bank operated headquartered philadelphia pennsylvania branches new_york_city washington bank helped effort wire house pioneering use telegraph messages confirm transactions clients bank building failed history early years founded bank ownership split thirds later partners included brothers henry hold bank seat civil war company sold hundreds millions dollars union government bonds reputation investors world enabled bank sell bonds secretary treasury salmon chase asked try sell government new million issue bonds paid percent interest gold matured years years numerous agents variety small insurance agents real estate professionals sell bonds support union war effort innovative use telegraph confirm sales allowed selling country coordinated philadelphia war war continued fund investments sale black friday scare apparent find sources capital firm turned investing railroads exclusive bond agent difficulty marketing bonds investors wound owning percent company bank liability public investors began withdrawing money wrote expected returns sale bonds ultimately sell bonds meet obligations run bank ensued operations suspended heard announcement causing chain reaction bank runs failures united_states signaled arrival american shores bankruptcy commenced soon collapse junior partners suffer bank collapsed anticipated failure assets government seized larger estates moved smaller properties allies banking business soon collapsed including executive refused testify congress found contempt detained declined release thompson
Jay Cooke & Company