WHERE ARE
THEY NOW?
Collection of the Museum of American Finance
A.M. Kidder & Co.
Founded in New York in 1872
By Susie J. Pak
A New Hampshire native, Amos Mansfield
Kidder (1837–1903) was the son of a
farmer. After going to high school in Massachusetts,
Kidder found work as a clerk
in a mercantile firm and a bank teller in
Boston. Later he became a director in the
Boston and Lynn Railway. In 1865, Kidder
moved to Brooklyn and became a partner
in the firm of Kidder, Hinckley & Warren.
When that firm was dissolved on May 15,
1865, Warren, Kidder & Co. was founded
with partners W.H. Warren, A.M. Kidder
and Dura Warren. When Warren, Kidder
& Co. was dissolved in 1870, Amos Kidder
went into business for himself, founding
the firm of A.M. Kidder & Co. in 1872. The
timing of the founding of his namesake
firm was inopportune. During the Panic of
1873, A.M. Kidder & Co. ran into trouble
and was suspended.
Kidder prevailed, however, and his firm
was able to recover from the panic. During
its early history, A.M. Kidder & Co. was
an active member of the Wall Street community.
According to The New York Times,
“During the Equitable fire the office was
used by the Fire Department to combat
the flames.” Its customers’ room at 18 Wall
Ad for A.M. Kidder & Co., bankers, located
at 18 Wall Street, New York City from the
1901 Poor’s Manual.
Street was “for many years… the rendezvous
of Wall Street’s expert chess players
after the close of the market each day.” By
1886, Kidder began to withdraw from the
firm’s daily activities due to his health, and
in 1891, he retired from business and eventually
resettled in Massachusetts.
Kidder and his wife, the former Lucy
Noyes, had two children. Their daughter,
Lucy W. Kidder, married Edwin M. Bulkley,
a partner in the firm of Spencer, Trask
& Co. Their son, William Magee Kidder,
studied at Amherst College, but he left
school in 1886 and went to work on Wall
Street. In 1888, he joined the family firm
and became a member of the NYSE. In
1902, while William was in England on a
European holiday with his family, however,
he unexpectedly died.
In 1903, the year after his son died,
Amos M. Kidder also passed away, and
Horace J. Morse became the senior partner
of the firm. A native of Ohio and the
son of a banker, Morse had joined A.M.
Kidder & Co. in 1879. During the Civil
War, he served as Quartermaster General
and later the Adjutant General of Connecticut.
In 1868, he moved to New York
and settled in Brooklyn, where he became
one of the founders of the People’s Trust
Co. of Brooklyn.
Morse remained the senior partner
until his death in 1931, but during his tenure,
the third generation of Amos Kidder’s
family joined the firm. William Magee
Kidder’s son, Amos M. Kidder II, a 1915
Princeton graduate, joined the firm after
serving as a lieutenant in World War I.
Kidder II became a member of the NYSE
in 1923, and he was the firm’s floor partner
before World War II, when he served in
the Army Air Corps.
In the 1930s, Kidder II also served as
the mayor and police commissioner of
Tenafly, NJ. His son, Amos M. “Bud”
Kidder III, studied at the Hill School in
Pennsylvania and Wesleyan University
before also serving in World War II. Bud
did not, however, join the family firm.
He went into the business of marketing
and advertising, starting at the firm of
Doremus & Co. in 1946. His father, Amos
Kidder II, also did not remain with the
family firm. In the 1950s, Kidder II became
associated with Reynolds & Co. and later
F.S. Moseley & Co. The Kidder firm was
still a family firm, but in practice, it was
led by Horace Morse’s family until the
start of World War II.
After Horace J. Morse’s death in 1931,
his son, Charles L. Morse, succeeded him
as senior partner. An Amherst graduate,
Charles L. Morse joined A.M. Kidder &
Co. in 1903. In 1932, the year after Charles
succeeded his father, the firm became a
limited partnership.
That year, Charles U. Bay joined the
firm as a special partner. The son of John
36 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Summer 2020 | www.MoAF.org