Columbus Iselin

Columbus O'Donnell Iselin (September 26, 1851 – November 11, 1933) was an American financier and philanthropists who was prominent in New York Society during the Gilded Age.[1]

Columbus Iselin
Born
Columbus O'Donnell Iselin

September 26, 1851
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedNovember 10, 1933(1933-11-10) (aged 82)
New Rochelle, New York, U.S.
Resting placeWoodlawn Cemetery
Spouse(s)
​
​
(died 1930)​
Parent(s)Adrian Georg Iselin
Eleanora O'Donnell
RelativesCharles Oliver Iselin (brother)
Columbus O'Donnell Iselin (grandson)

Early life

Iselin was born in New York City on September 26, 1851. He was fourth of seven children born to Adrian Georg Iselin (1818–1905)[2] and Eleanora (née O'Donnell) Iselin (1821–1897).[3] His siblings were Adrian Iselin Jr.,[4] who married Louise Caylus,[5] and Sarah Gracie King Bronson,[6][7] the widow of Frederic Bronson;[8][9] William Emil Iselin,[10] who married Alice Rogers Jones;[11] Eleanora Iselin,[12] who married DeLancey Astor Kane,[13] brother of Woodbury Kane and great-grandson of John Jacob Astor;[13] Charles Oliver Iselin,[14] who married Fannie Garner, and later, Edith Hope Goddard;[15] Georgine Iselin,[16] a Papal Countess who did not marry;[16][17] and Emilie Eleanora Iselin,[18][19] who married John George Beresford,[20] a cousin of Lord Charles Beresford and grandson of Henry Beresford, 2nd Marquess of Waterford.[21] in 1898.[22]

His paternal grandparents were Isaac Iselin, who was born in Basel, Switzerland and emigrated to the United States in 1801, and Aimee Jeanne (née Roulet) Iselin.[23] In Switzerland, the Iselin family had been merchants, public officials, and military and professional men since the 14th century.[23] His maternal grandparents were General Columbus O'Donnell, who was connected with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and his wife Eleanora (née Pascault) O'Donnell of Baltimore, Maryland.[2] His mother was related to John Carroll, the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States and the founder of Georgetown University.[24]

Career

Iselin's father, a former dry goods merchant, founded the investment bank of A. Iselin and Co., located at 36 Wall Street, in 1854.[23] Columbus continued his father's work at the firm following their father's retirement in 1878.[2] After his father's death in 1905,[25] he and his elder brother Adrian Iselin Jr. took control of the firm.[26] His nephew, Ernest Iselin, was director of the company from 1929 to 1934 and chairman of the board from 1936 to 1954.[27] The firm was in existence until 1936 when it was merged with Dominick & Dominick, an investment and merchant banking firm that exists to this day.[23]

Iselin was a director of the New Rochelle Water Company, the New Rochelle Homestead Company, the New York Dock Company, a trustee of the New York Life and Insurance Company, a treasurer and director of the Allegheny and Western Railroad Company, the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway, the Clearfield and Mahoning Railway Company, the Helvetia Realty Company, the Jefferson & Clearfield Coal & Iron Company, the Johnsonburg & Bradford Railroad Company, the Mahoning Valley Railroad Company, the Manhattan Storage & Warehouse Company, the Reynoldsville & Falls Creek Railroad Company.[24] With his family, he owned a significant portion of the Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal and Iron Company,[lower-alpha 1] of which he began serving as president in 1885 and later as the secretary-treasurer.[28]

Society life

In 1892, both Iselin and his wife Edith were included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[29][30] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[31][32]

He was also a member of the Union Club, the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, the Downtown Club, the University Club, the Knickerbocker Club, Metropolitan Club, the Country Club of New York, the Larchmont Yacht Club and the New York Yacht Club.[24][33]

His father had purchased extensive property along Davenport Neck, the Long Island Sound shore community in New Rochelle where he built a country estate for himself, All View, and for Columbus and his siblings.[34]

Personal life

Iselin was married to Edith Colford Jones (1854–1930).[35][36] In addition to their country estate in New Rochelle, the Iselin's lived at 3 West 52nd Street in Manhattan.[24][37] Together, they were the parents of:[24][38]

  • Columbus O'Donnell Iselin (1877–1877), who died as an infant.
  • Lewis Iselin (1879–1928), who married Marie de Neufville (1883–1979)[39][40]
  • O'Donnell Iselin (1884–1971),[41][42] who married Margaret Urling Sibley (1893–1951) in 1919.[43][44]

Iselin died at his estate in New Rochelle on November 11, 1933.[1] His estate was left to his children and grandchildren.[45] By 1937, his estate was valued at $4,833,550.[46]

Descendants

Through his son Lewis, he was the grandfather of Columbus O'Donnell Iselin (1904-1971),[47] the oceanographer who was the director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and a Professor of Physical Oceanography at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[48]

Through his son O'Donnell,[42] he was the grandfather of Peter Iselin (1920–2010), who was married to Margaretta Sargeant Large Duane (1928–2015), the daughter of Morris Duane (d. 1992),[49] in 1952.[50]

References
Notes
  1. The Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal and Iron Company was a subsidiary of the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway.[28]
Sources
  1. "C.O'D ISELIN DEAD; FINANCIER WAS 82; Banker Who Retired 13 Years Ago, Was Director in Many Corporations. FAMILY NOTED IN FINANCE Had Extensive Real Estate Holdings in City--Member of Leading Clubs". The New York Times. 11 November 1933. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  2. "ADRIAN ISELIN DEAD AT HIS CITY HOME; Banker's Illness Developed Into General Breakdown. NEW ROCHELLE'S BENEFACTOR Rumor That He Was Deathbed Convert to Roman Catholic Church, to Which He Gave Much". The New York Times. 29 March 1905. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  3. "MRS. ADRIAN ISELIN DEAD.; She Had Been Seriously Ill Since September, but Recently Had Improved". The New York Times. 28 November 1897. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  4. "ADRIAN ISELIN DIES IN HIS 89TH YEAR; Head of the Family's Banking Firm, Which He Entered in the Late 1860s,". The New York Times. January 30, 1935. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  5. "MRS. ADRIAN ISELIN, JR., DEAD. Wife of New York Banker Dies at Her Home in Fifth Avenue". The New York Times. 5 December 1909. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  6. "MRS. ADRIAN ISELIN DIES IN HER SLEEP; Wife of Banking House's Head Is Stricken in Her 81st Year. A SOCIETY CONSERVATIVE Was a Descendant of the King, Duer and Gracie Families, Long Prominent in This City". The New York Times. 5 April 1931. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  7. "MRS. ISELIN'S FUNERAL.; 200 Persons of Prominence at the Services in Grace Church". The New York Times. 7 April 1931. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  8. "ADRIAN ISELIN AND MRS. BRONSON WED; Banker and Widow of Frederic Bronson Married in Rectory of St. Patrick's Cathedral". The New York Times. 20 February 1914. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  9. "ADRIAN ISELIN LEFT ESTATE TO FAMILY; Son and Two Daughters of the Banker Share Most of It -Value 'More Than $20,000.'". The New York Times. 7 February 1935. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  10. "WILLIAM E. ISELIN, MERCHANT, 89, DIES; Partner for Many Years in the Family's Wholesale Dry Goods Concern Here". The New York Times. January 27, 1937. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  11. "MRS. W. E. ISELIN DIES; WAS OF OLD FAMILY; Her Grandmother Inherited Two City Blocks Between Fifth and Park Avenues". The New York Times. 23 October 1932. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  12. "MRS. DELANCEY A. KANE; Member of Old New York Family Dies in Westchester at 89". The New York Times. 23 October 1938. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  13. "COL. DE LANCEY KANE DIES OF PNEUMONIA; Noted Horseman and Astor's Great-Grandson Initiated Coaching in America. LONG A SOCIAL LEADER Graduate of West Point Who Inherited $10,000,000 Served in the Cavalry in Our Army". The New York Times. 5 April 1915. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  14. "C. OLIVER ISELIN, NOTED BANKER, DEAD; Member of Family of Financiers Succumbs at 78 After Illness of Three Years. WAS AN ABLE YACHTSMAN Served as Sailing Master In International America's Cup Races--Used Bold Tactics". The New York Times. January 2, 1932. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  15. "Mrs. Charles Iselin, Turf Figure And Social Leader, Dies at 102". The New York Times. 6 April 1970. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  16. "GEORGINE ISELIN, A PHILANTHROPIST; Member of Old City Family, Honored for Charity Work, Dies in New Rochelle at 96". The New York Times. 1 July 1954. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  17. "$135,000 TO CHARITIES; Miss Iselin's Will Also Makes $350,000 in Personal Gifts". The New York Times. 17 July 1954. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  18. "Mrs. Emilie E. Beresford". The New York Times. 25 May 1916. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  19. "Mrs. Beresford's Will Filed". The New York Times. 4 June 1916. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  20. "$6,000,000 ESTATE DIVIDED.; J.G. Beresford's Widow Gets Major Portion Under Will". The New York Times. 13 June 1925. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  21. "John George Beresford". The New York Times. 11 May 1925. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  22. "MARRIED. Beresford--Iselin". The New York Times. 23 February 1898. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  23. "Iselin Family - Coal Culture: People, Lives, and Stories - Coal Culture Projects - Special Collections and University Archives - Departments - IUP Libraries - IUP". www.iup.edu. Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  24. Who's Who in New York City and State. L.R. Hamersly Company. 1914. p. 390. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  25. "ELEANORA ISELIN'S WILL.; The Estate Is Bequeathed to the Husband, Adrian Iselin, Sr". The New York Times. 16 December 1897. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  26. "ISELIN FIRM TO END, JOINING DOMINICKS; One of Oldest of Wall Street Houses to Lose Identity by Merger on July 22. SOME OF FORCE TO SHIFT Dominick & Dominick Will Take Over Also Iselin Securities Corporation". The New York Times. 17 June 1936. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  27. "E. ISELIN IS DEAD; INDUSTRIALIST, 77; -Officer of Many Companies Was Active in Charitable Organizations in City". The New York Times. January 11, 1954. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  28. Cooper, Eileen Mountjoy (1982). Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company: The first one hundred years. Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  29. McAllister, Ward (16 February 1892). "THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED | WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  30. Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House. p. 218. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  31. Keister, Lisa A. (2005). Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780521536677. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  32. Birmingham, Stephen (2015). Life at the Dakota: New York's Most Unusual Address. Open Road Media. p. 18. ISBN 9781504026314. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  33. "Columbus O'Donnell Iselin Protests". The New York Times. 27 August 1897. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  34. Davis, Barbara (2012). New Rochelle. Arcadia Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 9780738592831. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  35. "MRS. EDITH COLFORD ISELIN; Wife of Banker and Yachtsman Dies of Pneumonia". The New York Times. 1 April 1930. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  36. "MRS. ISELIN'S WILL GIVES ESTATE TO KIN; Son, Daughter and Children of Son Who Died to Get Bulk of Fortune Put at $5,000,000". The New York Times. 13 April 1930. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  37. Men and Women of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries. L.R. Hamersly. 1909. p. 877. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  38. Derby, George; White, James Terry (1937). The National Cyclopædia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time. J. T. White & Company. p. 330. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  39. "Steichen - Vogue 1925". gettyimages.com. Getty Images. Retrieved 2 March 2018. Mrs. Lewis Iselin (formerly Marie de Neufville) seated, wearing a velvet dress with shirred shoulders, and a fur-trimmed wrap around her hips January 04, 1924
  40. "DIED. ISELIN—Marie De Neufville". The New York Times. 24 October 1979. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  41. Harvard University Class of 1907 (1957). Fiftieth Anniversary Report of the Harvard University Class of 1907. Harvard University. p. 344. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  42. "O'Donnell Iselin, a Coal Executive". The New York Times. 9 November 1971. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  43. "WILL WED LIEUT. ISELIN.; Miss Margaret Sibley Engaged to Son of Mr. and Mrs. C. O'D. Iselin". The New York Times. 3 February 1918. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  44. "MARRIED". The New York Times. 5 March 1919. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  45. "C.O'D. ISELIN LEFT EMPLOYEES $110,000; Residue of Large Estate of Financier Who Died in New Rochelle Goes to Family". The New York Times. 22 November 1933. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  46. "$4,833,550 ESTATE LEFT BY C. O'D. ISELIN; New York Banker, Who Died in 1933, Named His Family as Principal Beneficiaries". The New York Times. 20 March 1937. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  47. Times, Special To the New York (January 6, 1971). "Dr. Columbus O'Donnell Iselin, Noted Oceanographer, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  48. McCartney, Michael. "Columbus O'Donnell Iselin". www.whoi.edu. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  49. "Morris Duane, Lawyer And Civic Leader, 91". The New York Times. 22 July 1992. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  50. "MISS DUANE AFFIANCED; Betrothal of Bryn Mawr Girl to Peter Iselin Is Announced". The New York Times. 17 July 1952. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
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