Phineas Prouty (November 8, 1827 – July 2, 1891) was a wealthy American merchant from Geneva, New York.
[1] His father had been born in New Hampshire but grew up in Newport, Vermont, before moving to Schenectady, where his older brother had a hardware business, serving in the War of 1812, and settling in Geneva by 1815, opening a copper, tin, and sheet iron factory.
[2] One sister, Harriet Prouty, was the wife of New York State Comptroller Thomas Hillhouse,[3] and another, Sarah Augusta Prouty, was the wife of banker Alexander Lafayette Chew.
[6][7] In 1881, Prouty was a founding trustee of the Metropolitan Trust Company in New York City which was organized by his brother-in-law Gen. Thomas Hillhouse,[8] who had just resigned as the Assistant Treasurer of the United States in New York City (following eleven years in that position after being appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1870.
[9] Hillhouse served as president until his death in July 1897 when he was succeeded by Brayton Ives.