Francis Skiddy von Stade Sr.

Francis Skiddy von Stade Sr. (September 4, 1884 – February 19, 1967) was a champion polo player and the president of the Saratoga Association (Saratoga Race Course) from 1943 to 1955.[1]

Francis Skiddy von Stade Sr.
Mayor of Old Westbury, New York
In office
1940–1950
Personal details
Born(1884-09-04)September 4, 1884
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedFebruary 19, 1967(1967-02-19) (aged 82)
Old Westbury, New York, U.S.
Spouse(s)
Kathryne Nevitt Steele
​
​
(m. 1915; his death 1967)​
RelationsFrederica von Stade (granddaughter)
Children8, including Charles
ParentsFrederick Hebbert von Stade
Frances Fischer von Stade
EducationSt. Paul's School
Alma materHarvard University
Harvard Law School

Early life
Sketch of the Francis Skiddy steamboat by Samuel Ward Stanton, c. 1895

Von Stade was born in New York, New York on September 4, 1884. He was the son of Frederick Hebbert von Stade (1858–1934)[2] and Frances Sarah (née Fischer) von Stade (1859–1888). He received the name "Skiddy" from his maternal grandfather, Francis Skiddy, whose name was also on a Hudson River steamship that Currier & Ives memorably sketched.[1]

Von Stade attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire before Harvard University, where he graduated in 1907 before spending a year at Harvard Law School. At Harvard, he was the captain of the hockey team.[1]

Career

Like his father and paternal grandfather, F. W. von Stade, before him, he was associated with the F. W. von Stade Company, merchants who imported raw materials with an office located at 73 Beekman Street.[2] He later worked out of an office at 63 Wall Street.[1]

From 1940 to 1950, he served as mayor of Old Westbury and was a village trustee from 1950 until his death in 1967.

Polo career
J. Parks, Harry Payne Whitney, and F. Skiddy von Stade Sr., c. 1914.

After college, he rode with the Pytchley Hunt, located near the Northamptonshire village of Pytchley in England, for six winter seasons.

Before World War I and continuing through the 1920s, von Stade was "one of the country's outstanding polo players."[1] In 1912 and 1913, he was a member of the Cooperstown team that won the U.S. Open Polo Championship, and in 1919 and 1920, he was a member of the Meadow Brook teams, along with Devereux Milburn (who married Nancy Steele, a sister of his wife[3]), Robert Early Strawbridge Jr., F. H. Prince Jr., and J. Watson Webb, that also won the Championship.[1] After his retirement from Polo playing, he served on the selection committee for the International Polo Cup with England (and The Hurlingham Club) in 1936, and later, refereed matches between the United States and Argentina.[1]

From 1943 until 1954, he served as president of the Saratoga Association for the Improvement of the Breed of Horses and is credited with "keeping racing alive at the course in Saratoga Springs, the oldest flat track in the United States." After the New York Racing Association took over the Saratoga Association, he became a trustee of the new Association. Von Stade was also a member of the National Steeplechase Association and the Hunt Association, a steward of The Jockey Club (elected in 1935), and a trustee of the New York Racing Association.[1]

In 1951, he was one of the founders of the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs, New York and served as an executive vice president until his death.[1]

Personal life

In June 1915,[4] he was married to Kathryne Nevitt Steele (1896–1981)[5] in the Church of the Advent in Westbury, New York with Harold Stirling Vanderbilt as von Stade's best man.[3] His wife was a daughter of Charles Steele, a prominent lawyer who became a partner in J.P. Morgan & Co.[6] The von Stades eventually took over the Steele residence in Southampton, New York and commissioned society architects Cross & Cross to build them a home in Old Westbury, next door to her parents, in 1914.[7] They also had a winter home in Aiken, South Carolina and operated a farm in Middleburg, Virginia and a plantation at Millettville in Allendale County, South Carolina.[1] Together, they were the parents of eight children, including:

Von Stade died at his home on Powell's Lane in Old Westbury, New York on February 19, 1967.[1] He was buried at Westbury Friends Cemetery in Westbury, New York.

Descendants

Through his son Charles, he was the grandfather of opera singer Frederica von Stade.[21]

References
  1. "Skiddy von Stade Sr. Dies at 82; Horseman and Star Polo Player; Saratoga Track's President In 40's and 50's Kept Old Course Going" (PDF). New York Times. February 21, 1967. Retrieved 2011-03-27. F. Skiddy von Stade Sr., one of the country's best-known horsemen and a polo player of distinction in that sport's golden era in the nineteen-twenties, died here yesterday at his home in Powell's Lane. Death was attributed to a heart attack. He was 82 years old.
  2. "F. H. VON STADE DIES IN SARATOGA HOME; New Yorker Was Vice President of Racing Association at Up.State Resort" (PDF). The New York Times. September 9, 1934. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  3. "MISS K. N. STEELE, BRIDE IN COUNTRY; Weds F. Skiddy Von Stade in Picturesque Church at Westbury, After Polo Romance" (PDF). The New York Times. June 27, 1915. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  4. of 1907, Harvard College (1780-) Class (1917). Secretary's Fourth Report. Plimpton Press. p. 466. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  5. Spanburgh, Sally (May 25, 2015). The Southampton Cottages of South Main Street: The Original Hamptons Summer Colony. Arcadia Publishing. p. 133. ISBN 9781625847775. Retrieved Sep 21, 2015.
  6. Spanburgh, Sally (2015). The Southampton Cottages of South Main Street: The Original Hamptons Summer Colony. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781625847775. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  7. Pennoyer, Peter; Walker, Anne (2014). New York Transformed: The Architecture of Cross & Cross. The Monacelli Press, LLC. p. 80. ISBN 9781580933803. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  8. "Former Mather Master Von Stade Dead at 79". The Harvard Crimson. October 3, 1995. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  9. "Susan R. von Stade". SentinelSource.com. June 1, 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  10. "Susan Russell Of Boston Wed; Sister Maid of Honor at Her Wedding in Keene, N.H., to F. Skiddy Von Stade Jr". The New York Times. 13 August 1939. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  11. "Polo Player Who Died At the Front in Germany" (PDF). The New York Times. 25 April 1945. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  12. "Miss Sara W. Clucas to Become the Bride Of Charles Steele von Stade, Polo Player" (PDF). The New York Times. 30 June 1941. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  13. "Paid Notice: Deaths BOSTWICK, G.H." The New York Times. 30 September 1998. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  14. "George H. (Pete) Bostwick; Trained Steeplechase Horses". The New York Times. 16 January 1982. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  15. "$29,264,181 TO HEIRS OF MRS. BOSTWICK; Widow of the Standard Oil Man Gives Practically All to Her Own Family. $350,000 GEM COLLECTION $20,000,000 in Standard Stock, $2,000,000 in Liberty Bonds--Fortune in Paintings and Furniture" (PDF). The New York Times. November 5, 1921. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  16. "Paid Notice: Deaths VON STADE, PHILIP R., SR". The New York Times. 21 March 2004. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  17. "von STADE--Marjorie". The New York Times. January 28, 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  18. "William Haggin Perry; Thoroughbred Owner, 85". The New York Times. 15 November 1993. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  19. "KATHRYNE VON STADE BRIDE AT AIKEN HOME ?" (PDF). The New York Times. March 21, 1954. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  20. "Paid Notice: Deaths KRUMPE, KATHRYNE (NEE VON STADE)". The New York Times. June 8, 2007. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
  21. Carr Jr., Victor. "Danielpour's Elegies". Classics Today. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
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