Wikipedia

Henry T. Sloane

Henry Thompson Sloane (December 1, 1845 – September 18, 1937)[1] was an American businessman during the Gilded Age.

Henry T. Sloane
Born(1845-12-01)December 1, 1845
New York City, U.S.
DiedSeptember 18, 1937(1937-09-18) (aged 91)
Southampton, New York, U.S.
Alma materYale College
EmployerW. & J. Sloane
Spouse
Jessie Ann Robbins
​
​
(m. 1880; div. 1889)​
Parent(s)William Sloane
Euphemia Douglas
RelativesWilliam Douglas Sloane (brother)
Henry Sloane Coffin (nephew)
William Sloane Coffin (nephew)
Henry-Louis de La Grange (grandson)

Early life

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Sloane was born in New York City on December 1, 1845. He was the fourth son of William Sloane (1810–1879) and Euphemia (née Douglas) Sloane (1810–1886). Among his siblings was John Sloane, who married Adela Berry;[2] Douglas Sloane; Mary Elizabeth Sloane; William Douglas Sloane, who married Emily Thorn Vanderbilt;[3] and Euphemia (née Sloane) Coffin, who married Edmund Coffin and was the mother of Rev. Henry Sloane Coffin and William Sloane Coffin Sr.[4]

His parents were emigrants from Kilmarnock, Scotland. His paternal grandparents were John Sloane and Jane Mary (née Lammie) Sloane,[5] and his maternal grandparents were David and Margaret Douglas.[6]

Sloane entered Yale College with the class of 1866, but left at the close of the first term of his senior year due to ill health. In 1869, Yale awarded him a degree.[1]

Career

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Advertisement for W. & J. Sloane Furniture from Sept. 1902 editions of Scribner's Magazine.
 
Sloane Physics Laboratory, the first science building completed after Sachem's Wood was purchased by Yale

Beginning at the age of fifteen, Sloane started working for the family carpet and furniture firm which was started by his father in 1843. In 1852, his uncle John W. Sloane joined the firm and it was renamed W. & J. Sloane.[7]

He later became a member of the firm,[8] and in 1870 was sent west to San Francisco to establish the California branch of the firm. When the company was incorporated in 1891, Sloane became a director and remained on the board until his death.[3] He later served as a senior director and treasurer of the company.[1] In his father and brother's memory, Sloane donated $515,000 to Yale for a large physics laboratory known as the Sloane Physics Laboratory.[1][9]

He was a member of the New York Yacht Club, the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club (of which he was the oldest member at the time of his death), and the Pilgrim Club.[1]

Personal life

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Jessie Ann Robbins Belmont in 1912 sketch by Marguerite Martyn of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

In 1880, Sloane was married to Jessie Ann Robbins (1858–1935).[10] Jessie was the daughter of Matilda Louisa (née Frost) Robbins and Daniel Cook Robbins, a partner in the wholesale drug firm of McKesson & Robbins. Together, they were the parents of two daughters:

  • Jessie M. Sloane (1883–1968),[11] who married William Earl Dodge IV (1883–1927), the son of William E. Dodge III and Emeline (née Harriman) Dodge,[a] in 1905.[13][14] They divorced and she married George Dunton Widener Jr. (1889–1971)[15] in 1917.[16]
  • Emily Eleanor Sloane (1890–1981),[17] who married Baron Amaury de La Grange (1888–1953),[18][19] a French Senator, Under-Secretary of State of France, and Vice-President of the International Aviation Federation.[18] He was held prisoner for five years during World War II by the Nazis.

On April 28, 1899, his wife divorced him. Five hours later, she married Perry Belmont, a U.S. Representative and former U.S. Minister to Spain.[20] While Sloane was rumored to have been engaged, he never remarried.[21]

After a month's illness, Sloane died of pneumonia at the James T. Shewan house in Southampton, New York (which he had rented for the season) on September 18, 1937.[1] After a funeral at St. Bartholomew's Church, he was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.[1] After his death, his paintings were sold at auction at the Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York in 1938.[22]

Residence

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Further information: Henry T. Sloane House

After their marriage, the Sloanes lived at West 54th Street near Fifth Avenue. In 1894, Sloane completed the construction of a new residence located at 9 East 72nd Street on the Upper East Side of the borough of Manhattan, New York City.[23] The mansion was designed by Carrère and Hastings in the late French Renaissance style.[24][25] After the divorce, he rented the house to Joseph Pulitzer and, in 1901, he sold it to banker James A. Stillman and moved to 18 East 86th Street.[1] In 1964, it housed the Lycée Français de New York, along with its extensions in the neighboring Oliver Gould Jennings House.[26]

Descendants

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Through his daughter Jessie, he was the grandfather of Diana Dodge (1910–1977), who married Frederick Martin Davies, a grandson of Daniel O'Neill, owner of the Pittsburgh Dispatch.[b] Through his daughter Emily, he was the grandfather of Amicie (née de La Grange) de Nicolay, Marie de La Grange (1919–1983),[28] who married Henry Baldwin Hyde in 1941 (son of James Hazen Hyde and namesake and grandson of Henry Baldwin Hyde, the founder of The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States),[29] and Henry-Louis de La Grange (1924–2017), a musicologist and biographer of Gustav Mahler.[30]

Notes

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  1. ^ Dodge's maternal grandfather was Oliver Harriman and his aunts and uncles included Anne Harriman Vanderbilt, Oliver Harriman, Jr., J. Borden Harriman, and Herbert M. Harriman. After his father's death in 1884, his mother remarried to Stephen Henry Olin.[12]
  2. ^ Frederick's sister, Emily O'Neill Davies (1903–1935), was married three times; first to William Henry Vanderbilt III; second to Sigourney Thayer (for less than a year); and thirdly to Raoul Whitfield.[27]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h TIMES, Special to THE NEW YORK (19 September 1937). "HENRY T. SLOANE, 91, MERCHANT, IS DEAD; Senior Director and Former Treasurer of W. & J. Sloane, Household Furnishers" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  2. ^ "JOHN SLOANE DEAD. The Well-Known Merchant Had Been in Business in New York Fifty Years" (PDF). The New York Times. December 10, 1905. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  3. ^ a b "WILLIAM D. SLOANE DIES IN AIKEN, S. C. New York Merchant and Financier Expires After a Short Illness, at 71. A TRUSTEE OF COLUMBIA Endowed with His Wife the Sloane Hospital for Women — A Benefactor of Yale" (PDF). The New York Times. March 20, 1915. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  4. ^ Staff (December 17, 1933). "Wm. S. Coffin Dies, Art Museum Head. Stricken in Street, He Succumbs to Heart Disease at His Home. 54 Years Old. Interested in Housing. Urged Razing of East Side Slums. Honored by France for Y.M.C.A. War Work". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-11-08.
  5. ^ Downs, Winfield Scott; Company, American Historical (1960). Encyclopedia of American biography: New series. American Historical Society. p. 70. Retrieved 17 July 2018. {{cite book}}: |last2= has generic name (help)
  6. ^ "Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1937-1938 | Series 35" (PDF). Bulletin of Yale University (12). 1 March 1939. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 October 2022. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  7. ^ The Story of Sloane's. W. and J. Sloane. 1950. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  8. ^ History of American Textiles: With Kindred and Auxiliary Industries (illustrated). Frank P. Bennett. 1922. p. 285. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  9. ^ Times, Special to The New York (5 October 1909). "SLOANES GIVE YALE $425,000.; William D. and Henry T. Sloane Provide Funds for a Laboratory" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  10. ^ "MRS. BELMONT DIES; LONG ILL IN PARIS; Former Social Leader Noted for Beauty--First Married to Henry T. Sloane. 20 YEARS IN WASHINGTON Husband, Perry, Former Minister to Spain--Still Owner of Newport Residence" (PDF). The New York Times. 21 October 1935. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  11. ^ "Mrs. George Widener, 84, Wife. of Sportsman, Dies". The New York Times. 12 March 1968. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  12. ^ Times, Special To The New York (14 August 1938). "MRS. EMELINE H. OLIN IS DEAD AT NEWPORT; Daughter of Oliver Harriman Is Stricken After Brief Illness" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  13. ^ Times, Special to The New York (20 September 1905). "MISS SLOANE ENGAGED. Eldest Daughter of Henry T. Sloane to Marry William Earl Dodge" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  14. ^ "A DAY's WEDDINGS. | DODGE--SLOANE" (PDF). The New York Times. 19 December 1905. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  15. ^ Times, Special To The New York (9 December 1971). "George Widener, Racing Figure, Dies at 82". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  16. ^ "MRS. W. EARL DODGE WEDS G.D. WIDENER; Divorcee, the Elder Daughter of Henry T. Sloane, Is Married in Her Home. FEW AT THE CEREMONY Young Philadelphian, Son of Late Financier, and His Bride Leave for South on Honeymoon" (PDF). The New York Times. 21 March 1917. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  17. ^ "Baroness A. de la Grange, 93; Related to Sloane's Founder". The New York Times. 2 October 1981. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  18. ^ a b "MISS SLOANE TO WED FRENCH BARON; Second Daughter of Henry T. Sloane Engaged to Amaury de La Grange of Paris. HE IS NOW AT THE FRONT Fiancee Is Secretary of the Lafayette Fund ;- The Wedding to be Held in France" (PDF). The New York Times. 28 August 1915. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  19. ^ "Deaths" (PDF). The New York Times. 11 June 1953. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  20. ^ "Perry Belmont, 96, Ex-diplomat, Dead. Envoy To Spain In 1888-9 Was In Congress 8 Years. Decried Isolationism In 1925 Perry Might, 96, Ex-diplomat, Dead". New York Times. May 26, 1947. Retrieved 2015-04-30.
  21. ^ "Henry T. Sloane Contradicts a Rumor" (PDF). The New York Times. 23 June 1905. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  22. ^ "UNION LEAGUE ART ON SALE THURSDAY; Percy A. Rockefeller Pictures and Those of Late Henry T. Sloane Also to Go" (PDF). The New York Times. 20 March 1938. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  23. ^ "EAST SIDE MANSION IN NEW OWNERSHIP; Residence Built in 1900 for Henry T. Sloane Is Sold by Sanford Interests" (PDF). The New York Times. 12 August 1941. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  24. ^ Christopher Gray. "Stirrings of a Throwback Kind". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  25. ^ Craven, Wayne (2009). Gilded Mansions: Grand Architecture and High Society. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 341–345. ISBN 9780393067545. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  26. ^ "Streetscapes/9 East 72nd Street; A School's Grand House That Could Be Private Again - New York Times". Nytimes.com. 2001-01-07. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  27. ^ "OWN LIFE TAKEN BY EX-WIFE OF W. H. VANDERBILT". Chicago Tribune. May 25, 1935. Retrieved February 21, 2017.[permanent dead link]
  28. ^ "Marie de La Grange Hyde, 64, Ex-Editor for War Information". The New York Times. 3 June 1983. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  29. ^ "Miss de la Grange Becomes Bride Of Henry Hyde; Granddaughter of Late Henry T. Sloane Wed Here to Son Of James Hazen Hyde" (PDF). The New York Times. 20 April 1941. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  30. ^ "Henry-Louis de La Grange, Mahler Authority, Is Dead at 92". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
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