John W. Garrett
| John W. Garrett | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
July 31, 1820 Baltimore, Maryland |
| Died | September 26, 1884 (aged 64) Deer Park, Maryland |
| Occupation | Banker, railroad executive |
| Years active | 1850s—1880s |
| Known for | President, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad |
| Net worth | USD $15 million at the time of his death ($3.7 billion adjusted for 2012 inflation, approximately 1/715th of US GNP) |
| Predecessor | Chauncy Brooks |
| Successor | Robert Garrett, II |
John Work Garrett (July 31, 1820 – September 26, 1884), was an American banker, philanthropist, and president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B. & O.).
In 1855, he was named to the board of the B. & O., and in 1858, became its president, a position he held until the year he died. His tenure was marked by his support for the Union cause during the Civil War, the expansion of the railroad to reach Chicago, Illinois, and his struggles with the Pennsylvania Railroad over access to New York City. Several places are named in his honor.
After attending with his brother Henry, Boisseau Academy in Baltimore, and later at age fourteen, the secondary prep school for Lafayette College and continuing to the college in Easton, Pennsylvania, Garrett began working as a clerk and apprentice in his father's banking and financial services firm, founded 1819, Robert Garrett and Company, (later Robert Garrett and Sons), at the age of nineteen in 1839. His father Robert [Sr.], had come from Ireland as a young boy in 1801 with his parents and family, including his father who died at sea during the transit. Along with Henry, the young Garrett sons learned the business from the ground up such as how to tan leather from the teamster Alexander Sharp as their father did, mastered salting pork and packing madder and Spanish whiting in barrels. When his brother stayed in Baltimore, John Work headed west to expand the business over the mountains. Like his father before him, he learned the geography with first-hand travels through Virginia into Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and beyond. This taught him that the importance for Baltimore's port lay in the western states and the trade to come east. The company's fleet of Conestoga wagons carried food and supplies west over the Cumberland Trail towards Kentucky and Tennessee and the old National Road, west from Baltimore to Cumberland, Maryland and further to Ohio and the territorial capital at Vandalia, Illinois, near the Mississippi River. From their business and store then located on Howard Street, they supplied products to be sent to western general stores such as flints, chocolate and chalk, receiving in turn, ginseng, snakeroot and whiskey. The brothers sponsored new projects, building warehouses and hotels such as the Howard House and the Eutaw House on the westside. With the end of the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, they turned attention to the new American Southwest and California, causing the largest steamship then ever built in Baltimore, "The Monumental City", which soon made regular runs down the Chesapeake Bay to New Orleans, and San Francisco. The company added to its fleet and expanded its mercantile and financial business to South America and Europe.
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