Uncle Ogden: Ogden Livingston Mills & the Sands Children

Ogden Livingston Mills (1884-1937) was many things including a lawyer, politician, husband, and guardian. At Staatsburgh, we often mention that Ogden Livingston Mills did not have biological children in order to explain why his sister inherited the house after his death. However, we don’t usually get a chance to talk about the ways that Ogden Livingston (O.L.) Mills was a father figure to several individuals in his life. In 1914, he was named one of two guardians for two young siblings, Anne Barbara Sands and George Winthrop Sands, along with their grandmother, Anne Harriman Sands Rutherfurd Vanderbilt. The children were the orphaned niece and nephew of his wife Margaret Rutherfurd. Ten years later, O.L. also became a stepfather,[1] and the children all affectionately referred to him as “Uncle Ogden.” In order to understand this aspect of O.L.’s life, let us take a look at O.L.’s history as a guardian for the Sands children and the connection between the Mills family and the Sands family.

 

Ogden Livingston Mills, 1915

"Thuggery, Intimidation and General Foul Play": O.L. Mills v. Organized Labor

Who are these men and women picketing? What are they upset about?

Like all great mysteries, it started with a clue. In this case, a photograph.

Christmas 1900 at Staatsburgh: The First Christmas of a New Century

Christmas 1900

Christmas 1899 must have been an enjoyable occasion because the family spent Christmas 1900 at Staatsburgh as well.  Many wealthy families like the Millses left the city to spend the holiday in a quiet, country location.  Nearby Tuxedo Park was also a popular location for many families.

Wilbur and Orville Wright's Christmas Tree, 1900

Marking the beginning of a new century, 1900 brought a seven-month-long world's fair in Paris.  The 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle celebrated the achievements of the last century and the new developments moving the world forward in the next.  Over 50 million people from around the world visited the fair.  It was an election year in the United States and President William McKinley was re-elected.  He defeated William Jennings Bryan just as he had in 1896, but this time his running mate was none other than New York governor and rising star, Theodore Roosevelt.  The Poughkeepsie Eagle's Christmas day edition makes little mention of Christmas since the holiday had not yet become a mass marketing scheme.  For the Mills family, the holiday was a quiet family affair at their country home.

The Relationship between the Mills Family and St. Margaret's Church

When approaching Staatsburgh from the south, it is nearly impossible to miss the beautiful stone church in the center of the village of Staatsburg*.  St. Margaret's Episcopal Church has been an important feature of the village since it was built in 1891 and the parish was an important part of the community even before the current church was built.  Although Ruth and Ogden Mills were not full time residents of the village and permanent fixtures at Sunday services, generations of the family have been involved with the congregation in many ways.

St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, Staatsburg, NY 

A Gilded Age Gossip Columnist: Maury Paul, The Man Behind Cholly Knickerbocker

Downton Abbey Spoiler Alert!  Do you remember the final  season of Downton Abbey when Lady Edith's magazine hired a new writer with the pen name of Cassandra Jones to write an advice column for women? Ms. Jones' column turned out to be very popular and when Lady Edith arranged a meeting with the author, she found out Cassandra Jones was none other than her grandmother's butler Septimus Spratt!

Maury Henry Biddle Paul took on a similar gender bending identity and pseudonym when he wrote for newspaper columns as Polly Stuyvesant and Cholly Knickerbocker while reporting on the activities of society's wealthy elite class.  He was born in 1890 so he missed much of the earlier years of the Gilded Age, but he started paying attention to society news at a young age.  Even though Ruth Mills died in 1920, he still included her in more than one column when he reported about the status of the Millses several homes.  The Gilded Age elite were not immune to the prying eye of the media just as celebrities today are constantly hounded by paparazzi.  The fact that salacious gossip sells is not a new concept!

Maury Paul aka Cholly Knickbocker (right in black bow tie) visiting a club, circa 1938.

Ocean View: How the Millses Summered in Style in Newport

There is something extraordinary about the sea and the summer season is a great time to enjoy the salty tides and coastal views far away from the bustle of the city.  Staatsburgh was generally quiet during the summer because the Mills family was usually headquartered in Newport, Rhode Island.  Newport was the center of the summer season for wealthy Gilded Age families. The elite flocked to the ocean breezes and built grand mansions along the shore.  The young Ruth Livingston spent summers as a young lady in Newport at her parent's cottage on Bellevue Court and even served as a bridesmaid at her twin sister's wedding to Englishman George Cavendish-Bentinck at the Episcopal Chapel of All Saints, which was one of the most anticipated events of the 1880 season.  Once Ruth married Ogden Mills, they visited Newport each summer and rented a home where they would reside during their time there until they purchased Ocean View in 1888.

As a port city on the Atlantic Ocean, Newport was the center for the New England slave trade during the Colonial era until the transatlantic slave trade was abolished in 1807.  Soon wealthy Southern plantation owners began to build summer homes in Newport to escape the heat and by the middle of the nineteenth century wealthy Yankee families began to do the same.  Most of the homes built during this era were shingle style cottages.  By the 1880's, the Newport season began to get longer, beginning in May and ending in October for some families, and the number of cottages occupied each summer continued to increase through the decade.  By this time, the style of the homes had changed, and most of the large mansions were built with marble and resembled prodigious European palaces (see Marble House).

On Right: Ocean View, the Ogden Mills Newport Mansion
located on Bellevue Avenue, circa 1932-34

Source: DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University

The Phipps Horse Racing Legacy: Seabiscuit

Success in horse racing and breeding is one of the legacies of the Mills family that endures to this day.  Although the Mills name ended with the death of Ruth and Ogden's son Ogden Livingston Mills(he had no children), the family has continued through the children and grandchildren of Gladys Mills Phipps and Beatrice Mills Forbes.  Ogden Mills owned racing stables in the United States and France. His horse Cri de Guerre won the 1928 Grand Prix of Paris in Longchamps.  Beatrice inherited the French stables and her heirs in Europe have been involved for many years in the horse business including Lady Georgina Forbes (Beatrice's granddaughter) who was named the world's leading owner of showjumping horses in this 2006 article.  Many branches of the family have had success in horse racing, but it was Gladys Mills Phipps who had an all-encompassing love for horses and began a legacy that remains truly prolific.  Our focus here is on that legacy which Gladys began when she co-founded Wheatley Stable with her brother in 1926.  This blog is the first in a series examining the Phipps family legacy as successful race horse owners and breeders.

This press photo from 1933 shows Gladys and her daughter Audrey attending a race at Hialeah Park Race Track in Hialeah, Florida.

Ogden Livingston Mills: The Early Years

Ruth and Ogden's youngest child Ogden Livingston decided to go into public service and not merely coast along on his family's wealth and position.  What influenced his decision to enter the political sphere and pave his own path in life?  He most assuredly could have entered the family business and had a very successful career working alongside his father.  Yet he chose a different path and had an active political career until his life was cut short in 1937 when he died of heart failure at age 53.

This Chicago Daily News photo shows Ogden Livingston Mills in June 1920 when he was a delegate at the Republican National Convention.  (DN-0072066, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum)