From
Wealth and Pedigree
of the
W e a l t h y C i t i z e n s
of
NEW YORK CITY
Published at The Sun office
1842
| Post, Allison | $500,000 |
|
The progenitor of the Posts was an humble mechanic among the early English setlers of Suffolk Co. L.I. and thence the family soon after located at Hempstead Queens Co.
Joel and Jotham Post (both dec'd), brothers of Allison, were together with the late distinguished Dr. Wright Post (another brother) son of a highly respectable butcher. Wright's early lessons in the shambles gave him, probably, his strong taste for, and afterwards eminence in, anatomy. Joel and Jotham, about 30 years since, carried on a great stroke in the drug line; then smashed; but a few years after built a magnificent store and warehouse, &c; launched larger than ever into the vending of apothecary stuffs and together with Waldron B., (son of one of the parties) accumulated a very large estate, on which their families are now luxuriating in the fauxbourgs of our new made quality in the vicinity of Upper Broadway. |
|
| Post, Joel (estate of) | $400,000 |
| about $12,000,000 today |
| Post, George D. | $150,000 |
| Post, Waldron B. | $500,000 |
|
| To his fortune as above acquired Waldron added a considerable amount by marriage with a Miss De Wolfe, of Rhode Island. The De Wolfes are several of them Cuban planters and one made a vast estate by trafficking in slaves. |
|
From
Riches, Class and Power
America Before the Civil War
by Edward Pessen
| pp18 |
Joel Post, whose properties in downtown New York City alone realised over three-quarters of a million dollars in the 1830s, was assessed [by the tax authorities] for a total wealth of one quarter that sum. ($750,000 in 1835 is equivalent to about $20m in 2016)
(According to Sidney George Fisher, a fashionable Philadelphian of the time, his annual income of less than $3,000 gave him "a comfortable house, servants, a good table, wine, a horse, books, 'country quarters', a plentiful wardrobe, the ability to exercise hospitalty" while an additional $1,000 would have enabled him to live like a truly rich man). |
pp64 |
| A large group of New York City's commercial capitalists had fortunes that had been initiated with parental or family wealth variously accumulated. Vast real properties were inherited by Peter Goelet, Jacob Herrick, Joel Post and Lispenard Stewart. |
pp69 |
| The drug merchant Allison Post was a heavy investor in the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. |
pp97 |
| The wealthy drug merchants, Allison, Joel and Jotham Post were also descended from an old family, originally established in Southampton by Richard Post in 1640. Their father, Jotham Post, left this Long Island town for New York City in the mid-eighteenth century and thrived in business. A scholar who has recently written that Post "never rose above the middle class in his lifetime", nonetheless concedes that he had accumulated capital, "lived in a very substantial house" and in 1785 owned property assets for an amount that in fact placed him in the richest 1% of the city. |
pp240 |
| The breadth and diversity of Hone's own social relationships is suggested by the great number of leading families who called on him as pallbearer. He served at the funerals of the richest of the rich, ... for such great merchants as Isaac Carow, Henry Brevoort, Allison Post ... |
pp307 |
| Reflections on the values of the rich |
| On the death of the wealthy Gerardus Post, Hone had described him as "a man who has worshipped money all his life and whose only talent was the amassing of it. What a pity it is that he cannot take it with him". |
pp320 |
| New York City's wealthiest 200 in 1828 - Wealth assessed at between $100,000 and over |
| Geradus Post, Joel Post, William Post |
pp323 |
| New York City's wealthiest 300 in 1845 - Wealth assessed at between $100,000 and $250,000 |
| Allison Post, George D. Post, Gerardus Post, Waldron B. Post |
pp323 |
| New York City's wealthiest 300 in 1845 - Wealth assessed at between $250,000 and over |
| William [estate] |
Note: Jotham I was very successful and his sons followed in his footsteps
| | Jotham I | |
| | | | |
| ----- | ------------ | --------------- | ---------------- | ----- |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| William | Wright | Joel | Jotham II | Allison |
| | | | |
| | George D. |
End of Note.
|
Index