Background
Phelps was descended from George Phelps (1606-1687), who came to America from England in 1630.
Phelps was descended from George Phelps (1606-1687), who came to America from England in 1630.
He started work as an apprenticed clerk in a general store and after eight years was offered a partnership in the business.
He founded The Mercantile Bank, was one of the founders of the Second National Bank, a director of the Greenwich Saving Bank and the Central Trust Company. They had lost their property by acting as guarantors for friends and this hardship ended young Phelps"s schooling at the age of thirteen. North. Pickering (Phelps & Pickering), and then in 1834 with James Sheldon (Sheldon and Phelps).
In about 1850 Phelps left the hardware business and joined with John Jay Phelps in the real-estate company of I. North. & J. J. Phelps with offices at 45 Wall Street.
An example of their projects was the development of the old Park Theatre site in 1850 with William Backhouse Astor Senior At the same time Phelps was also on the board of several banks and insurance companies.
In 1852 Phelps acquired land on Madison Avenue in an area previously undeveloped and built a family house. The only house to have survived from that period is 231 Madison Avenue - the one built by I. North. Phelps - and is now part of the J. P. Morgan Library.
Phelps married Sarah Maria Lusk from Enfield, Connecticut on the 10 November 1828.
They had two children, daughters Sarah Maria (1833-1859) and Helen Louisa (1846-1915). Sarah Maria married Henry Laverty King in 1859, but she died shortly afterwards. Phelps’s wife had died earlier that year and he asked the newly-weds to move in with him.
The bank closed after the death of James Stokes in 1881.
The bank"s president, John Chester Eno, had speculated and lost millions of dollars on Wall Street during the panic of that year and was forced to resign, then fled to Canada. The directors, including Phelps and Anson Stokes, faced the onerous task of making up the losses.
However, Eno"s father, Amos R. Eno was persuaded by the board to repay the bulk of the loss. The other directors made up shortfalls to ensure the bank survived the run on deposits.
Phelps died on 1 August 1888 at his Saratoga summer home.
