Charles Frederick Havemeyer (March 1867 – May 9, 1898) was an American socialite who was prominent in New York society during the

Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Wes ...

Early life

Havemeyer was born in March 1867 and was known as "Carley". He was the eldest boy of nine children born to Theodore Havemeyer (1839–1897) and Emilie ( née de Loosey) Havemeyer (1844–1914). His siblings included Nathalie Ida Blanche Havemeyer, who married John Mayer; Emily Blanche Havemeyer, who married Edward Clarkson Potter; Theodore Augustus Havemeyer, Jr.; Blanche Maximillian Havemeyer, who married William Butler Duncan, Jr.; Marie Ida Pauline Havemeyer, who married Perry Tiffany and H. F. Godfrey; Henry Osborne Havemeyer II, who became a major financier of Stephen Birch and the future

Kennecott Copper Company Kennecott Utah Copper LLC (KUC), a division of Rio Tinto Group, is a mining, smelting, and refining company. Its corporate headquarters are located in South Jordan, Utah. Kennecott operates the Bingham Canyon Mine, one of the largest open-pit ...

; Theodora Havemeyer, who married Admiral

Cameron Winslow Cameron McRae Winslow (July 29, 1854 – January 2, 1932) served in the United States Navy during the Spanish–American War and World War I. A son of Commander Francis Winslow (I) (1818–1862), (Cameron's father, who also fought in the Civil War ...

; and Frederick Christian Havemeyer, who married Lillie Harriman, daughter of

Oliver Harriman Oliver Harriman (September 16, 1829 – March 12, 1904) was an American businessman and member of the wealthy Harriman family. Early life Oliver Harriman was born on September 16, 1829 in New York City. His parents were Orlando Harriman (1790� ...

. His paternal grandparents were Frederick Christian Havemeyer Jr., who started the family business, and Sarah Louise ( née Henderson) Havemeyer. His maternal grandfather was Chevalier Charles Frederick de Loosey, the Austrian Consul to New York. His father and uncle,

Henry Osborne Havemeyer Henry Osborne Havemeyer (October 18, 1847 – December 4, 1907) was an American industrialist, entrepreneur and sugar refiner who founded and became president of the American Sugar Refining Company in 1891. Havemeyer was the third generation of h ...

, constructed "one of the most modern sugar refineries in the world."Henry Bischoff and Mitchell Kahn, ''From Pioneer Settlement to Suburb, A History of Mahwah, New Jersey, 1700-1976'', (South Brunswick and New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1979), p. 138. His father also co-founded the

Newport Country Club Newport Country Club, is a historic private golf club in the northeastern United States, located in Newport, Rhode Island. Founded in 1893, it hosted both the first U.S. Amateur Championship and the first U.S. Open in 1895. History Theodore H ...

, U.S. Amateur Championship and U.S. Open.

Career

Havemeyer was educated at home, then preparatory school, and then attended

Columbia School of Mines The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (popularly known as SEAS or Columbia Engineering; previously known as Columbia School of Mines) is the engineering and applied science school of Columbia University. It was founded as t ...

with the class of 1889. After Columbia, he entered the Havemeyer sugar house and "Sugar Trust" founded and run by his family.

Society life

In 1892, Havemeyer and his wife were included in

Ward McAllister Samuel Ward McAllister (December 28, 1827 – January 31, 1895) was a popular arbiter of social taste in the Gilded Age of late 19th-century America. He was widely accepted as the authority as to which families could be classified as the cream o ...

's "

Four Hundred 400 (four hundred) is the natural number following 399 and preceding 401. Mathematical properties 400 is the square of 20. 400 is the sum of the powers of 7 from 0 to 3, thus making it a repdigit in base 7 (1111). A circle is divided into ...

", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into

Mrs. Astor Caroline Webster "Lina" Schermerhorn Astor (September 22, 1830 – October 30, 1908) was a prominent American socialite of the second half of the 19th century who led the The Four Hundred (1892), Four Hundred. Famous for being referred to later ...

's ballroom.

Personal life

On October 16, 1890, Havemeyer was married to the noted beauty Camilla Woodward Moss (1869–1934), the daughter of Courtland Dixon Moss and Camilla (née Woodward) Moss. They had a residence in New York City, a home known as "Old Brick Farm" in

Roslyn, New York Roslyn ( ) is a village in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. It is the Greater Roslyn area's anchor community. The population was 2,770 at the 2010 census. History Ros ...

, and spent the winter in

Aiken, South Carolina Aiken is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Aiken County, in western South Carolina. It is one of the two largest cities of the Central Savannah River Area. Founded in 1835, Aiken was named after William Aiken, the president of the S ...

. Together, they were the parents of two children: * Theodore Augustus Havemeyer III (1892–1941), who moved to Vancouver where he was involved in the lumber business and where he married Jeannette Aileen MacLean (1894–1979), daughter of Ewen Wainwright MacLean, in 1915. He was previously engaged to Vida Bispham, a daughter of

David Bispham David Scull Bispham (January 5, 1857 – October 2, 1921) was an American operatic baritone. Biography Bispham was born on January 5, 1857 in Philadelphia, the only child of William Danforth Bispham and Jane Lippincott Scull.W. Bispham, 274 Bo ...

. * Charles Frederick Havemeyer Jr. (1898–1961), a sailor who attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

and served in France during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

with the U.S. Marine Corps. Charles raced in the British-American Cup match in 1923. Also in 1923, he married Ellen Randolph, a daughter of Edmund Randolph. His father died on April 26, 1897, and left an estate valued at $4 million. On May 9, 1898, just ten minutes after playing with his son Teddy and while dressing for dinner, Havemeyer died from a gunshot wound in the head from a pistol at his home in Roslyn the age of 31. The suicide was never determined to be on purpose or an accident, although commonly believed to be an intentional suicide, no motive was ever determined. After a funeral at the Church of the Holy Innocents in Manhattan, he was buried at

Green-Wood Cemetery Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope/ Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Kensington, and Sunset Park, and lies several blo ...

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. After his death, in December 1898, his widow gave birth to a second son, who she named after Charles. She later remarried to broker Frederick Ogden Beach Sr. (with

William K. Vanderbilt William Kissam "Willie" Vanderbilt I (December 12, 1849 – July 22, 1920) was an American heir, businessman, philanthropist and horsebreeder. Born into the Vanderbilt family, he managed his family's railroad investments. Early life William Kiss ...

as best man), who was known as "Beauty Beach" for his good looks, with whom she had two more sons. Later in February 1912, Camilla had her throat slashed at her Aiken home. Much to the surprise of both Camilla and Frederick, Beach was charged for attempted murder, although he was later acquitted. The culprit was never identified.

Descendants

Through his eldest son Teddy, he was,

posthumously Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award - an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication – material published after the author's death * ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1987 * ''Posthumous'' (E ...

, the grandfather of Gloria Camilla MacLean Havemeyer (1917–1989). She married Clive John Fenwick Phillipps-Wolley, son of Lieutenant-Commander Clive Phillipps-Wolley and grandson of Clive Phillipps-Wolley, in 1936.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Havemeyer, Charles Frederick 1867 births 1898 deaths 1890s suicides Charles Frederick Suicides by firearm in New York (state) Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery People from Aiken, South Carolina Columbia School of Mines alumni