Bag of Bones Read online

  —New York Times

  November 12, 1877

  Stewart provided money and assistance during several national and international disasters. In 1848, when the great potato famine hit Ireland, he sent over a ship full of provisions and instructed his agents there to pick decent men and women who were able to read and write to bring to the United States, where he would find them work in his store or with other employers. One hundred and thirty-nine men and women were brought over and found jobs.

  At the start of the Civil War in 1861, Stewart gave generously to the Union cause. He contributed one hundred thousand dollars to the United States Sanitary Commission and later, in 1862, as the war took an economic toll on the English cotton manufacturing industry, he gave ten thousand dollars to help workers in England who had lost their jobs because of the cotton famine during the Civil War.

  Stewart realized that the war would cause an increase in the price of cotton, since cotton was grown in the Southern states and manufactured into cotton goods in the Northern industrial states. To circumvent the economic disaster that the rise in cotton prices might cause to his business enterprises, or worse, the inability to buy cotton at all, he heavily invested in every cotton product he could get his hands on. This allowed him to continue selling products, and he was able to maintain a monopoly on cotton during the war. Although he lost much of his business in the South he more than made up for this loss through his sale of uniforms, blankets, and other military goods to the Union army.

  At the beginning of the war, the Union forces had trouble outfitting troops, so Stewart bought several woolen mills in New York and New England where he manufactured uniforms and other necessities for the troops, which he sold to the government at an extremely low cost. Stewart ultimately received huge numbers of government contracts for goods, generating a giant profit for his business.

  In a letter to a Tennessee cotton supplier who had repudiated Stewart for his support of the Union cause, Stewart did not mince words:

  Dear Sir—Your letter requesting to know whether or not I had offered a million of dollars to the Government for the purposes of the war, and at the same time informing me that neither yourself nor your friends would pay their debts to the firm as they matured, has been received. The intention not to pay seems to be universal in the South—aggravated in your case by the assurance that it does not arise from inability; but whatever may be your determination or that of others at the South, it shall not change my course. All that I have of position and wealth, I owe to the free institutions of the United States, under which, in common with all others, North and South, protection to life, liberty, and property have been enjoyed in the fullest manner. The Government to which these blessings are due, calls on her citizens to protect the Capital of the Union from threatened assault; and although the offer to which you refer has not in terms been made by me, I yet dedicate all that I have, and will, if need be, my life, to the service of the country—for to that country I am bound by the strongest ties of affection and duty. I had hoped that Tennessee would be loyal to the Constitution; but, however extensive may be secession or repudiators, as long as there are any to uphold the sovereignty of the United States, I shall be with them supporting the flag.

  Yours, &c, Alexander T. Stewart. New York, April 29th, 1861.

  —Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly, Vol. 1, 1876

  Stewart was a favorite of First Lady Mary Lincoln, who spent thousand of dollars on various merchandise including expensive clothes and accessories. According to the Smithsonian Institution’s First Ladies Hall, “She vented her frustrations in an orgy of spending—buying handsome clothes and beautiful accessories for herself and elegant furnishings for the White House.”

  And according to the documentary Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided, “She bought new dresses, hats … it was said that in three months, she purchased 300 pairs of gloves. Many of her purchases were never even unpacked.”

  Stewart displayed his usual marketing savvy when he gave Mrs. Lincoln a $2,500 lace shawl. The gift made headlines across the country: “At the last levee at the White House, Mrs. Lincoln wore a lace shawl, presented her by A. T. Stewart of New York, which cost $2,500,” a New York Times article declared.

  At the time of her husband’s assassination in 1865, Mrs. Lincoln owed Stewart close to thirty thousand dollars on her line of credit.

  Stewart became a close friend of General Ulysses S. Grant and became an ardent supporter of Grant’s campaign for the presidency. Aside from his friendship with Grant, Stewart had tremendous respect and admiration for the general, who had contributed so much to the Union cause and its ultimate success. When Grant became president in 1869, he nominated Stewart as secretary of the treasury. The Senate unanimously confirmed the nomination, but it was brought to light that a merchant in active business was legally disqualified from accepting the position. Stewart asserted that he would be willing to donate the profits from his business ventures to the underprivileged of New York City during his term of office, but opposition remained. Grant asked Congress to repeal the law that prohibited Stewart’s appointment but could not muster enough votes to do it. Stewart ultimately had to withdraw his nomination.

  After the great Chicago Fire in 1871, Stewart gave fifty thousand dollars to the relief fund. He also donated to various churches and instituted a policy that gave clergy and teachers a 10 percent discount on all their purchases at his stores. One of Stewart’s salesmen was reported to have said, “Over half of the people in New York are now clergymen or teachers.”

  But the crowning triumph of Stewart’s generosity was the building of Garden City.

  Stewart himself conceived of the idea of building a town that would be an affordable model community for employees and others. The goal was to build comfortable homes at a reasonable cost, far enough from New York City to keep away uninvited guests and yet close enough that his employees who were living there could easily make it to work. He planned to establish his own railroad line, the Central Railroad of Long Island, to transport residents to and from the city. Stewart envisioned that the land would be the property of his corporation and could not be sold outright. Even the homes would be built by the corporation and only leased to those living there. Stewart intended it to be a self-governing community where its inhabitants would enact their own laws. His plans called for the construction of a large hotel, wide roads, schools, and churches, with hundreds of trees and shrubs and initially, more than fifty homes built on spacious lots. More homes would be built later as the town grew in population.

  Stewart intended his planned community to be private and fashionable. It would be, for all intents and purposes, a Garden of Eden for his employees and their families. Stewart named his planned community Garden City.

  Hempstead Plains, L.I.

  The town of Hempstead L.I. owns about 7,500 acres of unimproved land lying on the Long Island Railroad, about twenty miles distant from this City. It is of the character of the prairie land of the West, being exceedingly level, and the soil, never yet turned by the plow, is as black as the prairie lands of Illinois. … Mr. A.T. STEWART has since made an offer of $412,500 for the whole tract, with a view to building a village for workingmen on the site. … Exactly what he intends to do, Mr. STEWART explains in the following letter to the editor of the Hempstead Sentinel:

  Having been informed that interested parties are circulating statements to the effect that my purpose in desiring to purchase the Hempstead Plains, is to devote them to the erection of tenement-houses and public charities of a like character. I consider it proper to state that my only object in seeking to acquire these lands is to devote them to the usual purposes for which such lands, so located, should be applied—that is, open them by constructing extensive public roads; laying out the lands in parcels for sale to actual settlers, and erecting at various points attractive buildings and residences, so that a barren waste may spee
dily be covered by a population desirable in every respect as neighbors, tax-payers and as citizens. In doing this I am prepared and would be willing to expend several millions of dollars.

  Very respectfully yours,

  Alex. T. Stewart

  —New York Times, July 9, 1869

  In 1869, Stewart purchased a plot of land, more than 7,000 acres, on the Hempstead Plains on Long Island. Hempstead Plains was a flat, treeless tract of land running from New Hyde Park to Farmingdale. Stewart bought the land from the Town of Hempstead, which was more than willing to get rid of what it viewed as a wasteland, for $55 an acre. Stewart paid a total of $394,350 for it all. Over the next six years, the property was surveyed and divided into wide streets and roadways; the grand hotel was built and surrounded by a magnificent park in the center of the town; trees were planted; the railroad was built, as was a water and gas works; and homes were constructed. It was a model suburban community. Stewart died before he saw his planned Garden City reach its full potential, and if it wasn’t for the efforts of his widow, Cornelia, the planned community might never have become a reality.

  After Stewart’s death in 1876, Garden City was practically a ghost town. While homes rented for a mere one hundred dollars a month, almost no one had moved into the town. A reported seven commuters rode Stewart’s Central Railroad of Long Island for the daily trip into Manhattan.

  The Hempstead Plains property is about twelve miles long and two and a half wide. ‘Garden City,’ as it is called, is four miles from the western end, and has upon it 102 houses, renting from $150 to $1,200 each. At present its population is about 300. In the centre is, a large brick hotel, tastefully constructed, which cost, furnished, $100,000. …

  Nine thousand acres of this land were bought in 1868, from the town of Hempstead, for $450,000 and to this area 1,000 acres have been recently added. A contract has also been made for waterworks, to cost $125,000 … to pump 2,500,000 gallons a day, if required. That part of the Central Railroad of Long Island running from the western end of Garden City, four miles to Farmingdale, was owned by Mr. Stewart, and leased to the Central Railroad Company, together with the road of one mile to Hempstead.

  —Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly, Vol. 1, 1876

  It was Cornelia Stewart who turned Garden City into a bustling and much sought after community. As a monument to her husband’s memory, she commissioned the building of the Cathedral of the Incarnation, an enormous and elaborate Gothic-style church, with a two hundred-foot spire, marbled interior and exterior, flying buttresses, and pinnacles. She also built an ornate home for the bishop, a seminary, a rectory, and two preparatory schools, St. Paul’s for the boys and St. Mary’s for the girls.

  She ultimately persuaded the Episcopal Church to move its seat from Brooklyn to Garden City. Cornelia agreed to deed the cathedral and other church buildings and schools to the Episcopal Church of Long Island with the condition that her husband would be buried in the cathedral. It was an offer the church couldn’t refuse. After Cornelia’s death in 1886, her heirs formed a new corporation, the Garden City Company, in 1893 for the purpose of continuing the development of the community. In 1919 Garden City was incorporated into a public village, and it ultimately became an exclusive, upper-crust, and much desired community of large, expensive homes. It was A. T. Stewart’s sense of vision and planning that forever altered the face of Long Island.

  While the Working Women’s Hotel and Garden City may have been built on altruistic intentions, there is little doubt that Stewart’s Marble Mansion was calculated to impress and outdo his wealthy, illustrious neighbors. It was one of the most ornate and elaborate private homes in America. The designer of Stewart’s mansion was John Kellum, who designed all of Stewart’s buildings, including the Cast Iron Palace, the women’s hotel, and the buildings and homes at Garden City. In their book Stately Homes in America: From Colonial Times to the Present Day (1903), Harry W. Desmond and Herbert Croly write, “In the case of the old Stewart mansion, the palatial idea made an early and obvious appearance. The location, the character of the design, the choice of the material, everything about the house, inside and out, showed that the old Irish merchant wanted to make a grand impression; and he undoubtedly succeeded in doing so—upon his contemporaries.”

  The location of the mansion was across the street from the home of the multimillionaire William Backhouse Astor Jr., the oldest son of William Backhouse Astor Sr. and the wealthiest member of the Astor family in his generation. William Sr.’s father, John Jacob Astor, made his fortune in the fur trade and real estate, and when he died in 1848, he left behind an estate estimated at more than twenty million dollars. He is considered America’s first multimillionaire. In 1859, Astor Jr. erected the magnificent home at 350 Fifth Avenue, where he lived with his wife, Caroline.

  In 1869–1870, when Stewart completed his mansion, the average lot size in New York City was twenty-five feet wide by one hundred feet deep. Stewart’s mansion extended 150 feet on Thirty-fourth Street and nearly 112 feet on Fifth Avenue. He had purchased the land, upon which already stood a large brownstone mansion, in 1861. At first Stewart had his architect draw up plans to remodel the existing home, but he subsequently changed his mind and had the building torn down so he could erect a new one, which became his Italian and Tuckahoe (Westchester County) marble mansion. The main entrance on the Thirty-fourth Street side included a wide flight of steps, each more than thirty feet long. Huge marble posts were erected at the foot of the staircase, and a marble balustrade was built on either side to enclose the ground around the mansion. The huge white marble used as the base for the steps leading to the main door was rumored to have been the single largest piece of marble ever dug from any quarry in the country.

  According to historian Junius Henri Browne, the main role of the new rich in New York City during the Gilded Age was to “annoy and worry the Knickerbockers, who have less money and are more stupid.”

  The nickname “Knickerbocker” derived its origins from American author Washington Irving (1783–1859), who in 1809 published A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, a satirical account of the Dutch colonists who settled New York. Irving wrote the book under the pseudonym “Diedrich Knickerbocker,” and afterward the assumed surname became the nickname for native residents of New York.

  Browne wrote that he viewed these wealthy native New Yorkers (Knickerbockers) as the “narrowest and dullest people on the island.” And he further ridiculed them as having “done much to induce the belief that stupidity and gentility are synonymous terms.”

  Browne was no more kind in this regard to the newly rich, those like Stewart. He derided people who were social and economic upstarts, who came from a poor background and had earned their fortune, rather than inherited it, and who had not gained acceptance by the socially superior and wealthy Astor and Vanderbilt class. According to Browne, Stewart and his ilk “generally manage to render themselves very absurd.”

  “They outdress and outshine the old families, the cultivatedly comfortable, the inheritors of fortunes and everybody else, in whatever money can purchase and bad taste can suggest.”

  Surely Stewart’s two-million-dollar, three-story, French-style mansion next to the Astor home was a marble testament to Browne’s observation.

  “From the beginning, Stewart was determined to create a domicile that was different from, and implied greater wealth than, the Astor brownstone across the street, with which it invited constant comparison. There were few ways in which the upstart new millionaires could outdo the Astors, but they quickly learned that one means was through architecture—by building something of higher fashion, more costly, connoting European sophistication and aristocracy more than Knickerbocker sedateness. In that sense Stewart succeeded.”

  —Wayne Craven, Gilded Mansions: Grand Architecture and High Society, 2009

  The Astors and the Stewar
ts lived opposite each other where Fifth Avenue met Thirty-fourth Street. According to Eric Homberger, author of Mrs. Astor’s New York: Money and Power in a Gilded Age (2002), “Mrs. Astor acted as though Stewart and his wife did not exist.”

  Caroline Astor was the doyenne of American high society in the latter half of the nineteenth century, the very symbol of New York City’s “old money” and values. She clearly delineated what was and was not deemed acceptable in New York’s high society, and despite his vast fortune, Alexander and Cornelia Stewart were not among those deemed socially acceptable.

  Caroline Schermerhorn was the daughter of a wealthy Dutch merchant and had colonial Dutch aristocracy on both sides of her family tree. She married William Backhouse Astor Jr. in 1854.

  “I have been insane on the subject of moneymaking all my life. I won’t sue you for the law is too slow. I will ruin you. What do I care about the law? Hain’t I got the power?”