Walter Lispenard Suydam

Walter Lispenard Suydam (May 20, 1854 – August 10, 1930)[1] was a prominent member of New York society during the Gilded Age.[2]

Walter Lispenard Suydam
43rd President of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York
In office
1913–1913
Preceded byJohn Thomas Lockman
Succeeded byCharles Bradford Isham
Personal details
BornMay 20, 1854
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedAugust 10, 1930(1930-08-10) (aged 76)
Blue Point, New York, U.S.
Spouse
Jane Mesier Suydam
​
(m. 1875)​
RelationsCaroline Astor (aunt)
William Astor Jr. (uncle)
John Jacob Astor IV (cousin)
R. Fulton Cutting (brother-in-law)
Abraham Schermerhorn (grandfather)
ChildrenWalter Lispenard Suydam Jr.
Parent(s)Anna White Schermerhorn
Charles Suydam

Early life

Suydam was born on May 20, 1854, in New York City. He was the son of Anna White (née Schermerhorn) Suydam (1818–1886),[3] and Charles Suydam (1818–1882).[4] His siblings included Charles Schermerhorn Suydam and Helen Suydam, who married R. Fulton Cutting (brother of William Bayard Cutting).[5][6][7]

His paternal grandparents were Ferdinand Suydam and Eliza (née Bartow) Suydam.[4] His maternal grandfather was Abraham Schermerhorn.[8] His relatives included:[2] aunt Elizabeth Schermerhorn,[9] who married General James I. Jones;[10] Helen Schermerhorn,[11] who married John Treat Irving Jr.,[12] a nephew of Washington Irving;[10] and Caroline Webster Schermerhorn, who married William Backhouse Astor Jr.,[13] the middle son of William Backhouse Astor Sr.[10] He was a cousin of Eleanor Colford Jones,[14] who was married to Augustus Newbold Morris;[15][16] Benjamin Welles,[17][18] Emily Astor, who married sportsman/politician James John Van Alen;[19] Helen Schermerhorn Astor,[20][21] who married diplomat James Roosevelt (and elder half-brother of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt); Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, who married Marshall Orme Wilson (brother of banker Richard Thornton Wilson, Jr. and socialite Grace Wilson Vanderbilt);[22] and John Jacob Astor IV,[23] who married Ava Lowle Willing and, later, married socialite Madeleine Talmage Force, before perishing aboard the Titanic in 1912.[24]

Career

He started his business career at an early age and was prominent in financial circles on Wall Street as a produce exchange broker.[2] He owned several large real estate holdings on Long Island.[25]

During World War I, Suydam was a member of the National Guard of New York,[25] achieving the rank of Major.[1]

Society life

In 1892, both Suydam and his wife were both included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[26] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom (Walter's aunt).[27]

Suydam was chairman of the Sayville Tournament Committee and was a member of the Metropolitan Club, the Union Club of the City of New York, the Navy Club, the Holland Club and the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York (of which he served as president in 1913), the Military Society of the War of 1812, the Society of Colonial Wars (of which he was an officer for many years),[28] and the Sons of the American Revolution.[25]

Personal life

At age twenty on April 29, 1875,[4] Suydam was married to his cousin, Jane Mesier Suydam (1855–1932), the daughter of Ann Middleton (née Lawrence) Suydam and John R. Suydam, a merchant and "gentleman well-known in New-York society for his genial and hospitably qualities."[29] Her grandfather, John Suydam, "one of the old Knickerbocker merchants" who was the head of Suydam & Wycoff, and her uncles included Henry P. M. Suydam and D. Lydig Suydam.[29] Jane's grandfather, John Suydam, organized the cemetery of St. Ann’s in Sayville, New York.[29] They had an estate in Blue Point on Long Island (known as "Manowtasquott Lodge")[30] and a home in New York City at 5 West 76th Street.[31] Together, they were the parents of:[25]

  • Walter Lispenard Suydam Jr. (1884–1951),[32] who married Louise Lawrence White (1886–1912) in 1903.[33] They divorced in 1912 after she ran away with a plumber's assistant, whom she later married and shortly thereafter, committed suicide with.[34][35] After her death, he married Elizabeth Maxwell Tybout Wood (1892–1951)[36] in 1913.[37]

Suydam died after a short illness at his estate in Blue Point, Long Island[1] on August 10, 1930.[25][38] His funeral and burial was held at St. Ann's Church in Sayville.[25] His widow died two years later leaving an estate valued at "more than $20,000".[39]

References
  1. "DIED. SUYDAM--Walter Lispenard". The New York Times. August 12, 1930. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  2. "WALTER L. SUYDAM DIES AT AGE OF 76; Was a New York Produce Exchange Broker for Many Years. PROMINENT AS A CLUBMAN Acquired Large Real Estate Holdings on Long Island--Related to Several Old Families". The New York Times. August 11, 1930. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  3. "DIED. Suydam" (PDF). The New York Times. November 25, 1886. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  4. Greene, Richard Henry; Stiles, Henry Reed; Dwight, Melatiah Everett; Morrison, George Austin; Mott, Hopper Striker; Totten, John Reynolds; Pitman, Harold Minot; Ditmas, Charles Andrew; Forest, Louis Effingham De; Mann, Conklin; Maynard, Arthur S. (1904). The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. p. 203. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  5. "DIED. Cutting" (PDF). The New York Times. June 20, 1919. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  6. "MARRIED. Cutting--Suydam". The New York Times. January 27, 1883. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  7. Moffat, R. Burnham (1904). The Barclays of New York: Who They are and who They are Not,-and Some Other Barclays. R. G. Cooke. p. 142. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  8. Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York (1905). The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York: History, Customs, Record of Events, Constitution, Certain Genealogies, and Other Matters of Interest. V. 1-. p. 138. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  9. "DIED. Jones" (PDF). The New York Times. August 23, 1874. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  10. Harrison, Mrs. Burton; Lamb, Mrs. Martha J. (1896). HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK; ITS ORIGIN RISE, AND PROGRESS. p. 754. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  11. "DIED. Irving" (PDF). The New York Times. December 21, 1893. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  12. "JOHN TREAT IRVING DEAD.; He Was Graduated from Columbia in 1829 -- Lawyer and Author" (PDF). The New York Times. February 28, 1906. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  13. "William Astor Is Dead; Stricken Suddenly at the Hotel Liverpool, Paris. He Leaves a Fortune of Many Mill- Ions -- John Jacob Astor Will Inherit It -- the Body Will Be Brought Home for Burial" (PDF). The New York Times. April 27, 1892. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  14. "Mrs. Eleanor Colford Morris" (PDF). The New York Times. April 27, 1906. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
  15. "The Commercial and Financial Chronicle". National News Service, Incorporated. 1906: 542. Retrieved October 15, 2017. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  16. "A. Newbold Morris Dead. He Was A Descendant of Noted Family Which Owned Morrisania" (PDF). The New York Times. September 3, 1906. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
  17. "BENJAMIN WELLES DIES OF PNEUMONIA; Father of Assistant Secretary of State Was Descendant of Colonial Settlers" (PDF). The New York Times. December 27, 1935. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  18. Bohlen, Celestine (January 4, 2002). "Benjamin Welles, Biographer And Journalist, Is Dead at 85". The New York Times. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
  19. "JAMES L. VAN ALEN DIES IN PARIS AT 48; Member of Old New York Family, Long Ill, Succumbs With Family at Bedside" (PDF). The New York Times. May 31, 1927. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  20. "DIED. Roosevelt" (PDF). The New York Times. November 14, 1893. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  21. "MRS. HELEN ROOSEVELT'S WILL.; Application for Its Probate Filed at Poughkeepsie -- Its Provisions" (PDF). The New York Times. November 26, 1893. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  22. "A WEDDING AMID FLOWERS; THE MARRIAGE OF MISS ASTOR AND MR. WILSON. | MANY PRINCELY PRESENTS | A NECKLACE THAT COST $75,000 | BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLES OF WORTH'S ART" (PDF). The New York Times. November 19, 1884. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  23. "An Age of Splendor, and Hotel One-Upmanship". The New York Times. June 18, 2006. His younger cousin, known as Jack, enrolled in Harvard, left without a degree, traveled and joined 'about two dozen clubs.' He tinkered with inventions, married unwisely and, inspired by Jules Verne, wrote a work of science fiction. Often ridiculed in the press, he bore the sobriquet 'Jack Ass.'
  24. "Noted Men On The Lost Titanic. Col. Jacob Astor, with His Wife. Isidor Straus and Wife, and Benj. Guggenheim Aboard". The New York Times. April 16, 1912. Retrieved December 10, 2013. Following are sketches of a few of the well-known persons among the 1,300 passengers on the lost Titanic. The fate of most of them at this time is, of course, not known. Col. John Jacob Astor and Mrs. Astor, Isidor Straus and Mrs. Straus, J. Bruce Ismay, Managing Director of the White Star Line: Benjamin Guggenheim, and Frank D. Millet, the artist, are perhaps the most widely known of the passengers.....
  25. "Suydam--Mr. Walter Lispenard". Brooklyn Life and Activities of Long Island Society. August 16, 1930. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  26. 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 5 October 2017.
  27. 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.
  28. General Society of Colonial Wars (U.S.) (1915). Year Book of the Society of Colonial Wars. Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company. p. 113. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  29. "JOHN R. SUYDAM". The New York Times. May 16, 1882. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  30. Social Register, Summer. Social Register Association. 1919. p. 279. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  31. "MRS. SUYDAM'S WILL FILED FOR PROBATE". New York Daily News. March 24, 1932. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  32. "WALTER SUYDAM JR". The New York Times. January 3, 1951. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  33. "Society at Home and Abroad". The New York Times. May 10, 1903. p. 7. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  34. "AWAIT SUYDAM WEDDING.; Friends in Sayville Look for News of His Marriage to Miss Wood". The New York Times. January 18, 1913. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  35. "DIES WITH YOUTH SHE ELOPED WITH; Suicide by Gas Ends Romance of Young Noble and the Former Mrs. Suydam". The New York Times. February 5, 1912. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  36. "MRS. WALTER L. SUYDAM". The New York Times. March 18, 1951. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  37. "W.L. Suydam, Jr., Weds Miss Wood". The New York Times. March 26, 1913. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  38. 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. 1410. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  39. "$20,000 ESTATE LEFT BY SUFFOLK WOMAN". New York Daily News. March 22, 1932. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
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