Robert Livingston Pell

Robert Livingston Pell (May 8, 1818 – February 11, 1880) was an American landowner and descendant of several prominent colonial families of New York.

Robert Livingston Pell
Born(1818-05-08)May 8, 1818
Pelham Manor, New York, U.S.
DiedFebruary 11, 1880(1880-02-11) (aged 61)
Manhattan, New York, U.S.
EducationAmerican Literary, Scientific and Military Academy
Alma materYale University
Spouse(s)
Maria Louisa Brinckerhoff
​
(
m. 1837; died 1866)
ChildrenAdelia Duane Pell
Robert Troup Pell
James Brinckerhoff Pell
Parent(s)Alfred Sands Pell
Adelia Duane Pell
RelativesJames Duane (grandfather)

Early life

Pell was born at the old Pell mansion in Pelham on May 8, 1818. He was a son of Alfred Sands Pell (1786–1831) and Adelia (née Duane) Pell (1765–1860). Among his siblings were four brothers John Augustus Pell, James Duane Pell, George Washington Pell, and Richard Montgomery Pell. His family was among the largest landowners along the Hudson River.[1]

His maternal grandparents were Mary (née Livingston) Duane and James Duane, the Mayor of New York City who also served as Judge of the United States District Court for the District of New York. His grandmother was the eldest living daughter of Robert Livingston, 3rd Lord of Livingston Manor. His aunt, Mary Duane, was the wife of Gen. William North, and another aunt, Sarah Duane, was the wife of geologist and geographer George William Featherstonhaugh. Through his father, he was a nephew of William Ferris Pell and a descendant of Thomas Pell, 1st Lord of the Pelham Manor.[2] His first cousin, also named Alfred Sands Pell, was a co-founder of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York (known today as AXA) in 1843.[3]

Pell attended school in New York City before entering American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy in 1825. He graduated from the Academy in 1829 and then attended Yale University, where he graduated in 1832. After his time at Yale, he went on a Grand Tour of Europe between 1832 and 1833.[4]

Career
A view of Poughkeepsie and the Catskill Mountains from Esopus Island in the Hudson River.

Pell "had a passion for agricultural pursuits, and was a familiar figure in agricultural clubs and conventions, as well as an author of many valuable papers on fruit-culture and kindred topics. His information on agricultural questions, and his knowledge of agriculture as a science, were thorough and profound; and inheriting the parental bias for landhold, his possessions at Hyde Park were of vast extent. Besides being the owner of Pelham farm, an estate of 600 acres, beautifully laid out, and situated four miles above Hyde Park, he was the proprietor of another estate, of large acreage, named the Cedars."[1]

In 1838, Pell established a 1,200 acre farm just north of Esopus (which was established after "separating" from Kingston in 1811). He was one of the first farmers to grow apples and export them to Europe. Also on his farm, they had apple orchards,[5] 50 acres of vineyards (with Isabella grapes), and ten artificial lakes used for breeding fish.[6] On his estate, he built a brick mansion, in the Romanesque style that was painted "a beautiful straw color and white."[6] In June 1904, the Redemptorist Fathers purchased 235 acres from the Pell's estate and built Mount St. Alphonsus Seminary,[7] which they owned until 2012, when it was sold to a Bruderhof Community (who live in nearby Rifton) for $21.5 million.[8]

Pell owned an island known as Pell Island (today known as Esopus Island), over a mile in length, in the middle of the Hudson River situated across his estate,[6] and Overlook Mountain (near Woodstock), where he had built the Overlook Mountain House, which became a fashionable resort for summer tourists.[6] Pell also owned four million acres of Yellow Pine timber lands in Southern Georgia.[9]

Reportedly, during the U.S. Civil War, Pell purchased "seventeen million acres of wild land, for nominal prices, in Georgia, Virginia, Florida, Texas, Arkansas and Missouri; and sold to the Rothschilds in Europe three millions of acres for seven dollars an acre, and they resold the same for fourteen dollars an acre."[6]

Personal life

On July 8, 1837, Pell was married to Maria Louisa Brinckerhoff (1816–1866).[4] Maria was the daughter of James Lefferts Brinckerhoff and Charlotte (née Troup) Brinckerhoff. Her maternal grandparents were Robert Troup and Jannetje (née Goelet) Troup (granddaughter of Peter Goelet. Her sister, Charlotte Brinckerhoff was the wife of Frederic Bronson, and was the mother of Frederic Bronson (who married Sarah Gracie King).[10] Together, Maria and Robert were the parents of two sons and one daughter, of whom only his daughter survived him:

His wife died on November 10, 1866.[4] On February 11, 1880, Pell died at 218 Fifth Avenue, the home of his ninety year old aunt in New York City where he usually spent his winters.[1] After a funeral at Trinity Chapel in New York, he was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.[13]

Descendants

Through his daughter Adelia, he was a grandfather to John DeCourcy Ireland (1865–1951), who married Elizabeth Gallatin (great-granddaughter of Albert Gallatin) in 1895;[14] Robert Livingston Ireland (1867–1928), who married heiress Kate Benedict Harvey and was the father of Robert Livingston Ireland Jr.;[15][16] Maria Louise Ireland (1870–1965), who married Easton Earl Madeira;[17] and Adelia Ireland (1872–1936),[18] who married Dr. Montgomery H. Sicard (who was connected with the marine division of Standard Oil of New Jersey).[19]

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References
  1. "Robert Livingston Pell" (PDF). The New York Times. 14 February 1880. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  2. Hartford, William J. (1900). The Successful American. New York: Press Biographical Company. p. 402. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  3. "Neighbors". academic2.marist.edu. Marist College. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  4. Ellis, William Arba (1911). Norwich University, 1819-1911: Her History, Her Graduates, Her Roll of Honor. Capital City Press. pp. 191-192. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  5. Wick, Karl R.; Wick, Susan B. (2003). Esopus. Arcadia Publishing. p. 108. ISBN 9780738511887. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  6. Gazetteer and Business Directory of Ulster County, N.Y. for 1871-2. Printed at the Journal office. 1871. p. 83. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  7. "NEW SEMINARY DEDICATED.; Mount St. Alphonsus Opened by Archbishop Farley with Impressive Ceremonies" (PDF). The New York Times. 22 May 1908. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  8. Mitchell, Paula Ann (June 20, 2012). "Bruderhof buys Mount St. Alphonsus for $21.5 million, plans high school for its children". Daily Freeman. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  9. Pell, Robert Livingston (1865). An Account of the Lands Belonging to Robert L. Pell, in the State of Georgia. D. Bradbury. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  10. "Robert Troup Papers" (PDF). archives.nypl.org. New York Public Library. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  11. Davis, Howland; Clermont, Friends of (1995). A Livingston Genealogical Register. Kinship. p. 109. ISBN 9781560121367. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  12. Catalogue of the Governors, Trustees, and Officers, and of the Alumni and Other Graduates, of Columbia College (originally King's College), in the City of New York, from 1754 to 1882. Columbia University. 1882. p. 92. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  13. "Funeral of Robert Livingston Pell" (PDF). The New York Times. 17 February 1880. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  14. "WEDDING OF MISS ELIZABETH M. GALLATIN; Married to John De Courcy Ireland in Calvary Episcopal Church" (PDF). The New York Times. 7 February 1895. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  15. Nemy, Enid (9 May 1971). "The Lords and Manors Have Gone, But Descendants Remember Well" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  16. Gross, Michael (2007). 740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building. Crown/Archetype. p. 369. ISBN 9780307418760. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  17. Leonard, John William (1914). Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. American Commonwealth Company. p. 534. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  18. "MRS. MONTGOMERY SICARD; James Duane, First Mayor Here After Revolution, a Forbear," (PDF). The New York Times. 23 June 1936. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  19. Livingston, Edwin Brockholst (1910). The Livingstons of Livingston Manor: Being the History of that Branch of the Scottish House of Callendar which Settled in the English Province of New York During the Reign of Charles the Second; and Also Including an Account of Robert Livingston of Albany, "The Nephew," a Settler in the Same Province and His Principal Descendants. Knickerbocker Press. p. 228. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
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