It is the oldest of the predecessor institutions that eventually formed the current JPMorgan Chase & Co.

[1] However, the main interest of the company was not in the supply of water, but rather in becoming a part of the banking industry in New York.

[1] The company raised $2 million, used one hundred thousand dollars for building a water supply system, and used the rest to start the bank.

[4] After a multitude of cholera epidemics, a water system was finally established with the construction between 1837 and 1842 of the Croton Aqueduct.

The "Bank" of the Manhattan Company began business on September 1, 1799, in a house at 40 Wall Street.

[9] In 1847, Caleb O. Halsted, a cloth merchant from Elizabeth, New Jersey, was made president of the bank.

In 1860, the board of directors promoted James M. Morrison as president of the bank to succeed Halsted.

Morrison, who had begun working for the bank as the "first teller" in 1840, served as president until ill health forced him to resign in the latter part of 1879.

[11] Morrison was succeeded by John S. Harberger, who had begun working for the bank in 1857 as assistant cashier.

[15] In 1891, the board of directors of the Bank of Manhattan Trust Company elected Stephen Baker vice president.

[19] Coincidentally, Merchants' National had been chartered in 1804 through the efforts of Alexander Hamilton as a rival to the Manhattan Company, launched by Aaron Burr.

[22][23] In 1927, after thirty-four years as president, and an increase from one branch to a network with forty-eight branches and an increase in deposits to $300,000,000, Baker turned the presidency and a considerable stock ownership over to his son, J. Stewart Baker, who had just turned thirty-four.

In February 1932, following the death of Paul Warburg on January 24, 1932,[35] J. Stewart Baker was elected successor chairman of the board of the Manhattan Company, Warburg's son James succeeded to Baker's vice chairman role (after recently becoming president of the International Acceptance Bank) and Goodhue was elected successor chairman of the International Acceptance Bank.