Franklin MacVeagh

Franklin MacVeagh
45th United States Secretary of the Treasury
In office March 8, 1909 – March 5, 1913
President	William Taft
Preceded by	George B. Cortelyou
Succeeded by	William G. McAdoo
Personal details
Born	(1837-11-22)November 22, 1837 Chester County, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	July 6, 1934(1934-07-06) (aged 96) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Alma mater	Yale University, Columbia Law School
Profession	Politician, Lawyer, Grocer, Banker

Franklin MacVeagh (November 22, 1837 – July 6, 1934) was an American banker and Treasury Secretary.

Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, he graduated from Yale University in 1858, where he was a member of Skull and Bones. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1864. He worked as a wholesale grocer and lawyer. He had been director of the Commercial National Bank of Chicago for 29 years when President and fellow bonesman, William Howard Taft asked him to be Secretary of the Treasury in 1909. He did not tackle the pressing problem of currency reform, leaving it to the National Monetary Commission, which had been established by the Aldrich-Vreeland Act of 1908. He did, however, stress the urgency of reform in his annual report. He is remembered for increasing the efficiency and general progressiveness of the Treasury Department: He abolished 450 unnecessary positions, rehabilitated the U.S. Customs Service with the introduction of electric automatic weighing devices and accepted certified checks instead of currency for customs and internal revenue payments. He was also involved in the creation of the buffalo nickel.

He was brother to Wayne MacVeagh, an Attorney General of the United States.

His Washington D.C., home at 2600 16th St., NW, was designed and built in 1906, by noted architect George Oakley Totten, Jr., and was known as the "Pink Palace." It is now home to the Inter-American Defense Board. He also owned a large summer estate in Dublin, New Hampshire (now listed on the National Register of Historic Places) known as Knollwood.

MacVeagh died in 1934 and is interred at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

References

• Treasury biography

Political offices
Preceded by George B. Cortelyou	U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Served under: William Howard Taft March 8, 1909 – March 5, 1913	Succeeded by William Gibbs McAdoo