was a manufacturer of wood working machinery and worked as a paymaster in the federal army during the Civil War , the Collection of the Internal Revenue and the General Agency of the Western Cement Association . His mother , the former Emma Keats , was the daughter of George Keats , a lumber merchant , and the niece of John Keats , the English poet . Speed was also related by marriage to the Henning family . His uncle , Joshua Fry Speed , who was a guarantor of the A . D . Hunt firm , was James W . Henning ’ s brother-in-law . Joshua Speed and James Hennings were also business partners and engaged in real estate and banking business .
A month after Hunt died in May 1885 , Speed , who was the cashier of the firm , suddenly left the city ; rumors spread that he had taken the firm ’ s funds and fled to Canada . An investigation ensued that showed Speed had overdrawn his account and determined that his mind had been “ unbalanced by everwork .” According to The Courier-Journal , Speed had realized that he had to settle his account with the firm because Hunt ’ s death meant that the firm would dissolve . His brother , Thomas , an officer in the Kentucky National Bank , brought him back to Louisville , and the overdraft was covered by a mortgage that Speed and his wife filed “ in favor of Mrs . A . D . Hunt and Mr . J . J . B . Hilliard , representing the firm of A . D . Hunt & Co .”
The day after the papers reported that Speed had been brought back to Louisville , Hilliard placed a notice in The Courier-Journal , which stated that A . D . Hunt & Co . had been dissolved , that “ the affairs of the firm will be settled by J . J . B . Hilliard ,” and that “ all depositors [ would ] be paid in full on demand at their banking office .” George Keats Speed died in 1887 .
J . J . B . Hilliard , “ Bond , stock and money broker and banker ” ( 1885 )
In September 1885 , Hilliard announced that he would go into business for himself . Though various sources state that he initially opened his own firm , it appears that he was in business on his own name as a broker . In his notice in The Courier- Journal that year , Hilliard states , “ As successor of A . D . Hunt & Co . I will attend to all matters pertaining to the investment of money and the purchase and sale of securities . All business intrusted ( sic ) to me will have my personal attention , and
Robert Worth Bingham and Aleen Kithgow Hilliard aboard the Mauretania , 1930 .
I respectfully solicit orders from parties both in and out of this city . J . J . B . Hilliard .”
In 1893 , his son , Byron Henning Hilliard , who studied at the University of the South in Sewanee , Tennessee , joined him in business . The firm was then called J . J . B . Hilliard & Son .
J . J . B . Hilliard & Son ( 1893 )
In 1901 , J . J . B . Hilliard died and later that year , his son Byron was shot and seriously injured in an accident while on a quail hunting trip . Another of Hilliard ’ s sons , Isaac Hilliard , who was then in his senior year at Princeton University , left school to take his brother ’ s place at the firm in 1902 . In 1906 , another son , Edward Hobbs Hilliard , who entered Princeton in 1901 and graduated in 1905 , also joined the firm as partner .
Isaac returned to Princeton and graduated in 1903 , after which he re-joined the firm . He became senior partner in 1905 . Byron Hilliard recovered his health enough to return to the firm in 1916 , but he died in 1922 . In 1924 , Byron ’ s widow , the former Aleen ( also spelled Aline ) Lithgow Muldoon Hilliard , married Robert Worth Bingham , owner of The Louisville Times , who had also been the mayor of Louisville and the owner of The Courier- Journal since 1918 .
Despite the death of Byron Hilliard , the 1920s marked a period of growth for
Photographic Archives , Ekstrom Library , University of Louisville the firm led by senior partner Isaac Hilliard . In 1921 , Andrew Jackson Howard , an Indiana native , became a partner in the firm . He was the first partner without the Hilliard name . He had previously worked for the Fidelity Trust Co ., and he started at the Hilliard firm as a bookkeeper in 1906 . Howard retired from the firm in 1952 and died in 1967 . In 1922 , Morgan O . Hughes also became a partner . He retired around 1945 and died that year .
In 1924 , Isaac Hilliard bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange . The firm also continued to grow by adding new partners including Marion H . Caldwell , Andrew P . Gies , Robert J . Theobald and Harold W . Walton , who were made partners in 1929 . Gies had been with the firm for 14 years ; he retired in 1950 and died in 1952 . Cardwell , a Kentucky native and the son of a country banker , had been a cashier at the Citizens Union National Bank and was also a veteran of World War I . Walton , an Ohio Wesleyan College graduate and a former bank cashier , and Theobald , who had been with the German Bank and Fidelity & Columbia Trust Co ., had both been with the firm for seven years . Theobald left the firm in 1943 to create his own tax consultancy . Walton also left the firm around World War II , and he died in 1983 .
In 1934 , the third generation of the family joined the firm when Isaac Hilliard ’ s son , Richard Donigan Hilliard , joined J . J . B . Hilliard & Son upon his graduation from Princeton University that year . He served in the Field Artillery during World War II , but he was tragically killed in a car accident in 1948 . That year , Isaac Hilliard ’ s other son , J . Henning Hilliard , joined the firm to take his brother ’ s place . ( Edward Hilliard ’ s oldest son , Theodore Irwin Hilliard , was also educated at Princeton , but he left to enlist in the US Army during World War II . He was killed in action in 1943 . His other son , Edward Hobbs Hilliard Jr ., joined the firm but withdrew in 1949 . He died in a mountain climbing accident in 1970 .)
Born in Louisville , Kentucky , James Henning Hilliard was a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Virginia Law School . Known as Henning , he served in the Army Air Force during World War II and worked as a lawyer before joining the family firm in 1948 . Henning became a partner in 1951 . A . J . Howard , the managing partner , retired
18 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Summer 2018 | www . MoAF . org