Courtesy of the Greenwich Historical Society

Photograph of Elias Cornelius Benedict on the south veranda of the palatial manor he built for himself and his family in 1895 . It remains there today , still a private residence located at the entrance to Indian Harbor in Greenwich , Connecticut .

By Whitney McKendree Moore

A notable photograph of an accomplished yet little-known financier named Elias Cornelius Benedict shows him on the south veranda of the palatial manor he built for himself and his family in 1895 . The home still stands today — a private residence located at the entrance to Indian Harbor in Greenwich , Connecticut . From this home , Benedict commuted to Wall Street — by yacht in fair weather months — magnanimously extending the invitation to anyone who was heading to Wall Street to come aboard , provided they arrived by 7:00 a . m . sharp .

On Wall Street

Wall Street was where Benedict made his fortune . He had ventured there from his home in upstate New York in 1849 , a mere 15-year-old boy with nothing but a grade school education . Family legend tells of his early propensity for bargaining , which surfaced early on . The story goes that Benedict , then living in Oneida , New York , overheard a salesman trying to sell a telegraph to a local businessman , who was skeptical about the efficacy of the crazy contraption and was loudly expressing doubts as to its speed .

Young Benedict , who then called himself “ Corny ,” could not resist getting into the fray . He wiggled closer to the grownups and interjected to suggest an experiment . “ Excuse me , sirs , but what if a message could be sent by telegraph to Oneida while I , at the same time , run the same message there on horseback ? Wouldn ’ t that prove which one ’ s better ?”

The two men stopped their banter to consider Benedict ’ s earnest young face and audacious proposal . Their silence was brief . “ Can you find a horse ?” one asked the other . The answer was a definite nod . Thus , Benedict , with a good horse , rode as fast as he could toward the town of Oneida . Of course , the telegraph message got there first , and all doubts about the new technology were dispelled .

Not long after , Benedict struck out for Wall Street , joining his older brother , Henry , there in 1849 . He started out as a “ go-for ” at Corning & Corning and must have worked hard to learn the inner workings of Wall Street , as he was able to penetrate the “ clique of old men ” who ruled over the Financial District at the time . One of the elders , Henry T . Morgan , nominated Benedict for membership in the New York Stock Exchange in 1863 . Despite four black balls , he was balloted and elected to his own seat on June 5 , 1863 — just in time to reap profits from the Civil War .

This was quite an accomplishment for a young man at the time . Benedict ’ s great grandson , the late Chalmers Benedict Wood of Princeton , New Jersey , said it was unlikely that he ever saw military action , but that he contributed to the war effort nonetheless . “ Knowing [ Benedict ’ s ] ego ,” Wood said in 1987 , “ my guess is he did not serve in the Civil War or he would have left countless stories of his heroics . It seems far more likely that his role was to help meet the demands of war on the financial fronts , rather than on the military battle fronts .”

Apparently those demands were considerable , as the Union was struggling for money to support its army and turned to Wall Street for needed backing . “ A smart investor and capitalist [ during the Civil War ] could invest in enterprises — clothes , shoes , repeating pistols and rifles — to

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