Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-03-23
EARL OF CHESTERFIELD WINS
HANDSOME WIDOW.
HOW ACQUAINTANCE BEGAN
Inc Famous Luncheon Party on
me 1acnt -Iaytiower at Which
the Princess of Wales Was
Present. Division of the Goe-
let Estate.

u
q OF gossip on both sides of the Atlantic
a Mrs. Goelet bears one of the grea
t names Of the old New York aristoc
Facy and possesses in her own right ;
e tloy little fortune-not vast, as for
S tunes go nowadays, but well into the
. millions
S The earl of Chesterfield is the Inca
l descendant of the Lord Chesterfield
: whose letters" to his son have a per.
: manent place in English literature ana
5 whose fame rests upon his repute a.
the master of the most polished man
. ners of his time.
A wedding will enable Mrs. Goelet tc
!. write Countess before her new name
; 1t will enable LORD Chesterfield to SIM
!; port IN princely magniicence the fam
lily estate in Herefordshire. Holme
Lacy, which has as yet seen little of
him during the forty-five eyentful
years he has lived.
Mrs. Goelet is tall, dark and of strik-
ing appearance. Until her bereave-
ment she dressed in the extreme of ele-
gance and IN somewhat snowy man
ner.
She is a daughter of R. T. Wilson.
a sister of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Jr., and connected by marriage with
the Astors and Gerrys. Her mother.
having wed one daughter to a GoeIet,
another to Vanderbilt and a son to
an Astor, is called the best match
maker on Fifth avenue.
By her marriage Mrs. Goelet en-
tered one of the most powerful fam
Lies in New York. The old GoeIet
house, on the corner of Nineteenth
street and Broadway, was long the
most familiar mark of the grip upon
New York of the Goelets. The aged
mother of Commodore E. T. Gerry
long lived there, refusing to sell even
at million dollars or more. The
house only gave way to commercial
buildings after her death, three or four
years ago.
The Goelets own the Hotel Manhat-
tan, the Imperial the Sherry building.
the Manhattan and Murray Hill thea
tiers. They own great block of prop
erty running from Fifth avenue to the
East river, below Forty-ninth street,
and running south to Forty-second
street, besides scattered blocks on
Broadway
The Ogden Goelet mansion in New
port, designed in the style of a Nor
man chateau by the late Richard M.
Hunt, is the finest there; as costly as
Mrs. w. K. Vanderbilts marble pal
ace, and far more beautiful. The
Goelet mansion on Forty-eighth street
ana Fifth avenue is one of the llnest
in New York.
For himself Robert Goelet would
hardly have built the Newport place.
He was simple, transformations man,
democratic, quiet, fond of attending to
! business in the quaint little office at
NO. SO Nassau steet, carefully pre-
served in huge modern building, Just
as it was in the old days, even to the
old sign of Peter Goelet hung on the
wall.
But Mrs. Goelet had social ambi-
lions. When her husbands health be.
gan failing, several years ago, she in
| 0uced him to charter Mrs. Langtry's
yacht, The White Ladye, on which they
! took an extended cuise in the Riviera,
and were seen at Cowes. Mr.. Goelet
took genuine interest in yachting
as his gift of the Goelet cup, to be
raced for at Newport, would indicate
and he readily gave the order for the
building of the Mayfower. She was
| the most magnificent steam yacht at
that time ever built; she cost $500, 900.
After Mr.. Goelet's death she was used
| by J. Pierpont Morgan. Last spring
she was SOLD to the United States gov
eminent by the Goelet estate, far be-
low her cost, and became a fast yacht
of-war, doing creditable work in the
war against Spain.
Both in the White Ladye and the
Mayflower, both on the Riviera and IN
I! British waters, the Goelets entertained
magnificently. The fact that they
had daughter who would inherit mill
ions made British mammas the more
anxious to make their acquaintance.
1t was during the splendid series Of
Festivities given on the Mayfiower in
Cowes Roads in the summer of 1897
that Mrs. Goelet met the earl of Ches-
terrified, whose London duties as Cap
tain OF the Honorable Corps Of Gentle
men-at-Arms did not keep him very
closely crfbbed in Engine Yard, St.
James Palace, among the merrymak-
ers. The Prince of Wales and others
were also entertained at this time.
The festivities were continued even
while Mr.. Goelet himself was quite I'll.
It is probable that no one realized how
grave was his situation. The men on
the yacht say that on one occasion
when the yacht was being prepared for
the famous luncheon party at which
the Princess of Wales was present dr-
cognito, Mr.. Goelet tottered into the
saloon, and, looking slowly about, said:
whats all this fuss about?"
It was soon over, poor man. In Au-
, gust, 1897, he died, and the splendid
yacht brought his body across the At
= lantic to be laid at rest in Newport.
Ogden Goelet left $50, 200, 900 worth o.
r real estate, and probably s20,000,000 in
, personal property. He willed the bull
of his estate to his son and daughter
! To his wife he left 100000 in money
. the house on Fifth avenue, some per
. sonal property and an annuity of $3.50,
= 600 per year, whose committed value a
Mrs. Goelets age is between $4,000, 00'
and 100000. The 100000 in casl
was increased to 100000 by the execu
| +o,1 tLot onfiop baipo l.,ft thoro in tn,