Secretary of the Treasury (1909 - 1913)
Although Franklin MacVeagh (1837-1934) had been a director of the Commercial National Bank of Chicago for twenty-nine years when President William Howard Taft asked him to be Secretary of the Treasury in 1909, he was a man with little real banking experience. He did not tackle the pressing problem of currency reform, leaving it to the National Monetary Commission, which had been established by the Aldrich-Vreeland Act of 1907 to study the issue. He did, however, stress the urgency of reform in his Annual Report: "Taking large sums of actual money out of ordinary financial uses and locking them up as a dead mass in the vaults of the Treasury is ... unscientific and unreasoned." What he contributed to the Administration was a business like management of the Treasury Department and a spark of progressiveness in an otherwise conservative Cabinet. The era was marked by efforts to modernize the Federal Government and MacVeagh promoted efficiency and economy within the Treasury Department. In 1909 MacVeagh commissioned the architectural firm of York and Sawyer to study the Department's efficiency, which resulted in a physical rearrangement of offices and an increase in the security of the Main Treasury Building in Washington. He abolished 450 unnecessary positions, rehabilitated the Customs Service with the introduction of electric automatic weighing devices and accepted certified checks instead of currency for Customs and Internal Revenue payments. MacVeagh resigned at the end of Taft's term.
 History of the Lincoln Cent
When the Lincoln one-cent coin made its initial appearance in 1909, it marked a radical departure from the accepted styling of United States coins, introducing as it did for the first time a portrait coin in the regular series. A strong feeling had prevailed against using portraits on our coins, but public sentiment stemming from the 100th anniversary celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birth proved stronger than the long-standing prejudice. The only person invited to participate in the formulation of the new design was Victor David Brenner. President Theodore Roosevelt was so impressed with the talents of this outstanding sculptor that Brenner was singled out by the President for the commission. The likeness of President Lincoln on the obverse of the coin is an adaptation of a plaque Brenner executed several years earlier which had come to the attention of President Roosevelt. Even though no legislation was required for the new design, approval of the Secretary of the Treasury was necessary to make the change. Franklin MacVeagh gave his approval on July 14, 1909, and not quite three weeks later, on August 2, 1909, the new coin was released to the public. Source: History of the Treasury  The Buffalo Nickel
Early in 1911, Treasury Secretary Franklin MacVeagh’s son wrote to him suggesting that there be a new design on the five-cent piece. The son had read the law which stipulated a coin design could not be changed more often than every 25 years, and had noted that the magic date arrived for the nickel in February 1908. MacVeagh had assumed office under President William Howard Taft in March 1909, and missed all the excitement when President Theodore Roosevelt managed to get several top artists to redesign the cent and gold coins. He decided that he could produce something just as electrifying as the Saint-Gaudens double eagle—and he was very nearly right. Source: The Buffalo Nickel By R.W. Julian
(November 22, 1837 – July 6, 1934) an American banker and Treasury Secretary.
 Born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, he graduated from Yale University in 1862, where he was a member of Skull & Bones. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1864. He worked as a wholesale grocer and lawyer. He had been director of the Commercial National Bank of Chicago for 29 years when President William Howard Taft asked him to be Secretary of the Treasury in 1909. He did not tackle the pressing problem of currency reform, leaving it to the National Monetary Commission, which had been established by the Aldrich-Vreeland Act of 1907. He did, however, stress the urgency of reform in his annual report. He is remembered for increasing the efficiency and general progressiveness of the Treasury Department: He abolished 450 unnecessary positions, rehabilitated the U.S. Customs Service with the introduction of electric automatic weighing devices and accepted certified checks instead of currency for customs and internal revenue payments. He was also involved in the creation of the buffalo nickel. Following his departure from the cabinet in 1913, MacVeagh returned to Chicago to become president of Franklin MacVeagh & Co., a wholesale grocery company. His company folded in 1932, a victim of the Depression. Franklin MacVeagh died on July 6, 1934, at age 96. He was brother to Wayne MacVeagh, an Attorney General of the United States. His Washington D.C., home at 2600 16th St., NW, was designed and built in 1906, by noted architect George Oakley Totten, Jr., and was known as the "Pink Palace". It is now home to the Inter-American Defense Board. MacVeagh died in 1934 and is interred at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. Source: Wikipedia
 The Mexican Cultural Institute at 2829 16th Street, NW in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The building was originally known as the Franklin MacVeagh House and was constructed between 1910 and 1911 at a cost of $120,000. The house was used as the Mexican embassy until the 1980s. |
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Phoenixville History 
