Harry Coster

Henry Arnold Coster[lower-alpha 1] (c. 1840 – November 2, 1917) was an American clubman who was prominent in New York Society during the Gilded Age.

Harry Coster
Born
Henry Arnold Coster

c. 1840
New York, U.S.
DiedNovember 2, 1917(1917-11-02) (aged 76–77)
St. Adresse, Westchester, New York, U.S.
Spouse(s)
Mary Lee Coles
​
(
m. 1866; his death 1917)
Parent(s)Daniel Joachim Coster
Julia De Lancey Coster

Early life

Coster was the son of Daniel Joachim Coster and Julia (née DeLancey) Coster (1806–1890),[1] who married in 1835 and lived at 234 West 14th Street.[1] His father became a member of the auction firm of Hone & Coster.[2] They established the family estate in Westchester (which became part of the Bronx in 1895).[3]

His paternal grandparents were Catherine Margaret (née Holsman) Coster and John Gerard Coster,[4] who came to the United States shortly after the Revolutionary War from Haarlem in the Netherlands and founded the family fortune with his brother through the mercantile firm, "Henry A. & John G. Coster", and died in 1844.[5] His grandparents had twelve children that married into many prominent families including the Schermerhorns and Heckshers.[5] His paternal uncles included Gerard H. Coster who married Matilda Prime (a daughter of banker Nathaniel Prime), George Washington Coster who married Elizabeth Oakey (a daughter of merchant Daniel Oakey),[6] and his aunt was Georgiana Louisa Coster, who married Charles August Heckscher.[5] Among his many first cousins was Charles Henry Coster and John Gerard Heckscher.[7]

His maternal grandfather was Oliver Delancey of the Delancey family,[lower-alpha 2] which was one of the oldest families in New York state.[2] His paternal uncles included Daniel Delancey and John Delancey, who later owned part of the Coster Estate in Westchester.[3]

Society life
Home for Incurables, Fordham, Bronx

In 1892, Coster was included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[10] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[11][12] Coster was a member of the St. Nicholas Society.[13]

The Coster's spent their summers in Newport, Rhode Island.[14] His wife, who was prominent in society in Boston before their marriage, Mary served as vice-president of the Home for Incurables in Fordham.[15]

Personal life

On December 6, 1866,[16] Coster was married to Mary Lee Coles (c. 1842–1922).[15] She was the daughter of Isaac Underhill Coles and Martha Ellery (née Jones) Coles, who married in Boston in July 1823.[lower-alpha 3][19] Her sister, Grace Coles was married to Edward Templeton Snelling,[20] and her brother, Isaac Coles Jr. was married to Catherine Schuchardt Remsen.[21][22] Together, they lived in New York at 2 East 41st Street[23] and at their country home, known as "St. Adresse", in Westchester County, New York.[12] Together, Harry and Mary were the parents of:

  • Martha Ellery Coster (d. 1955),[24] who married Frederick S. Wombwell, a British citizen living in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1923.[lower-alpha 4][25] After their marriage, they lived at 103 East 75th Street.[25]
  • Oliver de Lancey Coster (c. 1872–1947),[26] who married Mary E. (née Coppell) Booth (1869–1937),[27] the widow of Edgar Hetfield Booth, in 1913.[28] Her father, George Coppell, was the British Consul at New Orleans during the U.S. Civil War.[28][lower-alpha 5] They lived at Keewaydin in Tenafly, New Jersey.[30] After Mary's death in 1937, Oliver remarried to Pauline Cory in 1939.[31]

Coster died at his country home in Westchester on November 2, 1917.[32] His widow, who had a summer home in Southampton, New York known as "Wee Cot",[30] died in November 1922 at her residence, 50 East 81st Street, which she inherited from her husband.[33] Her funeral was held at St. James' Episcopal Church on Madison Avenue and she was buried alongside her husband at the Coster family vault in the churchyard of St. Peters' Church in the Village of Westchester (which is now the East Bronx).[15]

After Coster's death, his children auctioned off his estate with the Parish of St. Benedict's purchasing the family mansion in 1929 who used it as a schoolhouse until the Coster Mansion was torn down in 1930 and a new school was built in its place on Edison Avenue.[34] To this day, St. Benedict's School stands on the same site.[3]

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gollark: <@402456897812168705> the apiotelephone is my unfathomable project.
gollark: Bots > foolish humans.
gollark: > so if i get my account deleted i'm going to lose some amount of money<@293066066605768714> sünk cost fallacy

References
Notes
  1. Coster was named after his uncle, Henry Arnold Coster, who was named after his uncle, Henry Arnold Coster (d. 1821).
  2. Coster's grandfather, Oliver Delancey, was the son of Peter Delancey and the grandson of Huguenot immigrant and merchant Stephen Delancey. His grandfather was also the brother-in-law of Thomas Henry Barclay,[8] and the nephew of Lt. Gov. of New York James DeLancey and British Army Brig. Gen. Oliver Delancey and the maternal grandson of Cadwallader Colden, the Colonial Governor of New York.[9]
  3. Mary's mother, Martha Ellery (née Jones) Coles was the youngest daughter of John Coffin Jones Sr. (1750–1829), the Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Martha's older brother was John Coffin Jones Jr. (1796–1861), the first U.S. Consul to the Kingdom of Hawaii, and her older sister was Margaret Champlin Jones (1792–1848), who married Benjamin Underhill Coles, her husband's brother.[17][18]
  4. At the wedding, Martha's brother Oliver walked her down the aisle, Frederick's best man was his brother Carlisle Wombwell, and Edward Coster Wilmerding (sister of Georgiana Wilmerding) and Harry H. Benkard were their ushers.[25]
  5. Coppell, who lived at 40 Fifth Avenue and The Towers in Tenafly, was also the namesake of Coppell, Texas. Mary's first husband was the wealthy Edgar Hetfield Booth (1861–1904).[29]
Sources
  1. "DIED" (PDF). The New York Times. October 3, 1890. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  2. Barrett, Walter (1864). The Old Merchants of New York City. Carleton. pp. 190–199. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  3. Twomey, Bill (July 25, 2008). "Do You Remember". Bronx Times. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  4. Townsend, Annette (1932). The Auchmuty family of Scotland and America. New York: The Grafton Press. pp. 257–260. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  5. Greene, Richard Henry; Stiles, Henry Reed; Dwight, Melatiah Everett; Morrison, George Austin; Mott, Hopper Striker; Totten, John Reynolds; Pitman, Harold Minot; Forest, Louis Effingham De; Ditmas, Charles Andrew; Mann, Conklin; Maynard, Arthur S. (1919). The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. p. 305. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  6. "THE COSTER FAMILY SET OF SEVEN CLASSICAL CARVED MAHOGANY CURULE-BASE DINING CHAIRS , ATTRIBUTED TO DUNCAN PHYFE (1768-1854), NEW YORK, 1810-1820". www.christies.com. Christie's. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  7. Weeks, Lyman Horace (1897). Prominent Families of New York; being an account in biographical form of individuals and families distinguished as representatives of the social, professional and civic life of New York city. New York: The Historical company. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  8. Tulloch, Judith (1987). "Barclay, Thomas Henry". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. VI (1821–1835) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
  9. Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year ... New-York Historical Society. 1928. p. 12. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  10. McAllister, Ward (16 February 1892). "THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED | WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  11. Keister, Lisa A. (2005). Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780521536677. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  12. Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House Incorporated. p. 212. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  13. "LEADER IN NEW YORK SOCIETY, SOON TO MARRY CLUBMAN". The Washington Post. 17 May 1913. p. 11. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  14. "People and Social Incident". New-York Tribune. 1 September 1910. p. 6. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  15. "Mrs. Henry A. Coster Dead | Funeral To-morrow From St. James's Church". New York Herald. November 23, 1922. p. 11. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  16. "NYC Marriage & Death Notices 1857-1868". www.nysoclib.org. New York Society Library. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  17. Assembly, New York (State) Legislature (1898). Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York. E. Croswell. p. 265. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  18. Kenslea, Timothy (2006). The Sedgwicks in Love: Courtship, Engagement, and Marriage in the Early Republic. UPNE. p. 199. ISBN 9781584654940. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  19. The Manifesto Church: Records of the Church in Brattle Square, Boston, with Lists of Communicants, Baptisms, Marriages and Funerals, 1699-1872. Benevolent Fraternity of Churches. 1902. p. 274. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  20. Dwight, Benjamin Woodbridge (1871). The History of the Descendants of Elder John Strong, of Northampton, Mass. J. Munsell. p. 631. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  21. Island, National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Rhode (1908). The National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The Society. p. 281. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  22. Arnold, James Newell (1911). Vital Record of Rhode Island: 1636-1850 : First Series : Births, Marriages and Deaths : a Family Register for the People. Narragansett Historical Publishing Company. p. 100. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  23. "Saunterings". Town Topics, the Journal of Society. Town Topics Publishing Company. X (26): 6. December 28, 1893. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  24. "DIED" (PDF). The New York Times. April 7, 1955. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  25. "MISS COSTER WEDS F. S. WOMBWELL; Daughter of Late Mr. and Mrs. Henry A. Coster Married in St. James's Church" (PDF). The New York Times. November 23, 1923. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  26. "Oliver Coster; 75, Realty Executive; Pease & Elliman Official 48 Years Dies | A Descendant of Prominent Families" (PDF). The New York Times. July 12, 1947. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  27. "MRS. OLIVER COSTER, WIFE OF REALTY MAN; Father Was British Consul at New Orleans During Civil War--Dies at Home" (PDF). The New York Times. April 24, 1937. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  28. "MRS. BOOTH WEDS OLIVER DEL. COSTER | Ceremony at Tenafly Church, Followed by Reception at Home of the Misses Coppell. | A FULL CHORAL SERVICE | With Part of Garden City Cathedral Choir -- Bride Formely Miss Koppell of 40 Fifth Avenue" (PDF). The New York Times. June 24, 1913. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  29. "DIED" (PDF). The New York Times. March 8, 1904. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  30. Social Register, Summer. Social Register Association. 1920. p. 67. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  31. "COSTER -- DANSEY" (PDF). The New York Times. July 13, 1939. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  32. "DIED" (PDF). The New York Times. November 4, 1917. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  33. "WIFE GETS COSTER ESTATE | Residence in East 81st Street is Valued at $50,000". New York Herald. 15 August 1918. p. 7. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  34. "Parish History". stbenedictchurchny.org. St. Benedict's. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
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