J. P. Morgan - Personal Life

Personal Life

Morgan was a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church, and by 1890 was one of its most influential leaders.

In 1861, he married Amelia Sturges, a.k.a. Mimi (1835–1862). Three years after her death, he married Frances Louisa Tracy, known as Fanny (1842–1924) on May 31, 1865. They had four children:

• Louisa Pierpont Morgan (1866–1946) who married Herbert L. Satterlee (1863–1947)
• John Pierpont Morgan (1867–1943) who married Jane Norton Grew
• Juliet Pierpont Morgan (1870–1952) who married William Pierson Hamilton (1869–1950)
• Anne Tracy Morgan (1873–1952).

He often had a tremendous physical effect on people; one man said that a visit from Morgan left him feeling "as if a gale had blown through the house." Morgan was physically large with massive shoulders, piercing eyes and a purple nose, because of a chronic skin disease, rosacea. His deformed nose was due to a disease called rhinophyma, which can result from rosacea. As the deformity worsens, pits, nodules, fissures, lobulations, and pedunculation contort the nose. This condition inspired the crude taunt "Johnny Morgan's nasal organ has a purple hue." Surgeons could have shaved away the rhinophymous growth of sebaceous tissue during Morgan's lifetime, but as a child Morgan suffered from infantile seizures, and Morgan's son-in-law Herbert L. Satterlee has speculated that he did not seek surgery for his nose because he feared the seizures would return. His social and professional self-confidence were too well established to be undermined by this affliction. It appeared as if he dared people to meet him squarely and not shrink from the sight, asserting the force of his character over the ugliness of his face. He was known to dislike publicity and hated being photographed; as a result of his self-consciousness of his rosacea, all of his professional portraits were retouched.

Morgan smoked dozens of cigars per day and favored large Havana cigars dubbed Hercules' Clubs by observers.

His house on Madison Avenue was the first electrically lit private residence in New York. His interest in the new technology was a result of his financing Thomas Edison's Edison Electric Illuminating Company in 1878. It was at 219 Madison avenue that a reception of 1000 people was held for the marriage of Juliet Morgan and William Pierson Hamilton on April 12, 1894, where they were gifted a favorite clock of Morgan. Morgan also owned East Island in Glen Cove, New York, where he had a large summer house.

An avid yachtsman, Morgan owned several sizeable yachts. The well-known quote, "If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it" is commonly attributed to Morgan in response to a question about the cost of maintaining a yacht, although the accuracy of the story is unconfirmed.

Morgan was scheduled to travel on the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, but canceled at the last minute, choosing to remain at a resort in Aix, France.White Star Line, Titanic's operator, was part of Morgan's International Mercantile Marine Company, and Morgan was to have his own private suite and promenade deck on the ship. In response to the tragedy, Morgan purportedly said, "Monetary losses amount to nothing in life. It is the loss of life that counts. It is that frightful death.”

Morgan died while traveling abroad on March 31, 1913, just shy of his 76th birthday. He died in his sleep at the Grand Hotel in Rome, Italy. Flags on Wall Street flew at half-staff; the stock market closed for two hours when his body passed through.

At the time of his death, he only held 19% of his own net worth, an estate worth $68.3 million ($1.39 billion in today's dollars based on CPI, or $25.2 billion based on 'relative share of GDP'), of which about $30 million represented his share in the New York and Philadelphia banks. The value of his art collection was estimated at $50 million.

His remains were interred in the Cedar Hill Cemetery in his birthplace of Hartford, Connecticut. His son, J. P. Morgan, Jr., inherited the banking business.

The Cragston Dependencies, associated with his estate Cragston at Highlands, New York, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. to much reading i dont give a damn