James F.D. Lanier (1800-1881)

He was born at Washington, Beaufort Co., North Carolina, and grew up in Ohio before his parents settled in 1817 at Madison, Indiana, where they built the Lanier-Schofield House. He studied law at Transylvania University, became a lawyer at Madison and was appointed Clerk of the Indiana House of Representatives during which time he helped oversee Indianapolis become the new state capital. In 1833, he was elected the first President of the Bank of Indiana and was a large shareholder in the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad. He also invested in real estate and port-packing and by 1844 his fortune allowed him to build the Lanier Mansion on 10-acres outside Madison.

In 1849, he went to New York City where he established Winslow, Lanier & Co., increasing his fortune through promoting western railroad interests before moving into more general banking. He was the first President of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway. By 1851, he had abandoned his mansion in Madison and was living permanently at 16 West Tenth Street in Manhattan. He is forever remembered in Indiana for saving the state from bankruptcy during the Civil War, loaning Indiana a million dollars which was paid back to him in full in 1870. In 1819, he married his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of John Gardner, of Lexington, Kentucky, by whom he had eight children, notably Charles Lanier, who continued Winslow, Lanier & Co., and whose family were prominent in New York's Gilded Age society. In 1848, he married his second wife, Mary, daughter of John McClure, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, by whom he had a further three children.