Born 13 June 1867 in Troy, Pennsylvania, Henry Pomeroy Davison was the righthand to both J. P. Morgan and J. P. Morgan, Jr. He often spoke for the two men and represented the firm in business and political matters. The House of Morgan owned J. P. Morgan & Co., but Henry P. Davison became the bricks and mortar that held the House together.

His father, George Bennett Davison sold farm equipment and invented ways to improve the products he sold. He was on the road for most of Henry’s life, having little contact with his family. Henry’s mother, Henrietta Bliss Pomeroy was very musically inclined as a singer and pianist. She was warm and charming and very well thought of by her family and friends. Her death, when Henry was nine years old, affected the family in many ways.

After his mother’s death Henry was sent to live with his uncle Merrick Pomeroy, a Presbyterian preacher. Merrick was very strict and impressed an ideology of blind obedience of Christianity on Henry (or “Harry” as he was known as a boy). Henry’s older brother and two younger sisters were sent to live with aunts and uncles as well. Inter-marriage was a part of the Davison and Pomeroy family at this time. Two of Harry’s aunts on his father’s side married two of his mother’s half-brothers. Of all the Davison-Pomeroy family members, Merrick was the toughest, yet offered sagacious advice. Harry was well liked but did not do well in school. When his grades began to suffer greatly, uncle Merrick took him to watch a team of men digging a gutter. He said to Harry, “Those men have had none of the advantages of education and, you see, their life is hard; study, my boy, so that your lot may be a different one.” Despite uncle Merrick’s wisdom, his harsh treatment was too much for Harry. After a year with his uncle, he asked his grandmother, Lucinda if he could live with her.