Henry F. Shoemaker

Shoemaker was born in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, on March 28, 1843.{{cite book |last1=Matthews |first1=John |title=Complete American Armoury and Blue Book: Combining 1903, 1907 and 1911-23 Editions |date=June 2009 |publisher=Genealogical Publishing Com |isbn=978-0-8063-4573-4 |page=109 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a79aQefT1wEC |access-date=6 October 2021 |language=en}} He was the second son of Mary Ann ({{nee}} Brock) Shoemaker (1821–1891) and John Wise Shoemaker (1811–1863), who invested in anthracite coal industry in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. His maternal grandfather was a coal operator of English and Scotch-Irish descent.{{cite book |last1=Bronner |first1=Simon J. |title=Popularizing Pennsylvania: Henry W. Shoemaker and the Progressive Uses of Folklore and History |date=1 November 2010 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-0-271-04221-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tqr4wEXsQfUC |access-date=6 October 2021 |language=en}} The first Shoemaker was a Quaker who arrived in Germantown, Pennsylvania, from Holland in 1685, but was whose family came from the Palatinate region of Germany.

Shoemaker attended Genesee Seminary (which later became Syracuse University), from which he graduated in 1861. While Simon Cameron obtained an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy for Shoemaker through President Abraham Lincoln, he declined so he could see immediate action, eventually fighting in the Battles of Shiloh, Wrightsville, and Gettysburg, achieving the rank of First Lt. in the United States Volunteers.{{cite book |last1=Virkus |first1=Frederick Adams |last2=Marquis |first2=Albert Nelson |title=The Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy: First Families of America |date=1925 |publisher=A.N. Marquis |page=827 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o-ELAQAAMAAJ |access-date=6 October 2021 |language=en}}

After his father's death in 1863, he took over management of his family's coal mines. During the 1870s, he expanded the family's interests into railroads and banking and moved to New York City in 1878.

Shoemaker eventually owned the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Drayton Railroad (which he expanded to over 2,000 miles long), had a controlling interest in the Cleveland, Lorain and Wheeling Railway, and held directorships in the Texas Pacific Railroad, the Chatham National Bank (which eventually merged into JPMorgan Chase), and the North American Trust Company.

File:Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff, portrait photograph, profile, wearing floral headband, facing right.jpg

In 1874 Shoemaker was married to Blanche Quiggle (1853–1928).{{cite news |title=Mrs. Blanche Q. Shoemaker. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1928/05/04/archives/mrs-blanche-q-shoemaker.html |access-date=6 October 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=4 May 1928}} Blanche, the sole daughter of railroad magnate and diplomat Col. James W. Quiggle of Philadelphia, was a descendent of Richard Buffington, an agent for William Penn who came to Pennsylvania from England in 1675.{{cite web|title=PA State Archives: Manuscript Group 114 HENRY W. SHOEMAKER COLLECTION 1841-1955|url=http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/mg/mg114.htm|access-date=8 December 2011}} After moving to New York City, they lived in a five-story residence at 21 West 53rd Street, called Villa D'Este, adjoining the residence of John D. Rockefeller. They spent their summers at "Restless Oaks", the Quiggle family estate in McElhattan, Pennsylvania (near Lock Haven) and at "Cedar Cliff", an "opulent Victorian residence" in Riverside, Connecticut. Together, they were the parents of:

• Henry Wharton Shoemaker (1880–1958),{{cite news |title=H. W. SHOEMAKER, EX-DIPLOMAT, DIES; Former Envoy to Bulgaria Was Historian, Author, Publisher and Colonel |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1958/07/16/archives/h-w-shoemaker-exdiplomat-dies-former-envoy-to-bulgaria-was.html |access-date=6 October 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=16 July 1958}} who married Beatrice Genevieve Barclay (1888–1974) in 1907. They divorced and he remarried to Mabelle Ruth Ord (1878–1967) in 1913.
• William Brock Shoemaker (1882–1906),{{cite book|last1=Leonard|first1=John William|title=Men of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries|date=1907|publisher=L.R. Hamersly|page=1960|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nW1bTkMF2UMC&pg=PA1960|access-date=26 February 2018|language=en}}{{cite news|title=BROKER SHOEMAKER KILLED.; Elevator Started as He Was Getting Off and Crushed His Leg.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1906/06/22/archives/broker-shoemaker-killed-elevator-started-as-he-was-getting-off-and.html|access-date=26 February 2018|work=The New York Times|date=22 June 1906}} who married Ella Morris De Peyster (1881–1957), a daughter of Frederic James De Peyster, in 1905.{{cite news|title=A Day's Weddings.; Shoemaker -- De Peyster.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1905/12/15/archives/a-days-weddings-shoemaker-de-peyster.html|access-date=26 February 2018|work=The New York Times|date=15 December 1905}}
• Blanche LeRoy Shoemaker (1886–1967), who married Alfred Wagstaff (1881–1930),{{cite news |title=Alfred Wagstaff Dead – Son of Late Colonel Was Well Known in Social Life of New York |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1930/12/11/118201212.pdf |access-date=18 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=11 December 1930}} a son of Alfred Wagstaff Jr., in 1907.{{cite news |title=WAGSTAFF BABY CHRISTENED.; Named Alfred Wagstaff, Third -- Receives Great-Grandfather's Tankards. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1908/12/01/archives/wagstaff-baby-christened-named-alfred-wagstaff-third-receives.html |access-date=6 October 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=1 December 1908 |page=6}} They divorced and she married Donald Carr (1887–1961) in 1921.{{cite news |title=MRS. B.S. WAGSTAFF WEDS DONALD CARR; Her New Poem, "Marriage," Read at Ceremony at Her Country Home in Manchester, Vt.VERONICA FRAZIER, BRIDEMarries Cecll Murray in St. Philip's,at Garrison--Miss JeannetteRoss Weds J.P. Vogel. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1921/07/31/archives/mrs-bs-wagstaff-weds-donald-carr-her-new-poem-marriage-read-at.html |access-date=6 October 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=31 July 1921}}

Shoemaker died on July 2, 1918, at his country estate in Riverside, Connecticut.{{cite news |title=H.F. SHOEMAKER DIES; ONCE RAILROAD HEAD; Pioneer of Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton, Coal Operator, Banker, Gave Grandson $2,000,000. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1918/07/04/archives/hf-shoemaker-dies-once-railroad-head-pioneer-of-cincinnati-hamilton.html |access-date=6 October 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=4 July 1918}}{{cite news |title=H.F. Shoemaker Estate $1,000,000. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1918/07/27/archives/hf-shoemaker-estate-1000000.html |access-date=6 October 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=27 July 1918}} His widow died in May 1928 at her residence, 610 Park Avenue, in New York City "after a fortnight's illness".

Through his son Henry, he was a grandfather of Henry Francis Shoemaker II (1908–1974).{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Special to The New York |title=GAINS $2,000,000 BY CHANGE OF NAME; Henry F. Shoemaker's Grandson Restored as Promised Heir by Annulment of His Adoption. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1913/05/24/archives/gains-2000000-by-change-of-name-henry-f-shoemakers-grandson.html |access-date=6 October 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=24 May 1913}} Through his daughter Blanche, he was a grandfather of Alfred Wagstaff IV (1908–1982).{{cite book |last1=Martineau |first1=Paul |title=The Thrill of the Chase: The Wagstaff Collection of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum |date=15 March 2016 |publisher=Getty Publications |isbn=978-1-60606-467-2 |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EWNdCwAAQBAJ |access-date=6 October 2021 |language=en}}

{{reflist|30em}}

{{commons category|Henry Francis Shoemaker}}

• {{find a Grave|191500974}}
• [https://www.libraries.psu.edu/findingaids/1783.htm Henry Shoemaker Papers, 1873-1952] at Penn State University

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Category:1843 births

Category:1918 deaths

Category:People from Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania

Henry F. Shoemaker

Category:American industrialists

Category:American manufacturing businesspeople

Category:19th-century American railroad executives

Category:American railway entrepreneurs