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26-560: Michael Grace may refer to: Michael P. Grace (1842–1920), international businessman Michael P. Grace II (1917–1995), Broadway producer and lyricist Mick Grace (1874–1912), Australian rules footballer Mike Grace (third baseman) (born 1956), former Major League Baseball third baseman Mike Grace (pitcher) (born 1970), former Major League Baseball pitcher Michael Grace Jr., core member and songwriter of bands My Favorite and The Secret History [REDACTED] Topics referred to by

52-753: A million), lost it immediately, and had to pawn his watch. Meiggs became a successful railroad builder, building the second railroad in Chile , between Santiago and Valparaíso . After building himself a mansion in Chile with his immense fortunes, he moved his career on to Peru in the mid-1860s. He built a railroad from Lima – the capital city – to the Altiplano , which has an altitude of 14,000 feet. He built many railroads in Peru , and died in 1877 in Lima, Peru while constructing

78-461: A railroad in Costa Rica which was completed by his nephew, Minor C. Keith . He is said to have been the virtual dictator of Peru by that time, known as "Don Enrique,” with interests ranging from silver mines to cleaning up the city of Lima by building a seven-mile-long park. In 1876–1877, he financed French adventurer Théodore Ber for an archaeological expedition to Tiwanaku , Bolivia, against

104-486: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Michael P. Grace Born in Queenstown , County Cork , Ireland . to a wealthy family, as a young man he went to Peru where his father had business interests and where he joined his brother William Russell Grace who had formed a partnership with John Bryce to operate as ship chandlers . William Grace would emigrate to

130-575: The Mendocino Lumber Company . When Meiggs arrived in San Francisco in 1849, he, like many others, got into real estate speculation. In Meiggs' case, he promoted the possibility of piers along the north shore area, on the grounds that it was closer to the Golden Gate than the usual harbor, located just south of Broadway Street on the shore of what is today downtown San Francisco. Today,

156-563: The guano deposits along the Pacific coast , vast tracts of land containing both oil and mineral deposits including silver mines at Cerro de Pasco that were reported by The New York Times in its June 22, 1885 edition as "probably the richest and most extensive in the world." In conjunction with the Cerro de Pasco mines, the Grace's acquired a ninety-nine year lease, the first seven of which were free, on

182-644: The Grace brothers South American businesses. The shipping company was incorporated and headquartered in London, England, with Michael Grace as chairman of the board. He began spending a part of each year in England where between 1894 and 1915 he leased Battle Abbey as a residence for his family. He spent the other part of the year in the United States, where he maintained a home at Old Westbury on Long Island near daughter Margarita and her husband, John Shaffer Phipps , of

208-434: The Grace brothers established The New-York and Pacific Steamship Company, Limited, progenitor of their Grace Steamship Company . The operation began with a fleet of six newly built steam-powered freighters that shipped products manufactured in the United States from the port at New York City around Cape Horn to various ports on the west coast of South America . The ships returned with cargos of raw materials , primarily from

234-584: The Grace businesses to him. Michael Grace married Margarita Mason (1848-1930) The couple had four daughters: Elisa, Elena, Margarita, and Gladys. Tragedy struck the family on August 10, 1917 when daughter Elisa drowned while swimming in a lake in Italy . Elisa married the Hon. Hubert Beaumont , a former Member of the British Parliament for Eastbourne . Elisa and Hubert Beaumont had one child, Michael Beaumont . She

260-829: The Peruvian government saw them obtain most of the contracts to provide munitions and battle ships during the Peru-Chile War of the Pacific between 1877 and 1884. When the war ended, Michael Grace traveled to England and in 1887 put together a consortium of lenders to provide the funding necessary to stabilize the cash-strapped government of Peru. Michael Grace too emigrated to the United States where he would become an American citizen. The Grace brothers, along with Michael Grace's English son-in-law, Richard Hely-Hutchinson, 6th Earl of Donoughmore , widened their business in Peru to include control of

286-481: The Street Fund (which had little money in it), which the city's controller and mayor had fallen into the habit of signing by the book in advance. Meiggs forged the remaining information and raised money. Before his fraud was discovered, Meiggs left San Francisco on October 6, 1854, in the brig American, heading for South America. According to him, he landed with only $ 8,000 (his fraud raised, by some accounts, half

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312-495: The United States in 1865 where he established W. R. Grace & Co. of New York, while Michael Grace remained in Peru developing government contacts for the business that became Grace Brothers & Co. Michael Grace expanded the business into new fields including a near monopoly in the business of supplying the construction contractors building Peru's railway system with rail track iron and timber for rail ties plus foodstuffs and other provisions. The Grace brothers' influence with

338-429: The financially troubled Oroya Railroad originally built in early 1870s by American promoter Henry Meiggs but not fully completed. In that same June 22, 1885 story, The New York Times concluded that "Mr. Grace [Michael P.] gets a property which cost $ 27,600,900—86 miles of railroad already equipped and in operation, 50 miles of the most expensive tunneling and grading in the world—for nothing provided he will complete

364-510: The late summer of 1920, the then seventy-eight-year-old Michael Grace died. He, and his wife Margarita, are buried in the churchyard in Battle Abbey. Henry Meiggs Henry Meiggs (July 7, 1811 – September 30, 1877), known in Chile and Peru as Enrique Meiggs , was an American businessman. Born on Jul 7, 1811, in Boston , Meiggs came to New York City in 1835 and began a lumber business that

390-484: The line." From a base in Lima , the Grace brothers set up representative offices throughout most of South America and through their Compania Salitrera obtained control over all nitrate exported by the government of Chile . Their business in Chile was such that they eventually established Grace & Co. in Valparaíso . To support the vast Grace South American operations with lower costs and in-house control, in 1892

416-586: The majority of his money was sent out of the country. In 1977, one hundred years after Meiggs' death, Judge Harry W. Low of the California Superior Court, in San Francisco, granted a motion to quash the indictment against Meiggs stemming from the fraud, on the grounds that Meiggs had rehabilitated himself, and had gone to a Higher Court. This marked the conclusion of a lengthy campaign by Meiggs' supporters to clear him. An EC2 type Liberty Ship would also carry his name. The USS Henry Meiggs , hull 2788

442-910: The new company were: J. Louis Schaefer, who joined the company as a boy, would play a key role in not only W. R. Grace & Company in which he became a vice-president, but also as president of Grace National Bank . Schaefer would be a co-executor of the Estate of Michael Grace with William's son and corporate successor, Joseph P. Grace . J. Louis Schaefer died in 1927. William Grace died in March 1904 in New York and brother John in September of that same year in London, England. Michael Grace then assumed control of all their companies. Because he had four daughters but no sons, Michael took William's most capable son, Joseph , under his wing and would eventually transfer his interest in

468-508: The prominent Phipps family . In 1916, Michael Grace oversaw Grace Steamship Company's addition of a mail delivery service between New York and its regular South American ports. Michael and William Grace had a third brother, John W. Grace. For years he remained mostly out of the limelight running a business in San Francisco, California . However, with Michael based in London , England for half

494-510: The promise that Ber would donate the artifacts he found, on behalf of Meiggs, to Washington's Smithsonian Institution and the American Museum of Natural History in New York . While his Peruvian contracts were wildly profitable, by 1876, his financial situation had begun to disintegrate. He found it more difficult to obtain credit. His 1877 death only worsened the economic chaos in Peru. He

520-407: The same term This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Grace&oldid=1171418687 " Category : Human name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

546-456: The site of Meiggs' Wharf , in its day a marvel extending two thousand feet into the Bay, is occupied by part of Fisherman's Wharf , Pier 39 , and Pier 45 . To that end, he built warehouses, streets and piers in the area, and constructed sawmills and schooners . Meiggs became over-extended financially in trying to do this. In order to make ends meet, he illicitly obtained a book full of warrants on

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572-685: The year plus his extensive travelling to South America , when William developed health problems in the early 1890s it made it necessary for John to come to New York to help oversee operations. As part of estate and successor planning, in 1895 the three brothers consolidated most of their holdings into a new private company incorporated in West Virginia called W. R. Grace & Company. The consolidation involved W. R. Grace & Co. of New York, Grace Brothers & Co. of Lima, Peru, Grace & Co. of Valparaíso, Chile, William R. Grace & Co. of London, and J. W. Grace & Co of San Francisco. The officers of

598-462: Was vetoed by the governor. As a result of Meiggs' adventures and escapades in Latin America, he left the economies of many countries in desperate conditions. Meiggs allowed for the economic systems of Chile and Peru to be ruled by exports to European nations, which weakened their abilities to develop their domestic trade systems. However, his endeavors to make money for himself proved futile, for

624-540: Was buried at Cementerio Presbítero Matías Maestro in downtown Lima. Meiggs is said to have paid back every cent he obtained by the warrant fraud, and his other debts, amounting to as much as a million dollars, refusing only to pay back speculators who obtained the warrants at deep discounts. In preparation for his never-to-occur return to San Francisco, he got the State Legislature to pass a bill making it illegal to try him for offenses occurring before 1855. The bill

650-682: Was ruined by the Panic of 1837 . He restarted his business in Brooklyn , but again met with failure. Finding success in sending lumber to the Pacific Coast, he relocated to San Francisco during the peak of the California Gold Rush on the cargo ship, Albany, laden with lumber, which he sold there for 20 times its cost. He established his first sawmill in Mendocino County, California , which became

676-454: Was working as a volunteer for the Red Cross during World War I at the time of her death. Elena married Richard Hely-Hutchinson, 6th Earl of Donoughmore in 1901. Margarita married American businessman John Shaffer Phipps in 1903. His niece Olive Grace Kerr married British aristocrat Charles Greville, 3rd Baron Greville in 1909. While on an annual business trip to London, England in

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