Stephan Girard
Stephan Girard was a French-born American banker. He was born in Bordeaux, France in 1750 and immigrated to the United States in 1776. Girard became a successful merchant and banker, amassing a large fortune. He made numerous gifts and bequests to various charitable causes, including the establishment of Girard College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The founders established this school to provide education to orphaned boys, and it was one of the first institutions of its kind in the United States. Girard, who is considered to be one of the country’s earliest and most successful financiers, also invested heavily in the Second Bank of the United States. It’s unclear how much money Girard was able to make, because there are no historic records of it. However, with everything he was able to do, he was a modern-day equivalent of a multi-millionaire.