Russell Risley Sage (August 4, 1816 – July 22, 1906) was an American financier, railroad executive and Whig politician from New York. As a frequent partner of

Jay Gould Jason Gould (; May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made him ...

in various transactions, he amassed a fortune. Olivia Slocum Sage, his second wife, inherited his fortune, which was unrestricted for her use. In his name she used the money for philanthropic purposes, endowing a number of buildings and institutions to benefit women's education: she established the Russell Sage Foundation in 1907 and founded the

Russell Sage College Russell Sage College (often Russell Sage or RSC) is a co-educational college with two campuses located in Albany and Troy, New York, approximately north of New York City in the Capital District. Russell Sage College offers both undergraduate ...

for women in 1916.

Early life and family

Sage was born at

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

Oneida County, New York Oneida County is a county in the state of New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 232,125. The county seat is Utica. The name is in honor of the Oneida, one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois League or ''Haudenos ...

. He received a

public school Public school may refer to: * State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government * Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...

education and worked as a farmhand until he was 15. He started as an errand boy in his brother Henry's grocery in

Troy, New York Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany ...

. He had a part interest in 1837–1839 in a retail grocery in Troy, and in a wholesale store there in 1839–1857. On January 23, 1840, Sage married Marie-Henrie Winne, who was also known as "Maria Winne". They had no children. She died on May 7, 1867, of stomach cancer. In 1869 at the age of 53, Sage remarried, to Olivia Slocum (1828–1918), who was ten years younger.

Political career

In 1841, Sage was elected as

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

in Troy. He was re-elected to this office until 1848, while also serving for seven years as treasurer of

Rensselaer County Rensselaer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 161,130. Its county seat is Troy. The county is named in honor of the family of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the ...

. He was elected to the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

as a Whig, and served, with re-election as an Oppositionist, from March 4, 1853 until March 3, 1857. He served on the Ways and Means Committee. Sage was the first person to advocate in Congress for the purchase of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

's plantation,

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is on ...

, by the government.

Financial career

After retiring from politics Sage settled in New York City, where he engaged in the business of selling puts and calls, as well as short-term options known as privileges. He has been credited with developing the market for stock options in the United States and inventing the "spread" and "straddle" option strategies, for which he was dubbed "Old Straddle" and the "Father of Puts and Calls." He used the options to synthesize loans at a higher interest rate than state

usury Usury () is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is c ...

laws allowed, for which he was convicted in 1869 and fined $500, with a suspended jail sentence. Sage bought a seat on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...

in 1874, and became known as a financier. At the same time he saw the future of railroads, and secured stocks in western roads, notably the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway. He was president and vice-president for twelve years. By selling such investments, as the smaller roads were bought by major trunk-lines, he became wealthy. In his later years he was closely associated with

in the management of the

Wabash Railway The Wabash Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. It served a large area, including track in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri and the province of Ontario. Its primary co ...

, St. Louis and Pacific,

Missouri Pacific Railroad The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad ...

, Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and the St. Louis - San Francisco Railway, for which he was director of the corporations. He also served as director for the American cable company, the

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company cha ...

telegraph company, and the Manhattan consolidated system of

elevated railroad An elevated railway or elevated train (also known as an el train for short) is a rapid transit railway with the tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure (usually constructed from steel, cast iron, concrete, or bricks ...

s in New York City. He was a director of the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

, which was part of constructing the transcontinental railroad. Together with other major investors (and railroad robber barons of the nineteenth century), he made a fortune. He was a director and vice-president in the Importers and Traders' National Bank for twenty years, and also a director in the Merchants' Trust Company and in the Fifth Avenue Bank of New York City. Following the collapse of the Grant & Ward scheme in 1884, Sage faced a run from holders of put options that he had sold. He honored all demands but withdrew from the sale of options soon afterward.

Assassination attempt

In 1891, Henry L. Norcross entered Sage's office in a six-story 1859 brownstone office building at 71 Broadway in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, claiming he needed to discuss railroad bonds. Norcross gave Sage a letter demanding $1,200,000, which Sage declined to pay. Norcross was carrying a bag of dynamite, which exploded, killing Norcross, wounding Sage, and severely wounding William R. Laidlaw, Jr., a clerk for John Bloodgood and Co. who happened to be in the office. Afterward Laidlaw sued Sage, alleging that he had used him as a shield against Norcross. Disabled for life, Laidlaw aggressively pursued the lawsuits, winning $43,000 in damages after four trials, but a Court of Appeals reversed the award. Sage never paid any settlement and was publicly criticized as a miser because of his great fortune.

Personal life

Sage was known to have affairs outside marriage both before and after the death of his first wife. The writer Paul Sarnoff suggested in his biography of Sage that he may have remarried for appearance's sake, and may never have consummated his second marriage. Sage was reported to have had a child by a young chambermaid.Sarnoff (1965) Sage was a member of East Presbyterian Church on

West 42nd Street 42nd Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, spanning the entire breadth of Midtown Manhattan, from Turtle Bay at the East River, to Hell's Kitchen at the Hudson River on the West Side. The street h ...

between Fifth and Sixth Avenue, which later merged with Park Presbyterian to form West-Park Presbyterian.Presa, Donald G. (January 12, 2010
"West Park Presbyterian Church Designation Report"

New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...

In 1906 Sage died and left his entire fortune of about $70 million to his wife, Olivia Slocum Sage (1828–1918). He was buried in a mausoleum in Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, New York. The mausoleum is of a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

style and is intentionally unnamed. To the left of the memorial is a bench which contains a relief of

Medusa In Greek mythology, Medusa (; Ancient Greek: Μέδουσα "guardian, protectress"), also called Gorgo, was one of the three monstrous Gorgons, generally described as winged human females with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Those ...

on the center of the back, complete with snakes as hair.

Legacy and honors

Olivia Sage devoted a major portion of the money she inherited from her husband to philanthropy, including buildings and other memorials to him. She commissioned Ralph Adams Cram, a leading architect, to design Russell Sage Memorial Church, and for Louis Tiffany to create a large stained glass window as a memorial. Built in 1908, the church was located in

Far Rockaway, Queens Far Rockaway is a neighborhood on the eastern part of the Rockaway peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is the easternmost section of the Rockaways. The neighborhood extends from Beach 32nd Street east to the Nassau County line ...

, where the family had a summer home. In 1907 she established the Russell Sage Foundation, and in 1916 founded

in Troy. In addition she gave extensively to the

Emma Willard School The Emma Willard School, originally called Troy Female Seminary and often referred to simply as Emma, is an independent university-preparatory day and boarding school for young women, located in Troy, New York, on Mount Ida, offering grades 9– ...

and to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, her husband's home town. During World War II the

Liberty ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Ma ...

was built in

Panama City, Florida Panama City is a city in and the county seat of Bay County, Florida, United States. Located along U.S. Highway 98 (US 98), it is the largest city between Tallahassee and Pensacola. It is the more populated city of the Panama City–Lynn ...

, and named in his honor.

References

Notes Bibliography * Myers, Gustavus. ''History of the Great American Fortunes'', volume iii, (Chicago, 1910) * Sarnoff, Paul. ''Russell Sage: The Money King,'' Ivan Obolensky, Inc. (New York, 1965)
"Not the Rensselaer Handbook"

External links

Internet Accuracy Project
"Financier Russell Sage Attacked; Dynamite Bomb Nearly Killed Wall Street Titan in 1891"

at

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations o ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sage, Russell 1816 births 1906 deaths People from Verona, New York American Presbyterians Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state) Opposition Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state) 19th-century American railroad executives American financiers Politicians from Troy, New York 19th-century American politicians Russell Sage Foundation Burials at Oakwood Cemetery (Troy, New York)