A Merchant Banker That “Bought” Midtown Manhattan & Founded The First Trolley System (New York City)

Описание: Today we are going to look to address three main topics, all related to the miraculous growth of New York City in the early 19th Century. These three subjects will be:

1. John Mason (Yes, that’s his real name). “John” is the key piece to this entire narrative, seemingly interconnecting facets of Manhattan’s history which almost no one addresses today. John Mason was said to have (somehow) purchased a large portion of Midtown Manhattan in 1825, before other massive accomplishments, which included the founding of the First Trolley System around 1832.

2. The oldest photographs of New York City. What led me to discover the narrative regarding John Mason was a collection of photographs of New York City, labeled as being taken during the years of 1860 through 1869. These photographs are remarkably detailed, but in that, we find a major issue - how can these photographs from the 1860s be so clear as to capture moving people, animals, and trolleys?

3. The Anomalies. If John Mason and his Banking family really did own Midtown Manhattan (as the narrative claims), when did this section of New York City leave their family’s control? One thing is for sure, finding information about anyone in the family is difficult, as even John Mason has almost nothing known about his life before he became a key player in the history of Manhattan.


We will look to address all of those topics and more in today’s video. Our deep dive, as always, is meant to be taken with a grain of salt, as we will be discussing the convoluted current narrative - which also appears to tie back to a mysterious banking entity of New York, known as “The Chemical Bank.”

I’ve included all the photographs from the collection dated to 1860 through 1869, and I’ve also added the title and alleged date for each image (albeit a lot of the dates are claimed to be estimated). Enjoy!



Timestamps:

Intro - 0:03
John Mason, Merchant Banker - 1:32
The Chemical Bank - 3:47
John buys Midtown - 6:12
John founds the first trolley - 7:38
The First Photographs of NYC (Collection Begins) - 8:48
The Financial Panic of 1837 - 8:57
Life after 1839 - 12:33
Questions about the narrative - 14:09
Conclusion / Final questions - 16:22




Topics discussed today:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ma...)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemica...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_b...)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Yor...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midtown...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_o...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_W...