Valentine Hall Jr.

Valentine Gill Hall Jr. (March 27, 1834 – July 17, 1880) was an American socialite, banker, and merchant who was the maternal grandfather of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.[1]

Valentine Hall Jr.
Born
Valentine Gill Hall Jr.

(1834-03-27)March 27, 1834
New York City, U.S.
DiedJuly 17, 1880(1880-07-17) (aged 46)
Tivoli, New York, U.S.
Spouse
Mary Livingston Ludlow
​
​
(m. 1861)​
Children7, including Anna, Valentine, Edward
RelativesEleanor Roosevelt (granddaughter)
Hall Roosevelt (grandson)
John Tonnelé (uncle)

Early life

Hall was born in New York City on March 27, 1834, to Irish immigrant Valentine Gill Hall Sr.[2] and Susan Hall, née Tonnelé.[3] His younger sister, Margaret Tonnelé Hall, was married to Edward Philip Livingston Ludlow, the older brother of his wife, two years after his marriage in 1861.[4] Another sister, Catherine Tonnelé Hall, was married to Eugene Schieffelin,[5] and a brother, John Tonnelé Hall, was married to Catherine Cruger Delafield, daughter of Rufus King Delafield,[6] and niece of merchants Richard Delafield and Edward Delafield.[7]

His maternal grandparents were Rebecca (née Waterbury) Tonnelé, and John Tonnelé Sr, a Frenchman. His uncle was John Tonnelé Jr., the farmer and politician who was a member of the New Jersey State Legislature,[8] and his grandmother Rebecca was the daughter of Revolutionary War General David How Waterbury, Jr.

Career

His father and his maternal grandfather were business partners in the New York City wool merchant firm of Tonnelé & Hall,[9] who were considered "the most extensive Wool dealers in the country" in 1842.[10] Through their firm, Hall's father was able to build a large fortune, estimated at $250,000 in 1842,[10] which included "considerable holdings in New York City real estate,"[9] from 14th to 18th Street along Sixth Avenue.[11] After his grandfather retired, his uncle, John Tonnelé Jr. ran the business with his father, who retired in 1845 before age 50.[11] Together, his uncle John and grandfather were worth $1,000,000 in 1842.[10]

Hall himself did not go into business but "lived the life of a leisured gentleman."[11] He was a man of solemn dignity who attended theology school as a purported act of penitence for his youthful "sowing of wild oats."[11] He devoted himself and his energy to religious study and became rather puritanical.[12]

Personal life
Hall's eldest daughter, Anna Hall Roosevelt

On April 24, 1861, Hall was married to Mary Livingston "Molly" Ludlow[1] in a marriage that "...united a member of a prominent New York merchantile family with Hudson River gentry".[13][14] Mary was the daughter of Dr. Edward Hunter Ludlow, another business partner of Hall's father,[12] and Elizabeth (née Livingston) Ludlow, the granddaughter of the 11th Lieutenant Governor of New York, Edward Philip Livingston, and the great-granddaughter of Chancellor Robert Livingston, of the Livingston family.[9] After the death of her parents, Valentine brought the family to live at the Ludlow home in Clermont, New York (five miles north of Tivoli),[15] building a Second Empire-style 8,375-square-foot mansion called Oak Terrace on Woods Road (also known as "The Oaks" or "Oak Lawn") in 1872 next to the house of his brother-in-law,[9][11] which overlooks the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains.[16] Together, Valentine and Mary were the parents of seven children:[3]

Hall died at their estate in the Hudson Valley, just north of Tivoli, at the age of 46, on July 17, 1880. He was buried in the Hall family vault at St. Paul's Episcopal Church Cemetery in Tivoli, New York.[19] His widow, who maintained various New York homes at 11 West 37th Street and 20 Gramercy Park (next door to Stuyvesant Fish at 19 Gramercy Park), also died at their Hudson Valley estate on August 14, 1919, at the age of 77.[1] The Hudson Valley home was owned by their daughter Maude, which Eleanor continued to visit into the 1950s.[19][16]

Descendants

Through his eldest daughter Anna, he was the grandfather of First Lady of the United States Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962), who married her fifth cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt (later President of the United States); Elliott Roosevelt, Jr. (1889–1893), who died young; and Gracie Hall Roosevelt (1891–1941).[20]

References
  1. "Mrs. Valentine G. Hall". The New York Times. August 16, 1919. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  2. "VALENTINE G. HALL". The New York Times. October 21, 1880. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  3. Reynolds, Cuyler (1914). Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 1332. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  4. Year Book of the Dutchess County Historical Society. Dutchess County Historical Society. 1928. p. 66. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  5. New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division-First Department: Rachel M. Erwin, Barbara Erwin, Rachel Erwin and Charles Ward, as Trustees Under the Last Will and Testament of Charles R. Erwin, Deceased, Plaintiffs-Respondents, Against George Matthew Adams, Defendant-Appellant. New York Supreme Court. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  6. Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York. Albany, NY: New York (State) Legislature Assembly. 1911. p. 336. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  7. Pelletreau, William Smith (1907). Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Family History of New York. Lewis Publishing Company. p. 283. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  8. Owen, Samuel (1847). The New-York Legal Observer. Samuel Owen. p. 264. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  9. Beasley, Maurine Hoffman; Shulman, Holly Cowan; Beasley, Henry R. (2001). The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 208–209. ISBN 9780313301810. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  10. Beach, Moses Yale (1842). Wealth and Pedigree of the Wealthy Citizens of New York City: Comprising an Alphabetical Arrangement of Persons Estimated to be Worth $100,000 and Upwards, with the Sums Appended to Each Name : Being Useful to Banks, Merchants and Others. Sun Office. p. 14. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  11. Lash, Joseph P. (2014). Eleanor and Franklin. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 23. ISBN 9780393247657. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  12. "Mary Livingston Ludlow Hall (1843-1919)". www2.gwu.edu. George Washington University. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  13. White, Mason (March 1988). "Elliott, the Tragic Roosevelt" (PDF). The Hudson Valley Regional Review. 5 (I): 17–29. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  14. Lash, Joseph P. (December 21, 1971). "Elliott and Anna Find That Opposites Attract". Philadelphia Daily News. p. 29. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  15. Doxsey, Patricia (May 1, 2005). "Eleanor Roosevelt never lived in Tivoli but considered it her childhood home". Daily Freeman. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  16. Shannon, William (September 17, 2017). "Restoring Eleanor Roosevelt's Childhood Home on the Hudson". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  17. "Mrs. Stanley Mortimer (1863-1944)". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  18. Spinzia, Raymond E. (Fall 2007). "Elliott Roosevelt, Sr. – A Spiral Into Darkness: the Influences" (PDF). The Freeholder. 12: 3–7, 15–17. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  19. Musso, Anthony P. (June 16, 2015). "Eleanor Roosevelt's parents interred in Tivoli's Hall vault". The Poughkeepsie Journal. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  20. "First Lady Biography: Eleanor Roosevelt". National First Ladies' Library. The National First Ladies' Library. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
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