Cooke, Jay

(born Aug. 10, 1821, Sandusky, Ohio, U.S.—died Feb. 18, 1905, Ogontz, Pa.) U.S. financier and fund-raiser for the federal government during the American Civil War. He entered a Philadelphia banking house at age 18 and opened his own in 1861. That same year, he floated a $3 million war loan for the state of Pennsylvania. During the next four years he organized the sale of hundreds of millions in bonds for the federal government. Cooke's effort to finance construction of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1870 led to his firm's failure, but he rebuilt his fortune within a decade.

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