century association biographical archive

Earliest Members of the Century Association

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William Fahnestock

Banker

Centurion, 1894–1936

Born 2 September 1857 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Died 5 July 1936 in Katonah, New York

Buried Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York

Proposed by Gustav H. Schwab and Howard Mansfield

Elected 2 June 1894 at age thirty-six

Archivist’s Note: Son of Harris C. Fahnestock

Century Memorial

William Fahnestock’s Wall Street career was marked out by inheritance. His father [Harris C. Fahnestock], another Centurion, had served with George F. Baker in the conducting of the First National Bank when the institution stood so effectively behind Secretary Sherman, in the struggle for resumption of specie payments that, in the political vocabulary of the day, the bank was long nicknamed “Fort Sherman.” Our later Fahnestock devoted his energies to Stock Exchange activities; he was the oldest living member of that organization, for membership in which he had qualified thirty-six years ago.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1937 Century Association Yearbook