He was educated in Germany, and in 1865 came to New York City. He secured a position as a bank clerk, and after a few years of service in that capacity became partner in the firm of Budge, Schiff & Company, bankers and brokers, until 1875, when he married Therese, daughter of Solomon Loeb, then head of Kuhn, Loeb & Company, and was admitted to that firm.
The firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Company was first formed in Cincinnati, where they were for years successfully engaged in mercantile business, coming from there to New York to engage in banking. To this firm Mr. Schiff's experience and genius for banking proved a valuable asset, and it was not long before he was taking a most influential part in the management of its affairs. On the retirement of Mr. Loeb, in 1885, he became the head of the firm, which has constantly increased its importance as a factor in the financial world, with large and most influential international connections, and close relations with leading capitalists at home.
Personally, Mr. Schiff has attained great distinction as a financier, and as financial adviser to the Standard Oil group of capitalists, the Pennsylvania Railroad, the late E. H. Harriman, and other large interests, and his firm has financed many of the most important and extensive financial operations. This firm took the leading part in the financing and management of the organization of the Union Pacific Railway, in 1897, beginning with the purchase of that railroad from the government, and the subsequent measures by which control of the Southern Pacific and other important railroads was acquired, and has been a participant in nearly all of the greater financial activities of national or international importance. One of the most notable of these great operations of the firm was the placing of the large Japanese loan in this country during the war with Russia, in which the firm achieved a signal success.
Mr. Schiff has in recent years resigned most of his directorates in favor of his younger partners, but is still a director of the National City Bank, National Bank of Commerce, Bond and Mortgage Guarantee Company, Western Union Telegraph Company, Woodbine Land and Improvement Company, and various other corporations. He is a member and vice president of the Chamber of Commerce.
Since the Japanese-Russian War, Mr. Schiff has been actively identified with important financial operations in the Orient, and has made a close study of the financial and commercial policies of the various nations connected with the question of the open door in China and the developments in Manchuria and Korea resulting from the recent war. He has paid an extended visit to Japan and observed conditions closely, so that his opinion on Far-Eastern sub jects has great weight in the country at large as well as in financial circles.
Therefore an address by him before the Republican Club of New York in March, 19 10, aroused great interest throughout this country and abroad, and much comment, favorable and unfavorable, according to the affiliations and sympathies of the writers; but all recognized the fact that Mr. Schiff's views were backed by the authority of intimate knowledge of his subject and perfect sincerity of opinion.
In political views Mr. Schiff is a Republican, but he has been influentially identified with effective nonpartisan movements for reform in the municipal government of New York. He was a prominent member of the Second Committee of Seventy, whose well-directed efforts resulted in the overthrow of the Tweed Ring, and of the Committee of Fifteen and Committee of Nine, which were both important later factors for the promotion of civic reform in the City of New York.
Educational and charitable causes have enlisted Mr. Schiff's close and efficient attention, and in the support and direction of Hebrew charities he has taken a position of especial prominence, being vice president of the Baron de Hirsch Fund and president of the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids. His benefactions to charities have been many, including $50,000 to the Hebrew Sheltering Home; $200,000 to be used for the purpose of establishing normal schools for the training of Jewish Sunday school teachers, one to be located in Cincinnati and one in New York City; $100,000 for a Technical College at Hafia, Palestine, besides many other gifts to orphanages, hospitals and synagogues, given with a thorough understanding of the wants of these institutions, of which he has made a sympathetic study. He was also a liberal contributor to the Galveston Relief Fund at the time of the flood there, and has led in promoting the work of the Young Men's Hebrew Association.
His interest in education is very great, and has been manifested in many substantial ways. He has shown special enthusiasm in the encouragement of the study of Semitic literature, with which he is himself thoroughly conversant. He founded the Semitic Museum at Harvard, and the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, and gave a fund of $10,000 to the New York Public Library toward the purchase of a Semitic library. He also presented to that institution the famous Tissot collection of Old Testament paintings, valued at $37,000. He was a founder and the first treasurer of Barnard College.
Mr. Schiff is a member of the American Museum of National History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, to which he has made valuable gifts, and the American Fine Arts Society, and is also a member of the Lawyers' and Republican Clubs of New York.
Mr. and Mrs. Schiff have their town house at 965 Fifth Avenue, and a country home at Seabright, N. J. They have two children, of whom their son, Mortimer L. Schiff, is a partner in the firm of Kuhn. Loeb & Company.
~ History of the City of New York, 1609-1909, by John William Leonard, Copyright 1910, Pages 516-518.
You can visit the memorial page for Jacob Henry Schiff
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