Fernando Yznaga

Fernando Alfonso Yznaga del Valle (October 16, 1850 – March 6, 1901) was a Cuban American banker who was one of the best-known men of New York and foreign society and club life. Described as "one of the most entertaining of men, very clever at epigram and repartee, and famous for quaint sayings. His life had been adventurous and, from a domestic point of view, somewhat of a stormy nature."[1]

Fernando Yznaga
Born
Fernando Alfonso Yznaga del Valle

(1850-10-16)October 16, 1850
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedMarch 6, 1901(1901-03-06) (aged 50)
New York City, New York, U.S.
EducationLawrence Scientific School
Louisiana Law School
OccupationBanker
EmployerH. B. Hollins & Co.
Spouses
Mary Virginia Smith
​
​
(m. 1880; div. 1886)​
    Mabel Elizabeth Wright
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1890; div. 1895)​
    Parent(s)Antonio Modesto Yznaga del Valle
    Ellen Maria Clements
    RelativesConsuelo Montagu, Duchess of Manchester (sister)
    William Montagu, 9th Duke of Manchester (nephew)

    Early life

    Yznaga was born in New York on October 16, 1850. He was the oldest of four children, and only son, born to merchant diplomat Antonio Modesto Yznaga del Valle (1823–1892) and Ellen Maria (née Clements) Yznaga (1833–1908).[2] His father was from an old Cuban family who owned a large plantation (Torre Iznaga)[3] and sugar mills in the vicinity of Trinidad, Cuba; they had connections to several Spanish aristocratic families.[4] In addition to plantations in Cuba and Louisiana, his parents owned properties in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. Among his siblings was Consuelo Yznaga (who married George Montagu, 8th Duke of Manchester in 1876),[5] Natica Yznaga (who married Sir John Lister-Kaye, 3rd Baronet in 1881)[6] and Emilie Yznaga (who never married).[7][8]

    His maternal grandfather, Samuel Clements, was a steamboat captain who owned Ravenswood Place, a plantation in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, which his mother inherited upon their death.[9] Through his sister Consuelo, he was uncle to William Montagu, 9th Duke of Manchester and two nieces, known as May and Nell, who both died of consumption before marrying.[10] He was with his sister in Davos when her youngest daughter, Lady Alice (Nell), died. Reportedly, he "never seemed a very strong man since then," and it was said that "his constitution had never recovered from the long, nervous strain which he went through at that time."[1]

    He was graduated from the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard,[11] before returning south and earning an LL.D. degree from Louisiana Law School while at his families plantation near Lake Concordia in Louisiana, where they were all well known in New Orleans society.[1]

    Career

    After his eldest sister's marriage to the Duke of Manchester, he came to New York City.[1] After his first marriage to a sister-in-law of William Kissam Vanderbilt, he was reportedly gifted a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and entered the firm of H. B. Hollins & Co. at 15 Wall Street, a close friend of Vanderbilt's and J. Pierpont Morgan. Yznaga was "an excelled businessman" and made his fortune at the firm, working there for twenty years until his death in 1901.[12] The firm, which was organized in 1878, went bankrupt on November 13, 1913.[13]

    Even after his divorce from Jennie, he remained close friends with Vanderbilt and was frequently aboard his yacht, the Valiant. Yznaga, Vanderbilt and Winfield Hoyt were referred to as the "Three Vanderbilt Musketeers" as they were always seen together.[1] He was a member of the Union Club, the Tuxedo Club, the County Club, the Manhattan Club, the Athletic Club, the Meadow Brook Hunt Club, and one of the original members of the Metropolitan Club in 1891, where he lived.[11][14]

    Personal life
    Mrs. Fernando Yznaga, née Miss Mabel Wright, of New York, c. 1894.

    On September 22, 1880, Yznaga was married to Mobile, Alabama-born Mary Virginia "Jennie" Smith (1856–1926), sister of Alva (née Smith) Vanderbilt at the Vanderbilt home in Oakdale on Long Island.[15] They were daughters of Murray Forbes Smith, a commission merchant, and Phoebe Ann (née Desha) Smith (daughter of U.S. Representative Robert Desha).[16] After their divorce in 1886, Jennie remarried to William George Tiffany of Baltimore (a nephew of Mrs. August Belmont and first cousin of Charles Lewis Tiffany)[17] in 1888 and moved to Maisons-Laffitte near Paris (before their eventual divorce in 1903).[18][19]

    Fernando's engagement to Mabel Elizabeth Wright (1869–1926)[20] was announced in what was described as an astonishment to society. At the time, she was living with her father, a designer of carpets for Higgins Mills, in a boarding house and "her face was her fortune." The wedding took place a week later on March 4, 1890, at the boarding house and they set sail for Europe the following day. Upon their return, they lived in New York and at Tuxedo Park. Mabel later went to South Dakota where she divorced Fernando in 1895 and,[21] soon after, married the Hungarian Count Bela Zichy (nephew of Mihály Zichy) and became the mother of Count Theodore Zichy.[22] There were rumors of his engagement to be married a third time, including to Constance Biddle a few weeks before his death, but they were all denied.

    Yznaga died of diphtheria at the Minturn Hospital in New York City on March 6, 1901.[1] After a funeral at the Little Church Around The Corner, he was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx.[23] Upon his death, his estate worth about $2,000,000,[24] was left primarily to his sister, then the Dowager Duchess of Manchester.[25]

    References
    1. "FERNANDO YZNAGA DEAD; Stricken with Diphtheria, He Died at the Minturn Hospital. Friend and Brother-in-Law of William K. Vanderbilt -- His Second Marriage -- Business Career" (PDF). The New York Times. 7 March 1901. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
    2. Times, Special to The New York (25 January 1908). "MRS. YZNAGA DEAD.; She Was Mother of the Dowager Duchess of Manchester". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
    3. "Manacas Iznaga Tower-La Torre Manacas Iznaga". Retrieved 15 July 2015.
    4. Browning, C.H. (1883). "Americans of Royal Descent". Retrieved 15 July 2015.
    5. "DUCHESS CONSUELO DEAD.; Widow of Duke of Manchester Had Neuritis--Former Miss Yznaga". The New York Times. 20 November 1909. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
    6. "MARRIAGE OF SIR JOHN LISTER KAYE" (PDF). The New York Times. 6 December 1881. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
    7. Clement, William Edwards (2000). Plantation Life on the Mississippi. Pelican Publishing. pp. 131–133. ISBN 978-1-4556-1057-0. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
    8. "MISS EMILIE YZNAGA; Art Connoisseur Was Aunt of the Duke of Manchester". The New York Times. 2 November 1944. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
    9. Weiner, Robert. "Ravenswood Plantation". Retrieved 15 July 2015.
    10. "LADY ALICE MONTAGU DEAD.; Consumption Carries Off Noted English Beauty -- Her Mother Is the Duchess of Manchester". The New York Times. 11 January 1900. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
    11. Weeks, Lyman Horace (1898). Prominent Families of New York: Being an Account in Biographical Form of Individuals and Families Distinguished as Representatives of the Social, Professional and Civic Life of New York City. Historical Company. p. 635. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
    12. The Bankers Magazine. Warren, Gorham & Lamont. 1901. p. 640. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
    13. "HOLLINS & CO. FAIL, OWING $5,000,000; Bankers Long Favored by Morgan Came Upon Dull Years and Expenses Bore Them Down. THEIR RENT $40,000 A YEAR Occupied a Notable Wall Street Corner; Hollins a Member of Many Clubs; Family Socially Strong". The New York Times. 14 November 1913. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
    14. Club Men of New York: Their Clubs, College Alumni Associations, Occupations, and Business and Home Addresses, with Historical Sketches of Many Prominent New York Organizations. Republic Press. 1902. p. 835. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
    15. "Well-Known People Married.; Miss Mary V. Smith Wedded to Fernando Yznaga at W.k. Vanderbilt's". The New York Times. 23 September 1880. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
    16. Patterson, Jerry E. The Vanderbilts., pages 120-121. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1989. ISBN 0-8109-1748-3
    17. "Married Very Quietly; Mr. W.G. Tiffany and Mrs. Fernando Yznaga Become One". The New York Times. 22 July 1888. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
    18. "Society at Home and Abroad" (PDF). The New York Times. October 28, 1906. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
    19. "Married Very Quietly" (PDF). The New York Times. July 22, 1888. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
    20. "Mrs. Fernando Yznaga (1869-1926)". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
    21. "MRS. YZNAGA SECURES A DIVORCE; The Complaint Alleges Desertion -- Private Settlement as to Property". The New York Times. 25 October 1895. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
    22. Naturalization, United States Congress House Committee on Immigration and (1920). Readmission of Augusta Louise de Haven-Alten to the Status and Privileges of a Citizen of the United States: Hearings...on S.J. Res.134. Jan. 29 & Feb. 3, 1920. p. 52. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
    23. "Funeral of Fernando Yznaga". The New York Times. 19 March 1901. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
    24. "FERNANDO YZNAGA ESTATE; Its Value Over $1,000,000 More Than Estimated. His Net Personal Property Found by the Appraisers to Have Been $2,298,898 -- Dowager Duchess of Manchester Sole Beneficiary". The New York Times. 17 December 1902. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
    25. "YZNAGA FORTUNE TAXED.; Estate of Late Duchess of Manchester Must Pay $300,000 Legacy Duty". The New York Times. 13 February 1912. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
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