Balthazar P. Melick
American banker
Balthazar P. Melick (also known as Baltus) (October 26, 1770 – November 20, 1835), an American merchant and banker, was the founder of Chemical Bank in 1823. Melick served as the first president of Chemical from 1823 to 1831.
Biography
Melick was born in Lebanon Township, New Jersey in 1770. He started as an apprentice at a mercantile house at the age of thirteen. In 1792, at the age of twenty-one he was admitted to a partnership and for many years he was a prosperous merchant in Greenwich Village in New York City. In 1795, he was listed as a "grocer" doing business at 183 Washington Street. Melick founded the commercial house of Melick & Burger, which owned trade vessels sailing in the Caribbean, doing much of its business with the island of St. Croix. The firm, which had its offices at 76 Washington Street, owned a ship known as "Chase" which afterwards was prominent in the sugar trade.
He became a Director in the Equitable Fire Insurance Company, the Greenwich Fire Insurance and the Union Marine and Life Insurance Company.
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