Eleazar Lord
Eleazar Lord (September 9, 1788 – June 3, 1871) was an American author, educator, deacon of the First Protestant Dutch Church and first president of the Erie Railroad.
His early boyhood was spent among the quiet scenes of that even-tenored rural vicinage, where his elementary education was obtained in the district schools.
He wrote the first pretentious work in the literature of that department of the church ever published in this country : "A History of the Principal Protestant Missions to the Heathen."
A serious affection of the eyes compelled him to give up his cherished position in life to devote himself to secular concerns, the exactions of which would not demand the sacrifice of his sight.
He engaged actively in commercial and financial affairs, and while giving to them necessarily a large part of his time, his inclinations for religious work and its advancement were not permitted to languish in the slightest degree.
In 1815 he personally called a public meeting of the citizens of New York City to consider the subject of Sunday-schools, then an untried branch of church work.
[1] In 1819 Lord was selected by the leading merchants of New York City to go to Washington in their interest as an advocate for the adoption by Congress of a protective tariff, which, they held, would be for the general good of the country.
"[1][3] In 1821 Eleazar Lord obtained the charter for and organized the Manhattan Fire Insurance Company of New York, of which he was president twelve-years.
In 1828–29 he wrote and published a book entitled, "Credit, Currency and Banking," in which he recommended a system that he claimed would remedy the defects of the one prevailing.
In response, he formulated the plan, and made the original draft of the bill authorizing its adoption, on which the present national banking system was established.
He envisioned a cemetery that would become prominent as the final resting place for not only the deceased of the New York City area, but would be a magnet for notables on a national scale.
From that time until 1866 he added to his literary work many volumes, having for their subjects finance, general and doctrinal theology, history and science, besides innumerable reviews for magazines and periodicals.
