Wealthy New York City Businessmen
Tid-Bits
William Backhouse Astor
(1792-1875)
As a consequence of an
inheritance of $500'000 from his
uncle Henry Astor, a butcher on
the Bowery, through generous
gifts and business partnerships
from his father as well as his
own shrewd investments in real
estate, William Backhouse Astor
was worth $5'000'000 in his own
right. Through his marriage to
Margaret Livingston Armstrong,
the only daughter of General
John Armstrong and Alida
Livingston of Clermont, William
Backhouse Astor brought the
Astor family into New York's
High Society. at the time of his
death, he owned more than 700
buildings.
Heber Reginald Bishop
(1840-1902)
He had an interest in the Duluth
& Iron Range Railroad and
several other ironworks,
including the Lackawanna Iron &
steel Company. A much respected
member of New York's financial
community, Heber Bishop was a
trustee of the Metropolitan
Trust Company, the Metropolitan
Museum of Natural History and
the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
He was a member of New York's
most exclusive clubs and a
renowned socialite.
Henry A. Coster (Died 1821)
Henry A. Coster and his brother
John G. Coster had a solid
reputation of sagacious
merchants and pillars of New
York's financial community.
Henry A. Coster was a director
of the Manhattan Bank from 1801
to 1806 and of the Merchants
Bank thereafter. He was also in
the directorship of the Globe
Insurance Company. He lived next
door to the store until 1817,
when he moved to more
residential number 85 Chambers
Street. He also had a country
seat at what later became First
Avenue, between 30th and 35th
streets.
William Bayard Cutting
(1850-1912)
William Bayard Cutting also sat
on the Board of Directors of
many other companies, most
notably the American Exchange
Bank, the U.S. Trust Company and
of course, the New York &
Brooklyn Ferry Company, once
founded by his grandfather
William Cutting and Robert
Fulton. William Bayard Cutting
was a successful real estate
developer at South Brooklyn,
where he dug the Ambrose channel
and opened Brooklyn Harbor to
deep sea shipping. He also
developed slum areas on the East
River into decent housing
tenements for underprivileged
families. With his brother
Robert Fulton Cutting, he
started the sugar beet industry
in 1888, later bringing it under
the umbrella of the Havemeyers'
American Sugar Refining Company.
In 1887, William Bayard Cutting
hired architect Frederick Law
Olmstead to landscape
"Westbrook", a 1'000 acre river
estate, with its later famous
Bayard Cutting Arboretum.
William Bayard Cutting supported
numerous philanthropies,
including the Children's Aid
Society, the Zoological Society,
the Metropolitan Museum and the
New York Public Library. He was
a trustee of Columbia University
and a backer of the Metropolitan
Opera Company.
Stuyvesant Fish (1851-1923)
The youngest son of Secretary of
State Hamilton Fish graduated
from Columbia in 1874 with a
Master degree. He started his
career as a clerk in the New
York office of the Illinois
Central Railroad, a favorite
investment of the City's old
established families. In 1872,
he became secretary to the
president of the railroad :
'Colonel' Henry S. McComb.
Through his grand-mother,
Stuyvesant Fish descended from
one of New York's eldest
families and was predestined to
inherit a large fortune made
through appreciation of city
real estate. But Stuyvesant Fish
would not content himself to be
an idle rich and took a position
at Morton, Bliss & Company to
learn the banking business. He
left New York to work at the
bank's English correspondent
firm, Morton, Rose & Company,
but returned in 1877 to become a
director of the Illinois Central
Railroad. Stuyvesant Fish rose
in the Illinois Central railroad
hierarchy, became second vice
president in 1883, first vice
president in 1884 and president
in 1887, a position he kept for
two decades. In his later years,
Stuyvesant Fish lived the life
of an upper class gentleman and
assured his family's social
position at the side of his
socially talented wife "Mamie".
Robert Goelet III (1841-1899)
The Goelets came into possession
of more than 250 houses in the
heart of New York's commercial
district. Unlike their
forebears, these Goelets lived
the more generous lifestyle of
the Gilded Age, owning a large
mansion in the City, as well as
Southside, a summer residence in
fashionable Newport R.I. He was
a director of the Chemical Bank,
the Metropolitan Opera House.
Robert Goelet III (1841-1899)
The Goelets came into possession
of more than 250 houses in the
heart of New York's commercial
district. Unlike their
forebears, these Goelets lived
the more generous lifestyle of
the Gilded Age, owning a large
mansion in the City, as well as
Southside, a summer residence in
fashionable Newport R.I. He was
a director of the Chemical Bank,
the Metropolitan Opera House.
James Lenox 1800-1880
James Lenox distinguished
himself as a bibliophile and
philanthropist, contributing
heavily to charities, such as
the Presbyterian Hospital and
Princeton. He endowed the Lenox
Library, which was a cornerstone
of the vast New York Public
Library, once it was
incorporated into the latter in
1895. When James Lenox died
childless in 1880, he was still
one of the richest men in New
York, despite his attitude of
giving away and never
reinvesting the proceeds of his
wealth.
Pierre Lorillard (1833-1901)
Pierre Lorillard was the fourth
generation heir to the great
tobacco dynast, which was
started by a French Huguenot
immigrant of the same name, when
he set up America's first
tobacco manufactory in 1760 at
nr 4 Chatham Street New York.
Pierre Lorillard also played a
role in New York and Newport
Society, as a promoter of the
Newport Yacht Club and as a real
estate promoter. Pierre
Lorillard set up Tuxedo Park, a
summer resort for the very rich,
on a 7'000 acre property he
owned in Ramapo Hills, New York
to be sold to selected members
of New York's Four Hundred.
Anson Phelps (1781-1853)
After the war of 1812, Anson
Phelps moved to New York, where
he associated himself to fellow
Connecticut trader Elisha Peck,
to form Phelps & Peck. The firm
prospered and became New York's
largest metal importer, with
Phelps selling the metals in New
York and buying cotton in the
South which he exported to
England. Like other merchant
capitalists, Anson Phelps had
many other interests, including
railroads, notably the New York
& Erie, and banking. He owned a
controlling interest in the Bank
of Dover New Jersey, which was
managed by his friend Thomas B.
Segur. When he died in 1853, he
left an estate exceeding $ 2
million, of which half was real
estate in New York City and
Ansonia.
William Christopher
Rhinelander 1790-1878
William Christopher Rhinelander
was considered the second
richest man in New York, based
on his tax assessment which
preeminently considered city
real estate, including hundreds
of lots from 30th to 131st
streets and properties on
Broadway, Park Row and Barclay
Street. William Christopher
Rhinelander inherited a large
estate from his father and
increased his wealth further
through his marriage to a lineal
descendent of Anthony Rutgers,
who was granted a large tract of
Manhattan by Governor Cosby in
1731.
Russell Sage 1816-1906
Russell Sage derived a hang to
parsimony and hard work, which
together with his knack for
trading, were the foundation of
his large fortune. A modestly
wealthy merchant and horse
trader, Russell Sage increased
his influence through politics,
as Treasurer of Rensselaer
county, Alderman of Troy and in
1852 US Representative of New
York. in his quest for great
wealth. He then invested in
Western railroads, selecting the
La Crosse & Milwaukee and the
Minnesota & Pacific as his main
subjects of interest. Sage was
secretly involved in various
construction companies, which
built these railroads and more
than once used foreclosure and
receivership to tighten his
control and increase his
personal wealth. After Civil
War, Russell Sage settled in New
York City, where he became a
market maker in stock options.
Parsimony, a hang to hoard money
and discretion made him the
secret banker, at usury lending
rates, of politicians and fellow
tycoons.
Peter Schermerhorn
(1749-1826)
As many merchants, Schermerhorn
actively pursued land ownership
in New York, expecting its value
to rise with the growth of the
city. Both by selective purchase
and through water grants secured
from favorable city officials,
Peter Schermerhorn accumulated
one of the large New York City
real estate fortunes. His
Schermerhorn Row, built on
reclaimed land in 1811 to
accommodate merchant counting
houses, stands as a New York
City landmark of early 19th
century functional architecture.
"Commodore" Cornelius
Vanderbilt ( 1794-1877 )
The young steamship entrepreneur
built a reputation for good
service at low cost and one of
the largest steamship fleets in
the United States, which earned
him the title "Commodore".
During the 1850's, Vanderbilt's
reputation as a tough competitor
allowed him to extort sizeable
bribes from the government
subsidized shipping lines. As
Civil War broke out, the
Commodore divested his fleet,
selling many of his ships to the
Union navy. Aged 69 and now the
owner of $ 15 million in cash,
Cornelius Vanderbilt once again
reshuffled his fortune along
technological progress.
Within a few short years,
Cornelius Vanderbilt bought a
controlling interest in the New
York & Haarlem and the Hudson
River railroads and merged them,
thwarting experienced Wall
Street bear Daniel Drew. Then,
as he controlled the railroads
between New York and Albany, he
sought control of the New York
Central, to complete his system
through to lake Erie. With the
intention to build a monopoly,
Vanderbilt tried to absorb the
Erie railroad as well, but was
defeated by Jay Gould and Jim
Fisk. Cornelius Vanderbilt then
merged his railroads and
acquired other lines, building a
through connection to Chicago,
the fast growing capital of the
Midwest. In the process he
increased his fortune to $
105'000'000, which made him the
richest man in America when he
died in 1877.
Stephen Whitney (1776-1860)
He set himself in business as a
liquor retailer and later
wholesaler in 1805 at Nr 4 Stone
Street, New York. Stephen
Whitney's fortune grew heavily
thanks to some large and
fortunate speculations in
cotton. In the 1830's he was
among New York's richest men.
His fortune was doubled by
shrewd investments in city real
estate. Second in wealth to John
Jacob Astor, Whitney's fortune
was estimated between
5-10'000'000 dollars at its
height.
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