Clark Dodge & Co. history
A merchant and INVESTMENT BANKING firm founded by Enoch Clark (1802–56) after the Panic of 1837. Clark had been a partner in the firm of S. & M. Allen & Co., a merchant bank that failed during the panic. The Allen firm originally was a dealer in lottery tickets and became one of the first members of the NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE when it established permanent indoor headquarters after 1817.
Clark and his brother-in-law Edward Dodge established their bank in Philadelphia with capital of $15,000. The original firm was known as E. W. Clark Dodge & Co. While working for the Allens in their Providence, Rhode Island, office, Clark gained experience speculating on the Boston Stock Exchange that he would put to use in his own firm. The main business of the new firm was trading in gold bullion and BANKNOTES. The firm succeeded quickly and opened offices in St. Louis, New Orleans, and New York as well as other offices in the Midwest. New York soon became the main office.
Like many other small but well-connected merchant banks, Clark Dodge became prominent when it assisted the Treasury in issuing bonds to pay for a war effort. When the Mexican War began in 1846, the firm shared underwriting of TREASURY BONDS with the better-known bank Corcoran & Riggs of Washington, D.C. Employing his branch system to good use, Clark made more money floating the interest on the bonds between his different offices and the U.S. Treasury than he did by selling them.
The firm became larger as a result of its success and admitted several new members to partnership, including Jay COOKE, who was admitted in 1849. Before the Civil War, the firm also helped underwrite scores of railroad bonds, allowing the senior members of the firm to go into semiretirement. But the Panic of 1857 put the firm under severe strain, and its offices closed temporarily, then opened again when the panic subsided. When it did reopen, it was without the services of Jay Cooke, who had left and opened his own firm shortly after. Enoch Clark died in 1856, a year before the panic. Clark Dodge and Jay Cooke & Co. both played a vital part in selling Treasury bonds to finance the war, with Cooke playing the major role.
Clark Dodge became one of Wall Street’s bestknown names, although it never grew to a substantial size, remaining a second-tier underwriter for most of the 20th century. It opened several branch offices in the Northeast. Like many other firms, it entered the investment management business in the 1920s after the major banking and securities laws were passed and developed a substantial presence in managing investor funds. Finally, in the 1970s it was acquired by KIDDER PEABODY & CO. and merged into Kidder’s investment management business.
Further reading
- Clark Dodge & Co. Clark Dodge & Co., 1845–1945. New York: privately published, 1945.
- Geisst, Charles R. The Last Partnerships: Inside the Great Wall Street Money Dynasties. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001.