Amos Cotting (1828-1889)

Born at Boston, Massachusetts. He entered the dry goods business at St. Louis, Missouri, and after some fifteen years (1866) he came to New York "with large means" in partnership with his brother-in-law, Joseph A. Jameson. In 1866, they established the Bank of Jameson, Smith & Cotting of Wall Street, New York, which later became better known as James D. Smith & Co. Cotting was equally successful in finance as he had been in trade, but died in the same year that he retired. He had bought up much of the land around Hamilton Grange which he purchased in order to preserve it - on the condition that it was moved next to St. Luke's Church. He lived with his wife at 835 Fifth Avenue, built in 1886 on a lot of land that cost him $7,000 in that same year.