Henry Herman Harjes
Henry Herman Harjes | |
|---|---|
| Born | Template:Birth date Paris, France |
| Died | August 20, 1926 (aged 51) Deauville, France |
| Occupation(s) | Banker, polo player |
| Known for | Senior partner at Morgan, Harjes & Co.; bringing polo to France; American Red Cross chief delegate in France during WWI |
Henry Herman Harjes (20 February 1875 – 20 August 1926) was a banker of American nationality born in France, also recognized for his involvement in polo, associated with Morgan, Harjes & Co.
Early life
Born in Paris, France, Harjes was the son of John Henry Harjes (1829–1914) and Amelia Hessenbruch Harjes (1841–1934). His family included siblings Louise Rosalie Harjes, who married Charles Messenger Moore; Amelia Mae Harjes; John Henry Harjes Jr.; and Margaretha "Nelly" Harjes, who became the spouse of jeweler Jacques Cartier.
His maternal lineage traces back to Theophilus and Bertha Everts Hessenbruch. Receiving private education both in England and the United States, he commenced his professional journey as a clerk at J.P. Morgan & Co. in 1896.
Career
Harjes held a significant position as a senior partner at Morgan, Harjes & Co. in Paris, a firm initially established by his father John Harjes in 1868 under the name Drexel, Harjes & Co. after relocating from Philadelphia. Both father and son—John Harjes being Swiss-born and later naturalized American citizens—were instrumental in founding the American Hospital of Paris in 1906. Upon his father’s retirement in 1909, the younger Harjes assumed leadership responsibilities and subsequently acted as executor for his father’s considerable estate following his death in 1914.
Throughout World War I, Harjes was influential in arranging major financial loans for the Allied powers, with the Morgan banking network acting as their sole purchasing agent from the United States. He headed the American Relief Clearing House to facilitate U.S. assistance to France and represented the American Red Cross as its chief delegate in France between 1914 and 1917. Additionally, he established the volunteer ambulance unit known as the Harjes Formation, which later combined with Richard Norton’s American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps to create the Norton-Harjes organization.
Following the militarization of relief services in July 1917, Harjes resigned from his Red Cross role, enlisted with the rank of Lieutenant colonel, and served as chief liaison officer between the American Expeditionary Forces and the French High Command. He sustained injuries in August 1918. In recognition of his wartime contributions, he was awarded France’s Croix de Guerre, along with honors from the United States and other Allied countries.
Polo career
Harjes is recognized for bringing polo to France. Despite suffering a leg injury during the war that left him with limited mobility, he remained active in the sport until his passing in a polo accident in 1926. This occurred during his final match, where he played alongside Lord Mountbatten and the Spanish Duke of Peneranda. Known for his frugal management of pony-related costs, Harjes maintained only five ponies of moderate quality, contrasting with contemporaries like Baron Robert de Rothschild, who made substantial investments in their teams.
Personal life
On 20 October 1897, Harjes wed heiress Marie Robertina Graves (1873–1905) at "My Fancy," the estate belonging to Malcolm Webster Ford in Babylon, Long Island. The couple had two daughters: Hope Dorothy Harjes (1898–1923), who tragically died in a horseback riding accident, and Cesarine Amelia Marie Harjes (1899–1949), who married banker Ralph Wormely Curtis in 1930. Following Marie’s death from tuberculosis in 1905, Harjes remarried in 1911 to Frederica Vesta (née Berwind) Gilpin (1884–1954), daughter of Charles Frederick Berwind and sister to women who married into German nobility.
The couple resided at 49 rue de la Faisanderie in Paris, a residence designed by architect Hans-Georg Tersling that earned the Concours de façades de la ville de Paris award in 1905. They had four sons: Charles Berwind Harjes (1904–1952), Henry Herman Harjes Jr. (1912–1994), John Frederick Harjes (1914–1972), and one other child not specified here. Charles married Elizabeth Schuster in 1935; Henry Jr. wed Joan Blake in 1934, divorced her in 1947, and remarried Tauni de Lesseps that same year; John Frederick was a Cambridge alumnus with two marriages.
In 1920, Harjes purchased the Château d'Abondant, a historic four-story château set on 200 acres near Paris, formerly owned by the Duke de Vallombrosa. This property was part of a distinguished group of châteaus near Dreux, alongside Château d'Anet and Château Saint-Georges Motel. His son Henry sold the estate in 1937 to Baron Jules de Koenigswarter and Pannonica Rothschild.
Harjes passed away on 20 August 1926 in Deauville. His funeral at The American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity was attended by notable figures such as J.P. Morgan, Dwight Morrow, and General John J. Pershing. He was interred at Versailles. His will designated his wife and children as beneficiaries, with Frederica and John Ridgeley Carter appointed as co-executors. The American Cathedral commemorated him as its longest-serving vestry member and acknowledged his significant contribution to enhancing America's standing in France.
Frederica later remarried Seton Porter in 1936 and lived at 834 Fifth Avenue in New York City until her death in Newport, Rhode Island, in June 1954.