Cooke, Jay (1821-1905), an American financier, was the chief financial agent for the United States during the American Civil War (1861-1865). He sold war loans, which totaled well over $1 billion. Cooke was born on Aug. 10, 1821, in Sandusky, Ohio. He worked his way up from a clerkship in a Philadelphia bank to the establishment of his own banking firm in 1861. In 1873, the failure of his company helped bring on a general financial panic. In 1878 and 1879, Cooke made another fortune in Western silver mines. He died on Feb. 16, 1905.
