Henry Keep was born on June 22, 1918 at Adams, New York, United States, the son of Heman Chandler and Dorothy (Kent) Keep. He was descended from John Keep, an emigrant from the Kingdom of England, who was living in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, in 1660. Heman Keep died in 1835, leaving the family in such poverty that they sought shelter in the county poor house.
Keep had no schooling.
When Henry was about seventeen, he was bound out to a farmer, who in taking him agreed to send him to the public school, but the farmer did not carry out the agreement and in later life Keep used to boast that he "graduated at the poor house. " Tiring of farm work and the harsh treatment which he received, he ran away from his master and eventually made his way to Honeoye Falls, near Rochester, New York. He obtained employment as a teamster on the Erie Canal. He later became a hackman in Rochester. Having managed to save some money, he invested in depreciated currency during the financial crisis of 1837. With the return of normal monetary conditions he found his small capital nearly quadrupled by the appreciation of his holdings.
His next speculation was concerned with Canadian bank notes, of which there were a considerable number in circulation on the American border. Since they were not legal tender in the United States, the holders were glad to dispose of them at a fair discount. He journeyed about buying all he could find, paying for them with state notes which were generally also at a discount, and then, as soon as he had accumulated enough to warrant the expense, went over to various towns in Canada and cashed the notes at par. This itinerant brokerage business was an innovation, and he made a good profit from it.
After a time he accumulated enough capital to open an exchange and banking office at Watertown, New York. He soon established several other country banks, and about 1850 the scope of his speculative operations became so great that he moved to New York and started operating in Wall Street. He dealt extensively in the stock of the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad Company, commonly nicknamed "Old Southern, " and served as treasurer of this company from 1861 to 1863. In 1866, in the face of considerable opposition, he was elected president of the New York Central Railroad, holding the position for six months, after which he resigned and Commodore Vanderbilt assumed control. At the time of his death he was president of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, of which, with the aid of Rufus Hatch, he had secured financial control. At this time he also controlled the Northern Indiana and Cleveland & Toledo railroads, serving as president of the latter. He was essentially a financier, not a railroad man in the true sense of the word, and his positions as a railroad executive were assumed purely for financial reasons.
Keep became widely known as one of the boldest and most successful operators in railroad stocks, winning the nickname "William the Silent" because one of the strong points in his character as a financier was his reticence about everything relating to his investments. He was credited with having left an estate of over four million dollars, a remarkable achievement considering that he started without a cent and that his success was due entirely to his own unaided efforts.
Keep was married Emma A. Woodruff, by whom he had one child.
