Ogden Mills (financier)

Ogden Mills (December 18, 1856 – January 29, 1929) was an American financier and Thoroughbred racehorse owner.[1]

Ogden Mills
Born	(1856-12-18)December 18, 1856 Sacramento, California, United States
Died	January 29, 1929(1929-01-29) (aged 72) New York City, New York, United States
Resting place	St. James Churchyard, Hyde Park, New York
Occupation	Businessman, philanthropist, racehorse owner/breeder
Spouse(s)	Ruth T. Livingston ​ ( m. 1882; died 1920)
Children	Gladys, Beatrice, Ogden
Parent(s)	Darius Ogden Mills Jane Templeton Cunningham
Relatives	Whitelaw Reid (brother-in-law)

Early life

Ogden Mills was born on December 18, 1856 in Sacramento, California to Jane Templeton Cunningham and Darius Ogden Mills (1825–1910).[2] His father was a highly successful banker and investor who, upon his death in 1910, left Ogden Mills and his sister, Elisabeth Mills, who married Whitelaw Reid an estate valued at $36,227,391.[3] As a result of his father's many corporate investments, Ogden Mills served on the Board of Directors of a number of companies including the New York Central Railroad.[4]

Thoroughbred racing

A member of The Jockey Club, Ogden Mills raced horses in the United States and maintained a racing stable in France in partnership with Lord Derby. Among their successes in that country, they won the 1928 Grand Prix de Paris with the colt Cri de Guerre, bred by Evremond de Saint-Alary.[5] On his death in 1929, Ogden Mills left to his daughter Beatrice, a resident of London, England, married to Bernard Forbes, 8th Earl of Granard, his French racing stable and a home at 73 Rue de Varenne in Paris. That year, Beatrice led all French owners in purses earned.[6]

In 1926, Mills' daughter Gladys and son Ogden established Wheatley Stable which became one of the preeminent racing and breeding operations in American racing history.

Personal life

Portrait of Ogden's wife, Ruth Livingston Mills, by François Flameng[7][8]

The Livingston mansion, the country home of the Mills family.

In 1882,[9] Ogden Mills married Ruth T. Livingston (1855–1920), daughter of Maturin Livingston Jr. and Ruth Baylies a descendant of Thomas Baylies (1687–1756).[10] She was the twin sister of Elizabeth Livingston (1855–1943),[11] who was married to William George Cavendish-Bentinck (1854–1909).[12][13] She was also the granddaughter of Maturin Livingston (1769–1847) and Margaret Lewis (1780–1860), who was the only daughter and sole heiress of Gov. Morgan Lewis (1754–1844). Together, Ogden and Ruth had three children, twin daughters and a son:

• Gladys Livingston Mills (1883–1970), who married Henry Carnegie Phipps (1879–1953) in 1907[14]
• Jane Beatrice Mills (1883–1972), who married Bernard Forbes, 8th Earl of Granard (1874–1948) in 1909[15]
• Ogden Livingston Mills (1884–1937), who became the 50th United States Secretary of the Treasury in 1932,[16] and married Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherford in 1911. After their divorce in 1919, he married Dorothy Randolph Fell, former wife of the banker John R. Fell, in 1924.[17][18]

Mills' wife inherited the Livingston Mansion in Staatsburg, New York which the couple used as a summer home and where they raised horses.[19]

Ruth Livingston Mills died at their residence in Paris, France, on October 13, 1920.[10] Ogden Mills died of pneumonia on January 29, 1929 at the family home in New York City.[1] Ogden Mills was buried with his wife at the mausoleum in St. James's Cemetery in Hyde Park, New York.

Philanthropy

Like his father, Ogden Mills was involved in a number of charitable causes and the Ogden Mills & Ruth Livingston Mills State Park encompasses their mansion at Staatsburg, New York that is now Staatsburgh State Historic Site.[20][21]

Mills was instrumental in assisting the State of New York to erect a statue of Robert Livingston, his wife's great-great-great grandfather, into the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C., highlighting him as one of the state's two most illustrious citizens.[22][23]

Descendants

Through his eldest daughter, he was the grandfather of Barbara Phipps Janney and Ogden Phipps (1908–2002), and the great-grandfather Ogden Mills Phipps (1940–2016) and Cynthia Phipps, also major figures in horse racing.

References

1. "Ogden Mills Dies At His Home Here – Financier Is the Victim of Pneumonia After Three Weeks' Illness – He Was 72 Years Old – Active in Many Philanthropies and Long a Leader in Social Affairs". New York Times. January 29, 1929. p. 8. Retrieved 2013-12-18. Ogden Mills financier and father of Ogden L. Mills, Under-Secretary of the Treasury, died at 1:30 A.M. today at his home, 2 East Sixty-ninth Street, following an illness of more than three weeks. ...
2. "D. Ogden Mills Dies Suddenly. Financier and Philanthropist. Father of Mrs. Whitelaw Reid Fortune Estimated at $60,000,000 Mr. Reid to Attend Funeral". Hartford Courant. January 5, 1910. Retrieved 2011-05-10. Darius Ogden Mills, the financier and philanthropist and father of Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, wife of the United States ambassador to Great Britain, died of heart disease at his winter home near this city last night, aged 84 years. Mrs. Reid, who came to California with her ...
3. "Estate of Mills Worth $36,227,391". Chicago Daily Tribune. Apr 18, 1914.
4. "Mrs. Reid and Ogden Mills Inherit All Save $400,000 Left to Public institutions". New York Times. January 18, 1910. Retrieved 2011-05-10. The will of Darius Ogden Mills was filed yesterday in the Surrogates Court. It was a comparatively short document, and with the exception, of six bequests to public institutions, divided the estate, which has been estimated at between $50,000,000 and $60,000,000, equally between his two children -- Ogden Mills and Elisabeth Mills Reid, wife of Ambassador Whitelaw Reid.
5. "American's Great Triumph: Ogden Mills Cri De Guerre Wins Grand Prix De Paris". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. 1928-06-26. Retrieved 2019-02-22.
6. "French Turf Honors Go to Lady Granard". The Hartford Courant. May 20, 1929.
7. "Francois Flameng | New York State Parks Blog". Retrieved 2019-06-23.
8. Site, Staatsburgh State Historic (2017-06-01). "Staatsburgh State Historic Site: François Flameng: Gilded Age Portraitist". Staatsburgh State Historic Site. Retrieved 2019-06-23.
9. "Staatsburgh State Historic Site". parks.ny.gov. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
10. "Mrs. Ogden Mills Dies in Paris Home – New York Social Leader Who Was Noted for Her Aristocratic Gatherings – Husband at Her Bedside – Mother of Countess Granard, Mrs. H.C. Phipps and Ex-Senator O.L. Mills Was Ruth Livingston". The New York Times. 14 October 1920. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
11. "Mrs. Cavendish-Bentinck – Former Elizabeth Livingston, a Member of Noted N.Y. Family". The New York Times. 7 November 1943. p. 56. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
12. Times, Special Cable To The New York (23 August 1909). "G. Cavendish Bentinck Dead – Wife Was Elizabeth Livingston, Sister of Mrs. Ogden Mills". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
13. Lloyd, Brigitte Gastel. "Biography of William George Cavendish-Bentinck (1854-1909)". brigittegastelancestry.com. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
14. Alden Whitman (October 20, 1970). "Mrs. H.C. Phipps, Leader in Horse Racing, Dies; Wheatley Stable Owner, 87, Was Noted for Breeding of Winning Thoroughbreds". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-04-28. Mrs. Gladys Mills Phipps, widow of Henry Carnegie Phipps and celebrated for many years as the First Lady of the Turf, died yesterday after a short illness at Spring Hill, her Westbury, L. I., estate. The New York and Palm Beach society leader and owner of Wheatley Stable was 87 years old.
15. "Lady Granard, Daughter Of Ogden Mills, Dies at 88". New York Times. 3 February 1972. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
16. Times, Special To The New York (13 February 1932). "Mills Takes Oath as Treasury Head – Ambassador Mellon and Assistant Secretary Ballantine Are Sworn In at the Same Time – Crowd Attends Ceremony – Hoover, in Accepting Mellon's Formal Resignation, Commends His Long Public Service". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
17. Times, Special To The New York (3 September 1924). "Congressman Ogden L. Mills Is Wed to Mrs. Dorothy R. Fell by Peace Justice". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
18. "Ogden Mills Dies Suddenly At 53 – Former Secretary of Treasury Is Stricken by Heart Attack in His Home Here". New York Times. October 12, 1937. Retrieved 2013-12-18. Ogden L. Mills, former Secretary of the Treasury and a Republican party leader often suggested as a possible Presidential nominee, died suddenly yesterday of a heart attack in his home at 2 East Sixtyninth Street.
19. Reynolds, Cuyler (1914). Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 1343. Retrieved 11 September 2016. Maturin Livingston married Margaret Lewis.
20. Times, Special To The New York (29 November 1920). "Mrs. Mills Will Probated – Leaves Estate to Husband and Children, With $40,000 Yearly to Sister". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
21. "Mills Mansion Given to State as Museum – Colonial Home of Gen. Morgan Lewis at Staatsburg". The New York Times. 29 June 1938. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
22. "Fiscal: Red Year's End". Time Magazine. July 13, 1931.
23. "Robert R. Livingston". Architect of the Capitol.

Further reading

• "Ogden Mills Will Leaves Millions To Many Institutions". Hartford Courant. February 6, 1929.
• "Bury Ogden Mills Near His Estate". The New York Times. February 1, 1929.