Elisha Riggs

Financier. He is most remembered for founding Riggs National Bank of Washington D.C. and partnering with George Peabody early in his international financial career. Genealogy researchers have Amelia Dorsey and Samuel Riggs as his parents with at least eight children in the family. While in school at a young age, he learned the profession of merchant with on-the-job training. He was a veteran of the War of 1812, receiving on April 23, 1812 the rank of ensign serving in Captain Thomas Owings's 32nd Regiment of the Militia of Anne Arundel County, Maryland. During the war, he met an young infantryman, George Peabody, who became an office boy for him after the war. On July 1, 1815, the two men became partners in a successful dry goods store, Riggs and Peabody, with locations not only in Baltimore, Maryland by 1816 , but in New York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by 1821. Riggs was the senior partner receiving 2/3 of the profit to Peabody's 1/3. At this point, Riggs established financially the banking firm of Corcoran and Riggs Bank in Washington D.C. The bank managers were William Corcoran and Riggs' son, George Washington Riggs. The bank eventually evolved after Cororan's retirement into the Riggs National Bank of Washington D.C., which was known as “the most important bank in the most important city in the world.” The bank became PNC Financial Services in 2005. Since Peabody was the younger of the two, he did most of the traveling by horseback from store to store and starting in 1827, sailing to England to purchase stock for the stores. In 1829, the two dissolved their partnership with Riggs retiring to New York City, where he opened an office. The dry goods firm became Peabody, Riggs and Company. Although Peabody relocated to London in 1837, the two men remained in close contact with their business ventures engaging in international finance. They were mainly concerned with restoring the State of Maryland's credit abroad after the Financial Depression of 1841-1842. On one trip abroad, Peabody negotiated an $8,000,000 loan for the nearly bankrupted State of Maryland, accepting no commission on the transaction. On February 9, 1847 the United States Treasury advertised for a loan to support the Mexican War a the rate of 6% interest. The Corcoran and Riggs Bank of Washington D.C. was the only bank to make a bid for the total requested amount of $18,000,000, and the bid was accepted. Two years later, the bank lent another $16,000,000 to the United States for the Mexican War effort. Although Riggs was a respected financial leader, he did make at least one poor investment. In 1848, Riggs invested in the Collins Line, a steamship line that sailed between New York City and Liverpool, England. The steamship line had five ships with the first sailing on April 24, 1849. The travel time was cut almost in half with these ships. By 1856 two of the ships were lost at sea losing the entire manifest of both totaling nearly 1,000 passengers. The steamship line had a ten-year contract with the federal government to transport mail across the Atlantic. When the planned budget for doing this task was not enough, the steamship lines petitioned for a increase in payment, but were denied. The United States stopped using the steamship line giving only a six-month notice, and the firm lost thousands of dollars and ceased business in January 1858. The U.S. Postal Service began to use ships that were flying foreign flags. Riggs was considered a fair man, who was powerful on Wall Street and a financial leader. His last New York resident became a United States customs house. He married twice and had six children.* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Aug 9 2020, 16:46:41 UTC