Rise and Fall of a Frontier Entrepreneur: Benjamin Rathbun, Master Builder and Architect (New York State Series)

Whitman, Roger

ISBN 10: 0815603371 / ISBN 13: 9780815603375

Published by Syracuse University Press, 1996

About this Item

Still sealed in plastic.

Seller Inventory # mon0003777582

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rise and Fall of a Frontier Entrepreneur: Benjamin Rathbun, Master Builder and Architect (New York State Series)
• Publisher: Syracuse University Press
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0815603371
• ISBN 13: 9780815603375
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Fine

About this title

Synopsis

<p>The story of Benjamin Rathbun’s ruin reads like a primer for<br>the scandals and studied neglect that triggered America’s<br>economic crisis today. Banker, builder and architect, a revered<br>citizen of the flourishing American northwestern frontier—in<br>the end he was also a convicted forger. And his forgeries were<br>of such gravity that they added momentum to the Panic of<br>1837, the rapid collapse of a system of credit and debt that<br>brought down the young nation’s financial system.<br>Rathbun was surely a rascal, but a rascal somehow of<br>great decency. In Buffalo, a half-built landscape was strewn<br>with Rathbun’s broken vision. Concerned for the thousands<br>who had depended upon him, he begged for release from<br>jail long enough to fix the damage. Instead, he spent five<br>years in prison shouldering the blame for others who fled to<br>Texas, beyond the reach of American law.</p>

About the Author

Roger Whitman (1905-1954) was a reporter for the Niagara Falls Gazette in the 1940s. His manuscript was discovered in the archives of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society.

Scott Eberle is vice president for research and interpretation and chief historian at the Strong Museum in Rochester,
New York.

David A. Gerber is professor of history at the State University of New York at Buffalo.