Brewster shares gilded age connections
Retired librarian, historian and genealogist Kate Brewster told the story of Richard Thornton “R.T.” Wilson and his family that married into the gilded age royalty of early 20th century New York and Rhode Island.
“They call this family the ‘marrying Wilsons,’” she said. That was because they married their children to the wealthy families of the 1800s and early 1900s.
In writing a freelance story for a publication, Brewster ran across the story of Wilson.
“He’s a true rags to riches story,” she said of Wilson.
After his father died in 1849, he moved from Georgia to Loudon. A traveling salesman, Wilson did some gold mining. He had $30 in gold strapped around his waist, according to Brewster.
He traveled around, selling cotton to dry goods stores and mills, and made his way east to Loudon. In 1850, Wilson went into business with Ebenezer Johnston, who helped Wilson establish a grocery and dry goods business. He then married Johnston’s daughter, Melissa Clementine “Clemmie” Johnston.
In 1861, during the Civil War, the Wilsons moved to Macon, Georgia, where Wilson worked for the Confederate Army, bartering cotton with the British and made a fortune during the war.
Then, they made the move to Boss Tweed’s mansion at 511 Fifth Ave., New York. There “he was a successful banker and invested in rebuilding the railroads,” Brewster related.
While in New York, Wilson and Clemmie became part of the inner social circle of the “400,” as they were friends of Caroline Schemerhorn Astor.
The title of “marrying Wilsons” came about because Clemmie was adept at marrying the Wilson children to New York and Rhode Island elite. Their oldest son, Orme, married Caroline “Carrie” Astor; Belle was married off to Sir Michael Herbert; Mary Rita married Ogden Goelet; Grace married Cornelius Vanderbilt III; and Richard Jr. married Marion Mason, who was not the gilded age elite, according to Brewster.
Herbert was the younger brother of the 13th Earl of Pembroke. Brewster said she was called a “dollar princess” because while the American rich families wanted titles, the European aristocrats wanted the money they could obtain from American’s rich families.
Brewster said the marriage of Grace Wilson and Cornelius Vanderbilt III was scandalous at the time, as they were married in the Wilson’s residence.
“Only members of the bride’s family was present,” the newspaper account of the wedding stated. “Probably no other wedding in years has so aroused the interest and sympathy of New Yorkers. From the time the engagement was announced, a few months ago, up to the present, the Vanderbilt family has made it known its uncompromising disapproval of the match.
“The fact that the bride is a few years older than the bridegroom has been the main obstacle to their union,” the article stated.
So, Brewster said the marriages linked the Wilsons to the Astors, Herberts, Goelets, Vanderbilts and Masons.
