GIRARD,STEPHEN (1750-1831) - A ONE-EYED AMERICAN PATRIOT

Stephen Girard trader, banker, millionaire, and patriot lived 81 full and exciting years. Apparently born with a blind or amblyopic right ey e, he emigrated from Bordeaux. France, via Santa Domingo to the United States, and finally settled in Philadelphia, where he developed a suc cessful maritime trade. Ultimately, Chard became the first multimillio naire in the United States. Extremely generous, he often walked from h is home in the center of Philadelphia to his farm in what is now South Philadelphia distributing shoes to needy children. Probably Girard's most heroic gestures were his gallant fight against the yellow fever e pidemic in 1793 and his loan to the U.S. government during the War of 1812, which allowed the bankrupt country to continue the conflict and ultimately to win the war.