William Richardson Belknap

William Richardson Belknap (March 28, 1849 – June 2, 1914),[1] for 28 years was president of the Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company[2][3] based in Louisville, Kentucky, one of the largest hardware American manufacturing companies and wholesale hardware companies of its time.[4]

William Richardson Belknap
Born(1849-03-28)March 28, 1849
Louisville, Kentucky
DiedJune 2, 1914(1914-06-02) (aged 65)
Jefferson County, Kentucky
Resting placeCave Hill Cemetery
Alma materSheffield Scientific School (Yale University)
OccupationBusinessman
Known forPresident Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company
Home townLouisville, Kentucky
Spouse(s)
Alice Trumbull Silliman
​
(
m. 1874; died 1890)

Juliet Rathbone Davison
​
(
m. 1894; his death 1914)
ChildrenEleanor Belknap Humphrey, William Burke Belknap, Alice Silliman Belknap Hawkes, Mary Belknap Gray, Christine Belknap
Parent(s)William Burke Belknap, Mary Richardson

Early life

William Richardson Belknap was born in Louisville on March 28, 1849.[1] He was the son of William Burke Belknap and Mary Richardson.[5] He was also the brother of Morris B. Belknap[6]

He graduated from Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1869, and in 1873 he spent a year traveling in Europe with his younger brother Morris Burke Belknap.[7][8]

Career

In 1880, following the death of his father, founder of the Belknap company, he became its president.[9][10] After his retirement as president of Belknap Hardware, he became the company's Chairman of the Board.[7]

Belknap was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.[1] The William R. Belknap School in the Belknap neighborhood of Louisville was named for him.[11] He was a charter member of the Salmagundi Club and served for three years as its secretary.[7] He was a trustee of Berea College, and the namesake and founder of the William R. Belknap Prizes awarded for excellence in the fields of geology and biology in Yale's Sheffield Scientific School.[7]

Personal life
Lincliff gates

In 1874, Belknap was married to Alice Trumbull Silliman (1846–1890), the daughter of Benjamin Silliman Jr., a professor of chemistry at Yale University who was instrumental in developing the oil industry.[12] Together, they were the parents of:[13]

  • Eleanor Silliman Belknap (1876–1964), an artist who married Kentucky newspaper editor Lewis Craig Humphrey.[14]
  • Alice Silliman Belknap (1878–1972), who married Forbes Hawkes (1865–1940).[15]
  • Mary Belknap (1881–1975), who married architect George Herbert Gray (1874–1945).[16]
  • William Burke Belknap (1885–1965), who married Helen Clark Strong and, later, Edith Mary Clarke.[13]
  • Christine Belknap (1890–1919), who married Charles Bonnycastle Robinson, Jr.[17]

After his wife's death in 1890, he remarried to Juliet Rathbone Davison (1862–1948) in 1894.[12]

Belknap died on June 2, 1914 in Jefferson County, Kentucky.[18] At his death in 1914, and after building Lincliff in 1911, his estate was estimated at $3,000,000 to $5,000,000.[3][19][20] He is buried in the Belknap family plot at Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville.

Residences

In 1898, Belknap lived at 406 Ormsby Avenue, Louisville.[21] In 1911, he built his home, Lincliff, hiring two architects of McDonald Brothers, Kenneth McDonald and William J. Dodd, to carry out its design.[22] The Olmsted Brothers were hired by Belknap to create plans for the estate grounds. Lincliff was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Lincliff is currently owned by Stephen F. Humphrey, widower of the mystery writer the late Sue Grafton. Together they worked on restoration of the building and grounds.[23]

Descendants

He was the great-grandfather of economist Thomas MacGillivray Humphrey (born 1935).

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References
  1. Memoir of William Richardson Belknap. Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers. 1914. pp. 2941–2. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  2. James R. Miller (Spring 2012). Kentucky at Work: Philatelic Genealogy. Bluegrass Roots 39 (1): 12–15.
  3. The Cincinnati Enquirer, June 2, 1914, p. 2.
  4. "Catches in the Social Stream". Palm Beach Daily News. February 25, 1912. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  5. Strong, Lyle A. (1995). Strong Family History, Update: Children of Elder John Strong, ca. 1610-1699; Return Strong, 1641-1726; Elder Ebenezer Strong, 1643-1729; Elizabeth Strong, 1648-1736. Gateway Press. pp. 35, 39. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  6. "Kentucky Digital Library". kdl.kyvl.org. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  7. Johnson, E. Polk (1912). A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce and Industry Vol. III. Chicago and New York: Lewis Publishing Company. p. 1153.
  8. Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University. Yale University. 1905. pp. 1153–1154. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  9. Memoir of William Richardson Belknap. Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers. 1915. pp. 1494–5. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  10. Klayko, Branden (October 4, 2010). "Lost Louisville: Belknap Warehouses". brokensidewalk.com. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  11. Kleber, John E. (ed.) (2001). The Encyclopedia of Louisville. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. p. 81. ISBN 0-8131-2100-0. Retrieved April 15, 2015.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  12. Johnson, E. Polk. "Belknap, William R." www.usbiographies.org. Lewis Publishing Co. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  13. Kleber, John E. (2015). The Encyclopedia of Louisville. University Press of Kentucky. p. 81. ISBN 9780813149745. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  14. The Sigma Chi Quarterly: The Official Organ of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. The Fraternity. 1895. p. 350. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  15. "FORBES R. HAWKES, SURGEON, 75, DEAD; Ex-Consultant at Presbyterian Hospital Had Been Head of the Dispensary There WROTE MEDICAL ARTICLES Former Professor of Clinical Surgery at Post-Graduate Served Many Institutions" (PDF). The New York Times. August 25, 1940. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  16. "George Herbert Gray, 1874-1945 Architectural Drawings, 1905-1919" (PDF). filsonhistorical.org. The Filson Historical Society. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  17. "Announcements". The Courier-Journal. June 21, 1914. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  18. "Kentucky Death Records". www.ancestry.com. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  19. "History and genealogy of the wealthy families of America". www.raken.com. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  20. A Classification of American Wealth: History and genealogy of the wealthy families of America.
  21. [s.n] (28 October 1898). Brief notes about people. The Courier-Journal. p 6.
  22. "Lincliff". npgallery.nps.gov. KENTUCKY HISTORIC RESOURCES INVENTORY. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  23. "Lincliff: Author Sue Grafton's 1912 Kentucky Estate". On Pinehurst Place. 27 January 2014. Retrieved 18 October 2016.

Further reading
  • The Filson Historical Society. "Belknap Family Papers, 1856-1904".
  • Yale University. Sheffield Scientific School. Biographical Record, Classes from Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-eight to Eighteen Hundred and Seventy-two of the Sheffield Scientific School. Class secretaries bureau, Yale university, 1910.
  • E. Polk Johnson, A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities, (1912).
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