Walter Jennings (September 14, 1858 - January 9, 1933) was an American industrialist who served as president of

National Fuel Gas Company National Fuel Gas Company (NYSE: NFG) is a diversified energy company with $6.2 billion in assets distributed among the following five operating segments: Exploration and Production (Seneca Resources Company, LLC), Pipeline and Storage (National ...

and the

Jekyll Island Club The Jekyll Island Club was a private club on Jekyll Island, on Georgia's Atlantic coast. It was founded in 1886 when members of an incorporated hunting and recreational club purchased the island for $125,000 (about $3.1 million in 2017) from John E ...

Early life

Jennings was born on September 14, 1858 in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. He was the eldest son of Standard Oil co-founder

Oliver Burr Jennings Oliver Burr Jennings (June 3, 1825 – February 12, 1893) was an American businessman and one of the original stockholders in Standard Oil. Early life Jennings was born in 1825 in Fairfield, Connecticut, to Abraham Gould Jennings and Anna (née ...

(1825–1893) and Esther Judson (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Goodsell) Jennings (1828–1908). His siblings were Annie Burr Jennings (a philanthropist), a philanthropist. Helen Goodsell Jennings (wife of Dr. Walter Belknap James), Emma Brewster Jennings (wife of Hugh Dudley

Auchincloss Auchincloss is a surname of Scottish origin, derived from an area in Ayrshire known as ''Auchincloich'', which is Scottish Gaelic for "field of stones". It is also the name of a prominent American family, from ' ("field") and ' ("stone"). Notable ...

Sr.), and

Oliver Gould Jennings Oliver Gould Jennings (April 27, 1865 – October 13, 1936) was a financier and an heir to a fortune from Standard Oil who served in the Connecticut House of Representatives. Early life Jennings was born on April 27, 1865 in New York City. He ...

, who served in the

Connecticut House of Representatives The Connecticut State House of Representatives is the lower house in the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The house is composed of 151 members representing an ...

. His maternal aunt, Almira Geraldine Goodsell, was the wife of William A. Rockefeller, Jr. Among his first cousins were

William Goodsell Rockefeller William Goodsell Rockefeller (May 21, 1870 – November 30, 1922) was a director of the Consolidated Textile Company and a member of the prominent Rockefeller family. Early life He was born on May 21, 1870 in Manhattan, New York City. He was the t ...

Percy Avery Rockefeller Percy Avery Rockefeller (February 27, 1878 — September 25, 1934) was a board director who founded and was vice president of Owenoke Corporation. He is the son of American Businessman William Avery Rockefeller Jr. and the nephew of Standard Oil ...

, and Geraldine Rockefeller (wife of Marcellus Hartley Dodge Sr.). Through his sister Emma, he was an uncle of

Hugh D. Auchincloss Hugh Dudley Auchincloss Jr. (August 15, 1897 – November 20, 1976) was an American stockbroker and lawyer who became the second husband of Nina S. Gore, mother of Gore Vidal, and also the second husband of Janet Lee Bouvier, the mother of Firs ...

, whose third wife was

Janet Lee Bouvier Janet Norton Lee Auchincloss, previously Bouvier, (December 3, 1907 – July 22, 1989) was an American socialite. She was the mother of the former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Lee Radziwill. Early life Janet Norton Lee was born on Decemb ...

, mother of

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...

Jackie Kennedy Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A pop ...

. He was also a descendant of

Aaron Burr Aaron Burr Jr. (February 6, 1756 – September 14, 1836) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the third vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805. Burr's legacy is defined by his famous personal conflict with Alexand ...

, the former

Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice ...

. Jennings attended

Phillips Andover ("Not for Self") la, Finis Origine Pendet ("The End Depends Upon the Beginning") Youth From Every Quarter Knowledge and Goodness , address = 180 Main Street , city = Andover , state = Ma ...

and graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1880 where he was a member of

Delta Kappa Epsilon Delta Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as ''DKE'' or ''Deke'', is one of the oldest fraternities in the United States, with fifty-six active chapters and five active colonies across North America. It was founded at Yale College in 1844 by fifteen ...

and Yale's

Skull and Bones Skull and Bones, also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death, is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior class society at the university, Skull and Bone ...

Society. After Yale, he attended

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

where he was a classmate of future president

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

, graduating in 1882.

Career

After law school, he practiced law for a few months with his uncle, Frederick B. Jennings, before going to work for the Pratt Manufacturing Company, an affiliate of Standard Oil. In 1886, he went to its Oil City offices before leaving the company in 1888. In 1903, he became a director of

Standard Oil of New Jersey ExxonMobil, an American multinational oil and gas corporation presently based out of Texas, has had one of the longest histories of any company in its industry. A direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the company traces its root ...

, serving as secretary from 1908 to 1911 but remaining a member of the board until his death. From 1908 to 1919, he served as president of the

. He was also a director of the

Bank of Manhattan The Manhattan Company was a New York bank and holding company established on September 1, 1799. The company merged with Chase National Bank in 1955 to form the Chase Manhattan Bank. It is the oldest of the predecessor institutions that eventually ...

and a trustee of the

New York Trust Company The New York Trust Company was a large trust and wholesale-banking business that specialized in servicing large industrial accounts. It merged with the Chemical Corn Exchange Bank and eventually the merged entity became Chemical Bank. History On ...

Personal life

On November 11, 1891, Jennings was married to Jean Pollock Brown (1864–1949) at the South Church on

Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...

and 38th Street in New York City. She was a daughter of Edwin Bergh Brown and Alice (née Pollock) Brown. Together, they were the parents of: * Oliver Burr Jennings (1895–1968), who married Isabel de Rivas in 1928. * Jeannette Jennings (1898–1985), who married Henry Calhoun Taylor (1894–1971) in 1917. * Constance Jennings (1900–1991), who married Albert Heman Ely Jr. (1894–1964) in 1927. In New York City, they lived at 9 East 70th Street and in the late 1890s, he became a summer resident of

Cold Spring Harbor Cold Spring Harbor is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Huntington, in Suffolk County, on the North Shore of Long Island in New York. As of the 2010 United States census, the CDP population was 5,070. History Cold Spri ...

on Long Island where he had a large country home built by

Carrère and Hastings Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère ( ; November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (architect), Thomas Hastings (March 11, 1860 – October 22, 1929), was one of the outstanding American Beaux-Arts architecture, Be ...

and known as Burrwood. In 1928, Jennings gave significant funds towards the development of a park and bathing beach for the use of villagers and town residents known as Memorial Park. Jennings died at his winter home in

Jekyll Island Jekyll Island is located off the coast of the U.S. state of Georgia, in Glynn County. It is one of the Sea Islands and one of the Golden Isles of Georgia barrier islands. The island is owned by the State of Georgia and run by a self-sustaining, s ...

on January 9, 1933. He was buried at the Memorial Cemetery of Saint John's Church in

Laurel Hollow, New York Laurel Hollow is a village in the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 1,952 at the 2010 census. According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Laurel Hollow was the eighth ...

on Long Island. Burrwood was sold by his heirs in 1950. The home was later demolished and the

Olmsted Brothers The Olmsted Brothers company was a landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape architect Frederick Law ...

gazebo was moved to the

Elizabeth Street Garden Elizabeth Street Garden (ESG) is a community sculpture garden in the Nolita neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, located on Elizabeth Street (Manhattan), Elizabeth Street between Prince Street (Manhattan), Prince and Spring Street (Manhat ...

in the

Nolita Nolita, sometimes written as NoLIta and deriving from "North of Little Italy",Roberts, Sam"New York’s Little Italy, Littler by the Year"''New York Times'' (February 21, 2011) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. No ...

neighborhood of Manhattan.

Art collection

He was also a prominent art collector and was a lay member of the

Grand Central Art Galleries The Grand Central Art Galleries were the exhibition and administrative space of the nonprofit Painters and Sculptors Gallery Association, an artists' cooperative established in 1922 by Walter Leighton Clark together with John Singer Sargent, Edmu ...

. He owned a number of works by prominent artists, including two portraits 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 ...

Gilbert Stuart Gilbert Charles Stuart ( Stewart; December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-known work is an unfinished portrait of George Washi ...

, a portrait of

Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney (24 February 1733 – 30 June 1800) was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1754 to 1783 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Sydney. He held several important Cabinet posts in t ...

also by Stuart, companion portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Russell of Charlestown by

Charles Wilson Peale Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) was an American painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist. He is best remembered for his portrait paintings of leading figures of the American Revolution, and ...

, a self-portrait by

Thomas Sully Thomas Sully (June 19, 1783November 5, 1872) was a portrait painter in the United States. Born in Great Britain, he lived most of his life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He painted in the style of Thomas Lawrence. His subjects included nationa ...

and a portrait of John J. Sedley by

Benjamin West Benjamin West, (October 10, 1738 – March 11, 1820) was a British-American artist who painted famous historical scenes such as '' The Death of Nelson'', ''The Death of General Wolfe'', the '' Treaty of Paris'', and '' Benjamin Franklin Drawin ...

. He also collected early American and Georgian silver, Chinese porcelain (including K'ang Hsi examples) and an English and French furniture. File:Mrs. Thomas Russell by Charles Willson Peale, oil on canvas - Chazen Museum of Art - DSC02493.JPG, Portrait of Mrs. Thomas Russell by

Charles Willson Peale Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) was an American Painting, painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist. He is best remembered for his portrait paintings of leading figures of the American Revolu ...

File:Mr. Thomas Russell by Charles Willson Peale, oil on canvas - Chazen Museum of Art - DSC02497.JPG, Portrait of Mr. Thomas Russell by

File:Viscount Sydney by Gilbert Stuart.jpg, Portrait of Viscount Sydney by Gilbert Stuart File:Benjamin West - Portrait of John J Sedley.jpg, Portrait of John J Sedley, Esq. by

References

External links

*
Preliminary Guide to the Albert Heman Ely, Jr. Family Papers, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library
Materials document the 1930 meeting of Ely and his wife, Constance Jennings Ely with Frank Buchman, and their involvement in the

Moral Re-armament Moral Re-Armament (MRA) was an international moral and spiritual movement that, in 1938, developed from American minister Frank Buchman's Oxford Group. Buchman headed MRA for 23 years until his death in 1961. In 2001, the movement was renamed Ini ...

movement, Yale Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jennings, Walter 1858 births 1933 deaths Yale University alumni Columbia Law School alumni New York (state) lawyers American businesspeople in the oil industry Standard Oil 19th-century American businesspeople