Page:Men of Mark in America vol 1.djvu/409



DSON, JOHN JOY, financier, president of the Washington Loan and Trust Company, was born in Jefferson, Ohio, May 17, 1846. He received his early education in the public schools, and at the outbreak of the Civil war, when but fifteen years of age, he enlisted in the 61st regiment New York volunteers, and served in the Army of the Potomac under General George B. McClellan and General Ambrose E. Burnside. He participated in the Virginia and Maryland campaigns, including the Peninsular campaign and the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg. In 1863, he was discharged at Armory Square hospital, Washington, District of Columbia, and soon thereafter, through Senator Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio, he was appointed to a clerkship in the United States Treasury Department. He remained in the departmental service for twelve years, 1863-75, ten of which were spent in the office of the comptroller of the currency. In the meantime, he completed a course of study in the law school of Columbian university, receiving the degree of LL.B. in 1869. He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia in the same year.

Upon his resignation from the comptroller's office, Mr. Edson formed a partnership with his brother, J. R. Edson, and, from 1875 to 1881, was engaged in patent practice and in a general law business. During the succeeding six years he organized and managed several building and loan associations, besides giving special attention to the Equitable Cooperative Building Association, with which he had been connected since 1879 and of which he became president in 1893. He was one of the incorporators of the Washington Loan and Trust Company, was its first vice-president, and in 1894 was elected president. He was also one of the incorporators of the Columbia National Bank. Among other positions of prominence in financial circles held by Mr. Edson, are the following: Director of the National Metropolitan Bank; director of the Potomac Insurance Company; treasurer of the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company; treasurer of the George Washington University; member of the Board of Charities; and for a