Archibald D. Russell

Archibald Douglas Russell (May 28, 1853 – November 27, 1919)[1] was an American financier and philanthropist.

Archibald D. Russell
Born
Archibald Douglas Russell

(1853-05-28)May 28, 1853
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedNovember 27, 1919(1919-11-27) (aged 66)
New York City, New York, U.S.
OccupationFinancier, philanthropist
EmployerBrown Bros. & Co.
Russell, Robinson & Roosevelt
Spouse(s)
Albertina Taylor Pyne
​
​
(m. 1884; died 1918)​
Children5
Parent(s)Archibald Russell
Helen Rutherfurd Watts
RelativesWilliam Hamilton Russell (brother)
James Russell (grandfather)

Early life

Russell was born on May 28, 1853 in New York City and as a child, lived there and at his parent's summer home in Princeton, New Jersey. He was a son of Helen Rutherfurd (née Watts) Russell (1815–1906) and Archibald Russell (1811–1871),[2] who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and became a lawyer after studying law with Sir Patrick Fraser Tytler and emigrated to the United States in 1836.[3] Among his siblings was Anna Watts Russell (wife of Henry Lewis Morris), Eleanor Elliott Russell (wife of Arthur John Peabody, nephew of George Peabody), John Watts Russell, and architect William Hamilton Russell.[3] His father was also a founder of the American Geographical Society and the Ulster County Savings Institution, near where Russell had his country seat in Ulster County.[3]

His paternal grandparents were Eleanor (née Oliver) Russell and Dr. James Russell, a former president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.[2] His mother was the only surviving child of his maternal grandparents, Dr. John Watts and Anna (née Rutherfurd) Watts (daughter of U.S. Senator John Rutherfurd).[4] Through his maternal grandfather, he was a great-grandson of Robert Watts (son of John Watts and brother of U.S. Representative John Watts) and Lady Mary Alexander (daughter of William Alexander, Lord Stirling).[3]

He was educated at private schools in New York before entering the business world.[2]

Career

Russell began his career with Brown Bros. & Co., the established banking firm founded by George Brown in 1818. He later went into partnership, as the senior member, with Douglas Robinson Jr. (husband of Corinne Roosevelt Robinson) and Elliott Roosevelt (father of Eleanor Roosevelt), as Russell, Robinson & Roosevelt, a banking and real estate firm. Douglas and Elliott were the brother-in-law and brother of President Theodore Roosevelt.[2]

He served as the third president, succeeding Morris K. Jessup, of the Five Points House of Industry, of which his father was a founder and the first president.[2]

Russell served as a director of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, the Delaware and Hudson Railroad Company, the Title Guarantee and Trust Company, the Greenwich Savings Bank, the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company, the Princeton University Press, and the University Power Company. He also served as trustee of Princeton University, a vestryman of Trinity Church, Princeton, the domestic corresponding secretary of the American Geographic Society, and a member of the board of governors of the New York Institute.[2]

Personal life

In 1884, Russell was married to Albertina Taylor Pyne (1859–1918), a daughter of Albertina (née Taylor) Pyne and the English-born Percy Rivington Pyne, the president of National City Bank. Her two brothers were Percy Rivington Pyne II and Moses Taylor Pyne and her grandfather was Moses Taylor, an early president of National City Bank.[5] Together, they were the parents of five children, four of whom survived to adulthood:[6]

He was a member of the New York Yacht Club, the Riding Club, the Union Club, the Metropolitan Club, the Century Association and the Princeton Club of New York. His wife was widely known for her contributions that allowed for the construction of the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (today known as the Washington National Cathedral) in Washington, D.C.[2]

His wife died at their home, 34 East 36th Street, on February 11, 1918.[22] Russell died at his home in New York on November 27, 1919.[1] He was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. His entire estate, estimated at $50,000,000, was left to his children.[23]

Residences
Edgerstoune, 2015.

In New York, the Russells lived at 34 East 36th Street. In 1903, Russell hired his brother William Hamilton Russell, a partner in the architecture firm of Clinton and Russell, to build Edgerstoune,[lower-alpha 2] a Tudor Revival mansion on his Princeton estate.[24][25] Edgerstoune, which cost between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000 to construct, was located across the street from Drumthwacket the estate of his brother-in-law, Moses Taylor Pyne (and currently the official residence of the Governor of New Jersey),[26] and directly adjoining the estates of Junius Spencer Morgan, William T. White, and C. B. Lambert. After his death, the 274-acre Edgerstoune estate was sold by his son-in-law, Governor John Gilbert Winant, to Albert Robertshaw who planned a large real estate development with a country club. Less than a month later, it was sold to Professor John G. Hun, headmaster of the Hun School of Princeton for $350,000.[27]

Descendants

Through his son Archibald, he was a grandfather of A. Douglas Russell III, Louise Russell (wife of John Evelyn duPont Irving)[28] and Isabel Russell (wife of Robert S. Potter).[10]

Through his youngest daughter Constance, he was a grandfather of Constance Winant (1921–1978) (wife of Peruvian scientist Carlos Valando);[29] John Gilbert Winant Jr. (1922–1993) (who served as a bomber pilot in World War II and was taken prisoner by the Germans and sent to Colditz, before his removal in April 1945 as one of the Prominente to be used as a bargaining chip by Himmler and the SS as the end of the war approached; he was eventually released);[30] and Rivington Russell Winant (1925–2011)[31] (who also served in World War II and later became treasurer at the United Nations).[32]

References
Notes
  1. Russell's son-in-law, John Gilbert Winant (1889–1947), committed suicide in 1947,[16] following the breakdown of his marriage to Russell's daughter Constance, and Winant's failed affair with actress Sarah Churchill, the daughter of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.[17]
  2. Edgerstoune was named after Edgerston, the 1808 estate of his great-grandfather, U.S. Senator John Rutherfurd, on the banks of the Passaic River (near what is today Rutherford, New Jersey), which was itself named after Edgerston, the estate of their ancestors, Clan Rutherfurd, located just north of the Anglo-Scottish border, and eight miles south of Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland.[3]
Sources
  1. "ARCHIBALD D. RUSSELL DIES. Former Realty Dealer and Director in Many Corporations Was 66" (PDF). The New York Times. 30 November 1919. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  2. Cutter, William Richard (1920). American Biography: A New Cyclopedia, Vol. VII. American Historical Society. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  3. Lamb, Martha; Lamb, Martha Joanna; Harrison, Burton (2005). History of the City of New York: Its Origin, Rise, and Progress-Vol. 3. Cosimo, Inc. p. 767. ISBN 9781596052857. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  4. Welles, Albert; de Peyster, John Watts (1898). WATTS (WATT), IN NEW YORK AND IN SCOTLAND Also Watts, Wattes, Wattys, Wathes, de Wath, Le Fleming, in England (PDF). New York: C.H. Ludwig, printer. pp. 12–13. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  5. Brown, Janice (18 March 2015). "New Hampshire's Former First Lady: Constance Rivington (Russell) Winant Eppley Earle (1899-1981)". Cow Hampshire. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  6. Pyne, Moses Taylor (1915). Descendants of Galcerán de Pinós in Spain, France, England and America. T. A. Wright. p. 43. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  7. "DIED" (PDF). The New York Times. 10 February 1895. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  8. "MRS. M. EPPLEY, 65, WIFE OF ARCHITECT; Member of Noted Families of New York and Newport Dies After Long Illness" (PDF). The New York Times. 27 June 1952. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  9. "MISS RUSSELL A BRIDE; Weds Marion Eppley at Princeton--Reception at Edgerstoune" (PDF). The New York Times. 9 May 1909. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  10. "Archibald D. Russell, 78, Retired Real Estate Agent" (PDF). The New York Times. 28 May 1968. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  11. "MISS DOOLITTLE ENGAGED Utica Girl to Wed Archibald Douglas Russell of This City" (PDF). The New York Times. 27 April 1921. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  12. "Miss Russell to Wed R.L. Benson" (PDF). The New York Times. 25 April 1919. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  13. "Miss Russell a Bride" (PDF). The New York Times. 3 September 1919. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  14. "MRS. HELEN BENSON OF PRINCETON WED; Becomes the Bride of Joseph S. Clements in Municipal Building Here" (PDF). The New York Times. 18 September 1938. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  15. "WED TO CAPT. J.G WINANT.; Miss Constance R. Russell a Bride in Church of the Incarnation" (PDF). The New York Times. 21 December 1919. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  16. "John G. Winant Kills Self; Was Ex-Envoy to London; Pistol Shot Ends Life on Bedroom Floor in New Hampshire Home JOHN G. WINANT SUICIDE IN HOME" (PDF). The New York Times. 4 November 1947. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  17. James O. Freedman. "John Gilbert Winant—Brief life of an exemplary public servant: 1889–1947". Harvard Magazine, November–December 2000. Retrieved April 16, 2009.
  18. "MRS. WINANT WED TO RETIRED OFFICER; Widow of U. S. Envoy Bride of Capt. Marion Eppley of Navy in Church Here" (PDF). The New York Times. 16 January 1953. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  19. "MARION EPPLEY, NAVY CAPTAIN, 77; Officer in Both World Wars Was Chemist--Founded Laboratory in Newport" (PDF). The New York Times. 23 November 1960. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  20. "Walter K. Earle, Lawyer And Whaling Enthusiast" (PDF). The New York Times. 12 February 1969. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  21. "W. K. Earle, Lawyer, To Wed Mrs. Eppley" (PDF). The New York Times. 3 August 1965. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  22. "Mrs. Archibald D. Russell" (PDF). The New York Times. 13 February 1918. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  23. "RUSSELL LEFT $50,000,000; Princeton Man Revoked Charitable Bequests and Willed Estate to Children" (PDF). The New York Times. 16 December 1919. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  24. "Photo Archives - A_9_f_002". princeton.pastperfectonline.com. Historical Society of Princeton. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  25. Gulliver, Harold G. (1923). "EDGERSTOUNE: Magnificent County Seat, Perfect in Appointments and Upkeep. Property of the Late Archibald D. Russell at Princeton, New Jersey To Be Sold at Sacrifice Price". Country Life. Doubleday, Page, & Company. 44: 7–16b. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  26. Hastings, Sara (5 June 2019). "History for sale on Winant Road in Princeton". Community News. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  27. "PRINCETON ESTATE SOLD TO A SCHOOL; Professor Hun Buys Edgerstoune, Which Cost Builder Millions, for $350,000. PART OF IT FOR HOMES Old Russell Mansion and Much of the Grounds to Be Retained for the Pupils" (PDF). The New York Times. 16 August 1925. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  28. "John Evelyn du Pont Irving Jr. Marries Pandora Duke Biddle" (PDF). The New York Times. 13 March 1977. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  29. "Milestones, Feb. 24, 1941". Time. February 24, 1941. Retrieved April 11, 2010.
  30. "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". archive.org. Archived from the original on May 15, 2012.
  31. "Commemorative Chairs: John G. Winant" Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine. feri.org.
  32. "John Gilbert Winant – Governor and Ambassador". nhcommentary.com.
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