Michael Hillegas was an American merchant and treasurer. He served as the first Treasurer of the United States.
Background
Michael Hillegas was born on April 22, 1729 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Michael and Margaret (Hill) Hillegas. His father, an emigrant from the Palatinate, was a naturalized citizen of Pennsylvania, a prosperous merchant, and a respected leader of the German population.
Education
Hillegas was given the best education afforded at the time by the parochial schools and academies of Philadelphia, and at an early age entered his father's counting-room.
Career
When Hillegas was twenty-one, upon his father's death, he became manager of the business and one of the administrators of his father's estate. Later he invested in sugar refining and in the manufacture of iron and amassed a considerable fortune.
His first public service was that rendered in 1762 as a commissioner to locate and erect Fort Mifflin, Pa. He was a member of the provincial Assembly of Pennsylvania, 1765-1775, and during this time was a member of the commission to audit and settle the accounts of the general land office and other public accounts. He was a member of the board of commissioners to improve the navigation of the Delaware River in 1771; a member of the committee of observation for Philadelphia, 1774; and on June 30, 1775, was appointed treasurer of the Pennsylvania committee of safety. A month later, July 29, 1775, Hillegas and George Clymer were made joint treasurers of the united colonies, by action of the Continental Congress, being styled "Continental Treasurers. " Meanwhile, on May 30, 1776, he assumed the additional duties of treasurer of the Province of Pennsylvania. When Clymer took his seat in Congress, Hillegas was made sole Continental Treasurer, August 6, 1776, and on September 6, 1777, he was appointed treasurer of the United States of America. He continued to serve until September 11, 1789, after the Treasury Department had been established by act of Congress, under the federal Constitution.
During the Revolution he contributed a large part of his fortune, by gift or loan, to the support of the army, and in 1781 he was one of the first subscribers to the Bank of North America. By direction of the Pennsylvania General Assembly he compiled and published in 1782 Volume I of Journals of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, covering the period between November 28, 1776, and October 2, 1781. Apparently this task stimulated his interest in the preservation of historical material, for in a letter of August 20, 1781, to the governor of New Hampshire he suggested "the propriety of each legislature in the Union adopting measures similar to those taken by this state for the above purpose".
Upon the discovery of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania about the first of the year 1792, Hillegas with some others formed an association called the Lehigh Coal Mining Company which purchased several thousand acres from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania but probably never mined any great quantity of coal. He was an alderman of Philadelphia from 1793 until the year of his death, and an associate justice of the mayor's court.
He died in Philadelphia.
Achievements
Religion
Hillegas was a member of the Episcopalian church.
Membership
Hillegas was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society on April 8, 1768.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
"Hillegas is a great musician, talks perpetually of the forte and piano, of Handel, and songs and tunes. He plays upon the fiddle. " - John Adams
Interests
Hillegas played the fiddle.
Connections
On May 10, 1753, Hillegas married Henrietta Boude, the daughter of Samuel and Deborah Boude of Philadelphia, by whom he had ten children.
Late in the 19th century, his descendants petitioned to have his portrait appear on the ten-dollar gold certificate in the series issued in the years 1907 and 1922.