In “New York’s Original Seaport”, by Jason Urbanus (Archaeology, September/October 2015, offline only), we learn that the notorious Aaron Burr, murderer of Alexander Hamilton and former Vice President, founded the Manhattan Company, which was tasked with supplying clean water to lower New York City using a web of buried wooden water mains – hollowed out tree trunks. In fact, they still run across these disused remnants of the original system today, encountered during repairs.
The Manhattan Company struggled with this task. But they didn’t go under, as the real purpose of Burr’s company was to become a bank, a difficult proposition at the time due to monopolies. As Wikipedia makes clear, Burr’s company used a loophole in its charter, granted by the State, that permitted it to use surplus funds for banking transactions. Opportunistic maneuvers during epidemics permitted the Manhattan Company to survive until 1955.
When it merged with Chase National Bank.
And, today, it’s the earliest of the predecessor institutions for JP Morgan Chase & Co.
