Sidney_Dillon_Ripley_I

Sidney Dillon Ripley I

Sidney Dillon Ripley I

American insurance executive

Sidney Dillon Ripley (January 11, 1863 – February 24, 1905)[1] was an American insurance executive and prominent member of New York society during the Gilded Age.

Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Early life

He was the son of Josiah Dwight Ripley and Julia Elizabeth (née Dillon) Ripley. After his father's death, his mother remarried to Gilman Smith Moulton on March 1, 1894. His younger brothers were Harry Dillon Ripley and Louis Arthur Dillon Ripley, the father of Julie Ripley Forman (founder of the Forman School),[2] and Sidney Dillon Ripley II, an ornithologist who served as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and married Mary Livingston of the prominent Livingston family.[3]

His paternal grandfather was Sidney Dillon, the financier and builder of the Union Pacific Railroad who served as its first president. Following his grandfather's death, who left an estate valued at $6,000,000, he received bequests giving him an annual income of $60,000.[1] Dillon came "from several Colonial families of Massachusetts and Connecticut. His American ancestor was William Ripley, who, with his wife, two sons and two daughters, came in one of the earliest companies of Colonists from Hingham, Norfolk County, England, and settled in Hingham, Massachusetts in 1638."[4]

Career

Beginning in 1885, Ripley worked for The Equitable Life Assurance Society,[5] eventually serving as the corporate treasurer and a director for 13 years.[6] He also served as a director of the First National Bank of Hemstead, L.I., the Manganese Steele Safe Company, the Mercantile Trust Company, the Mount Morris Bank, and the Taylor Iron and Steel Company.[1]

Society life

In 1892, Ripley and his wife were both included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[7][8] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[9] He was a member of the Meadow Brook Hunt Club, the Metropolitan Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the New York Zoological Society, the New York Mycological Society, the Coney Island Jockey Club, the University Club, the Lawyers' Club, the Racquet Club, the Country Club, the South Side Sportsmen's Club, the Rockaway Hunting Club, the Automobile Club and the Turf and Field Clubs.[1]

Residences

The Ripley's New York City home, 16 East 79th Street, designed by Warren & Wetmore.

The Ripley's had a 48-room country home in Hempstead on Long Island (which is today across from Hofstra University at California and Fulton Avenues), known as "Crossways."[10][11]

In 1901, Ripley had commissioned Warren & Wetmore them a 35-wide mansion in New York's Upper East Side at 16 East 79th Street. The five-story brick-and-limestone Georgian home, that featured a columned portico and two-step porch, was completed shortly before his death in 1905.[12] In 1912, his widow sold their New York City residence, which was described by The New York Times as the "dwelling occupies a plot 35 by 102.2 feet in the choicest upper Fifth Avenue residential section", for $400,000.[13] After she sold the residence, she moved to 101 East 72nd Street.[14]

Personal life

On October 14, 1885, Ripley was married to Mary Baldwin Hyde (1867–1938).[15] Mary was the daughter of Henry Baldwin Hyde, the founder of Equitable Life Assurance, and Annie (née Fitch) Hyde, and the sister of James Hazen Hyde.[16] Together, they were the parents of:

  • Annah Dillon Ripley (1886–1963), who married Count Pierre Joseph de Viel Castel (1875–1950),[17] a grandson of Count Horace de Viel-Castel, in 1910.[18][19] They lived at 4 Avenue Marceau in Paris.[20]
  • Henry Baldwin Hyde Ripley (c. 1890–1959),[21] who married Lesley Frederica Pearson, daughter of Commander Frederick Pearson and grand-niece of James Cook Ayer, in 1919.[22][23]
  • Sidney Dillon Ripley Jr. (1891–1970), a prominent real‐estate broker who married Betsy Ann Sherry.[24]
  • James Hazen Ripley (c. 1893–1977),[25] who married Marguerite Doubleday (1901–1932) in 1925.[26][27] After his first wife's death, he remarried to Gladys Livermore in 1934.[28]

In 1895, Ripley and James Lorillard Kernochan (son of James Powell Kernochan) were arrested in Hempstead for playing golf, on a Sunday, on the greens opposite the clubhouse at the Meadow Brook Hunt Club.[29]

In 1899, he urged his brother, Harry Dillon Ripley, to take charge of his financial affairs after Hyde had run into debt of $100,000. Just before Ripley died, Harry sued Sidney and the Knickerbocker Trust Company alleging "misconduct in managing his property."[30] After his death, the Supreme Court of New York Referee conducted an investigation and found that "the trust had been well and faithfully administered" and Sidney and the Knickerbocker Trust were exonerated and relieved of their duties.[30]

Ripley died of appendicitis on February 24, 1905.[1] His will was quickly probated and his estate, valued in excess of $5,000,000, was left to his family.[31] His wife received their Long Island home, and all "jewelry, horses, carriages, and harness, and all property of the deceased for life."[32] All of the funds in trust he inherited from his grandfather passed to his children.[32] His wife received $848,505 and each of his children received $74,614 directly.[33]

After his death, his widow remarried to Charles R. Scott, a Hong Kong-based British banker who was the son of Col. Robert Scott of the Irish Fusiliers, in Bar Harbor, Maine in 1912.[34][35][14]

Descendants

Through his daughter, he was the grandfather of Marie Bonne de Viel Castel (1914–1997),[36] who married Eugene Bowie Roberts Jr. in 1965;[37][38][lower-alpha 1] Pierre Etienne de Viel Castel (1917–2012); and Édouard Louis de Viel Castel (1911–1968).[41]

Through his son Henry, he was the grandfather of Henry Baldwin Hyde Ripley Jr. (1924–1998), who married Ethel Lachicotte Boyle,[42] and Malcolm Pennington Ripley (1927–2005).[43][44]

References

Notes
  1. Eugene Bowie Roberts Jr. was a son of Countess Cornelia "Gilia" Széchényi (1908–1958) and Eugene Bowie Roberts (1898–1983), heir of the Roberts family of Bowie, Maryland, and a grandson of Countess Gladys Vanderbilt Széchenyi and Count László Széchenyi.[39][40]
Sources
  1. [1]
    "SIDNEY DILLON RIPLEY DEAD. Victim of Appendicitis Treasurer of the Equitable" (PDF). The New York Times. February 25, 1905. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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    "JULIE RIPLEY FORMAN" (PDF). The New York Times. July 1, 1975. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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    Molotsky, Irvin (13 March 2001). "S. Dillon Ripley Dies at 87; Led the Smithsonian Institution During Its Greatest Growth". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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    Weeks, Lyman Horace (1897). Prominent Families of New York; being an account in biographical form of individuals and families distinguished as representatives of the social, professional and civic life of New York city. New York: The Historical company. p. 82. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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    "Mary Ripley Date: ca. 1866 - 1938". emuseum.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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    The Insurance Monitor. C.C. Hine's Sons Company. 1905. p. 120. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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    McAllister, Ward (16 February 1892). "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" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
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    Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House Incorporated. p. 217. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
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    "THE REAL ESTATE FIELD Big Seventh Avenue Deal at 58th Street — Mrs. Sidney Dillon Ripley Sells Her Residence for $400,000 — Ancient Bond Street Dwelling at Auction — Suburban Market" (PDF). The New York Times. January 25, 1912. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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    "SIDNEY D. RIPLEYS HOSTS AT DINNER; Entertain Here in Honor of His Sister, Countess Pierre de Viel Castel PARTY FOR SEWELL TYNGS It Is Given by Her Mother, Mrs. Frederick Haskell--Roger Wisners Have Guests" (PDF). The New York Times. March 9, 1939. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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    "MISS RIPLEY BRIDE OF COUNT CASTEL Niece of James H. Hyde Married to Member of Orleans Family of France" (PDF). The New York Times. October 16, 1910. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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    "HENRY B. H. RIPLEY DIES; Investment Banker Dies at 69 -Former Society Leader". The New York Times. April 21, 1959. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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    "MISS PEARSON WED TO HENRY B. RIPLEY Newport Colonists Throng Trinity Church at the Marriage of New Yorkers" (PDF). The New York Times. August 31, 1919. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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    "GLADYS LIVERMORE ENGAGED TO MARRY | Betrothal to James H. Ripley, Also of This City, Has Been Announced. GRANDFATHER A BANKER Also a Granddaughter of Late Henry M. Brooks--Fiance Is a Graduate of Harvard" (PDF). The New York Times. March 29, 1934. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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    "MEADOWBROOK HUNTERS INCENSED Sidney Dillon Ripley and J.L. Kernochan Arrested for Playing Golf on Sunday — Record of the Complainant" (PDF). The New York Times. May 10, 1895. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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    "FINDS SIDNEY RIPLEY A FAITHFUL TRUSTEE Referee Disapproves Brother's Suit for an Accounting. HARRY RIPLEY OWED $100,000 And at His Request James Hazen Hyde's Brother-in-Law Tried to Extricate Him" (PDF). The New York Times. July 30, 1905. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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    "SIDNEY D. RIPLEY'S ESTATE. Equitable Life Man Left More Than $1,000,000 to His Family" (PDF). The New York Times. August 28, 1906. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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    Steward, Scott Campbell (1993). The Sarsaparilla Kings: A Biography of Dr. James Cook Ayer and Frederick Ayer with a Record of Their Family. S.C. Steward. p. 100. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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    "Paid Notice: Deaths RIPLEY, MALCOLM PENNINGTON". The New York Times. 24 August 2005. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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