Mabon was born in
New Brunswick, New Jersey on July 16, 1865.[1] A son of Emiline (
née Deas) Mabon and the Rev. Dr. William Van Vranken Mabon, a professor at the
New Brunswick Theological Seminary.[2] Among his siblings was the Rev. Dr. Arthur Mabon,[3] and John Scott Mabon, Elisabeth Van Vranken Mabon, William Van Vranken Mabon, George Deas Mabon, and the Rev. Samuel Cliffton Mabon.[4][5]
Career
He began his career as an office boy with
Brown Brothers, staying with them for many years before he formed a brokerage firm with his co-worker and close friend, William M. Kingsley, known as Kingsley, Mabon & Co., with offices at 45 Wall Street. Kingsley later retired from the firm and became chairman of the board of the
United States Trust Company.[1]
From May 1912 to May 1914, he served as president of the
New York Stock Exchange, where he became a member in 1891.[6] He served on most of the important committees of the Exchange in a period of twenty-nine years, and at various times was chairman and trustee of the gratuity fund, director and president of the New York Quotation Company, and director of president of the New York Stock Exchange Safe Deposit Company.[7] In 1912, he was questioned by
Samuel Untermyer during the
Pujo Committee's money trust investigation.[8]
On April 5, 1929, he resigned as a governor of the Exchange (where he had served since 1900), and in September 1931, after forty years on the Exchange, he sold his seat to Rudolph Nadel, who became a partner in Mabon & Co.[7] At the time of his death, he was the senior partner of Mabon & Co.[1] (later Mabon, Nugent & Co. and Mabon Securities Corp.)[9] and one of the oldest trustees of the
Bank of New York.[10]
Personal life
On January 6, 1898, Mabon was married to Elise Howell Smith (1875–1961) at the
Collegiate Church at West End and 77th Street in New York. Smith, a daughter of Judge
Abel I. Smith, was a member of the
Colonial Dames of America. They lived at 420
Park Avenue in Manhattan and had a country home in
Norfolk, Connecticut.[2] Together, they were the parents of: