biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1783–1857)
|
| biography:
| Financier, born in Lisburn, Ireland. The family emigrated to a farm in Cumberland Co, PA (1790), and at age 17 he moved to Baltimore as clerk in a produce and commission house. By 1820 he had founded Robert Garrett & Sons, a wholesale grocery and commission business. Interested in developing trade with the American West, he promoted the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad as well as the city of Baltimore. A director of several utility companies and banks, he also developed two hotels. In 1848 he built the steamship Monumental City to link Baltimore with San Francisco. |
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