Feature Friday - July 11, 2008

Feature Friday posts will feature relevant information from a chosen online resource. This month, the database is Footnote.

Footnote.com offers a variety of historical documents online categorized in several collections. One such collection is the Records of the Department of State Relating to Internal Affairs of France, 1930-1939 as obtained from the National Archives.  This collection has all kinds of items reporting American interests in France and her colonies.

While browsing Footnote for items of relevance to the Vanderbilt family, I located this newspaper article mentioning that Consuelo Vanderbilt, a great-granddaughter of the Commodore, may have been interested in the purchase of an island along with some others:

“The colonization of a small island in the Mediterranean, where American money would be the only currency in circulation, is being planned by a group of wealthy Americans in France headed by Bruce Bundy, Los Angeles millionaire, who have been hit by the fall of the dollar, according to reports here today.

It is possible that the Americans may buy the historic St. Marguerite Island, three miles off Cannes, which is celebrated for its prison that held the Man in the Mask.  Among those reported to have been asked to participate in the plan are Mme. Jacques Balsan, formerly Consuelo Vanderbilt; G.P. Butler,  Commodore Louis D. Beaumont, Mrs. Dorothy Erskine-Bolst, and other wealthy Riveria residents who suffer huge losses through the exchange of the dollar into francs.”

The clipping is from the August 9, 1933 issue of the Chicago Tribune and in one of the cover letters prefacing the actual clipping the following sentence can be read: “Americans, or at all events certain Americans are really cocksure of themselves. They evidently believe that on the strength of their dollar, even though depreciated, they are in a position to buy any and everything.”   Certainly sounds like it huh!

Well, I haven’t researched to see what came of this, but how interesting.  Using Footnote’s neat Spotlight feature, I made a Spotlight page for it that you can see here.

William Osgood Field (1904-1994)

Yesterday’s Wordless Wednesday post was a picture from the Library of Congress’ photo collection on Flickr.  I did a search for the term “Vanderbilt” and this was one of the results. It came up because someone posted a comment asking if the young boy in the picture was Frederick William Vanderbilt. However, it is not, as someone else commented, but his brother, William Osgood Field.

In the picture are three individuals, William Osgood Field, his mother on his right, Mrs. Lila Vanderbilt Sloane Field and her mother-in-law and William’s grandmother, Mrs. Augusta Currie Bradhursrt Field.  The picture was taken between 1910-1915. When I found this picture, I decided to build up this family’s tree a litte further.

Lila was married to William Broadhurst Osgood Field and she was a great-grandaughter of the Commodore. His eldest son, William, was her grandfather.  They would have four children, of which little Osgood was the oldest - he was born in 1904.  In my quick research, I found a passport applicaiton of his father’s from 1923 and there are pictures of Willam B. Osgood Field Sr., and his two sons, Wiliam Osgood Field Jr. and Frederick Vanderbilt Field. I am not sure which one is William & which one is Frederick, but I am going to guess that since the passport application lists William Jr. first and then Frederick, the one on the far left is William.  On this trip, their father was taking them over to Switzerland for school purpose [link to application on Ancestry.com]  Here is the picture that was in the application.

I learned quite a bit about this family from the finding aids of the papers of William Broadhurst Osgood Field Sr. that are housed at the New York Public Library.

William Osgood Field Jr. would go on to become a glaciologist, and a leader in the study of glaciers. The National Glacier Bay website of the National Park Service had this picture of him taken in 1966 at Muir Inlet.

William died in 1994. I wonder if his family has this picture of him with his mother and grandmother?  His oral biography, With A Camera In My Hands, was published 10 years after his death. I plan to put this on my list of books to check out, and I have added it to the blibliography page.

Wordless Wednesday - June 18, 2008

Searching Sunday - June 8, 2008

Searching Sunday posts will be dedicated to blogging about tracking the Vanderbilts through census records.

As I reviewed my files for the Commodore in the census, I realized I only had him marked in the 1850 census. Well, I have work to do since he didn’t die until 1877.

I looked in 1860, but as I did not find him there. I think I found his wife Sophia, but I want to do some more checking before I say it is her conclusively. I did find the Commodore in 1870 though with his second wife, Frankie.

In 1870, the Commodore and wife, Frank Armstrong, are living in at the home on 10 Washington Place in New York. Living with them is her mom Martha along with several servants.

Source Citation: Year: 1870; Census Place: New York Ward 15 District 5 (2nd Enum), New York, New York; Roll: M593_1033; Page: 120; Image: 241.

By 1880, the Commodore has died, but Frank (she’s indexed as Frances) is still at the house with her mother as well as her brother Robert and what looks to be his family.

Source Citation: Year: 1880; Census Place: New York (Manhattan), New York City-Greater, New York; Roll: T9_874; Family History Film: 1254874; Page: 546.4000; Enumeration District: 164; Image: 0255.

I have added these census records to the tree!

Wordless Wednesday - May 28, 2008 Follow-Up

This picture is of Miss Cathleen Nielson, wife of Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt. From the 14 Apr 1903 issue of the San Francisco Call newspaper, available through the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America collection.

The article describes the upcoming wedding festivities, but notably, describes the jewels that Cathleen received as wedding gifts from family members, including: a tiara and collar of diamonds from Mrs. Vanderbilt (i think this is Reginald’s mom, Alice) — a chain composed of diamonds and rubies from Miss Gladys Vanderbilt, Reginald’s sister — a tiara of emeralds and diamonds and brooches of diamonds and emeralds from her mother — a stomacher of diamonds from Mr. & Mrs. Alfred G. Vanderbilt, Reginald’s brother and sister-in-law — a diamond and emerald pin from Mr. and Mrs. Henry Payne Whitney, Reginald’s brother-in-law and sister — a diamond and emerald pin from Mr. & Mrs. Frederick W. Vanderbilt, Reginald’s uncle and his wife

from the article “...it is said the jewels are valued at a quarter million dollars. Special officers are watching the gifts night and day.” I bet they were!

Wordless Wednesday - May 28, 2008

Vanderbilt Cup Races

I was just taking a look at how people have come to find this blog, and one of the sites I saw on the list was the Vanderbilt Cup Races website. It seems they have added a link to the bibliography page I have in progress here on my blog. Very cool!

As I am still learning about the large Vanderbilt family, I decided to read more the website. It is very well done - I particularly like the color scheme. The site is dedicated to the six Vanderbilt Cup Races that were held on Long Island from 1904 - 1910. The races were started by William Kissam Vanderbilt Jr., a great-grandson of the Commodore’s via his eldest son, William Henry Vanderbilt. The owner of the Vanderbilt Cup Races website has a book coming out soon about the races that is being published by Acadia Press. I may have to pick this one up when it comes out. Should be an interesting read.

I see from looking at my page for WKV Jr. that I don’t have a picture of him, so I need to add one. I’ll probably just grab the public domain one from his Wikipedia page.

Now, since my focus in on genealogy, one of the first things I realized was that I have a different birth date for WKV than what appears on his Wikipedia entry and on the Vanderbilt races website. They have that he was born in 1878. From my sources, I see I have one that says 1880 and another that says 1878. Those two sources are:

• the book Famous Families of New York by Margherita Hamm. This book was published in 1902 and if you have an Ancestry subscription, is available full-text there.
• the other source I have is a book from 1908 by Duyckinck and Cornell called The Duyckinck and Allied Families Being a Record of the Descendants of Evert Duyckink Who Settled in New Amsterdam, Now New York, in 1638. This one is available full-text in Google Books. This is the one that says 1878.
  

To examine which may be true - 1878 or 1880, I went to the census records. In 1880, WKV Jr.’s family is living in Oakdale, Suffolk County, New York, District 321 - the 530th family enumerated. The family is as follows:

• Vanderbilt, W.K. - age 31, occupation - railroad king
• Alva - wife, age 27, born in AL, father born in VA, mother born in TN
• Consuelo - daughter, age 3
• WK Jr. - son, age 1

Well, guess that solves that! Looks like WKV Jr. was indeed on this earth before 1880, thus probably born in 1878 as the Wikipedia date suggests. Time to go update my records - as I had no census data attached to them before now, no wonder I have a wrong estimated date.

Back to the original subject of the post — the website. In reading through it, I also learned of the Vanderbilt museum there in Suffolk County. This is definitely going on my list of places to visit!

Bellona Hotel

Early in the Commodore’s career with Thomas Gibbons, he was captain of a steamboat named The Bellona. While the Commodore ran the boat, his wife was up to business ventures of her own. The couple purchased a New Brunswick hotel that was in ill repair and renovated it. Sophia named it Bellona Hall after the steamship her husband was running.

While browsing some of Ancestry’s historical newspapers, I decided to do some searching on the Vanderbilts and found an article from the February 10th, 1901 issue of The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne, Indiana that had a sketch of the hotel. [1]

The article is not entirely legible, but it does begin by recounting some of the history of how the Commodore made his fortune. In the article, it states that the hotel was built in 1803 and at the time of the article it was being used as a tenement house. Apparently, Sophia did a great job running the hotel while it was under her command for 12 years though, as an article from the New York Times from August 4, 1901 [2] indicates that the hotel attracted so much business for the line the Commodore worked for that his salary was increased to $2,000 a year. I thought the sketch was interesting; up until now I’ve not see any images of what the building looked like. In May of 1908, the hotel was sold at auction for $15 (back taxes owed on the property) to a lawyer named Thomas H. Hagerty. [3]

Just as an FYI, that same Fort Wayne article also had a sketch of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, a great-grandson of the Commodore, which I have added to his genealogy page.

[1] The Humble Beginnings of the Great Vanderbilt Fortune. Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, 10 Feb 1901. [Link to Ancestry.com]
[2] Mrs. Vanderbit Kept a Hotel. New York Times, 4 Aug 1901. [Link to article]
[3] Old Vanderbilt Hotel Sold. New York Times, 16 May 1908. [Link to article]

Death of Mrs. W.K. Vanderbilt

While browsing an issue of the Tennessean newspaper today, I just happened to see this obituary…

From The Tennessean - Nashville, TN
21 Apr 1940

NEW YORK, April 20 - UP - Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, Sr., widow of the grandson of the founder of the Vanderbilt’s dynasty and long a reigning queen in New York society, died today in a New York hospital. She was noted for her philanthropies, particularly in behalf of war sufferers, and during the World War was one of the Red Cross’ most active workers. For the contribution, she was made a knight of the Legion of Honor by France in 1919 and received the rank of officer in the legion 12 years later.

The former Anne Harriman, she was one of eight children of the late Oliver Harriman Sr., and made her social debut in the 1880s. Her first marriage was to Samuel Stevens Sands, Jr., who was killed a few years later while riding in the Meadowbrook Hunt, on Long Island. Her second husband was Lewis Morris Rutherfurd and after his death she and Vanderbilt were married in London in 1903.

Vanderbilt, the grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderiblt, had received the bulk of the fortune left by his father, William H. It was after the death of Mrs. William Astor that Mrs. Vanderbilt took over leadership in the so called “400.” Her daughters, Barbara and Margaret Rutherfurd, were debutanes then. Subsequently Barbara married Cyril Hatch and Margaret wed Ogden L. Mills. Both marriages ended in divorce.

As late as 1935, Mrs. Vanderbilt was listed by Paris dressmakers as one of the world’s 20 best dressed women.

Consuelo’s Marriage

In my continued searching through the archives of the New York Times, I’ve just located a newspaper article about the marriage of Consuelo Vanderbilt to Charles Richard John Spencer-Churchill, the Ninth Duke of Marlborough.  The wedding was certainly a grand affair (though apparently, Consuelo was forced into it by her mother).

In the article were a couple of pictures that may be worthwhile sharing.  There is a sketch of the church where the marriage was held, as well as a portrait of some of Consuelo’s bridesmaids.

The bridesmaids pictured are

• Marie Winthrop - daughter of Buchanan Winthrop, a descendant of John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts.
• Edith Morton - daughter of Levi P. Morton, a governor of NY and Vice-President of the United States.
• Julia Jay - according to the article, she had not yet been “formally” introduced to society, so not much is said about her. She was the daughter of Col. William Jay.
• Katherine Duer - daughter of William A. Duer who was a son of a president of Columbia College
• Daisy Post - not much is said about her either; she too had not yet been”formally” introduced to society.
• Elsie Bronson - daughter of Frederic Bronson
• Evelyn Borden - daughter of I. Townsend Burden
• Mary Goelet -another one not yet formally introduced to society