Nathaniel Thayer Jr.

Nathaniel Thayer II (11 September 1808 in Lancaster, Massachusetts – 7 March 1883 in Boston) was a United States financier, philanthropist, and the father of John Eliot Thayer II, an amateur ornithologist.

Nathaniel Thayer II.
Born	(1808-09-11)September 11, 1808 Lancaster, Massachusetts
Died	March 7, 1883(1883-03-07) (aged 74) Boston, Massachusetts
Spouse(s)	Cornelia Patterson Van Rensselaer
Children	7
Parent(s)	Nathaniel Thayer I Sarah Parker Toppan
Relatives	Stephen Van Rensselaer IV (father-in-law)
Signature

Early life

He was the son of Nathaniel Thayer I (1769–1840), a Unitarian congregational minister of Lancaster, Massachusetts, and Sarah Parker Toppan, daughter of Christopher Toppan and Sarah Parker.[1][2] He was educated in an academy in Lancaster.[3]

Banking

His brother John Eliot Thayer I had been operating a successful banking firm in Boston. When he needed more people, he asked Nathaniel Thayer II to be his business partner, now calling the firm John E. Thayer and Brother[4]. The firm was active in the development of railroads in the western United States, several of which Thayer was a director.[3] The firm was also involved with other enterprises such as manufacturing which required large amounts of capital. Thayer became senior director of the firm on the death of his brother in 1857. He gradually acquired a large fortune.

He was known as the “honest banker” because he sold money at the legal rate unlike most, for the time. In 1865 Nathaniel Thayer II retired, sold his business to his partners and lived primarily in The Homestead for “he preferred the woods and fields to the streets and crowds”. He then lived in Lancaster with his wife Cornelia Van Rensselaer Thayer until his death in 1883. [5]

Philanthropy

He was a fellow of Harvard in 1868-1875, and one of its largest benefactors. He contributed to a commons hall, erected Thayer Hall in 1870 as a memorial of his father and brother, bore the expenses of Louis Agassiz's expedition to South America (which was known as the Thayer Expedition), built a fire-proof herbarium at the botanic garden, and gave much in aid of poor students of the college. He was one of the most generous citizens of Boston.[3]

Personal life

He married Cornelia Paterson Van Rensselaer (1823–1897), daughter of Stephen Van Rensselaer IV, in 1846. Together, they had seven children:[6]

• Stephen Van Rensselaer Thayer (1847–1871)
• Cornelia Van Rensselaer Thayer (1849–1903), who married J. Hampden Robb (1846–1911) in 1868.[7]
• Nathaniel Thayer III (1851–1911)
• Harriet Van Rensselaer Thayer (1853–1891)
• Eugene Van Rensselaer Thayer (1855–1907)
• Bayard Thayer (1862–1916)
• John Eliot Thayer (1862–1933), an amateur ornithologist

Although Nathaniel Thayer II lived in Boston for many years he always regarded himself as belonging to Lancaster. He is quoted as saying "Lancaster is my greatest monument"[8]

Descendants

His granddaughter, Cornelia Van Rensselaer Thayer (b. 1881) married Danish Count Carl Moltke (1869–1935) in 1907.[9]

The family lived in that house along with their other two houses, one in Boston and the other in Newport RI called The Edgemere. [10]

Honors and Memberships

Elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1866.[11]

References

Notes

1. "Nathaniel Thayer. Papers, 1798-1844". Andover-Harvard Theological Library. Harvard Divinity School. 2005-11-22. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
2. Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1889). "Thayer, Nathaniel" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
3. Wilson & Fiske 1889, p. 73. sfn error: no target: CITEREFWilsonFiske1889 (help)
4. King, Padriaic (11 August 1929). "Thayers Built Bank Tradition". Boston Sunday Post. p. 28.
5. King, Padriaic (11 August 1929). "Thayers Built Bank Tradition". Boston Sunday Post. p. 28.
6. Spooner, Walter Whipple (1 January 1900). "Van Rensselaer family". American Historical Magazine. [S.l. : s.n. (Vol. 2 Issue 1). Retrieved 8 November 2016.
7. "J. HAMPDEN ROBB, EX-SENATOR, DEAD; Retired Merchant and Banker Was Once Active in Councils of Democratic Party". The New York Times. January 22, 1911. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
8. King 1929. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFKing1929 (help)
9. "Miss Thayer is Countess. Weds Danish Noble at Lancaster. Ceremony at Country Home by Bishop Lawrence. Moltke, Diplomat, is the Bridegroom". New York Times. 30 June 1907. Retrieved 26 March 2011. This noon, at ... beautiful country seat of Mr and ... National Thayer, their daughter, ... Cornelia Van Rennsealaer Thayer ... Count Carl Moltke of Copenhagen, ... were married...
10. Wilson, Leslie Perrin (February 17 – April 30, 1985). "A General Diffusion of Knowledge': An Exhibition to Show Volumes from the Rare Book Collection of the Lancaster Town Library".
11. American Antiquarian Society Members Directory

Sources

• Gunn, Sidney (1936). "Thayer, Nathaniel". Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1889). "Thayer, Nathaniel" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 6. New York: D. Appleton. p. 73.

Further reading

• George Edward Ellis, Memoir of Nathaniel Thayer, A. M. (1885; Google Books, archive.org)