Marion Graves Anthon Fish

Marion Graves Anthon Fish (nickname, "Mamie"; June 8, 1853 – May 25, 1915) was an American socialite and self-styled "fun-maker" of the Gilded Age. She and her husband, Stuyvesant Fish, maintained stately homes in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island.[1]

Marion Graves Anthon Fish
Born
Marion Graves Anthon

June 8, 1853
Staten Island, New York
DiedMay 25, 1915
Glenclyffe, New York
NationalityAmerican
Other names"Mamie"
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1876; her death 1915)​
ChildrenLivingston Fish
Marian Anthon Fish
Stuyvesant Fish, Jr.
Sidney Webster Fish
Parent(s)William Henry Anthon
Sarah Attwood Meert
RelativesJohn Anthon (grandfather)

Early life

Marion ("Mamie") Graves Anthon, as she was called, was born in Grimes Hill, Staten Island and was the daughter of Sarah Attwood Meert and the esteemed Gen. William Henry Anthon (1827–1875),[2] a successful lawyer and Staten Island assemblyman.[3][4] Her paternal grandfather was jurist John Anthon (1784–1863).[3] Mamie was of Dutch, English, French and German ancestry.[5] She grew up on Irving Place in Manhattan and only received a rudimentary education and, by her own admission, could barely read and write.[6]

Society hostess
Stuyvesant Fish House at 25 East 78th Street, in New York City

Mamie ruled as one of the so-called Triumvirate of American Gilded Age society, known as the "Four Hundred", along with Alva Vanderbilt Belmont and Tessie Oelrichs.[7] She became a notable leader of high society (in New York City at her townhouse at 25 East 78th Street, at her stately home Glenclyffe in Philipstown, New York, and at her mansion Crossways in Newport, RI) by virtue of her quick wit and sharp tongue. Grandees attending her dinner parties would be greeted with the occasional insult, "Make yourself perfectly at home, and believe me, there is no one who wishes you there more heartily than I do." One man was greeted with "Oh, how do you do! I had quite forgotten I asked you!"[8]

In collusion with her antics, Harry Lehr often served as a co-planner of outrageous parties, such as the one given in honor of "Prince Del Drago of Corsica", who turned out to be a well-dressed monkey (given too much champagne, the monkey proceeded to climb the chandelier and throw light bulbs at the guests).[9] At another of her parties, dancers holding peanuts would feed an elephant she rented as they danced by it.[10]

Mrs. Fish's cattiness respected no rank, for when Theodore Roosevelt's wife sought to keep a frugal household, "Mamie" Fish was quoted as condescendingly saying of Mrs. Roosevelt "It is said [she] dresses on three hundred dollars a year, and she looks it."[11]

Personal life

On June 1, 1876, she married Stuyvesant Fish (1851–1923), the director of the National Park Bank of New York City and president of the Illinois Central Railroad. He was the son of Hamilton Fish (1808–1893).[12] Together, they had four children, three of whom lived to adulthood:[13]

  • Livingston Fish (1879–1880), who died at six months.[2]
  • Marian Anthon Fish (1880–1944),[14][15] who married Albert Zabriskie Gray (1881–1964), the son of the Judge John Clinton Gray,[16] on June 12, 1907.[17] They divorced on December 5, 1934.[18]
  • Stuyvesant Fish, Jr. (1883–1952),[19] who married Isabelle Mildred Dick (1884–1972), daughter of Evans Rogers Dick, in 1910.[20]
  • Sidney Webster Fish (1885–1950),[21] who married Olga Martha Wiborg (1890–1937), daughter of Frank Bestow Wiborg, in 1915.[22] In 1929, he married Esther Foss, the daughter of Gov. Eugene Noble Foss. She had previously been married to George Gordon Moore, a polo player whom she divorced in 1933, and Aiden Roark, another polo player whom she married in 1934 and divorced in 1939.[23][24][25]

She died on May 25, 1915 and is buried near Glenclyffe at the Church of St. Philip-in-the-Highlands.[12][26] Her Newport "summer cottage", Crossways, is now a condominium.[27][28]

References
Notes
  1. "MRS. FISH, LEADER OF SOCIETY, DEAD; Wife of Stuyvesant Fish Dies Suddenly of Cerebral Hemorrhage at Glenclyffe. WAS LAVISH ENTERTAINER Her Mother Goose and Flower Balls Were Features of Newport -- Gave Liberally to Charity". The New York Times. 27 May 1915. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  2. College, Radcliffe (1971). Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Harvard University Press. p. 620. ISBN 9780674627345. Retrieved 7 April 2017. Sarah Attwood Meert anthon.
  3. "OBITUARY.; GEN. WILLIAM HENRY ANTHON". The New York Times. 9 November 1875. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  4. "PRICES OF RARE COINS.; THE SALE OF THE ANTHON COLLECTION BROUGHT TO A CLOSE". The New York Times. 19 November 1879. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  5. Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Radcliffe College, 1971, page 620.
  6. Gavan 41.
  7. Gavan 40.
  8. Vanderbilt, 239 and New York Social Diary
  9. Vanderbilt, 227-45.
  10. Dalton 47-8.
  11. Dalton, 54.
  12. "Notable and Fanciful Quotes"
  13. Times, Special To The New York (26 April 1923). "FISH'S ESTATE LEFT TO THREE CHILDREN; Financier Leaves Nothing to Charity, Holding That Such Gifts Are Only to 'Gratify Vanity.'". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  14. "Obituary 1 -- No Title". The New York Times. 31 January 1944. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  15. "MRS. MARION FISH GRAY; Daughter of Late Stuyvesant Fish, Illinois Rail Head". The New York Times. 30 January 1944. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  16. "Albert Z. Gray Dies at 83". The New York Times. 30 August 1964. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  17. "ALBERT Z. GRAY WEDS MISS MARIAN FISH; 5,000 Guests Invited to the Ceremony at St. Bartholomew's in Madison Avenue. CRUSH AT THE CHURCH Guests Present from Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, and Elsewhere -- MacCracken-Dodd Wedding". The New York Times. 13 June 1907. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  18. Times, Special To The New York (5 December 1934). "DIVORCES ALBERT Z. GRAY.; Wife Waives Alimony in Obtaining Decree at Newport". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  19. Times, Special To The New York (27 June 1952). "STUYVESANT FISH, FINANClER, DEAD; Retired Stockbroker, 69, Was of Family Noted in Society Father Headed Railroad". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  20. Times, Special To The New York (6 May 1910). "STUYVESANT FISH, JR., TO WED; Engaged to Miss Mildred Dick. Daughter of Evans R. Dick". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  21. Times, Special To The New York (7 February 1950). "SIDNEY W. FISH, 64, ONCE LAWYER HERE". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  22. Times, Special To The New York (19 April 1937). "MRS. SIDNEY FISH, A SOCIETY WOMAN; Member of the East Hampton Summer Colony Dies at Her California Home". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  23. "Wife Divorces Aidan Roark". New York Times. December 23, 1937. Retrieved 2011-04-07. Mrs. Esther F. Roark, formerly of Boston and Pebble Beach, Calif., won a divorce today from Aidan Roark, film executive and polo star. She testified that he was rude and brusque.
  24. Times, Special To The New York (27 November 1954). "MRS. SIDNEY FISH". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  25. "SIDNEY FISH MARRIES; Mrs. Esther Foss Roark Is Bride of New Yorker in West". The New York Times. 11 January 1939. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  26. Times, Special To The New York (27 May 1915). "Newport Mourns for Mrs. Fish". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  27. Crossways.
  28. Times, Special To The New York (8 October 1923). "FISH HEIRS SELL A FARM.; One of Many Acquired by Financier In Putnam Valley". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
Sources
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