On This Date in Minnesota History: October 15

October 15, 1921 – The Jay Cooke Sculpture was dedicated in Duluth on this date, the 100th anniversary of Cooke's birth. By sculptor Henry M. Shrady who did the Grant Monument on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D. C., the statue was a gift to Duluth of J. Horace Harding, spouse of Cooke's granddaughter, of New York. 

http://www.thehistorypeople.com/data/docs/timeline-part2.pdf

Jay Cooke

No individual in the history of Duluth had a more dramatic effect on the port’s infant development than Jay Cooke, a Philadelphia financier. Cooke’s influence at the Head of the Lakes was brief, but profound and enduring for rail and waterborne commerce.

One of Cooke’s earliest achievements was bringing the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad from St. Paul to Duluth. The L.S. & M.R.R. had been chartered by the state in 1857. At first he declined requests to invest, but after visiting the area in 1867 he saw its potential and bought into the plan by selling $2.5 million of the railroad’s bonds. The line was completed from St. Paul to Duluth in August 1870 with its terminus on the Lake Superior shoreline about one-mile west of where you are standing, between 3^rd and 4^th Avenues East.

Cooke also financed construction of grain elevators at both ends of the railroad, beginning in 1869. Elevator A, the first of its kind in the Twin Ports, stood at the Duluth terminus.

Cooke’s confidence in Duluth’s potential was felt elsewhere in the community. He financed the city’s first church and personally backed its first bank. Yet, like many speculators Cooke became overextended in the nation’s rapid expansion following the Civil War. His financial empire began to crumble when his own banks failed, igniting the Panic of 1873.

Perhaps Jay Cooke’s greatest legacy to Duluth was his vision for the large natural harbor inside Minnesota Point. His financial backing, energy and enthusiasm so revitalized the existing Minnesota Canal and Harbor Improvement Company that the Duluth Ship Canal was dug through Minnesota Point in 1871, and dredging of harbor channels soon followed. Construction of the Duluth entry, with subsequent federal improvements, assured the eventual success of the Duluth-Superior harbor as a world port.

The statue in Jay Cooke Plaza shows him in a relaxed pose holding his characteristic low-crowned broad-brimmed hat, overlooking Lake Superior and the ship canal—a vision fulfilled—and much appreciated today. The bronze statue, by Henry M. Shrady, was dedicated on October 15, 1921, the 100^th anniversary of Cooke’s birth.

Photos taken by Pamela J. Erickson. Released into the public domain April 4, 2015, as long as acknowledgement included.

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