Robert Fulton Cutting

Cutting was born in New York City on January 12, 1850. He was the second son of Fulton Cutting (1816–1875) and Elise Justine (née Bayard) Cutting (1823–1852). He was the younger brother of William Bayard Cutting, also a financier.{{cite news | title=W.B. CUTTING DIES ON TRAIN | work=The New York Times | date=2 Mar 1912 | access-date=February 18, 2013 | pages=1|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1912/03/02/100520219.pdf}} Both brothers, through their mother, were direct descendants of William Bayard Jr, a close friend of Alexander Hamilton. The fireplace mantle beside which Hamilton supposedly died is now in the [https://www.graciemansion.org/permanent-collection/ Mayor of New York City’s Mansion].

His paternal grandparents were William Cutting (1773–1820) and Gertrude Livingston (1778–1864),{{cite book|last1=Livingston|first1=Edwin Brockholst|title=The Livingstons of Livingston manor; being the history of that branch of the Scottish house of Callendar which settled in the English province of New York during the reign of Charles the Second; and also including an account of Robert Livingston of Albany, "The nephew," a settler in the same province and his principal descendants|date=1901|publisher=The Knickerbocker Press|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/details/livingstonsofliv00newy|access-date=28 July 2017}} the sister of Henry Walter Livingston, a U.S. Representative from New York, and the daughter of Walter Livingston, the 1st Speaker of the New York State Assembly.{{cite book|last1=Bergen|first1=Tunis Garret|title=Genealogies of the State of New York: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation|date=1915|publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wekpAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA843|access-date=28 July 2017|language=en}} He was the nephew of Francis Brockholst Cutting, also a U.S. Representative from New York.{{cite web|title=CUTTING, Francis Brockholst - Biographical Information|url=https://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C001029|website=bioguide.congress.gov|publisher=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|access-date=28 July 2017}} His maternal grandfather, Robert Bayard, was Robert Fulton's partner. Cutting and Fulton were brothers-in-law who had married Livingston sisters. Cutting direct ancestors included members from the Stuyvesant, Bayard, Schuyler and Van Cortlandt families of colonial New York.Columbia University Quarterly Volume 14, 1912, Page 286

Cutting graduated from Columbia University.

In 1888, Cutting and his brother William started the sugar beet industry in the United States.

In 1895, Cutting and his brother laid out a golf course at Westbrook, known to be the first private golf course in the United States.{{cite web|url=http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=8676|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration: Bayard Cutting Estate|date=September 1973|access-date=2010-02-20 |author=Lynn Beebe Weaver|publisher=New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation}} See also: {{cite web|url=http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=8704|title=Accompanying six photos}}

Cutting was a member of the Century Club, City Club of New York, and the Tuxedo Club, among others. He also served as president of Cooper Union, the Society for the Improvement Condition of the Poor, and the Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate Company.

However, one of his biggest contributions was after the death of his wife [https://househistree.com/people/helen-suydam-cutting Helen Suydam Cutting] from Cancer. As stated by an article in [https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,730022,00.html TIME] magazine, “Financier Robert Fulton Cutting modestly stayed away from last week's meeting of the American Society for the Control of Cancer in Manhattan…Contributions have been slow and from too few people. Financier Cutting knew that, but instead of coming to the cancer society meeting last week, he sent a letter. Financier Thomas W. Lament, who was there, read the letter aloud: "I write to say that I will contribute the last $250,000 of the $1,000,000 endowment fund which your society is endeavoring to raise, if the whole amount is subscribed by Oct. 1. When $750,000 is paid or subscribed, I will pay the $250,000 of my pledge."

Tragically, one of his own daughters, Ruth Hunter Cutting Auchincloss would succumb to the same fate as her mother.

His society life, along with his brother, was prominent one as both brothers were considered founding members of the Jekyll Island Club and through his aunt-in-law (Caroline Astor) by marriage{{cite book|last1=Hutto|first1=Richard Jay|title=The Jekyll Island Club Members|date=2005|publisher=Indigo Custom Publishing|isbn=9780977091225|page=43|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FNPoVchaehwC&pg=PA43|access-date=10 May 2018|language=en}} was a member of the highly prestigious “[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Hundred_(Gilded_Age)#:~:text=The%20Four%20Hundred%20was%20a,Astor%22%2C%20for%20many%20years. 400].”

File:Palatial homes in the city of New York and dwellers there in arranged for the convenience of the passer-by (1910) (14753643356).jpg]

Cutting was married twice. His first marriage was to Nathalie Charlotte Pendleton Schenck (1852–1875) on June 9, 1874.{{cite news|title=Married. Cutting-Schenck|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1874/06/11/79224805.pdf |access-date=10 May 2018|work=The New York Times|date=11 June 1874}} She was the daughter of Noah Hunt Schenck and Anna Pierce (née Pendleton) Schenck, and the sister of Anna Pendleton Schenck, who established the first female architectural firm in New York City along with Marcia Mead.{{cite news |title=Miss Anna P. Schenck, Architect, Dies |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/04/30/104646090.pdf |newspaper=New York Times |date=April 30, 1915 |access-date=2014-01-20 }} She died a year after their marriage, and they were the parents of one son:

• Robert Bayard Cutting (1875–1918), a Harvard graduate who died in Paris during World War I.{{cite news|title=R.B. CUTTING DIES IN FRANCE; New Yorker Was a Y.M.C.A. Officer Worker in War Service.|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/04/05/102687301.pdf |access-date=10 May 2018|work=The New York Times|date=5 April 1918}}

After her death, he married secondly to Helen Suydam (1858–1919), the daughter of Charles Suydam and Anna White (née Schermerhorn) Suydam,{{cite news|title=DIED. Cutting|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/06/20/96317670.pdf|access-date=January 14, 2018|work=The New York Times|date=June 20, 1919}} on January 25, 1883.{{cite news|title=MARRIED. Cutting--Suydam|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1883/01/27/106247099.pdf |access-date=January 14, 2018|work=The New York Times|date=January 27, 1883|language=en}} His wife was the sister of Walter Lispenard Suydam, the granddaughter of Abraham Schermerhorn, and the niece of Caroline Schermerhorn, who was married to William Backhouse Astor Jr.{{cite news|title=William Astor Is Dead; Stricken Suddenly at the Hotel Liverpool, Paris. He Leaves a Fortune of Many Mill- Ions -- John Jacob Astor Will Inherit It -- the Body Will Be Brought Home for Burial.|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1892/04/27/104125908.pdf|access-date=January 14, 2018|work=The New York Times|date=April 27, 1892}} Together, they were the parents of:

• Helen Suydam Cutting (1883–1971),{{cite news|title=Mrs. Wilmerding|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/25/archives/mrs-wilmerding.html|access-date=10 May 2018|work=The New York Times|date=25 March 1971}} who married Lucius Kellogg Wilmerding Jr. (1880–1949).{{cite news|title=L. WILMERDING, 69, STOCKBROKER HERE; Banker, Former Limited Partner in Harris, Upham & Co. Dies.---Aided Philanthropies|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/07/16/86775736.pdf |access-date=10 May 2018|work=The New York Times|date=16 July 1949}}
• Elisabeth McEvers Cutting (b. 1885), who married Dr. Stafford McLean in 1916.{{cite news|title=MARRIED. McLean--Cutting|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1916/06/16/100213234.pdf |access-date=10 May 2018|work=The New York Times|date=16 June 1916}} She later married Neville Jay Booker.{{cite news|title=Neville Booker Will Probated|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/221470556/|access-date=10 May 2018|work=The Courier-News|date=July 23, 1953|language=en}}
• Robert Fulton Cutting (1886–1967), who married Mary Josephine Amory (1887–1971) in 1914.{{cite news|title=MISS AMORY, BRIDE OF FULTON CUTTING; Society Attends Nuptials of New Yorker and Daughter of Francis I. Amory of Boston. IN ST. PETER'S, BEVERLY Bishop Lawrence Officiates -- Suydam Cutting His Brother's Best Man -- Couple to Live in Tuxedo.|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/06/23/100322915.pdf |access-date=10 May 2018|work=The New York Times|date=23 June 1914}}
• Charles Suydam Cutting (1889–1972), who was the first white Christian to ever enter the Forbidden City in Lhasa.{{cite news|title=C. Suydam Cutting, Who Made Historic Visit to Tibet, Is Dead|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1972/08/25/93418364.pdf |access-date=10 May 2018|work=The New York Times|date=25 August 1972}}
• Ruth Hunter Cutting (1896–1948), who married Reginald LaGrange Auchincloss (1891–1984), brother of U.S. Representative James Coats Auchincloss.
• Schermerhorn Cutting (1897–1897), who died young.{{cite book|last1=Moffat|first1=R. Burnham|title=The Barclays of New York: who They are and who They are Not,-and Some Other Barclays|date=1904|publisher=R. G. Cooke|page=[https://archive.org/details/barclaysnewyork00moffgoog/page/n217 205]|url=https://archive.org/details/barclaysnewyork00moffgoog|access-date=10 May 2018|language=en}}

In 1884, he purchased 724 Fifth Avenue along "Vanderbilt Row" as a home for his family in Manhattan. In 1895, however, Cutting purchased property further uptown and hired Ernest Flagg to design a new residence located at 24 East 67th Street, at the corner of Madison Avenue.{{cite news|last1=Miller|first1=Tom|title=Daytonian in Manhattan: The Lost 1899 R. Fulton Cutting Mansion -- No. 24 East 67th Street|url=https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2012/03/lost-1899-r-fulton-cutting-mansion-no.html|access-date=10 May 2018|work=Daytonian in Manhattan|date=26 March 2012}} He also acquired a home in 1889 in the exclusive Tuxedo Park community,{{cite book|title=Who's Who in the World, 1912|date=1912|publisher=International Who's Who Publishing Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_I-wRAAAAYAAJ/page/n358 342]|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_I-wRAAAAYAAJ|access-date=10 May 2018|language=en}} a large residence designed by Bruce Price in 1887 and located on Tower Hill Road at the intersection of Clubhouse Road and Serpentine Road.{{cite web|title=Building-structure inventory form: Robert Fulton Cutting :: Tuxedo Park Library|url=https://www.hrvh.org/cdm/ref/collection/tpl/id/4688|website=www.hrvh.org|publisher=Village of Tuxedo Park National Register of Historic Places Inventory|access-date=10 May 2018}}

Cutting died, aged 82, at his home in Tuxedo Park on September 21, 1934.{{cite news|title=FULTON CUTTING, N.Y. REAL ESTATE HEAD, DIES AT 82 -- Noted for Philanthropic Activities|url=https://chicagotribune.newspapers.com/image/355131873/?terms=fulton%2Bcutting|access-date=10 May 2018|work=Chicago Tribune|date=September 22, 1934|page=16|language=en}}{{cite book|last1=Dunn|first1=Elwood D.|last2=Beyan|first2=Amos J.|last3=Burrowes|first3=Carl Patrick|title=Historical Dictionary of Liberia|date=December 20, 2000|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9781461659310|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qt0_RrW8ghkC&pg=PA95|access-date=30 April 2017|language=en}} His funeral was attended by over 500 people and was held at St. Georges, and he was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.{{cite news|title=NOTABLES MOURN FOR R.F. CUTTING; Funeral of Philanthropist and Financier Held at St. George's Church.|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/09/25/93641866.pdf |access-date=10 May 2018|work=The New York Times|date=25 September 1934}} Following his death, Dr. William Jay Schieffelin paid tribute to Cutting during a radio address, stating "Robert Fulton Cutting devoted his life to advance social justice; he early saw that voters should disregard national parties in selecting city officers. New York owes much to his leadership in creating a prevailing public opinion in favor of non-partisan government. He have his devoted service and generous support to the Committee of Seventy, the City Club, the Bureau of Municipal Research and the Citizens Union--of which he was the first chairman."{{cite news|title=SCHIEFFELIN PAYS TRIBUTE TO CUTTING; Cites, in Radio Talk, Civic Worker's Activities in Behalf of Good Government.|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/10/02/93644216.pdf |access-date=10 May 2018|work=The New York Times|date=2 October 1934}}

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{{succession box | before = John Edward Parsons | title = President of Cooper Union | years = 1914 — 1934| after = Gano Dunn}}

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Category:1852 births

Category:1934 deaths

Category:Bayard family

Category:Livingston family

Category:Schuyler family

Category:Van Cortlandt family

Category:American philanthropists

Category:Businesspeople from New York (state)

Category:New York (state) lawyers

Category:Cutting family

Category:Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery

Category:Presidents of Cooper Union