Great Fortunes: Jonas Chickering Part 7
“I shall give you none,” he replied. “I have done my business at this bank for a long time, and if you do not know me, I shall apply where I am better known.”
The president was firm in his position, and Mr. Chickering applied to another bank, which readily granted him the desired discount, and to which he at once transferred his business, which was worth to the bank about ten thousand dollars a year. Shortly after, a director of the institution at which he had formerly dealt called on him, and urged him to restore his business to the bank, assuring him that in future it would readily grant him any accommodation he might desire.
“No,” he replied; “I will deal with no institution which, having had the opportunity of knowing me, suspects my responsibility.”
Again having need of accommodation, he sent his notes for a large sum to one of the city banks for discount. The president said an indorser would be required.
“I shall indorse them myself,” said Mr. Chickering.
“That will never do,” replied the president.
“Very well,” was the simple answer, and, without further words, he took the notes to another bank, which promptly loaned him the money on them.
He tolerated no irregularity in his own business. He was true to the spirit as well as to the letter of a contract, and never, during the whole course of his long life, was he guilty of a transaction in which the most rigid moralist could find a taint of sharp practice. What a refutation of the theories of those who hold that cunning and trickery are unavoidable some time in the course of a long and successful mercantile career lies in the story of this man, who, beginning life penniless, filled with a burning ambition to be rich and famous, never swerved from the straight path of integrity, and by the exercise of only the highest traits of his nature more than realized his boyish dreams! Ponder it well, young man, and learn from it that honesty is indeed the best policy in any calling.
Mr. Chickering had married early in life, and now had three sons just entering upon manhood. These were carefully educated at the public schools for which Boston is so justly famed, and then put into their father’s factory to learn the mechanical part of the business. It was the father’s ambition to be succeeded by his sons, but he was not willing to trust the labor of his life to ignorant or incompetent hands. At the age of seventeen, Thomas Chickering, the eldest son, was taken from school, and, under his father’s eye, taught every detail of the mechanical branch of the business, until he understood it as well as the senior Chickering himself. George, the second son, in due time passed through the same course of training; while Francis, the youngest, was brought up in the warehouse. The father thoroughly imbued his sons with his own system and energy, and to-day we see the result. The firm of Chickering & Sons is still the most prominent in America. Thomas is now the acting head of the house, and has led it on to continued success; Francis is the presiding genius of the mechanical department, and has made many important improvements in the field in which his father won success; and George exercises a general supervision at the immense factory in Boston. The mantle of the father has fallen upon the sons, and his labors have found their highest reward in their success.
Mr. Chickering’s good fortune was not entirely uninterrupted. On the 1st of December, 1852, his factory was burned to the ground, with all its valuable patterns, stock, etc., involving a loss to him of two hundred thousand dollars. The interruption to his business was very serious, apart from the loss of his property. Expressions of sympathy poured in upon him from his friends, coupled with offers of pecuniary assistance in his efforts to restablish his business. His disaster seemed merely to inspire him with fresh energy, but the kindness of his friends entirely overcame him.
