The Washington herald., 1920-04-25
SOCIETY
CONTINUED FROM PAGE TWO.

Eelf-made millionaire and one OF the
wealthiest men in the Quaker City.
Ned" Stotesbury was, and still Is,
head of Drexel & Co., In Philadel-'
phia. and a member of the Arm of
J. p. Morgan & Company, in New
York.
It must be remembered that up to
this time Mrs. Ssotesbury, then Mrs.
Cromwell. was not q social factor in
America In fact, very few outside
her own particular circle OF friends
knew Of her existence. OF course
Louise, her daughter, had acted as a
bridesmaid at the wedding of, Vivian
Gould. Mrs. George J, Gould's sec
ond daughter. and Lord Decies, out
no one would have classCd Mrs.
Stotesbury as part Of national So
ciety" in 1903. ''E
Today Mrs. Stotes5ury Is the un-
disputed social leader If Philadel-
phia; she Possesses a collection os
gems which rivals the famous col
lections of the Astors, Vanderbilts
and Goulds, and she is On intimate
terms with such social stars rs Mrs.
Hermann Oelrichs, Mrs. William K.
Vanderbilt. jr.. Mrs. Cornelius Van
derbilt, etc, all Of whom, IL mis-
take not. had never heard of Mrs.
out at Rye, N Y.
WEDDING WAS
REGAL EVENT.
However. Mrs. Cromwell decided
to become Mr.. Stotesbury's bride
and the wedding was a regal event
The wedding gifts were worth a
fortune. and not a small fortune at
that. The late J. p. Morgan sent
some priceless pearls to his part
ner's bride.
There was much gossip at the
time to the effect that Mr.. Stotes-
bury's children by his first wife did
not altogether approve of their dad
dy remarrying. The reports were
evidently groundless rumors, for the
closest of friendship now exists be-
tween Mrs. Sydney Emlen Hutchin-
son and Mrs. John Kearsley Mitchell
Sd. and Mrs. Stotesbury.
After an extended wedding trip in,
Europe Mr.. and Mrs. Stotesbury
came back to America and went to
Philadelphia, where Mr.. Stotesbury
had lived for many years in a rather
old-fashiuned brownstone mansion
at Twentieth and Walnut streets.
At first Philadelphia society did not
take kindly to Mrs. Stotesbury. The
"old guard"-and only those who
know their Philadelphia realize how
important that word "old guard"
is in the Quaker City-were evil
IDENTIFY afraid of the Stotesbury
wealth.
If the truth were known I am
certain it would come out that GER
tain of the Biddles, the Bayards,
the -wains, the Hutchinsons, the
Thayers. the Morrisses, the Henrys,
etc. (all of whom have been in the
fore in Philadelphia society since
the earliest colonial days), looked
upon Mrs. Stotesbury as an inter-
loper who possessed enough coin of
the realm to force them to accept
her as a social leader.
MET SOCIAL LEADER
AND WENT ON.
The uncrowned social leader at
that time was Mrs. Alexander Van
Rensselaer,. formerly Sally Drexel,
and a sister Of both Anthony ].
Drexel. of London, and John r.
Drexel. of New York. Mrs. Van
Rensselaer, is the mother of Mrs.
Robert Kelso Cassatt, Mrs. A. ].
Antelo Devereux, Mrs. Howard
Henry and John r. Fell, who mar
ried one of the Randolph girls.
Mrs. Van Rensselaer, cared but
little about society. She had
large fortune in her own right. and
much preferred to pass her time at
her beautiful country estate in the
Philadelphia suburbs rather than
occupy her marble town house
which faces that most aristocratic
plot of Philadelphia soiI-Ritten-
house Square.
As Mr.. Stotesbury was the head
of the Drexel banking house IL wos