Background
Henry David Cooke was born on November 23, 1825 in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. He was a son of Eleutheros and Martha (Carswell) Cooke, and a brother of Jay Cooke.
banker journalist politician statesman
Henry David Cooke was born on November 23, 1825 in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. He was a son of Eleutheros and Martha (Carswell) Cooke, and a brother of Jay Cooke.
Henry went to Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania, and then to Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky. Upon graduation in 1844 he was sent to Philadelphia to study law, for which he had little liking.
Cooke contributed minor articles to various publications and in 1846 went to Valparaiso to a place in the office of his brother- in-law, William G. Moorhead, the consul. On his way to Chile he was forced to stop a month in St. Thomas and there became enthusiastic over the possibilities of connection with California by way of Panama. He wrote to newspapers on this subject, and persuaded Moorhead later to make an official report on it to Washington. His stay in Chile was brief and he went on to California. There he had some success in trade but lost what money he made in unfortunate speculations and in fires.
Returning East in 1849 he was for a time financial editor of the United States Gazette in Philadelphia, and then went back to Sandusky to edit the Register, which his brother Jay later helped him to buy. He made many friends, among them being Salmon P. Chase and John Sherman. In 1856 he went to Columbus to edit the Ohio State Journal. This journal was politically powerful but financially unprofitable, and only party favors kept Cooke with it until 1861. At that time his friend Chase became secretary of the treasury.
As the Civil War began, Jay Cooke, feeling the need of a personal representative close to the administration, persuaded Plenry to sell his paper and move to Washington. There with Harris C. Fahnestock, he was placed in charge of the Washington office of Jay Cooke & Company. Soon afterward he piloted through Congress the bill authorizing the construction of the first street railway in the District of Columbia; then Jay Cooke organized the Washington and Georgetown Street Railway Company, with Henry as first president, and by the summer of 1862 the railway was in operation. Henry Cooke resigned shortly after to organize the First National Bank of the District, another Jay Cooke enterprise, and later helped to form the National Life Insurance Company.
More and more of the business of financing the war came to the company of Jay Cooke. Henry went into the field with much success in the placing of one bond issue and in 1864 went abroad to interest foreign investors, a move he had long urged as a means of drawing foreign sympathy to the side of the North. All through the war he was most valuable to the firm because of his Washington contacts; and his lavish entertaining of newspaper correspondents brought countrywide publicity for, and faith in, the bond issues.
After the war he strongly urged his brother to assist in the financing of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and in 1870 he conducted the Northern Pacific lobby before Congress. He had become increasingly prominent in Washington affairs, and when the District was given territorial government in 1871 he was appointed the first governor. This position he resigned in 1873 at his brother’s urging, because he was involving the firm too heavily in projects for the expansion and improvement of the District. After Jay Cooke & Company closed its doors in the panic of 1873, Henry Cooke continued to reside in Washington, participating in local affairs and assisting various charities. Grace Chapel in Georgetown was his gift.
Cooke was active in the state and national politics and supported Salmon P. Chase and John Sherman.
Bryan, the District historian, described him as “an agreeable man of high personal character. ”
Cooke was married to Laura Humphreys of Utica.
