Theodore Frelinghuysen (New York socialite)

Frelinghuysen was born in Newark, New Jersey, on April 17, 1860. He was the youngest of six children born to Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen (1817–1885){{cite news|title=Death of Mr. Frelinghuysen.; the Career of President Arthur's Secretary of State.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1885/05/21/archives/death-of-mr-frelinghuysen-the-career-of-president-arthurs-secretary.html|access-date=30 January 2018|work=The New York Times|date=21 May 1885}} and Matilda Elizabeth Griswold (1817–1889). His father was a lawyer who served as a U.S. Senator and later as Secretary of State under President Chester A. Arthur.{{cite web|title=FRELINGHUYSEN, Frederick Theodore - Biographical Information|url=https://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=F000369|website=bioguide.congress.gov|publisher=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|access-date=30 January 2018}} His siblings included:{{cite book|last1=Lee|first1=Francis Bazley|title=Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey ...|date=1910|publisher=Lewis historical Publishing Company|page=14|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FZE-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA14|access-date=30 January 2018|language=en}} Matilda Griswold Frelinghuysen,{{cite news|title=MRS. M.G.F. GRAY OF OLD FAMILY DIES; Daughter of F. T. Frelinghuysen, Once Secretary of State-Funeral Today.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1926/03/25/archives/mrs-m-g-f-gray-of-old-family-die-daughter-of-f-t-frefmghaysen-once.html|access-date=30 January 2018|work=The New York Times|date=25 March 1926}} who married Henry Winthrop Gray,{{cite news|title=DIED. Gray|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1906/10/15/archives/obituary-1-no-title.html|access-date=30 January 2018|work=The New York Times|date=15 October 1906}} a prominent merchant;{{cite news|title=In Bonds of Matrimony; Marriage of Mr. Gray and Miss. Frelinghuysen. a Quiet Ceremony at the Homestead of the Bride's Family|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1889/05/17/archives/in-bonds-of-matrimony-marriage-of-mr-gray-and-miss-frelinghuysen-a.html|access-date=30 January 2018|work=The New York Times|date=17 May 1889}} Charlotte Louisa Frelinghuysen;{{cite news|title=Charlotte Frelinghuysen|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1930/07/19/archives/obituary-4-no-title.html|access-date=30 January 2018|work=The New York Times|date=19 July 1930}} Frederick Frelinghuysen,{{cite news |title=Frederick Frelinghuysen. Ex-President of Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company Dies |url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60B1EF73A59177A93C0A9178AD85F408285F9 |quote=Frelinghuysen was President of the Benefit Life Insurance Company in Newark for ... to become President of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company. ... |newspaper=New York Times |date=January 2, 1924 |access-date=May 30, 2007}} who married Estelle B. Kinney;{{cite news|title=Frederick Frelinghuysen's Engagement|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1902/07/07/archives/frederick-frelinghuysens-engagement.html|access-date=30 January 2018|work=The New York Times|date=7 July 1902}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Through his brother Frederick, he was the uncle of George Griswold Frelinghuysen II, who married Anne de Smolianinof; Estelle C. "Suzy" Frelinghuysen, who married fellow painter George Lovett Kingsland Morris; Frederick Frelinghuysen; Thomas Frelinghuysen; and Theodore Frelinghuysen.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1934/12/14/archives/g-g-frelinghuysen-weds-russian-girl-anne-de-molianinoff-daughter-of.html |quote= Daughter of Former Grand Master of Imperial Court, His Bride. Mrs. Vladimir N. de Smolianinof of West Seventy-fifth Street announced yesterday the ... |title=G.G. Frelinghuysen Weds Russian Girl. Anne de Smolianinoff, Daughter of Former Grand Master of Imperial Court, His Bride. |newspaper=New York Times |date=December 14, 1934 |access-date=May 30, 2007}}{{cite news |title=Obtains Decree in Reno; Former Anne de Smolianinof Divorces G. G. Frelinghuysen |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1938/06/07/archives/obtains-decree-in-reno-former-anne-de-smolianinof-divorces-g-g.html |quote=Mrs. Anne de Smolianinoff Frelinghuysen obtained a divorce here today from George Griswold Frelinghuysen of Princeton, New Jersey, on grounds of cruelty. They were married on December 12, 1934, in Los Angeles. |work=The New York Times |date=June 7, 1938 |access-date=May 30, 2007}}}} George Griswold Frelinghuysen,{{cite news|title=G.G. FRELINGHUYSEN DIES AT AGE OF 84; Son of Arthur's Secretary Of State Was Lawyer Here for Half century. KIN OF NOTED GENERAL Parent, Great-Uncle, Cousin All Served New Jersey in the United States Senate.|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1936/04/22/88653602.pdf|access-date=30 January 2018|work=The New York Times|date=April 22, 1936|language=en}} who married Sara Linen Ballantine, granddaughter of Peter Ballantine;{{cite news |title=G.G. Frelinghuysen Dies. Son of Arthur's Secretary Of State Was Lawyer |work=New York Times |date=April 22, 1936 }} and Sarah Helen Frelinghuysen (1856–1939), who married Judge John Davis, and after his death, Brig. Gen. Charles Laurie McCawley.{{cite news|title=MRS. S.H. M'CAWLEY, WASHINGTON HOSTESS; Grandmother of Senator Lodge Dies in Home at Capital|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1939/02/20/archives/mrs-sh-mcawley-washington-hostess-grandmother-of-senator-lodge-dies.html|access-date=30 January 2018|work=The New York Times|date=20 February 1939}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Through his sister Sarah and niece Mathilda Elizabeth Frelinghuysen (née Davis) Lodge (1876–1960), who married George Cabot Lodge, he was the grand-uncle of Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (1902–1985), the diplomat and United States Senator from Massachusetts,{{cite web|title=Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. Photographs II|url=http://www.masshist.org/findingaids/doc.cfm?fa=fap039|work=The Massachusetts Historical Society|publisher=MHS|access-date=24 December 2011}}{{cite book|last1=Jackson|first1=Kenneth T.|title=The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives: 1981-1985|date=1998|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|isbn=9780684804927|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N3URAQAAMAAJ|access-date=30 January 2018|language=en}} and John Davis Lodge (1903–1985), also a diplomat, U.S. Representative, and Governor of Connecticut.{{cite web|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000395|title=LODGE, John Davis, (1903–1985)|publisher=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|access-date=July 29, 2011}}}}

His paternal grandparents were Frederick Frelinghuysen and Mary (née Dumont) Frelinghuysen. His grandfather died when his father was just three years old, so his father was adopted by his uncle, Theodore Frelinghuysen.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|His grand-uncle and adopted grandfather, Theodore Frelinghuysen, was Attorney General of New Jersey from 1817 to 1829, was a U.S. Senator from New Jersey from 1829 to 1835, was the Whig candidate for Vice President of the United States on the Henry Clay ticket in the 1844 Presidential election, and was Chancellor of New York University from 1839 until 1850 and president of Rutgers College from 1850 to 1862.}} Both grandfather and adopted grandfather were sons of Frederick Frelinghuysen, the eminent lawyer who was one of the framers of the first New Jersey Constitution, a soldier in the American Revolutionary War, a member of the Continental Congress, and a member of the United States Senate. His maternal grandfather George Griswold, was a merchant in New York City who "made an immense fortune in the time of the clipper trade with China."{{cite news|title=MRS. F. T. FRELINGHUYSEN|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1889/02/04/archives/obituary-1-no-title.html|access-date=30 January 2018|work=The New York Times|date=4 February 1889}}

Frelinghuysen was the Treasurer of the J. & P. Coats Ltd.,{{cite book|title=United States Congressional Serial Set|date=1895|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|page=440|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AjRHAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA440|access-date=7 March 2018|language=en}} a large British thread company that was run by his father-in-law Sir James Coats and located at 347 Broadway in New York City. Upon his marriage in 1885 to Alice Coats, his mother and father-in-law wanted him to be brought into Auchincloss Brothers as an equal partner. The American firm was run by the younger brothers of Alice's mother, John Winthrop Auchincloss and Hugh Dudley Auchincloss Sr. (the father of Hugh Auchincloss). When they said no, their refusal ended the Auchincloss relationship with the Coats firm and nearly bankrupt John.{{cite book|last1=Gelderman|first1=Carol W.|title=Louis Auchincloss: A Writer's Life|date=2007|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|isbn=9781570037115|page=8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t9jHCZsBR1oC&pg=PA8|access-date=7 March 2018|language=en}}

In 1906, he became a director as well as financier of the Brunswick Refrigeration Co., a consolidation of the New Brunswick Refrigeration Company and Union Refrigeration Company which had merged.{{cite journal|title=REFRIGERATOR CONSOLIDATION|journal=Electrical World|date=February 3, 1906|page=295|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6wVRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA295|access-date=7 March 2018|publisher=McGraw-Hill|language=en}} The other directors included W. Campbell Clark, head of Clark Thread Company and A. M. Coats, president of the Coats Thread Company. Frelinghuysen retired from business in 1910.

In 1892, Frelinghuysen was included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.{{cite news|last1=McAllister|first1=Ward|title=THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED {{!}} WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE.|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1892/02/16/108210917.pdf|access-date=5 October 2017|work=The New York Times|date=16 February 1892|language=en}} Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.{{cite book|last1=Keister|first1=Lisa A.|title=Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way|date=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521536677|page=36|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5dAtJf1hmAUC&pg=PA36|access-date=20 October 2017|language=en}}{{cite book|last1=Homberger|first1=Eric|title=Mrs. Astor's New York: Money and Social Power in a Gilded Age|date=2004|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0300105150|pages=199, 289n.99|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=13jwkUPvYGcC&pg=PA329|access-date=6 March 2018|language=en}}

Frelinghuysen was a member of the Metropolitan Club, the Knickerbocker Club, the Union Club of the City of New York, the Harvard Club of New York, the Merchants' Club, the Country Club, the Lawyers' Club and the Suburban Riding and Driving Club. He was also a philanthropist who donated to the Floating Hospital and Seaside Hospital Fund in 1897.{{cite book|last1=St John's Guild (New York N.Y.)|title=Report of St. John's Guild, New York City|date=1897|publisher=The Guild|page=52|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DygrAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA49-IA5|access-date=7 March 2018|language=en}}

On August 25, 1885, Frelinghuysen was married to Alice Dudley Coats (1861–1889) in Newport, Rhode Island.{{cite news|title=Married at Newport.; Miss Coats and Mr. Frelinghuysen.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1885/08/26/archives/married-at-newport-miss-coats-and-mr-frelinghuysen.html |access-date=30 January 2018|work=The New York Times|date=26 August 1885}} Alice was the daughter of Sir James Coats, 1st Baronet and Lady Sarah Auchincloss, an American. The wedding was attended by former President Chester Arthur. Her brothers included Sir Stuart Coats, 2nd Baronet, and Alfred Mainwaring Coats (1869–1942), who married Elizabeth Barnewall (1867–1940) (niece of Louisa Barnewall Van Rensselaer).{{cite book|title=Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, of Great Britain and Ireland, for ...: Including All the Titled Classes|date=1923|publisher=S. Low, Marston & Company|page=193|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sI7KJ-hGhDMC|access-date=6 March 2018|language=en}} They lived at 25 West 15th Street near Stuyvesant Square. Together, Theodore and Alice were the parents of:{{cite book|last1=Buck|first1=Albert Henry|title=The Bucks of Wethersfield, Connecticut, and the Families with which They are Connected by Marriage: A Biographical and Genealogical Sketch|date=1909|publisher=Stone Printing and Manufacturing Company|page=121|isbn=9780598992178|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MUobAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA121|access-date=7 March 2018|language=en}}

• Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen (1886–1967), who married Mai Duncan Watson (1896–1958){{cite news|title=Mrs. Duncan Douglas|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1958/09/18/archives/mrs-duncan-douglas.html|access-date=7 March 2018|work=The New York Times|date=18 September 1958}} in 1914.{{cite news|title=MRS. WATSON LEAVES $1,000,000 ESTATE; Property of Society Leader Goes to Relatives and After Them to Charity. GIVES FAMILY HEIRLOOMS Husband and Children Share Equally in the Division Under Testator's Will.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1914/12/08/archives/mrs-watson-leaves-1000000-estate-property-of-society-leader-goes-to.html|access-date=7 March 2018|work=The New York Times|date=8 December 1914}} After their divorce, he married Katherine (née Kendall) Fisk (1883–1962), the widow of Charles W. Fisk, in 1927.{{cite news|title=MRS. FISK TO WED F. T. FRELINGHUYSEN; Their Troth Reveals Divorce of Fiance and Former Wife, Who Was Mai Watson, FLORIDA DECREE GRANTED Fiancee Is Widow of C. N. Fisk, Who Was Killed at Hunt Meet of Meadow Brook Hounds in 1923.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1927/05/12/archives/mrs-fisk-to-wed-f-t-freliblghijyseh-their-troth-reveals-divorce-of.html|access-date=7 March 2018|work=The New York Times|date=12 May 1927}}
• James Coats Frelinghuysen (1888–1890), who died young.

After Alice's death in 1889, he married Elizabeth Mary "Lily" (née Thompson) Cannon (1871–1967),{{cite news|title=Elizabeth Frelinghuysen, 97, Of Jersey Political Family|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/06/13/archives/elizabeth-frelinghuysen-97-of-jersey-political-family.html|access-date=7 March 2018|work=The New York Times|date=13 June 1967}} the widow of Henry Le Grand Cannon, on June 2, 1898, at Grace Episcopal Church in New York City by Bishop Henry C. Potter.{{cite news|title=WEDDINGS OF EARLY JUNE; Mrs. H. Le Grand Cannon and Theodore Frelinghuysen Are Married at Grace Chantry. BISHOP POTTER OFFICIATES The Rev. Percy S. Grant Assists Him -- Prominent Society People Among the Guests|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1898/06/03/archives/weddings-of-early-june-mrs-h-le-grand-cannon-and-theodore.html|access-date=7 March 2018|work=The New York Times|date=3 June 1898}} At the wedding, his ushers were R. Livingston Beeckman and William Cutting Jr. and his best-man was Elisha Dyer Jr. Lily was a daughter of William G. Thompson and descendant of Elijah Brush, both Mayors of Detroit and had two children, a boy and girl, from her first marriage. After their marriage, they lived at her home, 60 Fifth Avenue and maintained a winter residence in Palm Beach, Florida, known as "Southways,"{{cite news|last1=Columbia|first1=David Patrick|title=Ecole de Beaux Palm Beach|url=http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/across-the-nationacross-the-world/2009/ecole-de-beaux-palm-beach|access-date=7 March 2018|work=New York Social Diary|date=1 October 2009|language=en}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Southways was designed between 1919 and 1920 by Col. Francis L. V. Hoppin of Hoppin & Koen. The home was known as the "Winter White House" after President Warren Harding stayed there as a guest.{{cite book|last1=Rose|first1=Rick|title=Palm Beach: The Essential Guide to America's Legendary Resort Town|date=2017|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9781493028900|page=49|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2P41DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA49|access-date=7 March 2018|language=en}}}} and another house at Tuxedo Park, New York.{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Reportedly, Col. Francis L. V. Hoppin and Hoppin & Koen also designed Frelinghuysen's Tuxedo Park house, now known as the Charles W. Cooper House, built {{Circa|1899}}.}}

Frelinghuysen died of heart disease on January 30, 1928, at his residence, 66 East 55th Street in Manhattan.{{cite news|title=THEO. FRELINGHUYSEN DIES IN HIS 68TH YEAR; Member of Old New Jersey Family Was Son of Secretary of State in Arthur Cabinet.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1928/01/31/archives/theo-frelinghuysen-dies-in-his-68th-year-member-of-old-new-jersey.html|access-date=30 January 2018|work=The New York Times|date=January 31, 1928}} Previous to East 55th Street, he had been living at the Hotel Plaza in New York. His widow lived at their Palm Beach home until her death in 1967, at the age of 97, when she was referred to as "a grand dame of a bygone era."

Through his son Frederick, he was the step-grandfather of Lilla Fisk, who married Harry Payne Bingham Jr.{{cite news|title=LILLA FISK ENGAGED TO H.P. BINGHAM JR.; She Is Daughter of Mrs. F.T. Frelinghuysen -- Cousin Is Ambassador Grew.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/04/01/archives/lilla-fisk-engaged-to-hp-bingham-jr-she-is-daughter-of-mrs-ft.html|access-date=7 March 2018|work=The New York Times|date=1 April 1935}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|After their divorce in 1955, Harry Payne Bingham Jr. married Mrs. Marleigh Kramer Gerry, the former wife of Robert Livingston Gerry Jr.{{cite news|title=H. P. BINGHAM JR. WEDS MRS. GERRY; He Marries the Former Miss Marleigh Kramer at Home in Old Westbury, L. I.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1955/12/09/archives/h-p-bingham-jr-weds-mrs-gerry-he-marries-the-former-miss-marleigh.html|access-date=7 March 2018|work=The New York Times|date=9 December 1955}}}} and George C. Rand in 1956;{{cite news|title=BELINDA BINGHAM BECOMES FIANCEE; Westbury Girl Will Be Wed to Pliny Jewell 3d, Who Studies at Harvard|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1957/12/01/archives/belinda-bingham-becomes-fiancee-westbury-girl-will-be-wed-to-pliny.html|access-date=7 March 2018|work=The New York Times|date=1 December 1957}}{{cite news|title=Mrs. Lilla Bingham Is Remarried Here|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/09/14/archives/mrs-lilla-bingham-is-remarried-here.html|access-date=7 March 2018|work=The New York Times|date=14 September 1956}} and Felicia Fisk,{{cite news|title=TROTH MADE KNOWN OF MISS FELICIA FISK; She Will Become the Bride of Albert B. Dewey of Chicago|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1940/04/30/archives/troth-made-known-of-miss-felicia-fisk-she-will-become-the-bride-of.html|access-date=7 March 2018|work=The New York Times|date=30 April 1940}} who married Albert B. Dewey, the brother of U.S. Representative Charles S. Dewey.{{cite news|title=DIED. FRELINGHUYSEN--Frederick T.|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/04/11/83587654.html?action=click&contentCollection=Archives&module=ArticleEndCTA®ion=ArchiveBody&pgtype=article&pageNumber=47|access-date=7 March 2018|work=The New York Times|date=April 11, 1967|language=en}}

Notes

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Sources

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Category:1860 births

Category:1928 deaths

Category:Frelinghuysen family