Benjamin Brewster (financier)

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Benjamin Brewster (June 30, 1828 – August 23, 1897) was an American financier and industrialist and one of the original trustees of Standard Oil. He was born in Norwich, Connecticut, to Patrick Brewster, a descendant of Mayflower Pilgrim William Brewster, and Catharine Fanny Roath. After schooling, he worked as a clerk in New York City and, in 1849, he headed west for the California Gold Rush. In San Francisco he opened a general store with Oliver Burr Jennings, and the pair built a large fortune.

Brewster returned to the East in 1874 and settled in New York City. Through Jennings, who had married the sister of William Rockefeller’s wife, he became involved with John D. Rockefeller in organizing Standard Oil. When the Standard Oil Trust was formed in 1882, Brewster served as a trustee.

He was also a major figure in railroads. Brewster helped with the building of the Manhattan Elevated Railway and was a leader in many railroad deals, especially the reorganization of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway. He served as vice president of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad and was a director of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad and the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. He also was a director of the International Navigation Company, which owned the American Line steamers.

On June 9, 1863, Brewster married Elmina Hersey Dows in San Francisco. They had seven children. In 1890 he built a summer home in Cazenovia, New York, named “Scrooby” after the English manor house of his ancestor William Brewster; the building is now The Brewster Inn. Benjamin Brewster died at his home in Cazenovia in 1897 at the age of 69.