Duncan Cryder (1842-1913)
Wholesale Tea Importer, of Wetmore & Cryder, New York
He was born at New York City and entered the family tea importing business founded by his uncle, William S. Wetmore, who built Beaulieu-sur-Mer at Newport. Duncan was a first cousin of George Peabody Wetmore, Governor of Rhode Island. The Cryders however preferred to summer at Southampton on Long Island, buying "Sandrift". Duncan was both a charter member and President of Southampton's Meadow Club. In 1891, his brother, William Wetmore Cryder, was found guilty of embezzling $39,000 from the Manhattan Square Bank of which he was President and Duncan was a director. To escape the scandal, Duncan removed with his family to France.
The Cryders spent their first spring (1891) in France at Biarritz where Duncan along with fellow Long Islander Edward S. Mead were first introduced to the game of 'golf'. Duncan wrote to their friend, Samuel L. Parrish, that he thought they might be able to lay out a course on the Shinnecock Hills. When Mead and Parrish met back on Long Island, by way of Charles Atterbury, they arranged for the Royal Montreal Golf Club (the oldest golf club in North America, founded in 1873) to send down a professional (W.D. Davis) to layout a 12-hole golf course which has since become the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. Keeping governesses for their children, the Cryders continued to tour the fashionable watering holes of Europe (mainly those in France) before returning to New York in 1899.
Their only son was killed when he was struck by a streetcar aged seventeen. Duncan and his wife were survived by their daughters, the famous three "Cryder Triplets": Edith, Mrs Frederick Lothrop Ames, and after his death Mrs Roger Wilson Cutler; Elsie, Mrs William Woodward; and, Ethel, Mrs Cecil Higgins and then Mrs Arthur A. Fowler.
The Cryders spent their first spring (1891) in France at Biarritz where Duncan along with fellow Long Islander Edward S. Mead were first introduced to the game of 'golf'. Duncan wrote to their friend, Samuel L. Parrish, that he thought they might be able to lay out a course on the Shinnecock Hills. When Mead and Parrish met back on Long Island, by way of Charles Atterbury, they arranged for the Royal Montreal Golf Club (the oldest golf club in North America, founded in 1873) to send down a professional (W.D. Davis) to layout a 12-hole golf course which has since become the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. Keeping governesses for their children, the Cryders continued to tour the fashionable watering holes of Europe (mainly those in France) before returning to New York in 1899.
Their only son was killed when he was struck by a streetcar aged seventeen. Duncan and his wife were survived by their daughters, the famous three "Cryder Triplets": Edith, Mrs Frederick Lothrop Ames, and after his death Mrs Roger Wilson Cutler; Elsie, Mrs William Woodward; and, Ethel, Mrs Cecil Higgins and then Mrs Arthur A. Fowler.
