Leonard Jerome
| Leonard Jerome | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Leonard Walter Jerome 3 November 1817 Pompey, New York |
| Died | 3 March 1891 (aged 73) Brighton, England |
| Education | Union College |
| Spouse(s) | Clarissa Hall (1825–1895) (m. 1849–91) |
| Children | Jennie Jerome |
| Parent(s) | Aurora Murray Isaac Jerome |
| Relatives | Winston Churchill, grandson |
Leonard Walter Jerome (3 November 1817 – 3 March 1891) was a Brooklyn, New York, financier and maternal grandfather of Winston Churchill.
Leonard Jerome was the son of Aurora Murray (1785 – 1867) and Isaac Jerome (1786 – 1866). Isaac was a descendant of Timothy Jerome, a French Huguenot immigrant who arrived in the New York Colony in 1717. Jerome was born on a farm in the Central New York town of Pompey, near Syracuse. He originally enrolled in Princeton University, then known as the College of New Jersey, as a member of the Class of 1839, before leaving for Union College, where he studied law and set up a practice in Rochester, New York. He later moved to New York City, where he became a stock speculator and promoter.
Jerome was a flamboyant and successful stock speculator. He made and lost several fortunes, and was known as "The King of Wall Street". He held interests in several railroad companies and was often a partner in the deals of Cornelius Vanderbilt. He was a patron of the arts, and founded the Academy of Music, one of New York City's earliest opera houses.
During the New York Draft Riots, Jerome defended the New York Times office building with a Gatling Gun. Although he had significant holdings in the Times, he was not the majority shareholder as is sometimes erroneously claimed.
The Jerome Mansion, on the corner of Madison Avenue and 26th Street, had a six-hundred-seat theatre, a breakfast room which seated seventy people, a ballroom of white and gold with champagne- and cologne-spouting fountains, and a view of Madison Square Park. It was later sold and housed a series of private clubs. The mansion was torn down in 1967.
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