George Beach de Forest Jr.

George Beach de Forest Jr. (October 15, 1848 – July 1932) was an American capitalist, bibliophile, and art collector who was prominent in New York society during the Gilded Age.[1]

Early life

De Forest was born in New York City on October 15, 1848. He was the son of prominent merchant George Beach de Forest Sr. (1806–1865) and Margaret Eliza de Forest (1809–1860).[2] His older brother was Benjamin Lockwood de Forest, who married Kate Louise Knapp, and his cousins included railroad executive Henry deForest and artist Lockwood de Forest.[2]

He was the grandson of Benjamin and Mary (née Burlock) de Forest and the great-grandson of Elihu de Forest, who was a Lieutenant in the 16th Connecticut militia during the American Revolutionary War.[3]

Career

De Forest was a graduate of Columbia University in 1871.[1] His father and family were involved in the dry goods business trade, between the U.S. and the West Indies,[4] with the firm of B. DeForest & Co.[5][6]

He was a sportsman and noted book collector (selling his library of rare volumes for $300,000 in 1907).[7] Before he retired, he was involved in banking and brokerage services with James Gordon Bennett Jr., J. Pierpont Morgan, Seth B. French, William K. Vanderbilt and Edward Julius Berwind.[8]

Society life

Both de Forest and his wife were prominent in New York and Newport society.[7][9] In 1892, George and his wife Anita were included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[10][9] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[11] The de Forests were known for their extensive entertaining at their cottage in Newport, Rhode Island (Train villa near Bailey's Beach) and their townhouse in New York City.[12]

De Forest was a member of the Metropolitan Club, the Union Club of the City of New York, the Union League Club, the Players Club, the Century Association, the Grolier Club, the Racquet and Tennis Club, the Knickerbocker Club and the New York Yacht Club.[1]

Personal life

On December 4, 1882,[13] de Forest was married to Anita Hargous (d. 1932)[7][12] at St. Bartholomew's Church in Manhattan.[13] Anita was the second daughter of Louis Stanislaus Hargous, who resided at 435 Fifth Avenue,[13] and Susan Jeanette (née Gallagher) Hargous,[14] and the sister of Robert L. Hargous[15] and Sallie Hargous, who married Woodbury Kane.[16] She was born in Mexico City and her grandfather,[17] Jean Illion Hargous (who resided in Bayonne, France and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania),[17] was a captain in command of the French ship Jason during the American Revolutionary War under Count François de Grasse.[14] They resided at 14 East 50th Street in New York City.[1] Together, they were the parents of Louis Stanislas Hargous de Forest (d. 1907),[2] who died unexpectedly of heart failure at the age of 23.[18][19]

After the death of their only child in 1907, the de Forests sold their New York City home and traveled abroad for several years. Upon their return to New York in 1917, they resided at the Drake Hotel, located at Park Avenue and 56th Street.[12] George died at the Drake Hotel in New York on July 1932.[8] After their deaths, they were buried in the Hargous Mausoleum at Trinity Church Cemetery in Manhattan.[12]

References
  1. Leonard, John William; Mohr, William Frederick; Holmes, Frank R.; Knox, Herman Warren; Downs, Winfield Scott (1907). Who's Who in New York City and State. L.R. Hamersly Company. p. 392. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  2. De Forest, Emily Johnston; De Forest, Jesse (1914). A Walloon Family in America; Lockwood de Forest and his forbears 1500-1848. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  3. Sons of the American Revolution; Cornish, Louis Henry; Clark, Alonzo Howard (1902). A National Register of the Society, Sons of the American Revolution. Press of A. H. Kellogg. p. 766. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  4. Report on the Present Quarantine Laws. 1846. p. 285. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  5. Scoville, Joseph Alfred (1866). The Old Merchants of New York City. Carleton. p. 209. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  6. Brown, Henry Collins; Council, New York (N Y. ) Common (1917). Valentine's Manual of Old New York. Valentine's manual, Incorporated. pp. 253–254. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  7. "MRS. GEORGE B. DE FOREST | Wife of Sportsman and Book Collector Was Once Social Leader". The New York Times. 18 May 1932. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  8. "GEORGE B. deFOREST DIES IN NEW YORK. Former Well Known Summer Resident Spent Many Years in Newport". Newport Mercury. July 8, 1932. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  9. Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House Incorporated. p. 214. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  10. 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.
  11. Keister, Lisa A. (2005). Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780521536677. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  12. "MRS. deFOREST, FORMER SUMMER RESIDENT, DEAD. For Many Years Occupied Train Villa Near Bailey's Beach". Newport Mercury. 20 May 1932. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  13. "De Forest--Hargous". The New York Times. 5 December 1882. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  14. Daughters of the American Revolution (1895). Lineage Book of the Charter Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Harrisburg Publishing Company. p. 109. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  15. "ROBERT L. HARGOUS DEAD.; Society Man-Had Gone to Quebec from Saranac Lake Recently". The New York Times. 26 November 1905. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  16. "WOODBURY KANE MARRIED.; Weds Mrs. Sallie Hargous Elliott at Aiken, S.C." The New York Times. 28 March 1905. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  17. Daughters of the American Revolution (1908). Lineage Book - National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Daughters of the American Revolution. p. 141. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  18. Van Pelt, Daniel (1898). Leslie's History of the Greater New York: Encyclopedia of New York biography and genealogy. Arkell Publishing Company. p. 403. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  19. "DIED. DE FOREST". The New York Times. November 8, 1907. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
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