The old merchants of New York City / by Walter Barrett.

42

THE OLD MERCIHNTS

In that city he was employed by the hardware house of
Hyde, Cleveland & Co. That concern sent him on to
buy goods in New York, and as I have stated, that led
to his becoming one of Platt, Stout & Ingoldsby, in 1828.
The same firm continued an active and still enlarging
hardware business until 1834, when Mr. Platt had become so mixed up in his enormous speculations, that he
ceased to take any interest in mercantile operations,
and his partners bought him out, and the firm was
changed to Stout & Ingoldsby. The store was removed
from the old stand, 281 Pearl, to 119 Maiden Lane.
Jacob S. Platt removed to No. 21 Platt street, the
new street that he had opened and which was named
after himself, and upon which he built several stores.
He was, of course, obliged to mortgage all his property
in that section to a very heavy amount. It proved more
than he could ever lift; hence his utter financial ruin.
Yet such a man is a real benefit to a great city. Such
men and merchants should be provided for when they
get ruined by bold operations that benefit the city,
though they prove disastrous to themselves. Jacob S.
Platt ought not to be forgotten. His is a better fame
than that of the sluggard who accumulates, but never
builds anything for the city.
The business of this old house was importing every
variety of hardware from England and other parts of
Europe. They also purclased largely of any species of
American manufacture, and were ageuts for maufacturers of hardware at home and abroad. They supplied to
their customers every article in the trade, and their
customers were found in every part of the United States
thathaad a vil:age sufficiently large to support a country
store.
About this time there arrived from Charleston, S. C,.