Although most of his contributions to railroad building, finance, and charity took place in the late 1800s, the works of John Stewart Kennedy (1830-1909) carried well into the 20th century.

John Stewart Kennedy supplied and financed American railroads during the great age of railroad building, becoming James J. Hill's financial intermediary when Hill obtained control of the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway in 1878. From the early 1880s until his death in 1909 Kennedy was a director of the Bank of the Manhattan Company and other financial institutions.

Born in 1830 near Glasgow, Scotland, Kennedy first visited the United States in 1850 as a representative for an iron firm that sold railroad-related products. On that trip he met his future partner, Morris Ketchum Jesup, a railroad commission merchant and private banker. Kennedy became a significant player in American economic and business history as a partner in M.K. Jesup & Co. from 1857 to...