(Note: A copy of this letter was offered in a previous auction - this is the original that was just uncovered)Col. McAnerney Obit in the New York Times:
"Colonel John McAnerney, railroad organizer, former President of the Seventh National Bank and "savior of Richmond" died yesterday morning in his apartment at 12 East 86th St. after a few days illness. He was 89.
Funeral services will be held in the Lady Chapel of St. Patrick's Cathedral, of which he was trustee and treasurer.
Born in Providence, R.I., 1838, he left home when 12 and went to New Orleans, where he learned the wholesale and retail iron business when a young man. When the Civil War began, he received a Commission in the Confederate Army. He was advanced rapidly and at the close of the War, when 25, was a Colonel.
Mr. McAnerney was one of the few men who have had monuments erected in their honor during their lifetimes. A granite monument stands outside Richmond, extolling him as the savior of Richmond. It marks the site of a battle in which two regiments led by Colonel McAnerney repulsed Union raiding forces which were planning to release 20,000 prisoners in Richmond. The Colonel was wounded in this engagement.
After the War, McAnerney moved to New York, established a railroad supplies firm and organized a rolling mill near Poughkeepsie. During the reconstruction era, when many southern railroads were rebuilt and western lines were constructed, the firm prospered and Mr. McAnerney amassed a fortune.
In the late 1870's, hard times overtook the rolling business and Mr. McAnerney's firm folded. He recouped his fortunes, however, and in 1887, called all his creditors together and paid them with interest what they had lost in his failure.
He was a Democratic member of the Electoral College in 1884, which elected Grover Cleveland President.
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