George Rumsey Sheldon (April 16, 1857 – January 14, 1919) was an American banker who served as treasurer of the
Republican National Committee.
Early life
Sheldon was born on April 16, 1857, in
Brooklyn, New York. He was a son of William Crawford Sheldon and Mary Eliza ( DeForest) Sheldon. Among his siblings were Catherine "Kate" DeForest Sheldon (wife of
Alfred Craven Harrison Alfred Craven Harrison (February 20, 1846 – July 30, 1927) was an American banker and sugar dealer.
Early life
Harrison was born on February 20, 1846 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a son of George Leib Harrison (1811–1885) and Sarah An ...
),
Ella Crawford Sheldon (wife of William Saterlee Packer Prentice),
and fellow banker William Crawford Sheldon.
His niece was Mildred, Countess von
Holstein.
Sheldon was a graduate of
St. Paul's School in
Concord, New Hampshire
Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2020 census the population was 43,976, making it the third largest city in New Hampshire behind Manchester and Nashua.
The village of ...
, before he attended
Harvard College, graduating with the class of 1870.
Career
Immediately after Harvard, Sheldon started in banking, and opened his own firm in New York City, gradually branching out into other enterprises and becoming closely associated with
J. Pierpont Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...
. He also established the Franklin Sugar Company, which imported and refined sugar in Pennsylvania.
[Leonard, John W., ed. (1909)]
''Who's Who in New York City and State''
Vol. 4, p. 1175. L. R. Hamersly & Co. He was a leading force in the
Trust Company of America.
He was also part of what became known as the Grape Sugar Trust, along with
Hiram Bond,
Thomas C. Platt
Thomas Collier Platt (July 15, 1833 – March 6, 1910), also known as Tom Platt , and his brother-in-law, William W. Frazier.
At the time of his death, he was a director of eighteen corporations including the
American Locomotive Company
The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer of locomotives, diesel generators, steel, and tanks that operated from 1901 to 1969. The company was formed by the merger of seven smaller locomo ...
, the
Bethlehem Steel Company, the
North American Company
The North American Company was a holding company incorporated in New Jersey on June 14, 1890, and controlled by Henry Villard, to succeed to the assets and property of the Oregon and Transcontinental Company. It owned public utilities and public ...
,
the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company, the Electric Securities Company, the
Detroit Edison Company, the
Mechanics and Metals National Bank, the
Union Electric Light Company of St. Louis, the
Cincinnati Northern Railway Company, the West Kentucky Coal Company and the
Wisconsin Edison Company.
Republican politics
In 1908 Sheldon was chosen as treasurer of the
Republican National Committee and served for eight years. He was credited with "the bringing about of the reconciliation between
Theodore Roosevelt and
William Howard Taft," which was considered "the greatest achievement on behalf of his party, as it disposed of the Progressive Party and brought into line all the Republican factions, making possible" the wins in
1918
This year is noted for the end of the First World War, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as well as for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed 50–100 million people worldwide.
Events
Below, the events ...
.
Personal life
In December 1881 Sheldon was married to
Mary Robinson Seney (1863–1913), a daughter of
George I. Seney
George Ingraham Seney (May 12, 1826 – April 7, 1893) was a New York City banker, art collector, and benefactor. He was the father of symphonic music executive Mary Seney Sheldon.
He is best remembered for amassing a substantial collection of pre ...
, also of Brooklyn. Mary was the first female president of the
New York Philharmonic and is credited with reorganizing the orchestra into a modern institution in 1909 and hiring
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...
. Together, they lived at 24
East 38th Street in Manhattan and were the parents of:
* Mary Seney Sheldon (b. 1885), who married William Fuller in 1904;
they later divorced,
and she married
Harvard Law graduate and Police Magistrate Daniel F. Murphy.
After his death in 1937,
she married Col. Arthur W. Little of Baltimore in 1941.
* Gertrude Alison Sheldon (1888–1969), who married banker Samuel Stevens Sands III (1884–1913), a son of
Anne Harriman (the second wife of
William Kissam Vanderbilt) and Samuel Stevens Sands II, in 1910.
After his death, she married embezzler
Richard Whitney,
a president of the
New York Stock Exchange,
in 1916.
He was president of the prestigious
Union League Club
The Union League Club is a private social club in New York City that was founded in 1863 in affiliation with the Union League. Its fourth and current clubhouse is located at 38 East 37th Street on the corner of Park Avenue, in the Murray H ...
in New York and, in 1903, purchased the 45-acre country estate of
J. Harvey Ladew in
Glen Cove, New York
Glen Cove is a Political subdivisions of New York State#City, city in Nassau County, New York, United States, on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore of Long Island. At the 2020 United States Census, the city population was 28,365 as of th ...
, on
Hempstead Harbor.
His wife died at their home on June 16, 1913.
Sheldon died on January 14, 1919, in
Carbondale in
Jackson County, Illinois, from injuries he suffered when inspecting a
coal mine there.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheldon, George R.
1857 births
1919 deaths
St. Paul's School (New Hampshire) alumni
Harvard University alumni
American bankers