Clark & Company earned its investors a significant amount of money through its investments. He quickly advanced through the company, becoming a partner in the firm in less than four years after his initial employment. Clark & Company, a brokerage and banking company, hired Cooke. This company failed soon thereafter, and Cooke became a book keeper in a local hotel. In 1838, he moved to Philadelphia Pennsylvania, where he accepted a position with a packet company. He lost his job due to the Panic of 1837 and returned to Ohio, where he settled in Bloomingville.Ĭooke looked to the East to earn a livelihood. Louis, Missouri, and took a position in a wholesale business.
At the age of fourteen, Cooke became a clerk in a local store. Jay Cooke attended local schools in Sandusky, Ohio. His father, Eleutheros Cooke, was an attorney, railroad investor, and real estate speculator. He was named for John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Jay Cooke was a prominent banker in the United States and a principal financier of the Union military effort during the American Civil War.Ĭooke was born on August 10, 1821, in Sandusky, Ohio. Jay Cooke (August 10, 1821-February 8, 1905), American financier, was born at Sandusky, Ohio, the son of Eleutheros Cooke (1787-1864), a pioneer Ohio lawyer, and Whig member of Congress from that state in 1831-1833.