Richard Thornton Wilson

Richard Thornton Wilson (c. 1829 in Habersham County, Georgia – November 26, 1910 in New York City) was a multimillionaire American investment banker known for being the father of five children who all married into prominent families during the Gilded Age of New York.[1]

Richard Thornton Wilson
Bornc. 1829
Habersham Co., Georgia, U.S.
DiedNovember 26, 1910(1910-11-26) (aged 80–81)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Resting placeWoodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York
OccupationBanker
Spouse(s)Melissa Clementine Johnston
Children5, including Orme, Richard Jr., Grace
Parent(s)William Wilson
Rachel Wilson

Early life

Wilson was born in Habersham County, Georgia near Gainesville, in about 1829, to William Wilson (d. 1849) and Rachel Wilson (1797–1870), a Scottish tanner and shoemaker.[2]

Career

After the death of his father in 1849, he needed to find employment, so he went to Dalton, Georgia and began working as a clerk in a store owned by Levi Brotherton, a Methodist clergyman and missionary.[2] After saving his money, he started a "general merchandise" business with W. R. High, taking his business on the road. He would buy items in Atlanta and then sell them or trade them for cotton. During this period, he met the Orme brothers, who both worked for the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad.[2]

After heading towards Knoxville, Tennessee, and finding himself exhausted in Loudon, Tennessee, he slept on the doorstep of the town's mercantile store, owned by Ebenezer Johnston. Johnston, a South Carolina native, owned 712 acres of farmland, a large manor house and slave quarters. After Johnston saw Wilson's work, he agreed allow Wilson to marry his daughter in 1852 and to finance business ventures for Wilson. They stayed in Loudon until late 1860, when he moved his growing family to Nashville, Tennessee.[2]

Civil War

During the American Civil War, the family moved to Macon, Georgia and Wilson served on the staff of Lucius B. Northrop, the Commissary-General of the Confederate States of America. Later Wilson was appointed Commissary General by Jefferson Davis, and in this capacity, he was sent to London by the Confederate Government to dispose of the cotton crop. At the end of the war, he was said to have come out of it $500,000 richer.[2]

Post-Civil War

After the war ended, Wilson began buying up defunct railroads. He moved to New York City and purchased a mansion at 511 5th Avenue that was the former home of Boss Tweed. The Wilsons lived in New York, spending summers at their cottage, "Beaulieu," in Newport, Rhode Island,[3] for the remainder of their lives.[4][5][6]

Richard opened the banking firm of Wilson Galloway & Co., which would later become R. T. Wilson & Co., the company first to take up the question of the New York Subway System.[2][7] Wilson served as a director of the American Cotton Oil Co., the Fourth National Bank, the Manhattan Trust Co., Castner Electrolytic Alkali Co., the National Surety Co., Union Trust Co., the United States Casualty Co. and the Mathheson Alkali Works. He retired from business around 1906.[1]

Personal life
Wilson's youngest daughter, Grace Wilson Vanderbilt (1870–1953)

On December 23, 1852, he married Melissa Clementine Johnston (1831–1908), the eldest daughter of Ebenezer Johnston.[4][8] Together, they were the parents of five children. Through his wife's connections, she was able to enter and become intimate with "old New York society". Because of their children's advantageous marriages, the Wilsons were known in New York and Newport society as the "marrying Wilsons."[9]

WIlson was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Union Club, Manhattan Club, Metropolitan Club, and Downtown Club, the Southern Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History.

Wilson died on November 26, 1910, aged 80, at his residence, 511 Fifth Avenue, in New York City.[1][2] His estate totaled $16,072,470 at his death, of which $2,216,083 was real estate. His Newport residence, 97 Narragansett Avenue, was not valued in the appraisal.[15] According to the terms of his will, his estate was divided among his children and grandchildren, with no bequests made to charity.[15]

Descendants

Wilson was the grandfather of many prominent people, including Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe (1878–1937), who married the Henry Innes-Ker, 8th Duke of Roxburghe (1876–1932) in 1903,[9][16][17] Marshall Orme Wilson, Jr. (1885–1966), Richard Thornton Wilson III (1886–1977), Sir Sidney Herbert, 1st Baronet and Member of Parliament (1890–1939), Lt. Michael George Herbert (1893–1932), Louisa Steedman Wilson (1904–1974), Marion Mason Wilson (1906–1982), Cornelius Vanderbilt IV (1898–1974), and Grace Vanderbilt (1899–1964).[1][18][19]

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References
  1. "RICHARD T. WILSON DEAD.; Aged Head of Banking House Had Long Suffered from Heart Disease". The New York Times. November 26, 1910. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  2. "WILSON DEATH PUTS MANY IN MOURNING; Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt and Mrs. Ogden Goelet Among Those Out of Social Activities | BEREAVED ALSO IN ENGLAND | Lady Herbert, Daughter, and Duchess of Roxburghe, Granddaughter - Funeral to be Simple". The New York Times. 27 November 1910. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  3. Stanhope, Clarence [from old catalog (1891). In and around Newport. 1891. A guide to the place showing where and how to see the most, in a short time . Providence, RI: Press of the Ryder & Dearth Co. p. 46. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  4. "MRS. R.T. WILSON DEAD AT AGE OF 77; Heart Disease Carries Off the Well-Known Society Woman in Fifth Avenue Home. MR. WILSON HIMSELF ILL Daughters of This Noted Southern Family All Married Men Well Known Here or Abroad". The New York Times. 31 May 1908. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  5. "R.T. WILSON GOES TO NEWPORT; Sick Man Conveyed from Home to Yacht in Automobile Ambulance". The New York Times. 9 July 1908. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  6. Morris, Ed (May 19, 2009). A Guide to Newport's Cliff Walk: Tales of Seaside Mansions & the Gilded Age Elite. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781614236030. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  7. Hall, Randal L. (July 20, 2012). Mountains on the Market: Industry, the Environment, and the South. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813140463. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  8. Armstrong, Zella (1922). Notable Southern Families. Chattanooga, Tenn.: The Lookout Publishing Company. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  9. Ryan, Pat (19 January 2012). "Heiresses of Wharton's Era in Fashion on Her 150th Birthday". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  10. "MRS. OGDEN GOELET DIES OF PNEUMONIA; Duchess of Roxburghe's Mother Long Noted for Her Lavish Entertaining. WAS HOSTESS TO ROYALTY Edward VII, as Prince of Wales, Among Guests--Sister of Mrs. Cornellus Vanderbilt and R.T. Wilson. Her Hospitality. Duchess of Roxburghe Daughter". The New York Times. 24 February 1929. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  11. Montgomery, Maureen E. (August 6, 2013). 'Gilded Prostitution': Status, Money and Transatlantic Marriages, 1870-1914. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 9781136214950. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  12. "NOTABLES ATTEND R.T. WILSON FUNERAL; More Than 1,000 Pay Homage, Including Social Leaders and Turf Delegations. DELTA PSI SERVICE HELD His Racing Associates Serve as Honorary Pallbearers--Burial in Family Mausoleum". The New York Times. 1 January 1930. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  13. "ARE NOT YET MARRIED; Denial of Reports About Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., and Miss Wilson". The New York Times. 19 June 1896. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  14. "AGAINST MR. VANDERBILT'S WISH; His Son Cornelius Will Marry Miss Grace Wilson Soon". The New York Times. 11 June 1896. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  15. "R.T. WILSON ESTATE TOTALS $16,000,000; Only $2,000,000 of This Represented by Real Estate, the Balance by Personalty". The New York Times. 25 May 1912. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  16. Times, Special To The New York (3 September 1903). "THE DUKE'S LINEAGE. SERVED IN SOUTH AFRICA. MISS GOELET WORTH $20,000.000. WHAT IS DOING IN SOCIETY". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  17. "Mary (née Goelet), Duchess of Roxburghe; Mary Rita Goelet (née Wilson)". npg.org.uk. National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  18. Times, Special To The New York (28 July 1918). "GRACE VANDERBILT MAKES HER DEBUT; Daughter of Gen. and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Presentedat Beaulieu, Newport.DINNER AND DANCE FOLLOW Mrs. Ogden Goelet Entertains forDebutante Niece at Ochre Court--Farmerettes Sell Fruits". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  19. "MRS. R. L. STEVENS, A SOCIETY FIGURE". The New York Times. 29 January 1964. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
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