Spencer F. Eddy

Eddy was born in Chicago, Illinois, on June 18, 1874. He was a son of Augustus Newlands Eddy (1846–1921) and Abby Louisa (née Spencer) Eddy. His sister was Catherine Eddy, the wife of U.S. Senator from Indiana Albert J. Beveridge.{{cite news |title=Son for Senator and Mrs. Beveridge. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1908/08/22/archives/son-for-senator-and-mrs-beveridge.html |accessdate=7 June 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=22 August 1908}} His father made his fortune as a businessman and his mother was a member of a family who ran a successful hardware business.

His paternal grandparents were the Rev. Thomas Mears Eddy and Anna (née White) Eddy. His maternal grandparents were Rachel (née Macomber) Spencer and Franklin Fayette Spencer, a founder of Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co.

After preparing at St. Paul's School in New Hampshire, Eddy graduated from Harvard University in 1896 followed by a year of study at the Universities of Berlin and Heidelberg.

File:EDDY, SPENCER. HONORABLE LCCN2016857047.jpg at the Library of Congress]]

From 1897 to 1898, he served as the private secretary to U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom John Hay before Hay was appointed the U.S. Secretary of State by President William McKinley. He then served as a clerk in the Department of State from 1898 to 1899.

Beginning in late 1899, he served as third secretary in the American Embassy in London followed by the second secretary in the American Embassy in Paris from 1899 to 1901. He was the first secretary and chargé d'affaires in the American Legation in Constantinople from 1901 to 1903, first secretary in the American Embassy in Saint Petersburg from 1903 to 1906, and one year there as chargé d'affaires. From 1906 to 1907, he was first secretary in the American Embassy in Berlin.

On April 2, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Eddy U.S. Minister to Argentina.{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Special to The New York |title=ARGENTINA FEARS BRAZIL.; Northern Nation Believed to be Preparing to Attack Her. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1908/08/30/archives/argentina-fears-brazil-northern-nation-believed-to-be-preparing-to.html |accessdate=7 June 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=30 August 1908}} At the time, "European diplomats consider Buenos Ayres the livest political centre in South America, particularly from the American point of view, and they regard Mr. Eddy's designation for the mission as a distinct and well-deserved compliment."{{cite news |last1=TIMES |first1=Special Cable to THE NEW YORK |title=AMERICANS IN BERLIN.; Mr. Eddy Congratulated on His Promotion -- Social Entertainments. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1907/11/17/archives/americans-in-berlin-mr-eddy-congratulated-on-his-promotion-social.html |accessdate=7 June 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=17 November 1907}} He presented his credentials on August 27, 1908, and served until January 2, 1909, when he left his post. In August 1908, Eddy informed the Department of State, "of the vote by the Chamber of Deputies of a credit of $55,000,000 for additional armaments in view of the alleged hostile intentions of Brazil." Nine days after he left his post in Argentina, he was appointed Minister to Romania and Serbia and Diplomatic Agent to Bulgaria on January 11, 1909. He presented his credentials in Romania on July 9, 1909, as a resident at Bucharest, but did not present credentials in Serbia or Bulgaria.{{cite web |title=Spencer Fayette Eddy - People - Department History - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/eddy-spencer-fayette |website=history.state.gov |publisher=Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute United States Department of State |accessdate=5 March 2020}}

After fifteen years in the diplomatic service,{{cite news |title=FRIENDS WELCOME SPENCER F. EDDY |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19091226.2.23&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1 |accessdate=5 March 2020 |work=San Francisco Call |issue=26 |date=26 December 1909|volume = 107}} he resigned due to his wife's ill health and left his post on September 29, 1909.{{cite news |title=SPENCER F. EDDY RESIGNS.; Personal Reasons Compel His Retirement from Diplomatic Service. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/09/16/101746835.pdf |accessdate=5 March 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=16 September 1909}}

On April 26, 1906, Eddy was married to Lurline Elizabeth Spreckels (1886–1969) in Paris while he was an attaché at the American embassy in Saint Petersburg. She was a daughter of Claus August Spreckels and Susan Oroville (née Dore) Spreckels. Her grandfather was industrialist Claus Spreckels and among her extended family was uncles John D. Spreckels and Adolph B. Spreckels. Before their divorce in 1923,{{cite news |title=Lurline Kuznik Dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28467869/lurline-kuznik-dies-1969/ |accessdate=5 March 2020 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |date=26 March 1969 |pages=50}}{{cite news |last1=TIMES |first1=Special Cable to THE NEW YORK |title=MRS. SPENCER REDDY DIVORCED IN PARIS; Former Lurline Spreckels Charges Abandonment by Her Husband, a Noted Diplomat. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1923/11/08/106017418.pdf |accessdate=5 March 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=8 November 1923}} they were the parents of:{{cite book |title=Men and Women of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries |date=1909 |publisher=L.R. Hamersly |page=552 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KOgUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA552 |accessdate=5 March 2020 |language=en}}

File:Grave of Spencer Fayette Eddy (1873–1939) at Graceland Cemetery, Chicago 2.jpg

• Spencer Fayette Eddy Jr. (b. 1907),{{cite news |last1=Cablegram |first1=Special |title=SON TO SPENCER EDDY.; Wife of the American Secretary at Berlin Was Miss Spreckels. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1907/05/27/104985791.pdf |accessdate=5 March 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=27 May 1907}} who married Mary Livingston,{{cite web|title=Mary Livingston Ripley|url=https://www.courant.com/1996/04/18/mary-livingston-ripley-horticulturist/|publisher=Hartford Courant|access-date=10 November 2012}} a daughter of Gerald Moncrieffe Livingston, in 1935.{{cite news |title=Miss Mary M. Livingston Married To Spencer Eddy Jr. in St. Thomas |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1935/05/01/95071399.pdf |accessdate=21 January 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=May 1, 1935 |language=en}} They divorced and she remarried to Dr. Sidney Dillon Ripley II.{{cite news |title=MRS. EDDY IS MARRIED TO DR. S. D. RIPLEY 2D |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/08/19/96470067.pdf |accessdate=5 March 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=19 August 1949}}

In 1932, he married Viola Cross, who reportedly did not get along with his sister.{{cite book |last1=Beveridge |first1=Albert J. |last2=Radomsky |first2=Susan |last3=Beveridge |first3=Catherine Eddy |title=The Chronicle of Catherine Eddy Beveridge: An American Girl Travels Into the Twentieth Century |date=2005 |publisher=Hamilton Books |page=185 |isbn=9780761833352 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UGJmAAAAMAAJ |accessdate=5 March 2020 |language=en}}

Eddy died on October 7, 1939, at his apartment in the Savoy-Plaza Hotel in New York City. He was buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.{{cite news |title=SPENCER EDDY DIES; FORMER DIPLOMAT; Ex-United States Minister to Argentina, Who Served Also in Europe, Was 66 FIRST POST WAS IN PARIS Aide in London, St. Petersburg, Constantinople, Rumania, Serbia and Bulgaria |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1939/10/08/94719395.pdf |accessdate=5 March 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=8 October 1939}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• [https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/eddy-spencer-fayette Spencer Fayette Eddy (1874–1939)] at the United States Department of State

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{{succession box|title=United States Ambassador to Argentina|before=Arthur M. Beaupre|after=Charles H. Sherrill|years=1908–1909}}

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Category:1870s births

Category:1939 deaths

Category:Humboldt University of Berlin alumni

Category:Heidelberg University alumni

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Romania

Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Argentina

Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Serbia

Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Bulgaria

Category:20th-century American diplomats

Category:Burials at Graceland Cemetery (Chicago)

Category:American expatriates in Germany