Jacob I. Cohen

Jacob I. Cohen was the eldest surviving son of Israel Cohen and Judith Solomon Cohen. Bornin Richmond, Virginia, he waslikely named for his uncle Jacob, with whom his father had asuccessful business partnership. His father died when he was 14 yearsof age, and five years later, in 1808, he helped his widowed mothermove the family to Baltimore.

It wasn’t long before Jacob began to follow his father’sfootsteps into the world of finance. His first venture, in which hewas joined by his brothers, was a lottery. In 1831, the lottery wasparlayed into banking, through a firm bearing his name—Jacob I.Cohen, Jr. and Brothers. Several of the brothers, especially Benjamin, David and Mendes, worked for some time at the firm under Jacob’s leadership. By 1837,it was one of the premier financial institutions in the country,appointed as the American financial representative of theRothschilds. It played a critical role in the financial stability ofthe nation that year during a financial crisis that arose fromexcessive speculation. Outside of his role as principal of the familybanking concern, Cohen also played important leadership roles in anumber of other developing institutions, serving as a director of theBaltimore and Ohio Railroad, president of the Baltimore-PhiladelphiaRailroad and president of the Baltimore Insurance Company.

Jacob did not reserve his civic activities to the business world. Hemaintained the family’s ancestral ties to Bavaria throughparticipation in the German Society of Maryland. Along with Solomon Etting, Cohen became deeply involved in the struggle forJewish civil equality in Maryland. Jews were then barred by theMaryland Constitution from holding elected office in the state, andCohen lobbied extensively to remove the wording of the constitutionthat excluded Jews from full political participation. In 1818, as theMaryland state legislature was considering the issue, he wrote aletter to the representatives objecting to those “obnoxious partsof the State’s constitution produced only in times of darkness andprejudice [which are] blots on the present enlightened period, on thehonor of the State, in direct opposition to the features andprinciples of the Constitution of the United States.” After thechanges he fought for were finally enacted in 1825, Cohen was electedto the Baltimore City Council and served as president of that bodyfrom 1845 to 1861.

Jacob I. Cohen

c. 1780