JohnsonFamily2/19/24 - Person Sheet
JohnsonFamily2/19/24 - Person Sheet
NameElbridge Gerry Keith 
88
88Birth16 Jul 1840, Barre, VT
Death17 May 1905, Chicago, Cook, IL
BurialGraceland, Chicago, IL
FatherMartin Keith (1800-1876)
MotherBetsy French (1798-1868)
Notes for Elbridge Gerry Keith
In 1858, at the age of 18, Elbridge Keith joined the firm started by his brothers. In 1884, at the age of 44, he was the major factor in establishing the Metropolitan National Bank and was its president for 18 years until it merged with the First National Bank in 1902. He remained a director of this bank until his death in 1905. With the merger of the two banks, First National became the second-largest bank in the United States. Chicago, with a population of 2 million had grown to become the second-largest city in the country in less than 70 years.
Elbridge Gerry Keith was named for the Massachusetts governor and US senator whose name is still remembered in the term gerrymander. E.G. Keith was interested in politics all his life and during his youth his nickname was Horace Greeley. The story is told that when the Vermont legislature was in session, and Elbridge was but a young boy, he would walk for 6 miles from Barre to Montpelier to listen to the deliberations.
Like his brothers before him, he was not educated beyond the Barre Academy. He held no public office except for serving seven years on the Chicago Board of Education. He did, however, preside over Republican city and county conventions and was a delegate to the Republican national convention in 1881. He was active as a member or served as president of many social, cultural and philanthropic organizations, including the Art Institute and the world's Columbian exposition, and was president of the Chicago Title and Trust Company. He was a prominent member of the Reformed Episcopal church.
After the great fire Keith's family built their homes on Chicago's South side on Prairie Avenue. The area was near the site of the Fort Dearborn massacre of 1812. In the 1870s it was then the most exclusive and fashionable neighborhood in the city. Elbridge who was at number 1900, Edson at 1908 and Osborne at 2962. Their friend and neighbor at 1905 was Marshall Field. W. W. Kimball, the piano manufacturer, lived at 1801 and George Pullman of the Pullman sleeper car manufacturing, at 1729. The Samuel Courier Roberts family was nearby at 2320 Indiana Ave.88
Elbridge Gerry Keith was named for the Massachusetts governor and US senator whose name is still remembered in the term gerrymander. E.G. Keith was interested in politics all his life and during his youth his nickname was Horace Greeley. The story is told that when the Vermont legislature was in session, and Elbridge was but a young boy, he would walk for 6 miles from Barre to Montpelier to listen to the deliberations.
Like his brothers before him, he was not educated beyond the Barre Academy. He held no public office except for serving seven years on the Chicago Board of Education. He did, however, preside over Republican city and county conventions and was a delegate to the Republican national convention in 1881. He was active as a member or served as president of many social, cultural and philanthropic organizations, including the Art Institute and the world's Columbian exposition, and was president of the Chicago Title and Trust Company. He was a prominent member of the Reformed Episcopal church.
After the great fire Keith's family built their homes on Chicago's South side on Prairie Avenue. The area was near the site of the Fort Dearborn massacre of 1812. In the 1870s it was then the most exclusive and fashionable neighborhood in the city. Elbridge who was at number 1900, Edson at 1908 and Osborne at 2962. Their friend and neighbor at 1905 was Marshall Field. W. W. Kimball, the piano manufacturer, lived at 1801 and George Pullman of the Pullman sleeper car manufacturing, at 1729. The Samuel Courier Roberts family was nearby at 2320 Indiana Ave.88