THE OLD MERCHANTS OF NEW YORK CITY
        Second  Series

By  Walter Barrett, Clerk
     1863

     MERCHANT  DESCRIPTIONS

       CHAPTER  14



JOHN  A.  MOORE

      John A. Moore after he left Mr. Hendricks, bought out Troup & Goelet,
iron merchants, corner of Old slip and Water street. They did an enormous
business. The partner was Robert R. Goelet, of whom I have already written.
John A. Moore was rather an ordinary looking person, but as smart as a steel
trap. His store___the one above alluded to____was a very large one, and he
added to the old iron business of Troup & Goelet, copper, sheathing and
nails. He had thoroughly learned that business with old Mr. Hendricks, and
he determined to make money by it. Mr. Moore was a regular gambler in
merchandize. He had his regular business, but was not satisfied with that.
One day he would take it into his head that a rise would occur in a
particular kind of iron. He would go to a large capitalist and commission
house, and by agreeing to pay a certain amount of interest and commission,
would raise $100 to 250,000 to buy up all that particular kind of iron in
the market. Now and then he would make money by such a bold operation, but
it was not strict "business", and did not add to his mercantile credit.

      At another time he would buy up all the coffee in the market.
Sometimes it would be French brandy. Those who wish to see an interesting
account of Mr. Moore should read chapter eight in this book. Mr. Moore was
an energetic man, and added to the wealth of the city; his gambling
mercantile operations, however, as a general thing, were personally very
disastrous to himself.

NICHOLAS  G.  CARMER

      Nicholas G. Carmer, to whom I have alluded, was secretary, to the Hand
in Hand fire company. It was instituted in this city in November, 1780, for
the purpose of averting as much as possible, the ruinous consequences which
occasionally happen by fire. It continued, certainly as late as 1798, for
that year Carmer was Secretary and John Murray, the merchant, was president.
The company consisted of fifty members, who were provided with bags for the
removal of effects at a fire.

      Sir. N.G. was standard bearer of the Knights Templar encampment. He
was master of Howard Lodge No. 9, for some years.

      Mr. Carmer and his father were both "ironmongers," or hardware men;
and I alluded to him as a monk of the "Friary" in my article about Bernard
Hart.

      He was also in the militia, and, in fact there was hardly any good or
sociable work that did not find in Mr. Carmer a ready assistant.

JOHN  A.  TARDY  JR.

      I notice among the list of officers who have gone in the naval
expedition that sailed on Wednesday, the name of John A. Tardy, Jr. He is a
lieutenant in the army, having graduated from West Point in 1860. The
youth____not over twenty-two____and yet his name is one that years ago was
heard on 'change. He is a grandson of John G. Tardy, an extensive merchant
in this city before 1800.

      He entered at West Point when sixteen years of age, and remained there
five years. He graduated with the highest honors, and was appointed brevet
second lieutenant in the engineer corps. He refused to take his three
months' leave of absence, and was appointed Assistant Professor of Practical
Engineering at that post. He was ordered to Washington with his company of
sappers and miners to defend the Government, and they were the only regulars
who were present at the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. After the "Sumter"
affair, young Tardy was ordered to Fort Pickens, in the first expedition.
There he remained six months fortifying the place, and was then ordered
North, where he arrived just in time to be ordered South with the great
naval expedition, as the second engineer officer in it.

JOHN  G.  TARDY

      His grandfather, John G. Tardy, was born in Switzerland, but went to
France to learn business in a French counting room.

      He was brought up in the office of Burral Carnes, who was American
consul at Nantes, in France, appointed by General Washington in 1792.  Mr.
Tardy left Nantes to go to Hayti, or St. Domingo, to establish a commercial
house, intending to do the American business.  He landed in Boston, came to
New York, and called on president Washington, to whom he had a letter of
introduction. He sailed for Hayti, and settled there. He received a large
share of the American business, and coined money. Then came the terrible
insurrection. He sent his wife and two children, and five negro servants,
with nothing on but their night-clothes, on board an American schooner lying
off the "Cape". They had no time to take anything else. He returned to the
city to fight the negroes, remained the whole night, and only when the town
was in flames did he come on board, and the vessel sailed for New York. He,
however, knew many persons in this city____merchants whom he had done
business with___and they took him by the hand. Among them was Gurdon S.
Mumford, who then lived at 37 William Street. This was about 1797. Mr.
Mumford went on board the vessel when she arrived in the harbor, and took
the Tardy party on shore, and procured for them a house at 41 Beaver street.

      John G. Tardy soon got into active and profitable business, and took a
store and house at 53 Gold street. He was a mason, and was made master of
the Lodge "L'Union Francaise No. 14."

      His business became very extensive. He sold on commission; all his
vessels were running blockades at  Bordeaux and other ports in Europe, in
1812, when he formed a partnership under the firm of Majastre & Tardy. In
the war of 1813 this house loaned the Government  $10,000. They did a heavy
business as the agents of French merchants, in Philadelphia, who did their
business of importing, by way of New York. At that time Bordeaux was the
great port of France.  Havre was nothing forty-eight years ago. It started
up after the peace, in 1815, took place. Mr. Majastre died during the war.
He was from Marseilles, but was only here a short time. Mr. Tardy had
several sons. Two went to sea in their father's ships. One was in the
Dartmoor prison; another died at Plymouth, England, of fever. One of his
vessels was the "Dart," clipper. She was taken by a British frigate. Mr.
Tardy became embarrassed by indorsing custom house bonds for his friends. It
ruined him. He died in 1831, aged 72; would have been 102 had he lived until
now.  The latter years of his life were made comfortable by holding an
office in the Marine Court. He was Appointed clerk of that court by his
political friends, and he held it until he died. He was politically and
personally friendly with all those great men who originated the old
Republican party____now called the Democratic. Among them was Edward
Livingston, Aaron Burr, Captain Thomas Darling, and others. He was a great
man in Tammany Hall, and spent money like water. At that time, the
capitalists and merchants were all Federalists, as a general thing. He was
an intimate acquaintance of Governor Tompkins, until the latter died. So
also
he was of Albert Gallatin, whose principles and talents he admired. They
were born in the same Canton of Switzerland, and Mr. Gallatin only preceded
him to this country one year.

JOHN  A.  TARDY

      He had one son named John A. Tardy, who was educated at Columbia
College. He wished to make a merchant of him, and for that purpose placed
him in the counting-room of his friend, Joseph Bouchaud.

      He was there some years, and became the principal clerk of the firm of
Bouchaud & Thebaud, and only left them when he went into partnership with
Mr. Voisin, who was also a clerk with Bouchaud. They did a very heavy French
importing business for some years, and then dissolved. Meanwhile, Mr. Tardy
married Miss Eustaphieve, one of the belles of the city. She is the mother
of the young warrior, Tardy, Jr. She died early. Her father was the Russian
consul general fifty-two years in this city. He died in 1857. There are very
few persons who do not remember old Alexander Eustaphieve. He was a splendid
specimen of a man, and was much beloved. He was warmly attached to the two
children of Mr. Tardy and his daughter, for there was a grand-daughter as
well as son. She married Captain Charles Seaforth Stewart, of the United
States engineer corps. He is now the chief engineer at Fortress Monroe. In
the class in which he graduated at West Point, he stood number one, and
General M'Clellan number two.

      He married Miss Tardy at Buffalo. The old consul was present, but died
within a month of the time.

      After Voisin & Tardy dissolved, Mr. Tardy went with Eugene Grousset to
manage his business. Who don't remember that little, short, dashing French
wine merchant?

      Mr. Tardy was for a long time an active politician in the Whig  ranks,
and his influence was very considerable. Of late years I do not think he has
meddled with commerce or with politics. His face is seen occasionally in the
streets or reading the daily journals at some of the quiet hotels. His
health is poor, and I do not think the world has many attractions left for
one who has seen about all that was going on. His hopes in his two children
are his life-blood just now___the one daughter who is Mrs. Stewart, and this
son who bears his name. For his sake I hope the expedition will be a
success, and if he falls he will die a soldier's death.

      Since the above was written, young Tardy has been promoted to a higher
rank.

EUGENE  GROUSSET

      Eugene Grousset will be well remembered here by many of the present
generation. I do not know when he made his first appearance in this city,
but think it must have been about the year 1827. He was clebrated as being
the brother of Grousset de Granier, a wine merchant of Marseilles, who, at
one time, did an enormous business with this country and other parts of the
world. He owed the Bank of France at one time three millions of francs. He
failed in 1839, or thereabouts, and then Eugene's agency on this side was
closed. He went to New Orleans, where he died.

      This wine made by Grousset de Granier was sold in all parts of the
country. It was called Marseilles  Madeira, and was a very good imitation of
the real Madeira. It was manufactured at a cost not exceeding $6 for a
quarter cask of 31 gallons. It sold readily in this market for 50 or 60
cents a gallon____say $15 to $18 per cask. The profit was enormous. Grousset
ought to have made two millions of dollars, if he had managed his business
properly. Unfortunately he was forever financiering____selling cargoes at
low prices to raise cash for immediate necessities. He had three clerks,
well known. One was Goodman. Another named Brady, now clerk in a bank in
Broadway; and a third, named John Mitchell, still a resident of this city.

      Mr. Grousset was a great wag. At that time the old City Hotel was in
its glory. It boasted of as fine a lot of wines as could be had in any part
of the world. It was at this hotel that the dinners were given by societies
and parties. On one occasion (I think it was  after the upsetting of Charles
X, of France, and the success of Louis Phillipe,) a great dinner was given
to celebrate the event at the City Hotel. The finest wines that the City
Hotel could furnish were placed upon the table. In addition, private
individuals who possessed rare wines had contributed a bottle. One
celebrated individual had wine bottled in Madeira in 1786.

      This brought out Grousset. He had sent to his store in Broad street
for four bottles of wine that he purposely had carefully dusted to make them
look old. It was really his trash Marseilles Madeira. Mr. Grousset stated
that nearly all present knew that he was in the wine business. He professed
to be a judge of wine and his father  before him was a judge of wine, and
they possessed a few bottles of wine that they never offered for sale
because it was priceless. It was old Madeira, and if it was not two hundred
years old he did not know how old it was. Of course only a few drops, at
most, could be tasted by any one; it was too precious. He hoped that the
company would appreciate his patriotism, which was as pure as his old wine.
He was cheered to the clouds. The wine was served in cordial glasses, and
pronounced to be something beyond any wine that had ever been brought to
this country. There were men of unquestioned veracity, and also good judges
of wine, who so pronounced this trash that was selling in the market at
about ten cents the bottle! The awful sell was confined to the knowledge of
a few French gentlemen who were friends of Eugene Grousset.


Source:  The Old Merchants of New York City
Author:  Walter Barrett, Clerk           Second series
Publisher:  Carleton, Publisher, 413 Broadway
Entered according to the Act of Congress 1863
             _____________________________________

    Researched, Prepared and Contributed by Miriam Medina
                  For the Brooklyn Information Page


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