The Ten Leaders of New York's Social Trust

The creation and proliferation of “trusts” was a hallmark of the Gilded Age. By eliminating competition, consolidating power and controlling their respective industries, trusts such as Standard Oil, US Steel, American Tobacco and the American Sugar Refining Company helped give rise to many of the colossal fortunes which fueled the era conspicuous consumption, piling a little more “gild” onto the “gilded age”.

While the Titans of Industry who ran those trusts were men, that didn’t mean that the ladies weren’t in on the action, or so the Chicago Tribune claimed when it ran this somewhat tongue in cheek article in January, 1898.

In 1898 Caroline Astor was still the undisputed reigning Queen of Society. After several years’ hiatus, she had recently resumed giving her annual ball in 1896 in her new French limestone chateau uptown. There would be no dethroning her, but at the age of 68, her power was waning, and the next generation of socialites were jockeying to take her place. Mrs. Ogden Mills (née Ruth Livingston) led the charge. Her machinations to succeed Mrs Astor as Queen of Society included finding a way to reign it in a bit, for it simply was becoming too large. Part of her strategy was to re-exclusivize it, shutting its doors slightly to turn back some of the newer moneyed people that had infiltrated Caroline Astor’s 400 and the Patriarchs Balls, which had previously marked inclusion into the inner sanctum.

Ruth knew she couldn’t do it alone however. She formed an uneasy alliance with nine other handpicked women.  Among them were a couple “friends” of impeccable lineage, potential rivals, and a few “up and comers” trepresenting the younger generation. Being a part this ultra exclusive inner circle did not mean all ten women were equals however. The trust was controlled by the “Big Three Queen Bees” Ruth Mills, Mrs. John Jacob Astor (née Ava Willing and daughter in law of “the” Mrs. Astor), and Mrs. Henry T (Jessie) Sloane, with seven “ladies in waiting” as it were. While most of the names on the list probably come as no surprise, a few are not so well-recognized today. Here they are.

The Trust didn’t last long, and soon dissolved (unsurprisingly, for power sharing is never easy, and seldom harmonious). Here is a brief look at what happened to each of the women.

Mrs. Ogden Mills (née Ruth Livingston, 1855)

Ruth considered herself to be Caroline Astor’s natural successor. As cunning and intelligent as she was, she was not considered warm or flexible able enough (for even Mrs. Astor made exceptions to her own rules when needed). Society had grown too large to be effectively corralled into a smaller number. While invitations to her exclusive events were highly prized, they did not serve to define who was in anymore. She never admitted defeat in her quest, continuing her excruciatingly correct entertaining and stately seasonal migrations between homes in New York, Newport, the Hudson Valley and France, until her death in Paris in 1920.

Mrs. John Jacob Astor (née Ava Willing 1868)

The beautiful Mrs. John Jacob Astor, would be seen as a natural successor to her mother in-laws throne, and one of Ruth’s principal potential rivals. Fortunately for Ruth, she was in a loveless marriage, and began spending more and more time in England, eventually divorcing John Jacob Astor in 1909 ( a year after the death of Caroline Astor.)

Mrs. Henry T Sloane (née Jessie Robbins 1858) The vivacious and popular Jessie Sloane was a few years younger Ruth Mills and her biggest potential rival to Caroline’s throne. Possessing the charm Ruth lacked, Ruth’s decision to acknowledge her as an equal, was more than likely to potentially neutralize her. A year later however, Jessie caused a scandal which knocked her out of contention, when she obtained a divorce from her husband Henry Sloane. Hopping on a train to Greenwich Connecticut, where she married Perry Belmont later that same day. While divorce was becoming increasingly common in Society no one could imagine a divorcée leading it, and certainly not one who took on a new husband less then six hours after divorce, no matter how prominent he was.

The Belmonts decamped for a Europe to let the scandal blow over. One can imagine Ruth’s relief when she heard the news. After their return two years later, they made the more socially liberal Washington DC, their home base, commissioning Horace Trumbauer to design an obscenely lavish mansion for them to entertain in. Jessie Robbins Belmont died in 1935 in Newport, where the Belmonts summered..

Mrs Stuyvesant Fish (née Marion Anthon, 1853)

Nipping at the heels of the Big Three was Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, better known as Mamie. She and Ruth were like oil and water. While a terrible snob, Mamie liked to have fun. She found Ruth’s rigidity boring, while Ruth thought Mamie’s themed parties (where guests dressed as servants) and jokes (she once had a dinner in Newport with a monkey as the guest of honor) debased society. The article diplomatically acknowledged the two had some recent misunderstandings, and hinted that she might be leaving the “trust” soon.  It is perhaps fitting that Mamie, known as a bit of a maverick and always up for a fight, would be the “trust buster” of the group.  

Mamie in her later years

She would go on to become part of Newport’s “Triumvirate” the group of three leading hostesses who succeeded Mrs Astor there (alongside Tessie Olerichs and Alva Belmont ) in the early twentieth century before her death in 1915

Mrs Orme Wilson (née Caroline Astor, 1861).

Her inclusion on the list was almost certainly by virtue of her being Mrs. Astor’s daughter. Carrie lived in a beautiful home just around corner from her mother, entertained graciously, and was well liked. Noncompetitive by nature, she became one of the next generation’s social leaders, but had no desire or ambition to be its queen, as her mother had.

Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney (née Gertrude Vanderbilt, 1875)

At 23, not only was Gertrude the youngest member of the group, she had the distinction of being sister in-law to two of its other younger members. Intelligent, strong, and with the Whitney and Vanderbilt millions backing, she had the funds and the constitution necessary to lead the next generation. As she matured however, her interests turned more towards the arts than controlling society.  Her legacies include the Whitney Museum of Art and enduring tabloid fodder from her custody battle over niece Gloria Vanderbilt.

Mrs. Peter Cooper Hewitt (née Lucy Work, 1861)

Of all the women in the group, Mrs. Hewitt is probably one of the least recognized today. The daughter of banker and stockbroker Frank Work, she and her younger sister Frances (who married Englishman James Burke-Roche and was the great-grandmother of Princess Diana) were considered great beauties of the Four Hundred. She married inventor Peter Cooper Hewitt in 1887. After their 1918 divorce she remained socially active, but lived a much quieter life than in her earlier years.

Mrs. Almeric Paget (née Pauline Whitney, 1874) Pauline was the good friend and sister in-law of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (married to her brother Harry Payne Whitney). Pauline’s 1895 marriage to British aristocrat Almeric Paget had been considered one of the social events of the year, only barely eclipsed by the marriage of Consuelo Vanderbilt to the Duke of Marlborough a few weeks before. It was generally expected that she would follow in the footsteps of her late mother (the beloved Flora Payne Whitney, who had died five years earlier) as one of New Yorks leading hostesses. In less than ten years, Pauline’s poor health would necessitate the Pagets spending most of their time abroad however.

Before her own life was cut short, Pauline was a tireless volunteer during the Great war

Pauline passed away in England at age 51 in 1916.

Mrs. Starr Miller (née Edith Warren, 1866)

Edith was born into a family with impeccable social credentials. Her father George Warren was a founder of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, and her brother was the architect Whitney Warren. Married to industrialist William Starr Miller in 1866, the couple owned beautiful homes in New York, Newport and the Hudson Valley. If she had ambitions of leading society, they never gained traction.  By the next decade she seemed to have settled into the comfortable middle of the social scrum. It was a respectable spot, but not a leading one. Edith’s daughter and only child, also named Edith, would go on to marry Almeric Paget the widower of fellow trust member Pauline Paget in 1923.  

Mrs Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr. (née Grace Wilson, 1870)

While Grace was one of the younger members of the trust, she was already undoubtedly one of its most ambitious.  Her marriage to fellow trust member Gertrude Whitney’s brother Cornelius against his parent’s wishes had gotten him effectively disinherited. That didn’t stop Grace from relentlessly pursuing the crown with grit, tenacity and an appreciation for the rising power of the press and good PR over the next several decades. By the 1920s and 1930s she had become the Queen of Society, at least at least in the eyes of the masses.

Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Society’s reigning queen, arriving at the Metropolitan Opera

After spending millions in pursuit of her throne, finances finally forced her to vacate the Vanderbilt brownstone palace In 1944. She turned around bought fellow trust member Edith Starr Miller’s former home at 1048 Fifth Avenue, jokingly calling the 28 room Trumbauer-designed mansion her “gardeners cottage”. She kept it until her death in 1953.