About Connections: Love it or hate it, history is a map. Those who hate history think it irrelevant; many who love history think it escapism. In truth, history is the clearest road map to how we got here: America in the 21st century.
The lifestyle of the 19th century “Robber Barons” was beyond the reach of the ordinary person. It may also have been beyond the ordinary person’s understanding. In spite or because of that stories of these people continue to fascinate.
On a beautiful summer day I crossed the Claiborne Pell Bridge that connects Aquidneck Island to the mainland. Newport R.I. is also connected to The Berkshires.
Though Newport is older than The Berkshires by almost 100 years (they were fishing those waters in the 1600s) by the time the 19th century arrived and they were sailing in the America’s Cup off Newport, Lenox and Newport were called the King and Queen of Gilded Age resorts.
The 1 percent of the 19th Century traveled a social circuit so that the same people were in Newport and in The Berkshires. They were in Newport on the summer, the Berkshires in Fall, New York in Winter and Paris (or elsewhere in Europe) in the spring. The question was not: who were the Newport Cottagers and who were the Berkshire Cottages. They were the same people. The question was: where would they own and in which place would they be a house guest?
The Fosters of Bellefontaine owned in the Berkshires and were guests in Newport. Beyond that: who were they?
Andrew Foster was born in 1772. He arrived in America in the first years of the 19th Century. Probably still in his 20’s, he had sailed from Scotland on his own ship, with the proper letters of introduction, and sufficient funds.
He is mentioned in any complete maritime history book since he was the first to charter clipper ships. The first of these was called “Currier.” The American clipper ship was capable of carrying 5,000 tons across the Atlantic in less than 2 weeks at a rate of upward to 15 knots. It was a marvel of its day. Foster was successful at building a fleet. Though his business life was on the public record, there were no details of the antecedents of the founder of the American branch of the Foster family. Was he Scottish or was Scotland just his point of departure? Who were his people? They could hardly be an obscure family if they were able to provide him with his own ship, funds and social connections. Why had he emigrated?
In any family, a mystery is bothersome, solution is sought. Family members speculate. It is said that Andrew never discussed his past with anyone, not even family. If that is so, then all that follows is the result of pure speculation. However, out of family myth or memory, this story is told. Andrew was of an important English family. The family name may not have been Foster. Andrew had become engaged in an affair with a married woman of note. To avoid scandal and end the liaison, the family sent Andrew to the new world. They provided him with the things he would need to survive and prosper, but arranged for him to depart from Scotland, and perhaps suggested a change in name, so there would be no trace of his leaving or his destination.
The history of the Fosters in America is no mystery. Andrew combined fleets with Jacob Giraud, and married Jacob’s daughter, Ann. The Girauds were Huguenots, French Protestants, who had come to America seeking religious freedom. Ann and Andrew’s son, Frederick Giraud, married Emily Hone of the prominent New York family. The Hones were of Dutch extraction, and they counted a mayor of New York City among their number.
Together, Frederick and Emily had seven children. They were Clara, Frederick, Giraud, Marie Antoinette, Emily, John and Albert. Frederick was a lawyer and Albert was an insurance broker. In 1886, Frederick and Albert, each in their respective professions, assisted Pierre Lorillard in the development of the exclusive resort, Tuxedo Park.
The children had the requisite nicknames: “Smart Fred,” “Stupid John,” “Gentleman G.” Marie Antoinette lived in Paris, and was called “May” to her face and “The Mad Woman of Paris” behind her back. At a masquerade ball, it seems, she arrived dressed as her namesake. She received so many compliments that she decided to adopt the style as a permanent way of life. She continued to dress as Marie Antoinette, to light her home with candles only, and to make quite a spectacle in the Paris of the 1920s, traveling about in her coach.
Giraud Foster took a degree at Harvard, worked at Brown Brothers as a banker, traveled the world, and did not marry until he was 42 years of age. In 1892, Giraud Foster married Jane Van Nest. The fortune of the Foster family had dwindled. The steam ship had surpassed the clipper ship, and the economic crises during the Hayes Administration (1877-1881) had dented more than one fortune. The Van Nest Family came to America with Peter Stuyvesant in the 1620s. They had large land holdings. Both the Fosters and the Van Nests enjoyed social standing, but the Van Nest fortune was intact at the time of the marriage. Jane was 33 years old, and brought a dowry reputed to be $18,000,000.
In 1898 their cottage in Lenox was completed. They had other homes in New York and South Carolina. From the time they took up residency, it was their principal home, and while they wintered in South Carolina, they gave up their New York address, and stayed in hotels when in the city.
When in Europe, Newport or Palm Beach, they were the guests of family or friends or in hotels. They traveled with an entourage including personal maid and valet. Late in life they had a son. So unexpected was he that they did not name him until it was mandatory that they do so because he was off to boarding school.
Before Boy Foster left, he was invited to the formal dining room table for lunch with the adults rather than in the nursery. He was told to be silent. He listened as a man told of “being alone surrounded by enemies.” Boy Foster thought he was describing Bellefontaine.
If we understand the nineteenth century Robber Barons, are we any closer to understanding the 21st century’s 1 percent?
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Part Two and Three will follow: The Vanderbilts and Whartons of Newport and Lenox.
