Democrats in 1860 and was for twenty-eight years secretary of the Democratic National Committee; he also served four terms as mayor of Boston. The family was prominent in Boston Brahmin society.
Education
Prince attended the private school of John P. Hopkinson and entered Harvard in 1878. He compiled an indifferent academic record and entered again with the freshman class the following autumn. He left college on January 5, 1880, shortly after the sudden death of his only sister from diphtheria.
Career
Prince's family connections served him well. He joined the office of Charles E. Fuller and Company, stockbrokers in Boston, and in 1885 took over the business, renaming it F. H. Prince and Company. Later that year he bought an individual membership in the New York Stock Exchange, which he retained throughout his life, although his firm eventually specialized in investment banking and dropped its retail brokerage operations.
He drew national attention in 1903 when he assumed the presidency of the Pere Marquette Lines, which served a key industrial area in Michigan. At the same time a syndicate that he headed obtained control of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton, which thereupon purchased a controlling interest in the Pere Marquette. The syndicate then bought the capital stock of the Chicago, Cincinnati and Louisville, paying for it by means of an issue of joint collateral bonds by the other two railroads.
His project, however, brought him into conflict with J. P. Morgan. When the Morgan-dominated Erie Railroad acquired a majority interest in the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton and forbade the other mergers, the Pere Marquette and the Cincinnati were forced into receivership. Years of litigation followed. The affair brought Prince to the unfavorable notice of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Nevertheless, he emerged with his personal fortune intact, and during the 1920's his net worth grew to $250 million.
Foreseeing a business downturn, he liquidated his holdings of securities just before the 1929 crash and consequently figured during the Great Depression as one of the richest men in America. In March 1933, with many railroads approaching insolvency, Prince sponsored a plan for consolidating all major trunk lines into seven systems. The Prince Plan was actually drawn up by John W. Barriger, a Wall Street specialist in railroad securities, and it reflected bondholders' views. After 1933 Prince channeled his business interests largely into the meat-packing industry.
His Chicago Stock Yards Company controlled the Chicago Junction Railway Company, the Union Stock Yard and Transit Company, and the Livestock National Bank. These concerns in turn owned many stockyards, most of the real estate in the manufacturing district west of the yards, and all the beltline railways that connected with trunk lines entering Chicago. He bested Armour's management in a proxy fight and early in 1934 became chairman of the company's executive committee. He reorganized Armour's finances and restored it to profitability before retiring in 1939.
Prince also cut a dashing figure in Newport society. In 1932 he purchased Marble House, one of the most expensive summer homes ever built for a commoner (William K. Vanderbilt) and an architectural symbol of Newport's golden age. From 1931 to 1936 he owned and raced the sloop Weetamoe, which was an America's Cup contender.
At the end of his career Prince took a fatherly interest in a young business associate, William Henry Wood, and adopted him formally in 1944. Prince died February 2, 1953.
Achievements
Frederick Henry Prince founded Union Stockyards and Transit Company, held a controlling interest in the Pere Marquette Railway and the Chicago Junction Railway, which gave his stockyard operations hundreds of miles of rail lines and close to 1, 000, 000 acres of land. Besieds, he acquired Armour and Company, one of the country's major slaughterhouses and meatpacking operations.
Prince established numerous riding trails and carriage roads in Massachusetts, was one of the nine founding members of the National Steeplechase Association, created to organize competitive steeplechase racing.
Politics
Frederick Prince aided President Franklin D. Roosevelt efforts to pull America out of the Great Depression of the 1930s. He proposed sweeping changes in the United States Constitution, to make the President more independent.
Membership
He was a member of the New York Yacht Club.
Personality
Favored by robust health and a sturdy build, he rode and sailed vigorously into his late seventies. He was outspoken and pugnacious; even at an advanced age. Although he shunned publicity in his business dealings, Prince welcomed attention for his social and sporting activities and displayed his wealth in a manner that recalled an earlier age. As a young man he owned a 994-acre estate, Princemere, at Wenham, Massachussets
Connections
On March 11, 1884, Prince married Abigail Kingsley Norman, a debutante from Newport. They had two sons, Frederick Henry Prince Jr. (1885–1962) and Norman Prince.
