Charles H. Keep

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Charles H. Keep
New York State Superintendent of Banks
In office
1907–1907
Preceded byFrederick D. Kilburn
Succeeded byLuther W. Mott
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
In office
1903–1907
Preceded byMilton E. Ailes
Personal details
Born
Charles Hallam Keep

1861
Lockport, New York
DiedAugust 30, 1941(1941-08-30) (aged 79–80)
York Harbor, Maine
Spouse
Margaret Turner Williams
​
​
(m. 1894)​
ChildrenEleanor Williams Keep
Martha Gibson Keep
Alma materHarvard University
Harvard Law School
Known forKeep Commission

Charles Hallam Keep (1861 – August 30, 1941) was an American banker who served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from 1903 to 1907 where he was chairman of the Keep Commission and later served as president of the Knickerbocker Trust.

Early life[edit]

Keep was born in Lockport, New York in 1861. He was a descendant of Roger Wolcott, the colonial governor of Connecticut from 1750 to 1754.[1]

He attended Harvard University, where he graduated in 1882, followed by Harvard Law School.[2]

Career[edit]

After graduating from Harvard Law, Keep was admitted to the bar and began practicing law in Buffalo, specializing in investment and financial business. While in Buffalo, he served as a director of the Marine Bank of Buffalo (which after a series of mergers, was acquired by HSBC Bank).

In 1903, Keep was nominated to succeed Milton E. Ailes as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Secretary L. M. Shaw during President Theodore Roosevelt's administration. Ailes had resigned to accept the vice presidency of the Riggs National Bank.[2][3] While in office, President Roosevelt appointed him chairman of the Keep Commission (formally known as the Committee on Department Methods), which revised to a large extent the methods of doing business in the Federal departments. In 1906, Keep along with Lawrence O. Murray (Comptroller of Currency) and Gifford Pinchot (Chief of the United States Forest Service), provided President Roosevelt with a detailed report of the organization and operations of the Department of the Interior. The report highlighted "grave defects" in the structure of the department such as redundant job functions, an "abuse of letter writing" that impeded public business, and rampant inefficiency. The report recommended the dissolution of several divisions.[4]

Keep served as Assistant Secretary until 1907 when he was appointed New York State Superintendent of Banks by New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes. In 1907, he became the first prominent New Yorker to endorse then Secretary of War William Howard Taft for president to succeed Roosevelt.[5] He was in that position for less than a year until he was appointed to the New York Public Service Commission for the Second District. Keep resigned from the Commission in 1908 to assume presidency of the Knickerbocker Trust in March 1908.[6] Keep saw Knickerbocker through its 1912 merger by acquisition with the Columbia Trust Company.[7] Columbia's president, Willard V. King, served as president of the new company and Keep became chairman of the board of the new company, known as the Columbia-Knickerbocker Trust Company,[8] from 1912 to 1923.[9]

Personal life[edit]

On May 17, 1894,[10] Keep was married to Margaret Turner Williams (1872–1954) at Trinity Episcopal Church in Buffalo, New York in what was described as "one of the largest weddings of the season".[11] The reception was held at her parents home at 249 North Street.[11] Margaret was a daughter of George L. Williams,[a] and a granddaughter of prominent banker Gibson T. Williams of Buffalo.[1][13] Together, they were the parents of two daughters:[9]

  • Eleanor Williams Keep (1895–1953),[b] who died unmarried.[15]
  • Martha Gibson Keep (d. 1980),[16] who married Morris Shotwell Shipley Jr. who was then working with the National Sugar Refining Company, in 1929.[17][18]

In the mid-1920s, he bought a six-story, twenty-four-room Beaux Arts style townhouse at 9 East 89th Street in Manhattan that had been designed by Oscar Florianus Bluemner in 1901.[19] His wife had an extensive furniture collection, including pieces by Chippendale and Colonial furniture from Philadelphia.[14][20][21] In 1963, over 200 pieces from her collection were sold by her daughters at auction by Parke-Bernet Galleries fetching $188,240.[22]

Keep died at his Summer home in York Harbor, Maine on August 30, 1941.[9] Keep was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo. After his death, the 89th Street house was sold it to the American Institute for Iranian Art and Archaeology in 1942.[19] His widow died at her home, 101 East 72nd Street, in December 1954.[15]

References[edit]

Notes
  1. ^ George L. Williams was one of the most prominent bankers in Buffalo. Two years after the Keep wedding, her parents moved into their new home at 672 Delaware Avenue in Buffalo, which had been designed for them by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White.[12]
  2. ^ Various sources list Charles' eldest daughter as Eleanor H. Keep,[1] and indicate she died after 1959.[14]
Sources
  1. ^ a b c "MARTHA KEEP BETROTHED Morris Shotwell Shipley Jr. Is Her Fiance--Other Engagements Are Announced. Keep--Shipley. Burlingham--Butler. Harris--Hoffman". The New York Times. 27 April 1929. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  2. ^ a b "SUCCEEDS MILTON E. AILES.; Charles Hallam Keep of Buffalo Appointed Assistant Secretary of the Treasury". The New York Times. 25 May 1903. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  3. ^ "Letter from Charles Hallam Keep to William Loeb. Theodore Roosevelt Papers. Library of Congress Manuscript Division". www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  4. ^ "Report upon the organization of the Department of the Interior". www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  5. ^ Times, Special to The New York (1 January 1907). "C.H. KEEP OUT FOR TAFT.; Gov. Hughes's Banking Superintendent Committed -- What Foraker Thinks". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  6. ^ "CHAS H. KEEP HEADS THE KNICKERBOCKER; Voting Trustees Retain Only Five of the Old Directors and Cut Board to Fifteen. RESUMPTION ON THURSDAY Bankers and Business Men Make Up the New Board -- Receivers May Get $200,000 Each In Fees". The New York Times. 23 March 1908. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  7. ^ "TWO MORE BIG TRUST COMPANIES TO MERGE; Plan Under Negotiation for Consolidating the Columbia and Knickerbocker". The New York Times. 15 May 1912. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  8. ^ "RATIFY TRUST MERGER.; Stockholders of Both Columbia and Knickerbocker Take Action". The New York Times. 5 June 1912. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  9. ^ a b c TIMES, Special to THE NEW YORK (31 August 1941). "CHAS. H. KEEP DIES; EX-TREASURY AIDE; Assistant Secretary, 1903-07, Once State Superintendent of Banks, Was 80". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  10. ^ "The Weddings". The Buffalo Sunday Morning News. 8 April 1894. p. 7. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  11. ^ a b ""WITH THIS RING," ETC". The Buffalo Enquirer. 19 May 1894. p. 4. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  12. ^ LaChiusa, Chuck. "History - Williams-Butler House / Jacobs Executive Development Center". buffaloah.com. Buffalo Architecture and History. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  13. ^ "DEATH OF GIBSON T. WILLIAMS. Buffalo's Prominent Financier and Businessman Passes Away". The Buffalo Enquirer. 15 April 1891. p. 5. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  14. ^ a b "A CHIPPENDALE CARVED MAHOGANY SCALLOP-TOP TEA TABLE". www.christies.com. Christie's. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  15. ^ a b "MRS. CHARLES H. KEEP". The New York Times. 26 December 1954. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  16. ^ "Obituary Notes". The New York Times. 9 April 1980. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  17. ^ "FORMER CINCINNATIAN WED. Morris S. Shipley Jr. Takes New York Girl For Bride". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 21 June 1929. p. 4. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  18. ^ "MISS AUCHINCLOSS WEDS B.J. LEE JR.; Ceremony in St. Bartholomew's Church Attended by Many Society Notables. MISS MARTHA KEEP BRIDE Banker's Daughter Married to Morris S. Shipley Jr. at Parents' Home--Other Nuptials. Shipley--Keep. Seymour--Webster. Patterson--Seymour. Klee--Merz. Warden--Becker. Warland--Outerbridge. Trask--Bird. Dill--Monro". The New York Times. 21 June 1929. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  19. ^ a b Miller, Tom (9 June 2015). "The 1903 Stern Mansion -- No. 9 East 89th Street". Daytonian in Manhattan. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  20. ^ "A QUEEN ANNE WALNUT EASY CHAIR". www.christies.com. Christie's. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  21. ^ "A FEDERAL INLAID MAHOGANY, FLAME BIRCH AND EGLOMISE LADIES WRITING DESK". www.christies.com. Christie's. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  22. ^ "Antique Furniture Sold For $188,240 at Auction". The New York Times. 20 October 1963. Retrieved 18 February 2021.

External links[edit]


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