- Will you consider this?

Was it possible to be an influencer back in the day and pretty much fly under the radar back home?

Maybe even in your hometown?

We highlight the fascinating story of a homegrown Elmwood man from the 20th century.

Stay right here.

(upbeat music) - He hobnobbed with the world renowned of the day but his quiet leadership and humility somehow managed to keep him out of the limelight, at least back home.

He was sought out as an advisor in a number of matters.

Bill Engelbrecht is here to introduce us to Nelson Dean Jay from Elmwood, Illinois.

So, welcome, Bill Engelbrecht.

- Thank you.

- From Peoria now?

- Yeah, it's good to see you again.

- You, too.

Okay, so we'll start out with we have Nelson Dean Jay little-known, and how did you manage to uncover his story, his fascinating story?

- Well, there are co-authors to this little book and Carl Taylor is that co-author.

And Carl and I worked together at Bradley University.

We're both University of Illinois graduates so we've know each other for a long time.

Carl was at his own graduation from Knox College and while he was looking things over, they were honoring a guy up on stage.

And Carl said, "Who's that?"

And it turned out to be Nelson Dean Jay and we've been chasing him around for many years since.

- So was Nelson Dean Jay actually there then for that?

- [Bill] He was.

He was there- - Okay, to receive a reward.

- [Bill] He was, yes.

- Okay, wow.

All right, so Carl, because it was I mean, Knox College and the Elmwood, Illinois, I think Carl was born and raised- - [Bill] That's correct.

- In Elmwood.

And so he wrote several things.

He had all kinds of notes.

I kind of went online and looked up some things.

And so he inspired you, and he can't be with us today because illness and, you know, it's just life today.

But, he inspired you to do a little more digging?

- You bet.

We went, (Bill clears his throat) Excuse me, we've been digging around the life of Nelson Dean Jay for a long, long time.

And it's interesting to do a biography on a gentleman you really realize that you become intimately aware of what they do.

You sort of live with them in a way so you go through the ups and downs, you enjoy the things that he enjoyed, you go up and down with the good things and bad things.

And it's sort of eerie when you do the life, though.

Imagine if I were to write a story about you and I knew everything there was about you?

- That would be bad news, tennis shoes, yeah.

- That would be enjoyable, but it's a very scary proposition.

- So, let's learn more about him, let's hear about him.

He was born and raised in Elmwood, went to Knox College, but give us a little more.

- Well, from Knox College, he got married, certainly right after college, married a wonderful lady from St. Louis.

As we say, he sort of married up, as they say, and went to Milwaukee after that in the finance world and then from there to Chicago in the finance world.

And then World War 1 came along.

- He was with JP Morgan all of that time?

- Not at that time.

- All right, go ahead.

- He went through World War 1 and while he was in World War 1, he, by the way, was decorated by the United States, he was decorated by Belgium, and he was decorated by France in a short period of time that he was in World War 1.

He came back from World War 1 and that's when, - [Christine] JP Morgan.

- JP Morgan came calling.

- Yeah, so tell me about that.

So JP Morgan, business man, new energy and new obviously recognized leadership.

So is that how, I mean, I didn't do the research, you did.

So tell me if I'm on the right track.

- There were some cohorts of, - [Christine] Nelson.

- I'm sorry, there were cohorts of JP Morgan who were in the military, as well, with Nelson Dean Jay, and so they became aware of him.

And they started passing little love notes along to JP Morgan about this guy that they found in World War 1.

And soon after World War 1, the knock came on the door and he was personally recruited, by the way, by JP Morgan.

Which is, and it's very interesting because all of the people who worked for JP Morgan, they came from the east coast, they were of the elite colleges on the east coast, they were well-to-do.

- [Christine] Like, Ivy League kind of?

- Very much, very much so.

And they even, all the way down to their religion they were sort of selected as to who would wind up at JP Morgan.

Interestingly enough, Nelson Dean Jay was almost none of those.

He was reared from a small town, Elmwood.

He was of a different religion, although Protestant.

He didn't go to an elite school, but they saw something in him that attracted them and so he was hired personally by JP Morgan.

- All right, so then he worked for him in the United States for a time before he was sent overseas on a special assignment?

- No, what happened was JP Morgan had an office in Paris, France and things were not going exactly as he would like.

- [Christine] Such as?

- Such as how things were being run and how the size of the office and the money that was being profited.

So he sent Nelson Dean Jay to Paris in 1920.

And when the then Nelson Dean Jay left Paris about 35 years later, so he was the head of JP Morgan in Paris, France for about 30 years through the aftermath of World War 1, through all of the trouble, financial troubles in the world in the '20s, in the '30s, and then he was even there during World War 2.

- Interesting.

So what was his main role?

He was, I mean, he was an elite over there considered an elite.

He could be with the movers and shakers.

- He very much was and he had a personality that was liked by almost everybody.

He was, I guess, a financial wizard.

He did all the right things and so he became friends with the most amazing number of people.

By the way, he was President of JP Morgan Paris.

So when he first got there during the 1920s, he became associated with all kinds of fabulous people, Coco Chanel.

- Ernest Hemingway.

- Ernest Hemingway.

Andre Citroen who was the car manufacturer.

Mussolini.

Friends of Hitler.

So he dealt with popes and kings and princes and financial wizards.

- And they sought him with advice.

- They absolutely saw him for advice.

In fact, presidents of the United States when they would send ambassadors and people over to France, they would say, "Well, you need to see X and you need to see Y, "and you need to see Nelson Dean Jay."

So he was sought by almost everybody who went to Paris to do business after World War 1.

- And also, he was on the greeting committee for the first trans-Atlantic flight by Charles Lindbergh.

Am I correct in that?

He was there to greet him in Paris?

- Yeah, so that Lindbergh story sort of fascinated me.

Yes, he had been...

The JP Morgan Company essentially financed the trip of- - [Christine] Oh, of Lindbergh.

- Of Lindbergh.

- [Christine] Interesting.

- And so when he got to Paris, he needed to greet somebody, and in his pocket was a business card of Nelson Dean Jay.

And so he looked up Nelson Dean Jay once he landed in Paris.

And if I could side trip, when you do a biography you sort of dig into these kinds of things.

And I said well, Charles Lindbergh, great guy, everybody sort of knows about him, right?

Well, one of his personal friends for almost 50 years was Nelson Dean Jay.

And so he started to poke around.

Nelson Dean Jay from around here, Lindbergh was from, Lindbergh flew the mail from St. Louis to Chicago.

And so one day during COVID, my wife and I are walking down our street, and down our street is this big rock.

And on it was a dedication to Charles Lindbergh.

- Near Lindbergh Elementary.

- Not too far from Lindbergh Elementary where he landed his plane there.

And I said interesting.

Well, if he flew through Peoria, he must have had when he's having conversations with Nelson Dean Jay, they must've talked about the thing local.

And, of course, the part of the conversation came into the fact that Lindbergh had ran out of gas when he was flying over- - One of the fields around here.

- Not too far just south of here.

And so he landed there.

So I thought it was just interesting so I kept digging into the life of Charles Lindbergh and I thought I've got one life here, I'd better stick with the one I got.

(Christine chuckling) I don't need another boat ride.

- That might be the next book.

- Yes.

(Bill and Christine chuckle) - Leaders, world heads who came to him for advice, they were looking for financial advice.

I mean, post World War 1, the rebuilding of Europe, the popes, I mean, what were they seeking from him?

- Well, first of all, it was advice on who was who and who was doing what.

That was a big part of what he did, but financial, actually, financially resources was something else.

Another example would be a guy by the name of Andre Citroen.

Andre Citroen became the largest car manufacturer in Europe, and he came to see Nelson Dean Jay about making a car.

And he did that in World War 1.

And then closer toward World War 2, he came back again and he said, "Remember how I told you how I told you "I wanted to be a famous car manufacturer?"

Nelson Dean Jay said, "Well, I'm not sure I can help you "all that much because JP Morgan really doesn't think "there's much of a future in cars.

"He likes railroads instead."

(Christine laughing) - Okay.

- But as it turns out, Nelson Dean Jay introduced him to the head of the Buick division and the head of General Motors who were in offices just close to him.

And guess what?

Andre Citroen came out with a few million dollars from the JP Morgan Company to start his manufacturing business.

- And ended up doing all right.

- He did just fine.

(Christine laughing) - All right, so he also helped Madame Curie.

- Just an amazing story.

I am amused at time as I will occasionally mention to young people around here.

I said, "Hey, this guy was associated with Madame Curie."

And, of course, I get this blank stare as to who possibly Madame Curie could be.

I have dug out a dozen, or 13 letters between Madame Curie and Nelson Dean Jay on what she was doing, the assistance that she needed.

And so he helped provide financing for her through some grants that the United States was giving to her.

And it was a wonderful relationship.

They went back and forth.

And after he got some grants that he gave to her, he helped her also with the funding, managing her own money and funding and starting an oncology clinic in Poland and in France.

And I sat there and I said, and actually, I do this all through this exercise, "Hey, this guy was from Elmwood.

"Who knew?"

- I know, exactly.

How did he slip under the radar?

- Well, I think the biggest thing was simply geographical.

He was in France.

And we were here and he was there.

And so all these kinds of things.

You know, there was a program that you and I may remember called "The Naked City".

And they had a little line in there that said there's eight million stories out there and this is one of them.

Well, I think that this was a story walking around out there that needed to be found.

- [Christine] I think you found it.

- And Carl and I found this story.

- You did, you did.

So now you said you had a couple of pages that you wanted to share with us, too, about his life or his accomplishments?

- Well, just some other things, really.

They have to do a lot about what he did.

But one of the things about writing a biography is, again, as I said, you need to get so close to these people that it's scary.

And so every word you go over it and over, and over again, and you write every sentence, and you go through it.

And I sort of believe that you write to the ear not to the eye, and so that when you write something you wanna make sure that when it's heard - [Christine] Somebody hears it.

- Hears it and they enjoy it.

And if you don't like it when you're reading it aloud then you need to do it over again, which is what I did.

So I just thought I'd share with you just a little bit about the writing part of this thing.

Some language that I found fascinated.

I'm sorry, I'm geeky about it but I really love words.

- I think that's good.

- And they become magic, they become the rhythm for a writer.

And this is a very simple part of this story.

- Now which page?

- Yes, which page is it on?

- Well, you're so close to it, it's hard to part with it, right?

- Yes, we'll find out real soon.

- You also spoke with his grandson, a grandson of his?

- I spoke to all of his grandsons.

George in California, Daniel in St. Louis and his granddaughters in Las Vegas and in Florida, and his daughter-in-law who's 94 who lives in the east coast.

And, we dug out everything there was to dig out about him, all of the financial things.

Some are a little embarrassing, some are a little controversial.

In fact, when you get into the book you'll find some things that I left for you to decide.

Well, was she or wasn't she?

Was he or wasn't he?

What did they do?

Did Nelson Dean do the right thing at that time?

But just from a word standpoint, some things that got me, this is a description of Nelson Dean Jay's garden, of all things, outside Paris.

- [Christine] All right, let's hear it.

- And I thought the words were, you know, it's not the biggest part of his life, it's just his garden, for god's sake.

- It was enjoyable and a way for down time.

- One of the glories of Fontaine Bleu which is where he lived, was the potager or vegetable garden with fruit trees spiraled against the stone walls and enclosing the careful beds.

One tree I remember had been pruned down to about a foot and a half.

The branches spread out for several feet.

It bore Ozgun Pippin apples, huge and delicious, and yellow, a pound apiece.

Cabbage roses grew next to the cabbages.

Nasturtiums ran riot across the peas and carrots.

The soil was rich and black, and bountiful harvests of fruits and flowers would be carefully picked every Sunday to go back to Paris.

Nothing pleased Dean more than sitting at the head of his imposing dinner table and announcing that the vegetables being served were du jardin from their own garden.

- Wow.

- And I thought I said, wait a minute.

Nasturtiums running riot across the peas and carrots?

Who writes like that?

Who says that?

Who talks like that?

But I just love- - Well, they're edible.

Nasturtiums are edible.

- I know they are and they crawl around.

- And they're beautiful.

- And they chase peas and carrots, evidently.

(Christine chuckles) - Well, so there he was growing his own produce which made him that much more human.

Yes, he was a big wig, but he was also right down to earth and digging in the earth.

- He was and he had three boys.

And, of course, he became a grandpa as a result.

And he dressed very formally.

JP Morgan, when they went to the office, they had white gloves, okay?

- [Christine] All of them.

- They dressed in white gloves.

They had their lunches brought to them.

They had nothing on their table in their office.

There was no paper or anything on their table.

They did deals (Bill mumbles).

So he was just a fascinating guy from that perspective.

So, when he would come home, he was still this very proper.

And one of this granddaughters said, "Just once, I wish I had seen him in a pair of boxers "with an old T-shirt on," which they never saw him in.

Because he had his suit and his tie on and he smoked a Meerschaum pipe.

And when he would meet his, it sounds a little bit stiff, but he was maybe a little bit stiff, but when he met his granddaughters and grandsons at different times, he would shake their hand.

Instead of a hug, he would shake their hand with his Meerschaum pipe because that was tell.

- That was his schtick, that was his thing.

- I don't wanna forget the woman that he married.

- [Christine] Yes, Ann from St. Louis.

- From St. Louis, from a fairly well-to-do college.

She went to school on the east coast.

She had nine years of French by the time she got out of college.

Who does that anymore?

- So that was in the early 1900s.

- Yes, that is correct, in about 1910, I think she graduated.

They got married in 1910.

And very alert, she decided to become in those days it was traditional for her to be the wife at home, and she did all the social things.

But at one point she said, you know, "Nelson, I'm really tired of these meetings "that you guys have where you go into the back room "with the rest of the guys and smoke their pipes "and stuff like... "I want their meetings to be with the wives "and I want it to be out front."

So she put the arm on him that life was gonna change a little bit in the Jay household.

- Well, good for her.

I mean, that was about the right time to be doing that kind of thing, a suffragette in her own right.

- Yes, that was in '20 and she was doing this in about 1920, although she was doing it in France.

She made the comment that the ladies in France were not quite up with the ladies in the United States.

- Ooh, that's very interesting.

So, but at one point, where did I read that, JP Morgan wanted their clients, their customers to know that they were working with the top echelon of everyone, everything.

- Absolutely.

And the JP Morgan at that time was the largest bank financially, not in terms of people, but in terms of finances, in the world.

And he was in charge of it in Paris.

So at one time, they bragged about having the 90, the 100 top corporations in America as clients.

And two of them were not clients, and as a result of that, they black balled 'em.

So they didn't take, they took prisoners and they were, there is no bank like that anymore.

There hasn't been a bank like that for a long time.

It was quite a different time.

And it was, again, to repeat myself, there was a guy from Elwood in charge of this whole thing.

C'mon.

- It just proves that no matter who you are no matter where you're from, you can do it if you put your mind to it.

- Which brings up an addition to simply penning words.

A goal I have for this book is to make it available in places like Elmwood and Farmington, and Henry where I came from and all the other small communities including Peoria so that young people, I'm guessing about sophomore in high school age can read a book like this and say, I can do that.

I can be that, I can go some place from a small community and do anything.

I can do what Nelson Dean Jay did and maybe even better.

And I think today, I think we miss some of those leaders that people should follow or at least consider following.

I understand it was a different time but there are lots of things that we all could learn from reading this book.

And so one of my goals, and I've already got it into one high school where they've agreed to take it for- - Oh, like, for a history class?

- History class, they can do term papers.

They can do all kinds of different things.

They can do career development, it's just analysts, the kinds of things that you could do with a book like that.

And I've been in a lot of the schools and love 'em to death, but there are a few some literature in there that I'm not sure I'd recommend.

(Bill laughing) - So the book is called "The American Banker in Paris, Remarkable True Story".

And, I mean, what was the biggest surprise that turned you upside-down when you were getting so intimately close to Nelson Dean Jay?

- I think one thing that I noticed, but by the way, I think surprises are wonderful and I think if you read this book, you'll find lots of surprises.

You know, it's what nurtures.

There's some surprises are great and some surprises that are not so great.

And there's a few of both of those in here.

There's some tragedy.

I think the idea that everybody that ran the country in those days came from the east coast, they were well-to-do, they were well-positioned.

Many generations from that family had been doing it for years.

And out pops a guy from the Midwest.

And I didn't know that when I was growing up.

I'd always wanted to go to a good school and stuff like that but Harvard wasn't exactly where I thought I wanted to be or do.

- UFI is nothing to sneeze at, though.

- Thank you.

- Mm-hm.

- And so it's really nice to see that that can happen and that maybe it should happen that the east coast doesn't need to run the whole world.

- And then Midwestern values and standards, he brought those with him in his own way.

And then his wife knowing French, what an asset when they moved over to Paris.

- Absolutely, and again, a little amazement, again, I'd mentioned that he had nine years of French.

You know, I had a couple years of Spanish and we don't teach the language.

Interestingly enough, there's another little story in there where Nelson Dean Jay is sitting with JP Morgan and the Prime Minister of England.

And Nelson Dean Jay and the Prime Minister of England are discussing things in Latin and they're having conversations about Latin.

He felt out of place, he felt that he was not educated well enough and so he set out upon and he wrote some letters and some information that we have.

- And he learned Latin.

- And he recommended that we started to focus on those things.

He said America's a rich place, maybe it's rich enough.

We need to make sure we focus on the cultural things.

- All right, so we're really out of time.

Where do we get this, online?

- You'll be able to get it online but right now the best thing to do is simply to call.

I'm not sure if the number is on here, it may not be.

Dorrance Publishing, D-O-R-R-A-N-C-E. And if you call them, they'll answer the phone and they will send you a copy.

- Perfect, thanks.

Thanks so much, Bill.

This has been fun.

I'm so glad to learn about another local guy.

- You bet.

- All right.

And thank you for joining us.

Pretty fascinating story.

So, stay healthy, be well.

And again, thanks for being here.

(upbeat music)